C119: What key and related concepts live here?

There are five things that are most underused within the PYP, per my observation and working with thousands of educators:

• Central idea
• Lines of inquiry
• Concepts
• Approaches to Learning (ATL)
• Learner Profile Attributes

As you look at this list, you are probably scratching your head and asking yourself, “Aren’t those majority of the elements of the PYP?”  You’d be correct. 

The reason I made this controversial statement is that some schools, maybe not yours, are playing at being PYP.  What do I mean by this?  They put up nice poster sets, have a unit display, and create units on the planner or within Toddle.  The IB logo is proudly displayed in the office, on the floors, and on school uniforms.  But, the school does not live and breathe the philosophy, it’s only a thing they do.  

Something to Ponder

I remember Paul Campbell, who used to direct the IB Global Conference, asked a profound question while attending a coordinator meeting in Texas before the pandemic.  There are many IB schools in my region of the world although we have a heavily scripted curriculum proposed by our local government. The dichotomy spurred this question by Paul, “Does Texas have IB schools or schools offering the IB?” 

Let’s apply this to our learning and identity spaces.  Are we an IB school or are we a school that is offering the IB?  If we are an IB school, then this philosophy spreads through everything we are planning and everything our learners are doing?  This week, I was provoked by a question by Yuni Santosa, a Grade 1 Teacher and IBEN member at the International School of Ruhr in Essen, Germany.  She inquired, ”Hmmm... is this the criteria based on the visible aspects (see and hear)?"

Right now, we are basing what we see in a classroom, but let’s not forget that our learners should also be speaking about them in their daily practice.  It’s about making all of the language of the PYP come alive as just another list of vocabulary that we use to make sense of our learning.  It’s not a separate list, wall, or display.  Your room as a whole should be PYP not a separate bulletin board.  What you put up tells you, your learners, and the community what you are spending most of your time on. 

I know, many of my early years and specialist and supporting teachers, office staff, and leadership are shaking their heads and saying, “This does not apply to me.”  This is the problem.  It’s not just the homeroom teacher’ job to teach the vocabulary throughout the day.  It belongs to the entire community. 

One possible way is to begin with an idea that was sparked by our old friend, Shailja Datt, the PYP Coordinator at Horizon Japan International School in Kanagawa.  Shailja suggested that, “Key concepts begin with and & then whether they are relevant, challenging and significant or not.”  Once again, Shailja made me stop and think based on her critical and creative thinking.

This poses the question: ​How do we make key and related concepts engaging, challenging, relevant, and significant for our learners?

​This made me reflect back on the purpose of the inquiry, thinking strategies of engaging, challenging, relevant, and significant.  How do we connect them to our key and related concepts?  How is this reflected in the classroom environment? Challenge accepted!

Using Inquiry Thinking Strategies with Concepts

​I am going back to the inquiry thinking strategies found in Think About Inquiry.  I will take one strategy and apply it to exploring the key and related concepts.  Are you ready? 

Engaging

To engage is more than having fun, it's awakening the mind to think and connect.  How can we make the process of using the key and related concepts more engaging for our learners?  

The Fishbowl

First Round (related concepts):  Split the class into two main groups: action and evaluation group.  The action group separated into three smaller groups around a cluster of desks or a small table in different places in the room.  The action group will be given a bag of random materials that connect to the unit content to sort using the 2-3 related concepts from the unit of inquiry.  

Meanwhile, the evaluation group will take notes of the sorting process by using the PZ visible thinking routine, Think Puzzle Explore.  This thinking routine asks learners what they see and their connections, in this case, it will be the materials sorted by related concept.  Then, they will write down any questions that arise by the placement.  Then, they will pose ideas that could be explored further when re-sorting the materials. 

Once the visible thinking routine is complete, the evaluation group will give their feedback  to the action group.  They will discuss if their ideas were on the same wavelength and differences.  The whole group comes back together to share their findings to calibrate the similarities and differences through a quick gallery walk and reflect on one Think Puzzle Explore. 

Second Round (key concepts):  It’s now time for the evaluation group to take action.  They now take the materials and distribute them to show the key concepts in action.  This time, they will be required to show the connection between the key concept and the lines of inquiry. 

