Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
Class/grade: 1st Grade
Age group: 6-7 yr olds
1a) To inquire into the following:
School: Arthur Kramer Elem
School code: 051613
● transdisciplinary theme
Teacher(s): Worthey, Castillo, Ward, Garcia, Closner
How We Express Ourselves
Date: Nov 7, 2016
An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture,
beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our
appreciation of the aesthetic.
Proposed duration: 6 weeks; Nov 7-Dec 22
● central idea
Fairy tales and folktales can give insight to the uniqueness of human nature.
1b) Summative assessment task(s):
2. What do we want to learn?
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, and reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Create a folktale or fairy tale with paper dolls tied to one of the centralized
ideas/morals that were taught throughout the unit. What is the lesson being
taught? Why is it important to teach this lesson? Options: Can be set in another
culture or country. Presentations can be video, oral retelling, visual or prop
related. Connections can be made between the classes to see how those dolls
and stories are unique and beautiful in their own way.
Perspective-What is beauty to you? What physical attributes and personality traits do
you equate with beauty?
Reflection-How has your views of beauty and uniqueness changed? How did you see
beauty before and how do you see it now? How are you accepting yourself and others
the way they are?
Function-What is the purpose of fairy tales and folktales?
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
Scenario: Write about your doll. What is unique about your doll? What are
his/her attributes? What is an outstanding characteristic about your doll? Do you
admire your character? How is your character beautiful?
If students are still focused on the physical beauty of the doll and not the internal
beauty, they have not truly understood the central idea.
●
●
●
How different cultures use folktales and fairy tales to teach lessons
What makes you different also makes you unique and beautiful
The ways fairy tales and folktales address need for change in human nature
and cultural, societal expectations
● The human design-physical characteristics and personality traits
● How becoming a better person can make you more beautiful and unique
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
●
●
●
●
●
What are folk tales and fairy tales?
What is beauty? How do we decide what is beautiful? Is beauty only on the
outside?
How is our human nature defined by the stories told/retold by generations
before us?
What is beautiful about the human design and personality traits?
How is uniqueness and beauty seen in the past, present and future? Or in
different cultures and countries?
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
3. How might we know what we have learned?
4. How best might we learn?
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?”
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills?
What evidence will we look for?
What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to
encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving
questions?
●
●
●
●
KWL-Folktales and fairy tales
Discussion… What fairy tales have you heard?
Discussion… Who do you think is beautiful and why?
How do you see yourself? What do you like most about yourself? Draw a
picture of yourself.
● Cut out pictures of what you think is beautiful (clothing, artwork, illustrations)
and then rank them from most beautiful to least beautiful and then ask why?
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines
of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
●
●
●
●
●
Questions/checking understanding, “What is the lesson or moral for this
piece?”
How to describe art… What do we appreciate about it? How do we decide
that art is beautiful?
What you see/What you know about a person… does it change the way you
see beauty in their uniqueness? Does value change the beauty of a person?
Writing reflection
Teachers act out-Play about kids and the relationships they make because
of their words or actions. Have the students critique and give feedback on
how the bully could make better choices if he/she doesn’t want to be alone.
Draw yourself again at the end of the unit. Ask again, “How do you see
yourself? What do you like most about yourself?”
Week 1: Reading/LA-Informational text, Author’s Purpose, Texas Sea Animals,
Proper Nouns and Friendly Letters; Math-Concrete models to compose and
decompose numbers to 80, Generating a number that is greater; Science-Science
Fair Projects; Social Studies-Elections and voting, Veteran’s Day
Week 2: Reading/LA-How Leopard Got His Spots, Sequence of events, Proper
nouns, Continue with Friendly Letters, What We Are Thankful For; Math-Use
pictorial models to compose and decompose numbers to 80, generate a number that
is greater than or less than up to 80; Science-Science Fair Projects; Social StudiesHolidays and celebrations of communities, Thanksgiving
Week 3: Reading/LA-Informational Text, Cause and Effect, Seasons, Subjects and
Verbs, Fairy Tale writing; Math-Represent numbers up to 80 using standard and
expanded form, Comparative language to compare numbers up to 80; ScienceSTEM Experiment using fairy tales; Social Studies-Folktales around the world,
Beliefs, customs and traditions, Beauty of traditions
Week 4: Reading/LA-The Big Race (fantasy), Conclusions, Verbs and Time,
Continuing with Fairy Tale Writing; Math-Use comparison symbols to compare,
Place Value and Number lines to compare up to 80; Science-STEM Experiment
using fairy tales; Social Studies-Folktales around the world, Beliefs, customs and
traditions, Beauty of traditions
Week 5: Reading/LA-Animal Groups, Informational Text, Compare and Contrast,
Verb “Be”, Assess the IB Summative (Doll and Reflection); Math-Use concrete
models to determine the sum up to 10, Use a one digit number in problems with
sums up to 80, Use pictorial models to determine the sum up to 80; Science-STEM
Experiment using fairy tales; Social Studies-Celebrations, traditions, similarities and
differences (Hanukkah and Kwanzaa)
Week 6: Reading/LA-ACP testing, Reading different stories from different cultures,
Grammar review, Greeting cards for parents; Math-ACP testing, Determine the
number that is 10 more or 10 less than a number up to 80, Count by 2, 5, 10s to
determine the number of objects in a set up to 80; Science-STEM Experiment using
fairy tales; Social Studies-Christmas Around the World
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?
Learner Profile-Open Minded, Reflective, Caring, Knowledgeable
Attitudes-Creativity, Appreciation, Tolerance
Transdisciplinary Skills-Social Skills, Communication Skills
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
Mentor text (Sancedio), Fairy tale or folktale reading (Sancedio), Guidance for book checkout, Art appreciation (Shores), Magazines, Paper Doll examples, Ms. Power’s
Storytell, Parent to come tell stories (Native American fairy tales), Coach Ochoa teach the Waltz (like Cinderella!!)
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Garden for writing, journaling; folktales and fairy tales in classrooms, library, Picture wall of illustrations, literacy chart, bulletin board for Wall of Beauty
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Reflecting on the inquiry
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’ understanding
of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and
teaching of the inquiry should be included.
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
● develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
● demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
● develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.
Lines of Inquiry
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and
the transdisciplinary theme?
Learner Profile
Students’ Understanding of Central Idea
Transdisciplinary Skills
Improve the Assessment
Connection from Central Idea to the Theme
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Reflecting on the inquiry
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
At this point teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn?” and
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the
inquiries.
What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?
Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability
to reflect, to choose and to act.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
9. Teacher notes