Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: 2 Age group: 5-7

To inquire into the following:
School: Indus International School School code: 300678
Transdisciplinary theme An inquiry into the ways in which we
discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and Title: Our Strengths
values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our PYP planner
Teacher(s): Munira Dhamani
creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.
6 weeks
Proposed duration:
Central idea Month- April and May

Everyone has personal strengths that can be developed and

experienced in a variety of ways

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?
2. What do we want to learn?
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective and responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

Concepts- Perspective, Responsibility , Reflection

Students will be do different assessments once they identify their strengths.
The assessment will be done by the specialists and a rubric will be filled.  Recognizing strengths in others and how it can help us.
(Attached) (perspective)
 Finding and developing our own strengths
 
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

How can we recognize our strengths?

What are your strengths and when was the last time you displayed them and
acted positively?

What do you understand by strength?

What are the different ways to develop strengths in us?

How much strength can a person have?

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Do strengths in us affect us in any way?

 4. How best might we learn?
Planning the inquiry
What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to
3. How might we know what we have learned? encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving
questions?
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?”
The students filled in smart cards and tried brainstorm on their interests and their wants
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills? for the future.
What evidence will we look for?
The students read books of famous personalities and related themselves to them..
Tuning Activity: Smart cards were put up and each child put in stick on of their
names if they were that smart. The students displayed their interests through demonstrations and displays.

Students were grouped in 2’s and asked to write down common and unique
strengths in them which they presented in a Venn diagram.
Discussion on personal interests, hobbies and ambitions.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
They will discuss with their parents about their strengths and how did they
recognize and developed it.
They filled in a work sheet relating to it. (Attached)
Children will read biographies of different personalities and find out similarities
and differences between those and themselves.
Children will work in different stations of strengths in class and develop them.
Students will be able to recognize their strengths and make a connection to how
others have worked on their strength.
Students will prepare a Venn diagram to identify the similarities and differences
between their and their friend’s strengths.
Students’ will read biographies of famous personalities and make a list of their
strengths and show using a bar graphs or line graphs .
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?
Attitude- Tolerance- the children understood and appreciated with respect the strengths of
their peers
Confidence- the students were very responsible and independent while they worked on their
strengths and gave space to the peers to work on their strengths.
Research skills- Collecting data- of personalities, friends and parents
Self-Management skills- each child was responsible in working and developing their
own strengths.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

Books – Biographies, smart cards, ICT research skills, Videos- Nadia Comanche (gymnast), Sachin Tendulkar (Cricketer), Zakhir Hussein (table Player),
School specialists interview, worksheets.
Games, instruments, flash cards, story books.

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

Different strength stations were placed at different corners of the class and the children will be given an opportunity to explore all of them and finally develop
any one for the summative assessment.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Reflecting on the inquiry

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.
The students could confidently identify their strengths and work on developing it
confidently. During the discussions with the specialists and the school principal
they found it easy to identify and understand that not all strengths can be
developed at one time and how much effort in required to become confident at
it..
During their reading of biographies they realized that all people have strengths
but only the ones who recognize it become the best, renowned and
remembered.
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.
I was very satisfied with the assessment this time but I think I need to work on
the seriousness of a summative assessment.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?
Before the unit began each child wrote down what is the area they think they are
good at but as the unit progressed with a lot of brainstorming activities and interviews
of people from different fields they rethought about their interest of development and
few changed them and gave a very good display in the end of the unit.
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.
Perspective Responsibility, Reflection
Perspective: The students worked very hard in recognizing their strengths with
the help of the discussions they had with the older experienced teachers and
parents. They understood how the strengths of others can help them develop
the strength of their own.
Responsibility and Reflection- The children realized that they themselves
have to work on strengthening themselves in different areas the others are there
only to guide them. They were able to reflect on their own development on
timely basis.
Research Skills: the students did a lot of research reading biographies and
studying the different people around them to understand how they can work on
their strength.
Self- Management Skills- Students developed independence while working on
developing their strengths in different areas. They took the responsibility in
taking the decision on what they want to be assessed.

