Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: Age group:

PYP planner
To inquire into the following: School: Beaconhouse Newlands Islamabad
transdisciplinary theme School code: SO51787
How we organize ourselves: An inquiry into the interconnectedness
of human-made systems and communities; the structure and Title:
function of organizations; societal decision-making; economic
activities and their impact on humankind and the environment. Teacher(s): Hafsa Bashir, Nadia Nawaz, M Basit, Salman Ali and Sehar
Central idea Niazi

Public places strengthen the connections within communities. Date:

2. What do we want to learn?

Summative assessment task(s):
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
Key concepts:
(Putting you in the picture) Function, Causation, Change
Students will be making 3D models of different public areas. In Related Concepts:
groups, they will make the models to show how different Role, Impact, Adaptation
communities interact within any public area. They will write a brief What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the
description about function of their public area. Students will later do central idea?
presentation of their models.

Different public areas and their functions

How public areas develop

How these places differ from our homes

The importance of community building
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

Provocations:
 Colored pictures of different places ; both public and private
 Flash cards with names of different places written on them
 Videos of different public places and their function
Teacher’s Questions:
 Can you name some places?
 Have you heard the word ‘Public’?
Planning the inquiry

 What is meant by the word public area?

 What is your understanding of the word ‘Private’?
3. How might we know what we have learned? 4. How best might we learn?
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?” What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills? to encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving
What evidence will we look for? questions?

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills

development and for the development of the attributes of the
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
learner profile?
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

 Students will be shown different pictures of places and they will

have to guess the name of the place, then they will have to guess
the name of the Unit. Teacher will tell the name of the unit after all
students are done with the guessing.
 Unwrapping the name of the Unit
 Unwrapping of the difficult words of the Central Idea like ‘ Public
Area, strengthen, connection, communities’ .
 KWL chart to gather students’ prior understanding about the theme
and the central idea.

TUNING IN
 Students will be shown videos of public areas like “a park”, “a
zoo” etc as provocation. Students will then have to guess what
the video is about. Same will be done with the video of the
zoo. Then the teacher will ask questions like:
1. Can they name the place they see in the video?
2. Who lives in that area?
3. What other things can they find in the area?
4. What do we call such places?
Teacher will then introduce the word ‘Public Area’ to the students.
Students will draw public areas in their UOI journels.
 Students will have a discussion on how different public areas
Reflecting on the inquiry
are made
 Students will be shown flash cards with different names of
public and private areas written on them.
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art,
computer software, etc, will be available?
. Thinking skills – how do we find out about the past?
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community
be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Grandparents will be invited and they will talk about
significant events of their life.
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?
Communication skills – present timelines and other pieces of work to their
classmates
Research skills – how to develop questions, record data and present results of
presentations and interviews.
Communicators: Explain their findings to others.
Inquirers: Ask questions and find information about their families and past.
Knowledgeable: Students will learn about different cultures of the world to acquire
the in-depth knowledge of how past rituals and beliefs affects their life's and
customs.
Open-minded and principled: Listen to a range of histories and traditions and
develop respect for other people and other customs.
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose? 7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’ What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
the planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included. learn?”

How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a Reflection: how do we know we are developing?
more accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.

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

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning? 9. Teacher notes

Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight
any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.

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?
Reflecting on the inquiry