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> What is
inquiry and the IB Primary Years Program?
> What makes an IB education
rigourous?
> PYP Curriculum
> Attitudes matter
The Primary Years Program
The Primary Years Program provides an international curriculum
that aims to meet the full range of needs of young learners.
The PYP presents a balanced curriculum, emphasizing the development
of concepts, knowledge , skills , attitudes, and self-initiated
action in students.
The PYP Curriculum
When most people think of the meaning for the word “curriculum” the
first thing that comes to mind is a written body of knowledge
that students will be exposed to in school. In addition to this,
many would include a set of academic skills students should acquire
and maybe even a set of positive character traits that students
will be encouraged to model as parts of a school’s curriculum.
There are endless debates about the merits of the endless variety
of written curriculums that exist for elementary students – which
is the most rigorous, most developmentally appropriate, most
culturally appropriate and so on. Students (and schools) are
assessed on students’ ability to master curriculum standards
attached to national and state tests. Parents often choose schools
for their children based primarily on their preference for one
type of written curriculum over another.
The IB Primary Years Program takes a different and much broader
view of curriculum than the one expressed above. According to
the PYP, “curriculum” revolves around the concept
of learners constructing meaning, and everyone at a PYP school,
including the teachers, is a learner. The PYP model of curriculum
is student-centered. It is founded on the belief that learning
occurs when students (and teachers) build on their prior knowledge
and engage in activities that help them construct new understandings.
This process involves continuous self-reflection, the freedom
to ask questions, the motivation to take risks and the desire
to take action based on what one has learned.
So what does the PYP curriculum model look like? It is composed
of three interrelated and equally important components. Each
component is expressed as a question, in keeping with the spirit
of inquiry found throughout the Primary Years Program.
The first
question, “What do we want to learn?” represents
the written curriculum. A PYP school’s written curriculum
utilizes existing district / state / national learning standards,
or as in the case of many private international schools, on a
set of learning benchmarks provided by the PYP for each subject
area. Teachers at a PYP school work collaboratively to develop
a transdisciplinary “Program of Inquiry” that is
unique to their school. It allows learners to move beyond the
recall of basic facts as they explore larger concepts that transcend
the boundaries of traditional subject areas. McGraw is unique
among PYP schools in that it shares a Program of Inquiry with
Dunn IB World School in Fort Collins. Teachers from both staffs
meet regularly to review/revise our shared Program of Inquiry
and develop learning units based upon it. Students contribute
to the content of these learning units through their own questions
and reflections. See the following section on “Organizing
Themes of the PYP Curriculum” for more explanation of the
PYP written curriculum.
The second question, “How best will we learn?” represents
the taught curriculum in a PYP school. The taught curriculum
involves the methods teachers use to engage students with the
written curriculum. It is not only “what” students
will learn but also “how” they will learn it that
matters in a PYP school. PYP teachers are expected to constantly
examine and improve the practices they use to actively involve
students in learning. Inquiry-based instruction and differentiation
of instruction to meet individual student needs are featured
within the wide array of best practices employed by teachers
at PYP schools.
The third question, “How will we know what we have learned?” represents
the learned curriculum. PYP teachers employ a variety of authentic
assessment strategies (examples include student presentations,
portfolios, projects, written tests, student self-reflections,
peer reflections interviews, demonstrations and many others)
to find out not only if students learned what they were expected
to learn from the written curriculum but also what actual learning
took place instead of or in addition to what was expected. Teachers
and students use the results of assessments to set goals for
further learning and to think about ways to improve their teaching
and learning strategies. Assessment in a PYP school has a positive
connotation since it focuses on what a learner can do at the
current moment instead of on what they can’t do.
All three
components of the curriculum of a Primary Years Program school
- the Written, Taught and Learned curriculums – function
in harmony to help produce life-long learners who can be successful
in tomorrow’s world.
Transdisciplinary Themes of the PYP Written Curriculu
The Primary Years Program has identified six areas of knowledge – called
transdisciplinary
themes – that are considered to be of
lasting significance for all students and for all cultures. These
themes provide a framework for teachers to design units of inquiry
that incorporate district/state/national learning standards as
well as opportunities for students to develop the skills, attitudes,
concepts and knowledge needed to become internationally-minded
people and life-long learners.
PYP units of inquiry approach learning
as being transdisciplinary in nature. Teachers use structured
inquiry to guide students through each unit while incorporating
perspectives from a variety of fields of knowledge (scientific,
mathematical, technological, artistic, musical, linguistic, historical,
cultural, and social, to name a few) to build on their past experiences
and reach new understandings.
The six transdisciplinary themes
are addressed at each grade level, even though the individual
units of inquiry based upon them are all unique, exploring different
aspects of the knowledge contained under each theme. In addition
to six yearly transdisciplinary units of inquiry based upon the
PYP transdisciplinary themes, students receive daily instruction
in Math, Reading and Writing to ensure that they continue to
develop their skills in those foundational subject areas.
The Transdiscplnary Themes of Inquiry are Who We Are, How We
Express Ourselves, How We Organize Ourselves, Who We Are in Place
and Time, How the World Works and Sharing the Planet
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