C90 (Application): Play with the ATLs

​As we look at playing with the ATLs, I’m reminded of my friend Vidhya.  She is a passionate PYP educator from India.  If you are on Twitter in the education community, you have probably run across her many tweets.  Ever since last summer, she has opened my eyes to so many possibilities in seeing learning and teaching.  

In a recent chat, Vidhya and I were discussing this challenge and the role of the ATLs.  She posed an amazing question that got my mind thinking. 

What skills do we learn naturally within a purposeful learning space that is designed for play?  Not just materials, but play with ideas.

This sparked my curiosity and I had to know more about this idea.  Here’s where my mind meandered to.  When we consider our learning space design, we need to think about the big purpose.  Is it to inspire play?  Bring about inquiry? Control the learning? Evidence of learning and growth?  

All of these considerations greatly impact how the approaches to learning (ATLs) are exhibited to the school community.  With purposeful learning spaces focused on play, the learner is able to self-direct their learning pathway by manipulating materials and ideas in their own way.  

Why does this matter?  More than ever, our learners need to learn how to create their learning identity by mastering and applying a variety of skills in different contexts.  These skills will help them to navigate uncertain times and hone problem-solving skills that they will need in the future. 

​To bring context to this process, Vidhya shared with me how she encourages her learners to make a personal connection to the ATLS.  As part of a unit of inquiry, Vidhya asked her learners to go beyond “learning” the ATLs, but rather applying them to real-life context.  Here are some connections that her learners made. 

• Homework Connections:  when beginning any assignment, we have to think about what thinking skills that we will focus on for the task.  This helps us to decide which skills we will use from prior learning.  Then, we are able to connect to the other ATL skills. 

 

• Relationship Connections:  we communicate to different people within our community based on their role and age.  When we talk with our family members or elders, we speak to them differently than we do with our friends at school.  Each relationship is different and we need to have certain skills to know how to interact appropriately. 

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• Procedure Connections:  we use all categories of the ATLs to create a procedure for an inquiry.  We use thinking skills to help us know what type of thinking we will explore: creative or critical.  We look at what strategies we want to research and how we will communicate it with the world.  Then, we look at how we will become better during the process through self-management and social skills. 

Application Challenge

​Your challenge is to brainstorm with your learners how they can possibly make a personal connection to the ATLS and let them showcase it to the school community.  Let them make the learning decisions and justify their choice. 

When I make connections to the ATLs, I think of how we all pivoted so quickly during the pandemic to learn new skills and increase our technological understanding.  This podcast was such an adventure for me.  We just passed the second anniversary and I am proud of “The Little Podcast That Could” and I hope it’s helped your practice in some way.  

A big shout to the top 5 countries with the most downloads:  United States, Australia, Canada, India, and United Arab Emirates.  I’ve lived in four of these countries and they all have a special place in my heart and India is still on the bucket list. 

The top 5 cities are Singapore, Hanoi, Melbourne, Sharjah, and Brisbane.  Ironically, I’ve been to four out of five countries; Hanoi is also on my bucket list.  

Thank you for listening.  I’d love to hear your ahas and topic wish lists on social media #thinkchat2020, so I can continue to grow.  I can’t wait to see your ideas!