The evaluation group will use Think Puzzle Explore to capture their thinking, each group will debrief, participate in a quick gallery walk, and share their findings.  

Challenging

To challenge is confronting misconceptions and stretching ideas to a place of discomfort. 

Claim Evidence Reasoning (CER)

My favorite challenging strategy is claim evidence reasoning.  This is a strategy that is normally used in science to prove a theory but I’ve applied it to all the subjects.  

In table groups, provide 1-3 related or key concepts to choose from, be sure to not overlap between groups.  

Have each group make a statement about the key or related concept, which will be the claim.  Example:  Culture is the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization

Next, they must provide evidence of the concept in action that supports the claim.  They can use books, magazines, videos, vlogs, blogs, etc. as evidence.  Example:  In the book, Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear, we learn about a Chinese family that relocates to Seattle.  The family is dedicated to many things within their culture and their love of music.  The parents teach music within the community and expect all the children to participate, even Yang who doesn’t play very well. To save face, he asks his friend to pretend to play for him, since he is quite talented. 

Finally, describe how the evidence supports the claim.  In my culture, we are expected to save face to our community so it doesn’t bring disgrace on the family.  This can come in the form of behavior, grades, careers, and whom you marry.  I connected with Yang, because he has a lot of responsibility placed on his shoulders, even though he is quite young.  He can either show what a terrible violinist he is to his parent’s clients or he can pretend and have his friend play for him.  If I were in the same situation, it would be tough to make the right choice.  

Relevant

​To find relevance is reflecting on prior and current experiences and delving into their implications

Provide Utility Value

Utility Value answers these questions, “Why am I learning this?  What can it be used for?”  It makes application of learning to real-life situations and potential careers.  

For example:  we are learning about the needs of plants through the concept of conservation; a careful preservation and protection of something.  

To make this meaningful for your learners, invite a local florist, nursery operator, botanist, park ranger, etc. and have them share why plants are so important to our lives as humans.  Have them show what conservation looks like in their roles and what we can do as everyday citizens to conserve as well. 

This shows real jobs in action supporting the related concept in action. 

Significant

To find significance is bridging issues from our local experience and finding the commonality of the human experience around the world

Projecting Across Distance

This is one of my favorite PZ visible thinking routines, because it really goes deep about global issues. 

Pick an issue that might be looked at differently from around the world. How is the issue viewed in…

• your community?
• another city or town in your country?
• a country east or west of your country?
• a country north or south of your country?
• a country across the distance? 

For example:  we are learning about health; the condition of being sound in body, mind, or spirit

First, look at the general health within your community.  What are the healthy trends that are happening?  What are the unhealthy habits that might need to be changed? 

Take a look at another city in your country.  Since I live in the United States, I would examine the general health of people that live in New York City.  Are they connected in body, mind, and spirit by living in such a hectic city? 

A country east or west of mine is Australia.  How do they balance out their health?  What does it look like in school, on personal time, and within cities versus country. 

A country north or south of mine is Peru.  Does everyone have access to health care?  Is mindfulness built into the school day?  How do people deal with stressful situations? 

A country across the distance is the United Arab Emirates.  With such a hot climate, how does everyone find balance between their body and soul? Are the people generally healthy?  If not, what are the main reasons? 
​
As you can see, there are different ways to tease out the related and key concepts through the inquiry thinking strategies for different ages and subjects.  The main factor for anything that we do well is consistency.  We use the key and related concepts throughout the day and plan with them in mind. 

​Evidencing the Concepts

This leads to our next part, how do we evidence the learning?  Something I have done is post the key and related concepts on a separate part of my classroom.  As we see them in action, we post evidence and write a learning story of how it is connected to content and big ideas with the unit.  It’s tangible and learners see the concepts in practice.
  
One thing that I do differently is that I keep the key concepts all year long. Since some repeat, I build on prior connections, so they can see a bigger picture of what they look like in different subjects and different contexts. 
​
To me, the biggest indicator that concepts are being used is that I am intentionally planning with the each week, I use them regularly to build connections between different content, and my learners are referring to them as they reflect.