Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose?

To inquire into the following:

Class/grade:

Age group:

School:

School code:

Transdisciplinary theme: How We Organize Ourselves

Title:
PYP planner

Teacher(s):
Central idea: The interdependence between systems and natural
reasons determines the success of a community. (12)

Date:

Aero Standard: Students will understand the interactions and

relationship between human societies and their physical environment (1)

Proposed duration: number of hours

over number of weeks

Essential Question
How does the relationship between the systems we create and the
natural resources in our environment help us build a successful
community?

2. What do we want to learn?

What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

Summative assessment task(s):

What are the possible ways of assessing students understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for? (10)

Construct a set of guidelines of how to have a positive impact on a

community.
Construct an argument about how we have constructed systems in
our society that are effective/ineffective through screencasts.
Evaluate how the systems and natural resources in our classroom
society work together to help a community be successful through
screencasts.

The success of a society/community

The interdependence between systems, resources, and citizens
Impact of citizens on a society/community

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

o What is a society/community?
o What does a society/community need to be successful?
o How do systems and natural resources affect peoples lives?
o How can we be active members of a society?

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have learned? (3 and 4)

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?
To assess students prior knowledge we will use the visible thinking routine seethink-wonder. We will display images of communities, resources and systems.
The students will write what they see in the pictures, what they think is
happening and what they wonder about them.
Afterwards we will share in a class circle our responses and as teacher we will
look for students to explain what communities, resources and systems are and
how they work. Feedback will be provided by teachers through blog post
comments, small-group coaching, (7 and 11)
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for? (2)
Keeping a reflection journal will be our main form of formative assessment.
Students will answer reflection questions about the concepts being inquired into
in a weekly basis.
Anecdotal notes from the classroom discussions will also be very important.
Observations on how students express their understanding of concepts during
community meetings will be used as formative assessments. They will also
assess their own learning goals through the use of rubrics on a weekly basis.

4. How best might we learn?(5)

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?
As students build a society in Minecraft, the problems (teacher and student-induced)
that arise will engage students in inquiries on how to understand them and solve
them. Students will research and discuss problems, come up with possible
solutions, test/apply them on the Minecraft society, reflect on their impact and go
through the same cycle for different problems that come up. Teachers will guide the
students to use inquiries and solutions as a way to understand the driving
questions.
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?(6 and 8)
Social and communication skills will be of extreme value, as they will be interacting
with each other to build a society. .
Through their interaction with each other, they must show all the learner profile
attributes in order to build a successful community.

Through the decisions they make about building their community, we will assess
their understanding on the lines of inquiry.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

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:

How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a
more accurate picture of each students understanding of the central idea.

What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

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.

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.

9. Teacher notes

Timetable (9):
The following timetable will vary depending on students needs, but I understand the need to have a time table to keep me focused.
Discussion Days:
Whole unit recap (5 minutes)
Initial provocation questions on todaysmeet.com and responses. (5 minutes)
Classroom discussion (15 minutes)
Reflection question on todaysmeet.com (5 minutes)
Classroom discussion (15 minutes)
Connection to real world wrap around or exit ticket question and response. (5 minutes)

Simulation Days:
Whole unit recap (5 minutes)
Log-in time (3 minutes)
Simulation (15 minutes)
Reflection question (5 minutes)
Simulation (15 minutes)
Connection to real world wrap around or exit ticket question and response (5 minutes)

One-on-one Conferences
Debrief (5 minutes)
Student Q & A (5 minutes)
Explicit coaching (5 minutes)

Rubrics(3):

Concept

1 Emerging

Interdependence

Co-operation

2- Developing

3- Proficient

4- Mastering

I dont know how

I can describe how
systems and natural systems and natural
resources work
resources work together
together

I know how to test and

demonstrate what happens
when systems and natural
resources work together to try
to make a community
successful.

I can defend and evaluate how the

systems and natural resources in our
classroom society work together to
help a community be successful

I dont know why

I can explain and discuss
cooperation between with others how

I can interpret whether we

have cooperated to create

I can argue how we have

constructed systems in our society

citizens is needed to cooperation between

systems in our society that are that are effective/ineffective.
create systems.
citizens is important for the effective.
creation of effective
systems.
Impact

I dont understand
I can describe what it
what impact means. means to have an impact
on a community as a
citizen.

I can compare actions by

citizens that have a
responsible or irresponsible
impact on our community.

I can construct a set of guidelines of

how to have a positive impact on a
community.

(Students Own
line of inquiry)
Emerging

Developing

Proficient

Accepting
responsibility

I do not accept responsibility for

actions

I accept some responsibility when I accept full responsibility for

asked, but still blames others
actions when asked

Accepts full responsibility for actions

without being asked

Respecting
others

I dont listen attentively.

I am reminded often to listen

attentively.

I always listen attentively when

others are talking.

Cooperating

I am not courteous to others, dont I am courteous others, share

Most of the time in groups I am
share responsibilities or take turns responsibilities, and take turns in courteous to others, try to share
when in group
group, but often need reminders responsibilities and take turns

Resolving
conflict

I dont look to compromise fairly. I

do not react respectfully when
others share different points of
view.

Most of the time I listen

attentively.

Mastering

When in a group Im courteous to

others, share responsibilities and
take turns.

When reminded I try to

Most of the time I am able to
I compromise fairly even if I dont
compromise fairly and respect
compromise with others and I try get my way and react reasonably to
others who have different points of to respect different points of view different points of view.
view.

Group decisionmaking

I dont listen while others talk, ask I try to make others agree with my I try to obtain an agreement by
appropriate questions or work
opinions but dont ask for their
sometimes listening to others
towards obtaining an agreement. opinion.
opinions.

Adopting a
variety of group
roles

I dont know when I need to be a

leader and when to be a follower.

I listen to others, ask appropriate

questions, and work towards
obtaining an agreement.

I understand when I need to be a I try to adopt other roles but when I understand when I need to be a
leader or follower but decide to
prompted to.
leader and when you need to be a
only be a leader/follower.
follower. I can adopt a variety of
roles.

The students use the rubric to set personal learning goals based on their pre-assessment results. Include the goal setting worksheet and an
example from at least one student in your submission.
Students were asked to write a blogpost that uses the sentence starters:
At the end of this unit I will better understand ___________________________________
At the end of this unit I will be able to _____________________________________________
At the end of this unit I will know more about ___________________________________