Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose?

Class/grade: 4

1a) To inquire into the following:

School: Domuschola International School

School code: 7800

transdisciplinary theme

Age group:

An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and
journeys, the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the
relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations
from local and global perspectives.

Title: Significant Events

central idea

Proposed duration: 42 hours over 6 weeks

Teacher(s): Charo
Date: September 15 to October 28, 2014

A communitys response to significant events provides an insight into the history

and values of that community.
1b) Summative assessment task(s):

2. What do we want to learn?

What are the possible ways of assessing students understanding of the central idea?
What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?

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

Goal: Each student will choose one colonizer and explain about their colonization,
journey, discovery and reasons of the colonization. Students will explain from their
journey based on the timeline. Then, they will see their group of destination to identify the
world in the past and changes that happened afterwards. In the museum, they will also
make a conclusion of how the colonizers/colonization has led to the changes in a society/
they brought to the native land (contribution) and help us understand the world better

Focus Key Concepts:

Causation
Perspective
Change

Role: Historian
Audience: School Community
Scenario: The school community has queries on lives of the past and how they affected
our present life.
Product: Timeline/poster/Powerpoint/
.

Related Concepts:

impact
consequences
community
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

How a significant event has an impact on a community

How aspects of the past still influence our community
Why viewpoints differ about significant events

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

Why do people colonize?

What are the impacts of colonists on lands and natives
What are the changes in our culture after the colonization

 International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Planning the inquiry

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 possible ways of assessing students prior knowledge and
skills? What evidence will we look for?

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:

Timeline showing key events in history.

Students can plot out the key events that changed the course of history or significant people who
affect the history.
Use tags so that we can walk along the timeline and assess each students input into the timeline
and get an idea of their current level of knowledge, and also their misconceptions

Significant Events: (Pictures and Newspapers)

In the Family

Nationwide

Worldwide
- What I think?
- How did the people respond?
- What did they do?
Picture of different events
- Gallery Walk
- What happened here?
- How did people respond?
Homes
- Compare differences between indigenous housing in the past and todays housing
Philippines Then and Now
- Draw a KWL Chart
Colonial Government
- Draw power pyramid

What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Line of Inquiry

What will be assessed?

How will evidence be collected?

How a significant event

has an impact on a
community

Students
understanding that
significant events
impact communities.

Students create a flowchart that

would show the impacts of a
significant events that happened in
the Philippines. They also explain the
reasons why such events had
impacts in our community.

How aspects of the past

still influence our
community

Students
understanding that our
present community
has still evidence of
the past.

Students create a list of the aspects

of the past that still influence our
community today and explain how
they still get to influence our
communities.

Why viewpoints differ

about significant events

Students
understanding that
there are different
perspectives about
significant events.

Students on a chart, state the

different perspectives about a given
event. They then explain why there
are lot of perspectives about it.

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the
attributes of the learner profile?
A. Transdisciplinary Skills Thinking Skills:DIALECTICAL THOUGHT- The students thought about the point of views
of others and understand them too. EVALUATION- Students make judgments whether their insights are similar with
others. Social Skills:COOPERATING- Students discuss with each other and work together for their class displays;
RESOLVING CONFLICTS- Students share their own ideas and listen to others thoughts carefully. They also accepted
the responsibilities assigned to them. Research Skills: COLLECTING- Students develop questions on what they want to
know about our history. They also collected items which are significant for them; OBSERVING-Students observe to
notice relevant ideas take notes of of essential information during the fieldtrip.
B. Learner Profile: BALANCED- Students develop into being balanced as they come up with their own plan that guides
them; COMMUNICATOR- Students develop into being a communicator when they voiced out their point of view on
events of the past. They also present their understanding of the past events through newscasting type of presentations.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

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

Corregidor field trip

AUDIO-VISUAL

Marco Polo/Ferdinand Magellan National Geographic

WEBSITES

http://iijuan12.squidoo.com/ColonialismWeeks3-8

http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/birth-american-empire-lesson-3-matter-philippines#sect-activities

http://www.scribd.com/doc/29782502/Philippine-History
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?

Our UOI wall will have posters and cut out of newspapers and magazines featuring different significant events in our society.
International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Reflecting on the inquiry

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 understanding

of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and
teaching of the inquiry should be included.

What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

The students interests were heightened when they saw the destroyed artifacts
during the field trip. They were all curious about the events which led to destruction
of the place and effects it had on the people. During the trip, all of them took down
notes of the essential information they heard (from the tour guide) and saw. Most of
the students were also able to come up with related concepts while some still had to
be guided to come up for the same.
Towards the end of the unit, students identified the influences of the colonizers
which are still evident in the present time.
All of the students were able to complete the conceptual understanding
diagram. Most of them wrote on the top most part the things they could literally do in
relation to a significant event or artifacts. One student mentioned that she would
stand in attention and sing the national anthem with pride and respect to honor the
Filipinos who fought for the country. Meanwhile. there were still some students who
needed assistance to come up with their own idea.
We could have invited Historians or an authority to share about a significant event
and perhaps to talk on what our society is doing to our artifacts or the things we,
especially the children, need to do. In this case, the students would have got plenty
of ideas to write and do about.
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each students understanding of the central idea.
The assessments done could have been more effective if we focused more on giving
scenarios of relevant events that happened not only in the Philippines but also in
other parts of the world.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and
the transdisciplinary theme?
The students were able to make connections with regard to significant events as
they were able to inquire on their own. Prior to their presentation, they were able to
look up for essential information about their expert topic. Towards the end of the
unit, they were able to express their agreements and disagreements about our
history particularly on the colonizers.

Key Concepts

CAUSATION- The students were able to understand the reasons why the people in the past
engaged in war. They also found out the consequences of some events. Further, they also
found out how our values or beliefs came about including our language. PERSPECTIVE- The
students were able to show understanding of the different perspectives of people. they
understood that people have different beliefs and values on a particular event. CHANGE The
students found the changes in a certain place after an event.
Related Concepts
IMPACT- During the Corregidor field trip, the students got to know how people reacted to a
certain event. They also wrote in their reflection why do we need to preserve a historical site.
BIAS- They also saw how people were treated during the war. EVIDENCE - During the trip,
they identified many artifacts that could tell important events in the past.VALUES- During our
discussions and reflection, they figured out that some people do something because of what
they believe in. They also realized that we have different beliefs and values. However, we
still need to respect each other.

demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

Thinking Skills - The students showed these skills when they had to think of concepts and
related concepts which helped them related to the events in the past. They had to think of
reasons why a particular event is considered significant.
Research Skills - During the field trip, the students took down notes about the essential
information relayed by the Tour guide. Prior to the trip, they also read information from the
books and the internet. These information were then presented during the Book Fair.
Social Skills. - They showed these skills when they work together to plan how they would
present their expert topic to their parents and other guests during the Book Fair.

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

In each case, explain your selection.
Balanced - They have expressed this profile when the students eagerly joined the morning
exercise during their field trip. They also developed this profile when they participated during
the learning walk.
Communicator - This profile was very evident when they were divided into groups during the
field trip. Each group was tasked to present their understanding in a creative way. They also
thought of a song which they could relate to a particular event in the past.

 International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

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.
-

What are beliefs and values?

How do we know our history?
What influence our society today?
How is the past connected to the present?
How is the past relevant to the present?

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.
One of the students proudly shared to the class how her great uncle helped fight
with the Filipinos. Most of them also got to know how things are today because of
the colonizers. These include their surnames, food we eat and how formal
education came to be.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

9. Teacher notes
-

We should find more time to plan for more activities that would help the
students have a better understanding of the central idea. Also, for the
children to have a better and more accurate grasp of what they have to do
for the summative assessment.
The field trip to Corregidor was very informative. However, the tour guide
should be given a head start on the kind of information the students should
know and hear. The experience was enjoyable and it stayed with the
students.

Attachment...

C. Learning Engagements
Finding Out and Sorting Out

Textbook Connections
History books will be provided.
Autobiographies and Biographies will be displayed and each students will choose a significant person to learn more and share with the class.
Places to Go
Students will find out and explore virtual places and museums showcasing significant events.
Brainstorm
What is a community? (From different sources)
- create a booklet of several definitions
What is the most significant event in your life?
Gallery
Students will be collect pictures and artefacts related to the unit and these will be showcased for further exploration.
Research one country history, Investigate what events happened along the way and why they happened. Look at how it has effected that country culture today.
Research why some countries are in the conflict today?
- Draw a diagram for possible causes and effects
Example of a significant event
Why did it happen?
Who was/were involved?

Our National Heroes

- Students create photo frames of early Filipinos who made an impact on our culture and write a brief descriptions under each picture.
Pre-Colonial
- Students create a booklet about Phils. early system of government and its laws.
Why Invade?
- Students list down and explain the reasons why Spanish soldiers, missionaries, and settlers came to the Philippines
Character Traits
- Students give examples of each character traits of the Filipinos
The Explorers
- Students create photo frames of early explorers associated with Philippine colonization and write a brief descriptions under each picture.
What To Do With the Philippines?
- Students will write a letter to Pres. McKinley suggesting what to do with the country after the war.

The Nations Assembly

- Students are members of one of three advisory groups to the Queen/President, who has asked them to prepare her/ him for a Cabinet meeting to discuss
Spanish/America's course of action with regard to the Philippines.
- Students will write a memo to the Queen/President in which they recommend and defend their suggestion/option
Effects on Education
- Students create a chart showing the different types of educational system during each regime
Write It!
- Students write an essay on changes caused by colonizers.
Two Corners
- Students will be divided into two and each group will showcase the past and present culture of the Philippines

Going Further
Activities to challenge and extend
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated.

Students chose a particular period in history and presented the same through newscasting.
Drawing conclusions
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated. Students draw conclusions of what they have learnt. This is an important time to
evaluate the success of the unit and the needs and achievements of individuals. This is where students put it all together.

Students created a generalization chart and come up with their generalization to show what they understood from the unit. They also wrote a Blog explaining their values
and beliefs.
Reflecting and Taking Action
To reflect on what has been learnt and process of learning. It is important that students be given opportunities to act upon what they have learnt. Actions are things that students can
themselves and from which they can see results.

The students realized the importance of historical artifacts. Most of them expressed that they should treat artifacts carefully and appreciatively once they visit museums or
other significant places.