Class/grade: ECE, MI, MIS Age group: 4-5 , MI/MIS (Various ages)

School: Sabin World Elementary School code:7515

Title: Let’s Play

Teacher(s): Parker, Pulido, Kalahar, Fitzpatrick

Date:5/2011

Proposed duration: number of hours many over number of weeks (year long planner)

And refer to thi into

PYP planner

1. What is our purpose/ overall goal? ( UbD Stage 1)

To inquire into the following:

transdisciplinary theme: How we express ourselves: An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the way in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

central idea: People learn and express themselves through play.

Summative assessment task(s): (UbD Stage 2)

What should the students eventually be able to do as a result of this unit? What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for? How will students REFLECT and SELF-ASSESS their learning? Consider performance tasks and other evidence.

Students will take part in a class brainstorm before each “play cycle” in which they discuss what they know about the focus of the play centers (the firehouse, birthday parties, etc.). At the end of each play cycle, the students will take part in a follow up brainstorm to discuss what they now know about the topic. Teachers will record new responses in a new color along with student initials, to help them track growth of individual students. The teachers are looking for the students to be able to extend their initial list because the students have learned about the topic through their plan and exploration. By posting these before/after charts, the teachers will be assisting the students in recognizing how they are learning through play.

2. What do we want to learn? What are our extablished goals? (UbDStage 1)

Consider what you want your desired results to be. What KNOWLEDGE/UNDERSTANDINGS do you want students to walk away with? Content standards to be addressed? (See complete list in box 9)

What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?

Key concepts: form, change, function

Related concepts: exploration, discovery, self-awareeness

What language functions will support student learning in the scope of the inquiry into the central idea? Describe, explain What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea? (Students will understand that…) • Forms play can take • How we can tell something is real or imaginary • People change their ideas when they play What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries? (What essential questions can we ask to spark meaningful connections, provoke deep thought and inquiry, encourager transfer of knowledge by our students?) What is imagination? What is fiction and non-fiction? How can imagining help people? What can people do with imagination to help them play and learn? Provocation: Teachers present students with a giant box. Students are encouraged to explore the box and use their imagination to come up with ideas of ways to use the box. Teachers model different ideas to spark student ideas. Follow the exploration with reading of It’s Not a Box and a discussion of how they used their imagination.

Planning the inquiry

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have learned? (UbD Stage 2)

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?

Classroom environment filled with materials based on units of inquiry, including puppets, costumes, various art materials, toys, etc. Teachers keep anecdotal records while watching how students interact with each other and the objects in the room. Are they engaged in creative play?

Teachers use questioning with specific interesting objects to see how students use their imaginations. Questions include: What is it? How could you use it?

What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for? (We will know students understand/know are able to do …. by…)

Ongoing assessment of student’s dramatic play: During regular classroom schedule, teacher observing how students interact, how they use classroom materials. Teachers watch to see if they are using their imagination with objects used in classroom activities.

Students share their different ideas on how to use objects for play: conversations during and after classroom activities to assess their use of imagination and speaking skills

Students use drawings to show what they imagine. Drawings could be from a prompt, ie. What do you want to do this weekend, or from a book, ie. What did it make you think about? Teachers assess whether students can show what they imagine through drawings or artwork.

4. How best might we learn? (UbD Stage 3- Performance Tasks)

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? (Consider the WHERETO prompting listed in box 10.)

• Stock dramatic play area with variety of materials and allow daily time for students to explore and play with manipulatives.

• Drawings and artwork to express what they imagined. • Books: literature used to spark discussion about how characters use their

imagination. Literature leads to prompt: what did the book make you think about, imagine, etc.

• Exploring where authors and artists get their ideas. Tie in specialists. This leads to students authoring their own book, song or art piece, and talking about where their ideas came from.

• Classroom stations include blocks, tanagrams, templates to use geometric design to express creativity.

• Lay out a variety of sports equipment in the gym or outside. Students work in teams to design an event or a game using their choice of materials.

• Drama station: puppets, flannel board: options for students include retelling stories, creating own story, act out stories from writer’s workshop

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the learner profile? What key SKILLS will students acquire as a result of this unit?