Nethmi thought she was very good in singing but then later she created very good
piece of art.
Rohan was able to realize that he was good with Lego toys too he made fantastic
models and finally gave a summative assessment on model making.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

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.
Is there a difference between hobbies and wants? Jasmin
Will there be hurdles when we work on our strengths and how will we be able to deal
with it? Rohan
Can strengths change? Karan
9. Teacher notes
This unit when it strated I was a little hesitant about the unit and could not
really decide how I would go about it but then when I started working and
planning on the unit I gained confidence and I think this confidence made
the children enjoy and learn about themselves better.

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.

During the SLC the parents gave a feedback that Nethmi was working on her art
work and trying to make different drawings using different forms.
The students choose what strength they want to work on without hesitations, it was
amazing to know how confident they were while choosing them and working on
progressing it with enthusiasm.
Reflecting on the inquiry

Line of Inquiry How will evidence be collected? What type of assessment will be used?
Learning engagements
TOOLS STRATGIES

What is strength? 1 Tuning Activity: Smart cards were put up

Teacher question: and each child put in stick on of their Smart cards Once the children recognize the smart each will
How can we names if they were that smart. work in those work stations and at the same time
recognize our explore different work stations and identify and
Students were grouped in 2’s and asked to
develop the strengths.
strengths? write down common and unique strengths
in them which they presented in a Venn
The children will prepare the Venn diagram and
diagram.
compare it with their strength cards.
Discussion on personal interests, hobbies
and ambitions.

Finding and The children will be given opportunity to One to one session with specialists Reflection of students after the interview
explore different work stations prepared in
developing our the class.
own strengths

Teacher question:
What are the
different ways to Children will speak to the school specialists
and find out how they were able to
develop recognize and developed their strengths
strengths in us? and how they went about developing it?
 Transdisciplinary Overview
Learning engagements
Subject Area Outcomes

Math General outcomes-

The student will

Outcomes in relation to each strand –

Data handling
We did all types of data handling during the unit; pictographs, line graphs, bar
graphs, Venn diagrams.
Co-ordinates

English: the children did a lot of creative writing;

essays, stories, imaginative writing, outline story.
They did a lot of reading about famous
personalities.
Math:
Language General outcomes-
The student will

Outcomes in relation to each strand –

Oral – Listening and Speaking

Written – Reading and Writing

Visual – Viewing and Presenting

Science: Strand
E Social Studies

D. Hindi/
Spanish/French

Drama

Art Model making of landforms

Activity

Music

PE   .
Dance

ICT Integration

Transdisciplinary Integration

Social Studies: The students used reference maps to find out the countries through which the important latitudes like the Equator, Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn
etc pass through. We also had a map reading activity where the students used latitudes and longitudes to locate objects.
 Attachment B: (please attach UBA)
Section 2 Unit based Assessment
Organising Theme: Where We Are in Place and Time
Unit Of Inquiry: Landforms
Central Idea: Places on Earth have unique characteristics that change over time and these changes can affect us.
Conceptual Understanding: Form, Connection and Change
Transdisciplinary Skills:

Exemplary

Competent

Consolidating

Emerging

developmentNeeds
The skills we addressed in this unit were:

SELF MANAGEMENT SKILLS

Informed choices- Selecting correct items to maintain quality life based on fact and not believe in just
advertisements.
Healthy Lifestyle - Make informed choices to achieve balanced diet, rest, relaxation and exercise to lead a
healthy life
Safety- Look at self hygiene so that one is safe and can help in other’s safety
Time management- Maintain consistency in a healthy routine.
THINKING SKILLS
Acquisition of knowledge- Gain specific facts about common diseases, common vocabulary related to health
and medicines

Discipline Focus : Science

During this unit your child conducted an inquiry into the following:

 The physical characteristics of where we live( form)

 How landforms/ landscapes have changed (change)
 How these changes affect us(connection)

Attitudes Focus
During this unit we focused on:
 Independence in deciding which landform they want to research on.
 Curiosity to know about different landforms and their changes
Individual Comment