Concepts, knowledge, attitudes, approaches to learning, action - As a student or a parent, you will hear of these words throughout your journey of learning at ISPP repeatedly. As a PYP accredited school, teaching and learning are concept-driven with a focus on developing the whole child.
In Early Years, we play our way to acquiring new understandings. During the curriculum planning process (written, taught, and assessed curriculum), the five essential elements are consistently referred to guide and structure the learning experience offered to the students. A healthy balance is sought between acquiring skills and knowledge while developing conceptual understandings, providing proof of positive attitudes and taking responsible action.
The table below is an excerpt from Making the PYP happen - A curriculum framework for international primary education, page 10, (2009).
When planning learning engagements (including structured and free play time) the elements are reflected on through questioning.
Knowledge: What do we want the children to know?
Concepts: What big ideas do we want the children to understand?
Approaches to learning (skills): What do we want the children to be able to do?
Attitudes: What do we want the students to fee, value and demonstrate?
Action: How do we want the students to act?
On a practical level and easy to remember, I like to reference to the 'I ASK U' acronym, a model developed by BeConWiz as a support to ensure students are engaged in authentic learning opportunities.
I = Interests - The who of learning
A= Attitudes - The who of learning
S= Skills - The how of learning
K= Knowledge - The what of learning
U= Understanding - The why of learning
Let's review our past week. Our current central idea is: Our interests and abilities inform our learning.
The children have been encouraged to reflect on what kind of things they like, things they might be interested in and things they do.
After emailing the parents for support, some children brought in items to share. Prior to our first 'show and tell' session, we talked about what being a presenter and being in the audience should look like and sound like, (concepts: form, function, responsibility - learner profile: risk-taker, communicator - attitudes: confidence).
Giving the children the stage for the purpose of sharing their interest is aimed at helping them make connections and develop their understanding of the vocabulary and phrases frequently used in class relating to the unit. As such, we are deconstructing the central idea. An added value is to support their developing understanding of questioning and the difference between a question and a comment.
The children viewed two short clips about 'hobbies and think I like' and were asked to reflect on the things that they do. With enthusiasm, they got to work on their section of the poster to 'jot' down what they know about the things they do. Teachers seated at each of the groups encouraged the students to talk about their work and annotated their illustrations. These posters and comments will be referred to later as the unit progresses.
To introduce the related concepts of cooperation and collaboroation, the students browsed a selection of non-fiction books and tagged things they found interesting. Over the next few days, we will revisit the tagged pages and prompt discussions to elicit their wonderings. Furthermore, we will explore the ways we can find answers to our questions, which will include a few extra small group trips to the library.
Pre-numeracy and pre-literacy skills are being developed on a continuous basis in the most authentic ways as possible. For example, counting students in the morning line up, how many are boys/girls, focuses on 1:1 correspondence while counting each friend only once. Of course playing games and singing number-songs are also fun ways to learn these skills.
This week we have begun inquiring into letters and sounds to support the children who are using experimental writing to annotate their work. Among others resources, we will be using Jolly Phonics as a tool to support the learning. The letters in the first set are S, A, T, I, P, N.
You may hear your child singing songs we have learned in class, using the melodies and using their words or wanting to repeat an activity they had experienced at school. These are some of the ways this age group may be seen taking action from their learning.
In a previous blog post, we highlighted a learning engagement connected to the story 'Mouse Paint.' This week we received the following photo.
Gabe took action - using what he had learned from the story about how colours change when mixed, he was motivated to experiment with this concept at home.
Please do share your stories with us! We love to hear about how knowledge is being transferred or implemented in a different context outside of school.
Have a great rest of the week!
P.S. Please note that Friday, September 4th, is a half day - SCHOOL ENDS AT 11.30am
And - last but not least :)
Happy Birthday Anna!
The table below is an excerpt from Making the PYP happen - A curriculum framework for international primary education, page 10, (2009).
When planning learning engagements (including structured and free play time) the elements are reflected on through questioning.
Knowledge: What do we want the children to know?
Concepts: What big ideas do we want the children to understand?
Approaches to learning (skills): What do we want the children to be able to do?
Attitudes: What do we want the students to fee, value and demonstrate?
Action: How do we want the students to act?
On a practical level and easy to remember, I like to reference to the 'I ASK U' acronym, a model developed by BeConWiz as a support to ensure students are engaged in authentic learning opportunities.
I = Interests - The who of learning
A= Attitudes - The who of learning
S= Skills - The how of learning
K= Knowledge - The what of learning
U= Understanding - The why of learning
So what does it all look like in an Early Years classroom?
Let's review our past week. Our current central idea is: Our interests and abilities inform our learning.
The children have been encouraged to reflect on what kind of things they like, things they might be interested in and things they do.
After emailing the parents for support, some children brought in items to share. Prior to our first 'show and tell' session, we talked about what being a presenter and being in the audience should look like and sound like, (concepts: form, function, responsibility - learner profile: risk-taker, communicator - attitudes: confidence).
A quick reflection after the presentations helped the students assess for themselves on how they think they did as a presenter or as an audience member.
The children viewed two short clips about 'hobbies and think I like' and were asked to reflect on the things that they do. With enthusiasm, they got to work on their section of the poster to 'jot' down what they know about the things they do. Teachers seated at each of the groups encouraged the students to talk about their work and annotated their illustrations. These posters and comments will be referred to later as the unit progresses.
Pre-numeracy and pre-literacy skills are being developed on a continuous basis in the most authentic ways as possible. For example, counting students in the morning line up, how many are boys/girls, focuses on 1:1 correspondence while counting each friend only once. Of course playing games and singing number-songs are also fun ways to learn these skills.
This week we have begun inquiring into letters and sounds to support the children who are using experimental writing to annotate their work. Among others resources, we will be using Jolly Phonics as a tool to support the learning. The letters in the first set are S, A, T, I, P, N.
Action
During one of the above learning experiences, Hifumi expressed an interest in big buildings, he drew with detail and coloured with diligence. Once finished, without prompting he when straight to work on constructing a tower of blocks in the classroom.
The Days of the Week song we sing in class
We modify the second verse as follows:
"Start each morning with a smile... - Say "arun suasudai" to your friends..."
You may hear your child singing songs we have learned in class, using the melodies and using their words or wanting to repeat an activity they had experienced at school. These are some of the ways this age group may be seen taking action from their learning.
In a previous blog post, we highlighted a learning engagement connected to the story 'Mouse Paint.' This week we received the following photo.
Gabe took action - using what he had learned from the story about how colours change when mixed, he was motivated to experiment with this concept at home.
Please do share your stories with us! We love to hear about how knowledge is being transferred or implemented in a different context outside of school.
Have a great rest of the week!
P.S. Please note that Friday, September 4th, is a half day - SCHOOL ENDS AT 11.30am
And - last but not least :)
Happy Birthday Anna!
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