Transdisciplinary skills Social skills Adopting a variety of group roles: Through dramatic play in their daily routines, students will have the opportunity throughout the year to play and work together. Teachers provide the opportunity to reflect on students roles and how they tie with the central idea. Communication skills Speaking: Throughout the unit, students will have opportunities to explain their thinking around what they imagine, as well as explain their drawings and artwork. Students will be asked to reflect on what they did during their “play” time and how it relates to what they learned during instructional time. Learner Profile Risk-takers: Students will have to create an original performance. They will have to explain their choices for the performance with the class. Open-minded: Throughout the unit, students will be sharing their thinking about what they imagine. Being open-minded to others ideas will spark thinking in other students. Attitudes:

Respect: taking turns in play Creativity: in play Cooperation: they have to cooperate in the play centers

5. What resources need to be gathered? (UbD Stage 3)

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?

Books: You Are Here, Where the Wild Things Are; It’s Not a Box; Jingle Bells, There’s no Such Thing as a Dragon; Alice is a Fairy; A Box Can Be Many Things

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?

Classroom play area includes revolving manipulatives based on units, art materials. Tie in music and art teachers for lessons on imagination and its role in the arts.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?

Refer back to Box 1 to answer these questions.

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.

We kept KWL charts and added to them after play sessions. We gave the students play sessions and have been observing the play for evidence of using content information in their play. With our work sampling (grading) we base it on anecdotal notes. From this we are able to verify to what extent each student is understanding and how well they are using their imagination and applying their new learning for transference. Most students showed an awareness of learning through play

How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.

When students apply their learning to play, that is an expression of the new learning. The play becomes the communication form. There is a lot of evidence that students express learning in play. We still have to push them to the metacognitive level of seeing their own learning grow and verbalize it.

What opportunities were there for student self-assessment/reflection?

It is easy to watch the students observe others when they aren’t sure how to play and see how they learn from each other and gradually increase their own interaction based on their peers. After field trips we see them integrating some of the real life situations we just saw. We also see them applying the observations in new and original ways.

What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the transdisciplinary theme?

We see a lot of creativity expressed in play as well as witness the learning happening. Again, we don’t know if the students can verbalize it in that form, but we can observe the connections. It is that fine line of an ECE student’s ability to think metacognitively.

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

• develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to learn?”

• demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

• develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?

In each case, explain your selection.

Transdisciplinary skills Social skills Adopting a variety of group roles: Through dramatic play in their daily routines, students will have the opportunity throughout the year to play and work together. Teachers provide the opportunity to reflect on students roles and how they tie with the central idea. Communication skills Speaking: Throughout the unit, students will have opportunities to explain their thinking around what they imagine, as well as explain their drawings and artwork. Students will be asked to reflect on what they did during their “play” time and how it relates to what they learned during instructional time. Learner Profile Risk-takers: Students will have to create an original performance. They will have to explain their choices for the performance with the class. Open-minded: Throughout the unit, students will be sharing their thinking about what they imagine. Being open-minded to others ideas will spark thinking in other students. Attitudes: Respect: taking turns in play Creativity: in play Cooperation: they have to cooperate in the play centers

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Reflecting on the inquiry

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.

Students began to ask if things are real and imaginary-

Are dragons real?

Why do we pretend?

Why can’t we pretend all the time?

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. How did the students show their transfer of understanding?

We see students daily taking action to learn/try something new allt he time. They are constantly transferring knowledge and experience into play. It is significant for them to repeatedly try something new- this is evidence of them choosing to learn through their play. These opportunities are too numerous to mention, but a few are-

Students creating their own games

Students using their imagination to put a puzzle together

Students contributing to a play situation with other students.

9. Teacher notes (To do list before teaching this unit again):

Keep thinking about our summative assessment. How do we take students to a metacognitive level. Take this planner to the conference this summer.

Content standards addressed through this inquiry:

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

10. How will the language functions needed to understand this unit be developed?

Language function: Sentence frames: Grammar/Syntax: Phrasing: Vocabulary:

Language function: Sentence frames: Grammar/Syntax: Phrasing: Vocabulary:

Language function: Sentence frames: Grammar/Syntax: Phrasing: Vocabulary: