TD UOI - What's that? What does it look like in Early Years?

At the begin of this week I was approach with the question 'what is the meaning of TD UOI? Teachers at ISPP love questions! no matter from whom, big or small people. The fact that someone is INQUIRING is what we like to see being modeled to our students every day. So the question prompted me to think that maybe there are a few others wondering about the same thing. 

TD - stands for transdisciplinary. Following are some links to help explain this visually:

This clip is a summary result of a Category 3 IB Workshop, it's very informative for teachers and parents. 

source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G35IBmEngO8

The Greenwich School Virtual Library has a nice visual to the explanation, which you can take the time to read here at your leisure.

source: http://www.greenwichschools.org/page.cfm?p=6697

UOI - seen just as frequently as the acronym TD, stands for unit of inquiry. 

In Early Years, we are required by the IBPYP to explore four of six units of inquiry each of which align under a Transdisciplinary Theme. Two of these are mandatory and must be covered each year:

1. Who we are
2. How we express ourselves

In addition to the above this year we will also be coving How the world works and How we organise ourselves, to make up the four units. 

Our current unit of inquiry aligns under the TD theme Who we are and our Central idea is: Our interests and abilities inform our learning

So what does that all look like in an Early Years classroom?

Using a model called Backward by Design EY2 teachers discuss what milestones we can expect for this year-long inquiry; a midway point and end of year objective. We have decided to first focus on helping the students identify what their specific interest and abilities might be, that will enable them to create a personal profile of themselves. 

The journey so far involves - the planning...

1. Prior knowledge assessment - while keeping in mind the five essential elements (concepts, knowledge, approaches to learning, attitudes, action - more about this in another blog)
2. Differentiated groupings and
3. Appropriate learning engagement selection

... and the practice

This week EY2 students have continued to engage in a variety of learning experiences that have allowed us to observe and assess their individual interactions, attention spans, perseverance, or the willingness to 'give it a go' and be a risk-taker. We engaged in social-development experiences such as dramatic play. We explored numbers and colours. We had conversations about our identity, created our birthday calendar, and drew self-portraits. We were excited to have Ms. Dee visit us and talk about feelings. 

Much excitement arose during our first trip to the swimming pool.

Lastly, on Friday, we did our first 'brainstorm' and had our first group work experience. In groups of six, the children brainstormed things they liked, then gathered to listen to the story Things I like, by Anthony Brown.  As they returned to their groups they were encouraged to think and where necessary add more ideas that may have been triggered by the content of the story. Finally, they were asked to illustrate at least one of their 'likes' on their group poster.

It was amazing how engaged they were and many were keen to draw more than one thing. 

Like in our adult life, the above learning experiences involved a range of thinking strategies such as critical thinking, logic, as well as numercy, literacy and language abilities - transdisciplinary.

We look forward to a new week of learning!

Have a great weekend



PS. Oh! a highlight this week was understanding the word 'patients'.