Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: Year 3 Age group: 7-8 years old
To inquire into the following central idea: School: NIST School code:
Teacher(s): Maija, Isabella, Chris, Mariana, Jenny, Joanna, Trish, Nut, Noi, Jing
Word knowledge is essential for effective composition and comprehension of written
Date: Year long planner
communication. Proposed duration: (40 weeks) PYP planner

2. What do we want to learn?

Summative assessment task(s):
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central idea?
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
Form Connection Responsibility
Formative assessment throughout year – adding to our word knowledge is a lifelong We want students to We want students to We want students to
process, students move along a developmental continuum. develop word knowledge utilize their prior build a bank of high
Written work – final product -phonological knowledge to encode and frequency (no excuses)
Observed evidence of growing spelling consciousness and metacognition – editing -visual decode an unfamiliar words for automatic recall
strategies, caring about accuracy, word choice, making connections with existing word -morphemic word selecting from a in their writing.
knowledge. - etymological. bank of strategies, e.g. We want students to
Post tests: 100 ‘No Excuses’ words, commonly misspelt words known part of another show an ability to access
word and build word environmental resources
families, onset/rime, and reference materials
derivations, affixes. during the writing process
3. How might we know what we have learned? to self correct.
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?” We want to instill a
What are the possible ways of assessing students‟ prior knowledge and skills? What curiosity about words and
evidence will we look for? to develop a spelling
August: 1. Phonetic inventories (from Word Crafting by Cindy Marten) consciousness.
2. 100 „No Excuses‟ words pretested (Cindy Marten)
3. Commonly misspelt words for very competent spellers (Compiled by What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
Trish/Jill using various sources)
4. Student writing samples analyzed

Evidence: Students will be mapped on phonetic inventory to ascertain spelling

developmental stage. Information will be used to group students for instructional lessons
and word study tasks. High frequency (no excuses) words used with correct and incorrect
spelling.
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of
inquiry? What evidence will we look for?

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

 4. How best might we learn?
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?

Core lessons at the beginning of the school year include Word concept (What is a word), Word sorts, Word hunts, If I can spell…,Odd one out, Word chains, Word building,
Proofreading, Dictation. During year, dictionary and thesaurus skills need to be taught as part of the revising and editing steps in the Writing Process.
A range of teaching and learning engagements matched to the developmental stage of students.

Phonological knowledge: how words and Visual knowledge: Morphemic knowledge Etymological knowledge
letter combinations sound

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the learner profile?

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?

Teacher reference books: Word Crafting by Cindy Marten; Words Their Way by Donald Bear; Word Sorts for Letter Name Alphabetic Spellers / Within Word Pattern/Syllables and Affixes by Donald Bear; Word
Matters by Fountas and Pinnel; A Sound Way by :

Word Study Task cards at different stages of spelling development (Jill and Trish to develop these and distribute to all Y3 teachers).
Spelling station cards to help students memorize high frequency words.
Range of resources to support memorization stations – magazines, magnetic letters, modeling clay, paint, letter stamps, wiki sticks, pipe cleaners, coloured markers and pencils,
Spelling Memorization Strategy cards – an adaption of „Look, Say , Cover, Write, Check‟. A3 for each classroom, small versions for individual use.
Letter tiles – multiple packs in variety of colours

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

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 What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
involved in the planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included.  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.

What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the transdisciplinary theme?
 8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning? 9. Teacher notes
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any that were incorporated into the teaching and
learning. August: Assessment, whole class lessons – word sorts, word hunts, short/long vowels
September: Word study task cards for homework, individual spelling cards (6) end of sept, have a go sheets
October: Spelling stations Jot notebooks (synonyms), Whole class lesson – look,…
Alternating homework tasks – task card, jot notebook, learning spelling words (some classes),
6 new words a month, instructional groups during Daily 3 (twice a cycle)
Use words for proofreading own writing
November: Continue to build routines
December:

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 2007