Intro to PYP for Parents

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Welcome Parents!

While everyone is wandering in, please take a moment at your seats to complete a “KWL” chart located on your table as a group.

Under the “K”, please jot down everything you already know about the Primary Years Programme.

Under the “W”, please identify some things you want to know about the Primary Years Programme.


Get to know each other Bingo

Primary Years Programme

The unique benefits of the PYP


Contents

IB mission statement IB Learner profile What are the IB programmes? PYP definition PYP curriculum definition Essential elements – synthesis model Written curriculum Transdisciplinary themes Concepts Skills Attitudes Action Overview


Mission

Organization: What is the IB mission and legal status?

The IB is a not-for-profit foundation, motivated by its educational mission, focused on the student.

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

The IB is a non-profit making Swiss Foundation registered in 1968. The activities of the organization are determined by an Act of Foundation approved by the Swiss authorities.

Further resources:

• The Annual Review including accounts is available on www.ibo.org.

Further resources:

• The Annual Review including accounts is available on www.ibo.org.

Motivated by a missionWe aim to create a betterworld through education

PartnershipsWe achieve our goals byworking together

QualityWe value our reputation for high standards

ParticipationWe actively involve our stakeholders

International mindednessWe embrace diversity

Legal status

Core values


Programmes: What are IB Programmes?The three IB Programmes each contain four core elements


Programme: What is the Primary Years Programme?

An opportunity for learners to construct meaning, principally through concept-driven inquiry.

362 authorized schools. Supported in English, French, Spanish but

can be taught in other languages. For all students in a school aged 3 to 12. Assessment is internal and its function is to

demonstrate and enhance the learning Organized around six transdisciplinary themes

of global significance intended to help children engage with their world and the world around them.

Students explore each theme through a “unit of inquiry” developed around a central idea, an in-depth study requiring knowledge and skills that may be transdisciplinary or derived from the subject domains.

The PYP exhibition is the culminating activity of the PYP. It requires students to analyze and propose solutions to real-world issues, drawing on what they have learned through the PYP.

Evidence of student learning and records of PYP exhibitions are reviewed by the IB as part of the programme evaluation process.

Key features: Students will inquire, make connections, develop conceptual understanding, think critically, work collaboratively, consider multiple perspectives, construct meaning, reflect, take action


Learners constructing meaning: How is the PYP curriculum defined? Three interrelated components expressed in the form of three open-ended questions.

Written curriculum Taught curriculum Assessed curriculum

This is a model whereby all three

components inform each other.


Essential elements: How are they illustrated or described in the written curriculum?A balance is sought between the five essential elements below

Knowledge

Significant, relevant content we wish the students to explore and know about, taking into consideration their prior experience and understanding

Concepts

Powerful ideas that have relevance within the subject areas but also transcend them and that students must explore and re-explore in order to develop a coherent, in-depth understanding.

Skills

Those capabilities the students need to demonstrate to succeed in a changing, challenging world, which may be disciplinary or transdisciplinary in nature.


Essential elements: How are they implemented in the written curriculum?

Attitudes

Dispositions that are expressions of fundamental values, beliefs and feelings about learning, the environment and people

Action

Demonstrations of deeper learning in responsible behaviour through responsible action; a manifestation in practice of the other essential elements


Themes: What are the PYP transdisciplinary themes?

Transdisciplinary themes provide a basis for discussion & interpretation within a school

Who we are

Inquiry into what it means to be human

Where we are in place and time

Inquiry into orientation in place and time – local and global perspective

How we express ourselves

Inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas


Themes: What are the PYP transdisciplinary themes?

How the world works

Inquiry into the natural world and its laws, the interaction between the natural world and human societies

How we organize ourselves

Inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities.

Sharing the planet

Inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things.


Example 1: ‘Sharing the planet’

(for students aged 8-9)

“Finite resources – infinite demands”.

To understand better the central idea that:

“Our planet has limited resources that are

unevenly distributed”, water provides a

good example. We would inquire into:

Where water comes from How different people and countries use

water How much water we use and what

happens after we have used it Distribution of usable water around the

world How human activity has affected the

availability of water Our responsibility for water conservation.

To support this inquiry students would

develop knowledge and acquire skills

derived from science and social studies,

in addition to developing

transdisciplinary skills such as critical

thinking, communication and time

management.


Concepts: What are the PYP concepts?

The PYP commits to a concept-driven curriculum, supporting all inquiry & framing the learning

Form - What is it like? The understanding that everything has a form with recognizable features that can be observed.

Function - How does it work? The understanding that everything has a purpose, a role or a way of behaving that can be investigated.

Causation - Why is it like it is? The understanding that things do not just happen, that there are causal relationships at work, and that actions have consequences.


Concepts: What are the PYP concepts?

Change - How is it changing? The understanding that change is the process of movement from one state to another. It is universal and inevitable.

Connection - How is it connected to other things?The understanding that we live in a world of interacting systems in which the actions of any individual element affect others.

Perspective – What are the point of view?The understanding that knowledge is moderated by perspectives. Perspectives may be individual, group, cultural or disciplinary.


Skills: What are the PYP transdisciplinary skills?

The construction of meaning & understanding, is complemented by the acquisition & application of skills

ThinkingComprehension – Grasping meaning from material learned; communicating & interpreting learning.

Social skillsResolving conflict – Listening carefully to others; compromising; reacting reasonably to the situation; accepting responsibility appropriately; being fair.

Communication skillsReading – Reading a variety of sources for information & pleasure; comprehending what has been read; making inferences & drawing conclusions


Skills: What are the PYP transdisciplinary skills?

Self – management skillsTime – Using time effectively and appropriately

Research skills Collecting data – Gathering information from a variety of first – and second-hand sources such as maps, surveys, direct observation, books, films, people, museums and ICT.

Communication skillsReading – Reading a variety of sources for information & pleasure; comprehending what has been read; making inferences & drawing conclusions


Attitudes: What are the PYP attitudes?

Attitudes, as an essential element of the PYP, make a commitment to a values-laden curriculum

Appreciation

Commitment

Confidence

Cooperation

Creativity

Curiosity

Empathy

Enthusiasm

Independence

Integrity

Respect

Tolerance


Action: How is the PYP action defined?

Through the action cycle the students are able to grow both personally & socially

Action in the PYP can involve

service.

It is intended that the person taking

the action will grow from the

experience, and that the process of

taking action or not will contribute to

each student establishing a

personal set of values.


Overview of the PYP

The holistic PYP visually represented


Services: How is a school authorized and reviewed?Authorization is an intensive process that lasts at least two years and includes site visits.

Primary Years Programme


Learner Profile activity


How we use the Learner Profile at AIS/D

Slideshow


What is the learner profile?

It’s the IB mission statement translated into a set of learning outcomes for the 21st century.

The attributes of the learner profile express the values inherent to the IB continuum of international education: these are values that should infuse all elements of the three programmes and, therefore, the culture and ethos of all IB World Schools.

IB programmes promote the education of the whole person, emphasizing intellectual, personal, emotional and social growth through all domains of knowledge.

IB learners strive to be:

Inquirers

Knowledgeable

Thinkers

Communicators

Principled

Open-minded

Caring

Risk-takers

Balanced

Reflective

Intro to PYP for Parents

Education

Transcript of Intro to PYP for Parents