To inquire into the following:
Transdisciplinary theme
Who We Are
Central idea
Understanding personal identity helps us to connect to others.
Summative assessment task(s):
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
Individual (Personal Identity) - All About Me Book
A 6-page book which will include:
- ‘My Name’
- Results of Multiple Intelligent test (name Smarts)
- Wordle or other software page with adjectives to describe me (name Character)
- My Favourite Things (name favourites)
- Personal Goals (Literacy, Numeracy, Behaviour, etc)
- I am…...final page reveal - possible QR coding opportunity to reveal student’s identity via video, voice recording, slideshow, etc
Each student creates their own quilt square which will be combined into a class quilt to symbolise that even though were are unique individuals, we are also connected to others.
Visual Arts- stage 1. For students to inquire into portraiture and self portraits as a medium to express who they are.
What is a portrait? What is a self portrait? Look at artists across the ages and the focus on Expressionist artists such as Modigliani -how they express feelings, moods and emotion or a narrative through portraiture.
How do we draw the features of our face? Explore line, shape and colour
How does the line, shape and colour express what we want to show in our self portraits?
Stage 2-Make a collage boarder of photos, images, fabric and drawing about who they are, the meaning of their name ,their family background and what they are passionate about etc. / Class/grade: Grade 3/4 Age group: 8-9 years old
School: Glenroy West Primary School School code: 4809
Teacher(s): Denise Mendham, Phing Tchung, Joelene Kowalski
Date:19th January 2017
Proposed duration: Term 1 2017 - 8 weeks
2. What do we want to learn?
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Key concepts:
Connection, Reflection
Related concepts: identity, differences, similarities, relationships
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
An inquiry into:
●(Reflection) what shapes a person’s identity
●(Reflection) Who I am
●(Connection) How we are connected to others
●(Connection) How we build and maintain relationships
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
●(Reflection) What shapes our identity?
●(Reflection) How do people ‘see’ themselves?/ Who am I?
●(Connection) How can our identity helps us to connect to others?
●(Connection) How can we build and maintain these connections/relationships?
Teacher Provocations
●Picture books
Without first announcing the central idea or the concept of personal identity, we will read a selection of books to students and have them deduce the concept of personal identity. For each book, fill in a square of ‘Tic Tac Toe’ (pg. 21, take a moment) to show the connections.
Books to read to students:
●The Name Jar
●I Can Hear the Sun
●The Sneetches and Other Stories
●Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun
●Mrs Spitzer’s Garden
●A Bad Case of Stripes
Bring in an artefact for our artefact table which represents you
3. How might we know what we have learned?
(This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?”)
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills? What evidence will we look for?
Student questioning and wonderings
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Lines of Inquiry Evidence we look for
1( Reflection) what shapes a person’s identity / Student wonderings during tuning in
Flipbook - my name, my artefact, my learning style, my amazing life, all about me
2
(Reflection) Who I am / Flipbook - my name, my artefact, my learning style, my amazing life, all about me
3
(Connection) How we are connected to others / Student cultural background located on classroom map
Identifying similarities/differences to others in the class based on our flipbook
4
(Connection) How we build and maintain relationships / Penpal letters to students in Greece
/ 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?
TUNING IN / The central idea not initially revealed. Read 6 books related to the concept of ‘personal identity’ to encourage students to make the connection.
Over the course of the week, students will hear different stories which are all connected to our central idea. After hearing each book, they write a summary of the book on their ‘Tic Tac Toe’ chart and slowly start making connections between the books.
FINDING OUT / Homework: Ask your parent/carer about the origins of your name and why they named you that and write a paragraph or two
Students will work on a personal timeline highlighting 8 big events in their life, things they love, date/place of birth and their dreams for the future.
What are my ‘Smarts’? – multiple intelligence test
Highlight each child’s strengths, interests, and learning styles. Highlight connections/similarities between students, as well as unique results for each student. Everyone has a talent and special way they learn best!
Persuasive Writing – select a topic related to something I am passionate about and want to change
‘All about Me’ overview – some of my favourite things
SORTING OUT / Collate all the information we have created about ourselves (personal timeline, all about me, multiple intelligence test, wordle cloud, persuasive text about my passion) to create a personal flipbook
Students to start creating their ‘Who Am I?’ A3 poster - 5 facts about themselves
GOING FURTHER
REFLECTING AND ACTING / QR code reveal – students to decide how they are going to reveal their identities (video, audio, image) and start creating this file, save to GoogleDrive
Celebration of Learning - ‘Who Am I?’ quest
EVALUATING / Self-assessment of the unit - P.M.I. table
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the learner profile?
Transdisciplinary Skills / Attitudes / Attributes
Thinking: Acquisition of Knowledge and Comprehension
Social: Respecting others / Independence
Respect / Balanced
Open-minded
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc., will be available?
e-Smart- Use the Middle Primary eSafety Office Using Technology in the Classroom as a basis for collaborating as a class to establish a user agreement and a set of accepted behaviours when using technology. eSafety Office Balancing Your Time Online Safe Schools Activity Great Expectations Activity (1-4 lessons) Ongoing – Circle time; staying safe online, values online Appy Hour – Cybersmart Comic Book Capers
Books - The Name Jar
●I Can Hear the Sun
●The Sneetches and Other Stories
●Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun
●Mrs Spitzer’s Garden
●A Bad Case of Stripes
‘All About Me’, personal timeline, multiple intelligence test,’ Tic Tac Toe’ KM thinking tool
QR code creator and reader on iPads/tablets
How will the classroom environment, local environment and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
World map with all students cultural backgrounds located on the map, ‘hello’ in different languages, inquiry cycle display with student work to remind students of each stage, personal artefacts
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?
Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’ understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included.
Joelene: Although the creation of the flipbook was time-consuming, most were of a good standard and students understanding of the central idea and their personal identity was developed with each learning experience. Students enjoyed reading each other’s flipbooks and sharing their work with parents. Introducing students to QR codes was worthwhile and we plan to further develop our understanding and application in future projects.
How could you improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more accurate picture of each students’ understanding of the central idea?
Den: I loved learning how to do a QR code. The students were very excited making their video & excitedly shared this with their parents and friends at our ‘Celebration of Learning’.
The flip book, while teacher directed, required students to be self-managers to complete the task. Most were quality work.
Some students struggled with the idea of extracting a question from a page of the flip book to write a clue but linking this to reading helped with the understanding.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the transdisciplinary theme?
●Flipbooks
●Reflections
●Personal Artefacts
●Videos for QR codes
●Wonderings
●‘Hello’ and flags
●‘Where we come’ from map / 7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
In each case, explain your selection.
Key Concept
Reflection / Students reflected on their personal artefacts to discuss in front of the class why they were chosen.
Connection / Text-to-text connections between 6 books to identity the central idea, text-to-self connections as well
Attribute
Balanced / Classes discussed the importance of being balanced in life (time for work/play/rest) and in our approach to learning when doing the Multiple Intelligence Test
Open-minded / Being open to differences was constantly discussed throughout this unit
Attitude
Independence / Students worked independently to ensure that they completed their flipbooks on time for our ‘Celebration of Learning’
Respect / We worked on displaying respect in different ways and in different places and this is reflected in our Classroom Essential Agreements.
Skill
Thinking: Acquisition of Knowledge / Students learnt about different aspects of themselves and shared this knowledge with others in the class and parents during our Celebration of Learning
Thinking: Comprehension / Students came to better understand themselves and others throughout the different learning experiences
Social: Respecting others / We learnt about respecting differences and respectful behaviour.
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
●Student wonderings - questions they had about their own cultures and backgrounds. Conducting research and answering their wonderings. Including their wonderings in their flipbooks.
(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.
In writing, students were encouraged to write about a topic/issue they are passionate about and want to change. A number of students wrote to the teacher about having more access to the school library and more varied books in the classroom library. Both have now been accomplished. / 9. Teacher notes
Emma- Visual Arts- stage 1. It was pleasing to observe students genuinely interested when they inquired into portraiture and self portraits as a medium to express who they are. Students really responded when I showed them artists across the ages and the focus on Expressionist artists such as Modigliani -how they express feelings, moods and emotion or a narrative through portraiture using Youtube and books.
There was plenty of discussion as they peered at themselves in mirrors. Lots of questions about how do we draw the features of our face, eg how do I do my nose ? They explored line, shape and colour to get their unique features and the expression on their face.
Stage 2-Making a collage boarder of photos, images, fabric and drawing about who they are, the meaning of their name ,their family background and what they are passionate about etc. proved to be more challenging. However I found as I modelled more and showed examples the quality and detail improved. Children enjoyed exploring different mediums such as simple print making, cutting out patterns using paper (paper cut outs) and how to make design, pattern and colour work.
I would like to follow up on an inquiry into Colour and colour mixing as this came up repeatedly throughout this unit.
Jackie - During PE lessons students connected their own personal identities to their fitness levels and capabilities. They reflected on what they are able to do and what they need to do to improve.
Phing - Students showed commitment throughout this unit. They connected to their own personal identities as well as others by being open-minded and appreciating themselves and others. Student voice was evident throughout this unit as they reflected and created their own personal flipbooks and shared it with their peers, family and the wider community.