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Planning the IB PYP Unit ā€¦ā€¦with the Kids!
It never fails to amaze me, when given the opportunity to take the lead, how much our students rise to the challenge. With the enhancements to the IB PYP having recently been unveiled, I felt that this would be a great time to address co-planning the unit…..with your students as your co-planners!
Encouraging greater student agency in your classroom is more than simply listening to the student voice. In my previous post about implementing student agency, I mentioned the difference between passive learning and active learning. Allowing the children to actively contribute to the planning of their own learning, absolutely promotes meaningful student involvement.
The unit of inquiry has been planned in a variety of ways over the years:
- teachers develop a skeleton plan and complete it as they are informed by the childrens’ inquiries and progressing knowledge.
- teachers may collaboratively develop the unit with their team, before...
Developing Student Led Inquiry in the IB PYP
The biggest question, when I’m planning an IB PYP unit of inquiry is, at what level is my class in terms of experience and initiative when it comes to inquiry? In other words, which level of student inquiry will I be planning around – structured inquiry, guided inquiry or open inquiry?
The biggest catastrophe that can happen to a teacher embarking on inquiry for the first time is to implement an open inquiry without fully understanding the level of her students’ independent inquiry skills. There aren’t many children who are new to the IB PYP that have been formally guided through the skills necessary for independent inquiry. This can result in confusion at best and frustration at the worst. Not to mention that moment when you just have to abandon the lesson and re-group. I know this, cos I’ve been there many a time! Haha!
We want to ensure that our inquiries are structured in such a way that will introduce strategies and guide and...
