C117: How do we show the expectations of a school within the classroom?

This episode came from a question that was posed by Nirali Parikh, a transitional kindergarten teacher, originally from India that works at the Creation Village World School in Celebration, Florida.  I’ve had the pleasure to work with Nirali on several occasions and she makes me think differently about the capabilities of an early years child.  If you haven’t already, consider following Nirali on Twitter @NiraliParikh7. 
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​What are the expectations of a school? 

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​This simple question spreads its tentacles into every aspect of the school building.  If the expectations of a school are unclear, how can the teachers deliver a purpose-driven curriculum?  The two go hand-in-hand.  When the leadership team has no vision of where the school is headed, it impacts how and what is taught.  

Let’s consider that the school has a clear vision. How are the expectations seen throughout the campus?  One way I believe a school has clear expectations is that its practices align with the PYP transdisciplinary approach to learning and teaching.  It’s visible as you walk through the campus within and beyond the classrooms. 

Transdisciplinary learning

​At the heart of everything we do is the transdisciplinary approach to learning and teaching.  As a PYP educator, we are dedicated to teaching our subjects together in a cohesive way, so that it makes sense to our learners.  In real-life, we do not address complex issues by separating them into various subjects, rather, we look at how all of the parts work together to solve the problem or issue.  If this is the reality, why do schools still teach subjects as separate ideas, instead as factors to problem solve? 
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The answer:  it’s hard


It takes a lot of time, effort, and collaborative planning to teach in a transdisciplinary approach.  Every teacher on the team must be unified in the same purpose and be on board to teaching in the same manner. This does not mean you can’t show your unique flair or teaching style.  You can still guide your learners based on your preferences, but the end goal is the same.  Creating young learners who can think, do, and act. Simple. 

To do this, we must approach how our classrooms look differently too. In the last episode, we talked about the importance of the unit wall.  Now, we are going to begin to unpack what does and why it matters.  

Unpacking the Transdisciplinary Theme Descriptor

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​Upper Elementary/ Primary
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At the beginning of the unit, I give one word/concept from the theme descriptor and ask my learners to unpack it into kid-friendly language.  
They use devices to discover synonyms, images, and other references.  This helps them to identify the big idea, similar to the bundling exercise described in the last episode. 
Then, my learners are tasked to choose one picture from a group found on a back table.  

For the second part of this engagement, I would ask learners to describe their words using Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER).
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• Claim:  What do you know?
• Evidence:  How do you know that? 
• Reasoning: Why does your evidence support your claim? 

​After they presented their CER to the group, we would evaluate if the argument was valid and if they required more evidence to prove their claim.  Once the evidence was satisfactory, we would post the CER and photo around the transdisciplinary theme descriptor, which was above my smart board.  The theme descriptors would stay up all year long, so learners could refer back to these concepts on a regular basis.  

​Lower Elementary/ Primary
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How can I do the same process with my early years learners?  One possible way is to choose only one concept from the descriptor that you will be focusing on during the unit of inquiry.  Ask learners to share what the word(s) mean to them.  Then, choose a picture that shows it in action.  Use the CER routine to help them unpack it into a real context. 

For example:  you are beginning the WHO WE ARE unit of inquiry.  Your conceptual focus from the transdisciplinary theme descriptor is beliefs and values.  

• Unpack the concepts of beliefs and values into kid-friendly terms
• Ask learners to give specific examples of how they show their beliefs and values to their community
• Provide 3-5 pictures of beliefs and values in action and ask your class to choose 2 that can be displayed with the theme descriptors.  It is important that they choose the images that represent how they think about this concept, not you. 
• Ask the learners to provide a reason this picture is the best (CLAIM).
• Have learners provide the reasons orally, while you transcribe (EVIDENCE)
• Have learners ponder if the evidence provided is enough to support that the picture is the most important (REASONING). 

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By completing this process as a whole group, you are able to guide the process while establishing deeper conceptual connections with your learners.  It provides a focus to your learners of what they will be exploring within your unit and how they will be evaluated.

Unpacking the Central Idea

One of the ways to show expectations of the learning is to unpack the central idea with your learners.  Since the central idea shapes the understanding of the unit, it’s important that learners know it in their kid-friendly terms and that they can apply it to their own lives.  How can we make this happen easily? 

Upper Elementary/ Primary

I present the central idea to my learners and ask them what they think the individual words mean and as a whole.  We unpack each concept and verb separately into separate word banks, so they can find words that resonate to them. Here is the process that I use with upper elementary/ primary aged children. 

• We examine one related concept and verb at a time, such as WELL-BEING
• I ask learners to brainstorm a list of synonyms for well-being such as:  health, fitness, self-care, mindfulness, balance, movement, exercise, sports, etc. 
• I create a similar list of words for each concept and action verb in the central idea
• We use pictures to EITHER: capture the meaning of each individual word or as an entire sentence.  Don’t do both. 
• The learners pick words from each concept and verb to create their own central idea and share what it means to them.  

After learners re-write the central idea in their own words, I have them write it down for their portfolios.  I have them create a picture of what it means in their mind and brainstorm what types of actions people can take.  

Remember, the entire purpose of the central idea is to build a learner understanding of what the unit is about and the various ways they can take action. 

​Lower Elementary/ Primary

With the little ones, I still use conceptual language in the central idea, but I break it down into words that they know.  At my old school, Foster Elementary, the kindergarten team used the central idea:  Awareness of self drives choices. 

We knew this central idea would be too big for our learners to understand on their own.  Here’s how I helped the team to bring it down to early years

• Awareness:  we get an idea (picture of lightbulb) and we stop to think about it (child thinking deeply)

 

• Self:  a picture of a child looking at their reflection and the word: ME on a card

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• Drives:  a picture of making and creating something

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• Choices:  pictures of good and bad choices.

Once we unpacked the central idea together, we had them play a matching game of good and bad choices.  We had a discussion about how we know if we are making a choice or if it’s a mistake.  The difference is that we KNOW that we are making a bad choice on purpose.  

For the action, learners were asked to consider some choices that they had made that week. They were asked to think about how they could make their choices even better.  This was the summative assessment. ​

Year-long Displays

A question posed by Emmanouil Zerai: @E_zerai, a PYP homeroom teacher at the International School of the Stockholm Region (ISSR) made me think about year-long displays.  


What aspects are worth staying longer on the wall? 

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It’s all about preference.  What do you value the most?  What do you think learners should know?  Here are some of my preferences.

Theme Descriptors
After unpacking the transdisciplinary themes, I would leave them posted above my dry erase or smart board.  I wanted them in a prominent place where my learners would see them regularly. As we proceeded through the year, I would use them as a teaching tool to revisit ideas and called on my groups that were the “experts” to remind us of their meaning in kid-friendly language. 

Miniature Unit Walls
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to attend an IBEN development at the Frankfurt International School in Wiesbaden.  I noticed that many of the classrooms put their big unit ideas on poster boards and placed them in their rooms.  This allowed learners to see the progression of the big ideas and how teaching and learning was connected throughout the year. 

Key Concept/Learner Profile Boards
Another thing that might be of value is to collect evidence of the key concepts and the learner profile attributes in action during each unit of inquiry.  Create a running display that will last all year.  As you revisit a concept or attribute, you can add more evidence of what it looks like in practice. 

I hope these ideas helped to shape the expectation of the school into practice.  Join us next time as we explore what transdisciplinary learning looks like through the lines of inquiry.