Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
Transdisciplinary Theme
To inquire into the following:
How We Express Ourselves


The ways in which we discover and
express ideas, feelings, nature, culture,
beliefs and values
The ways in which we reflect on, extend
and enjoy our creativity
Central Idea
Stories inform, provoke, and make us reflect on
the world around us.
Summative Assessment Tasks
What are the possible ways of assessing
students' understanding of the central idea?
What evidence, including student-initiated
actions, will we look for?
stories
Summative: Performance Task
Task: Students will be given a story. Working in
small groups, students must identify the
elements of the story, and describe the purpose.
Students then change the mode and present the
story.
Assessment method: rubric
Evidence: Students will understand the elements
of a story as well as the story development
process. When reading and listening to stories,
students will take note of the author's point of
view and the feelings and emotions that the
author is trying to convey. Students will
recognize that there are many ways to tell a
story: in writing, in pictures, orally, etc.
Possible Actions: Students may continue to
create stories in their free time. Students may
begin to comment on stories all around them -art, TV, movies, street performers, dancers.
stories rubric.docx
Class/grade:
Transdisciplinary 4
Age
group:
Grade 4
School: The
International School
School
code:
Title: stories-How We Express
Ourselves
Teacher(s): Abad, Maria; AholaWeldon, Kristie; Bellamy, Cassie;
Briglia, Robert; Buckendahl, Keiko;
Fornell, Tamara; Fowdy-Drouhard,
Lara; Fujii, Takanori; Gagliardo, Paola;
Harpole, Sarah; Jansen, Julie; Liu, Yu
Min ; Musselman, Peter; Olson, Janet;
Pack, Dan; Prince, Britt; Rios-Garcia,
Gilberto; Wirsching, Teresa ;
Woods, Robert
Proposed duration
number of hours: over number of weeks:
(Week 26, 6 Weeks)
2. What do we want to learn?
Key Concepts
Key Concepts
What are the key concepts to be emphasized
within this inquiry?



Form
Connection
Reflection
Related Concepts
imagination, expression
Lines of Inquiry
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of
the inquiry into the central idea?
*What a story is
* The purpose behind stories
* How stories are created and shared
Teacher Questions
What teacher questions/provocations will drive
these inquiries?
What is a story?
How can you share a story?
Why do we have stories?
How can we tell that the story has achieved its
purpose?
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Planning the inquiry
3. How might we know what we
have learned?
Prior Knowledge
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?


Group discussion (brainstorming):
What is a story? How can you
share a story? Why do we have
stories? What happens inside of
you when you are
listening/watching/reading?
Teacher will record answers.
Show and tell about your favorite
story. Either in small groups or as a
whole group, identify similarities of
all stories (every story has a main
character, setting, plot). Teacher
will collect this information and
students will use these ideas to
identify the author's purpose and
the types of modes.
Teacher will look for evidence of
understanding of the story elements and
modes of story telling like movies, theater,
opera, etc. Teacher will look for evidence
of understanding the themes and
purposes behind storytelling.
Formative Assessment
What are the possible ways of
assessing student learning in the
context of the lines of inquiry? What
evidence will we look for?
After listening to or watching a story,
4. How best might we learn?
Learning Activities
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?
Throughout the unit students will explore stories in their
different modes.
With each story, students will explore the following:
1. the elements of the story
2. the author's purpose
3. the appropriateness of the mode to tell the story
For example,
1. Students will read "Hansel and Gretel" and discuss
the genre of this story. They will complete a graphic
organizer "Elements of a Story." Afterwards, students
will watch the opera of this story and compare and
contrast both modes, and why the authors chose it's
specific mode.
2. Students will watch the ballet "Swan Lake" and
complete a Story Mountain.
3. Students will listen to "William Tell Overture" and
read the legend about him. Students make connections
to the current events at that time and the purpose
behind the story.
4. Students read "Greek Myths" and then recognize the
artwork that match the story.
5. Students read the Mayan Fable "La mansion del
pajaro serpiente" and then prepare a play based on this
story.
6. Students will watch videos and summarize the story.
Then, discuss what makes the story interesting.
Art and Music Connection: Storytelling through Art -Under the direction of the art and music teachers,
students will read a fictional story, a tall tale, and create
their own visual and musical accompaniment to
enhance the story elements.
students will be able to identify either in
writing or through drawing the story
elements: characters, setting, plot, and
theme.(FORM)
After listening to or watching a story,
students will complete a story mountain
including the elements of plot: intro, rising
action, climax, falling action,
conclusion.(FORM)
After listening to or watching a story,
students will identify the author's purpose
and the
themes.(CONNECTION/REFLECTION)
In all these activities, teacher will look for
student's ability to recognize these
elements in multiple story telling modes.
Students will study thematic character composition,
Leitmotifs, invented by opera composer Richard
Wagner. They will study the use of leitmotifs in
connection with Ravel's "Beauty and the Beast," and
film scores that use leitmotifs such as "Star Wars."
Students will then begin identifying characters, places,
or ideas in the tall tale,"Thunder Rose" and work
collaboratively to compose musical themes that
represent each character. The themes will then be
developed in ways that mirror the development of the
story.
From the visual art perspective, students will learn that
works of art often tell stories. We will explore the
following concept. Artists can show narrative in many
ways. The way we will show our folktale will be by
using a series of images representing moments in the
story. Another way that artists sometimes show a story
or narrative is by selecting a central moment to stand
for the whole story.
To visually tell the folktale, "Thunder Rose" students
will work collaboratively to create a moving scroll of
silhouette images inspired by the work of Katherine
Fahey and also Kara Walker. In order to create
powerful and informative images, students will be
exploring ideas of how they can visually show their
audience what is happening in the story. We will
discuss ways to make images that evoke emotion and
let audience recognize the passage of time.
Throughout the process of creating their silhouette
images, students will revisit the music and sounds they
are creating in order to solidify the idea that their
designs are connected to the characters and emotions
reflected in the music. The music they design will
directly inform the images they choose to highlight in
the scroll.
Writing Process Posters
http://www.jmeacham.com/writing.mini.lessons.htm
Structur of the Writer's Workshop
art field trip questionaire
Transdisciplinary Skills
PYP Transdisciplinary Skills
Thinking skills

Application
Communication skills
Thinking, communication, selfmanagement



Reading
Writing
Presenting
Self-management
skills


Organization
Time
management
Learner Profile
IB Learner Profile


Communicators
Reflective
Focus Attitudes
Focus Attitudes



Commitment
Creativity
Enthusiasm
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art,
computer software, etc, will be available?
see links attached in section 4
Art museum and Art teacher.
Chinese and Spanish (Thumblebooks, bookflix) stories online.
storyteller guest speak
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community
be used to facilitate the inquiry?
visit public library for story time
check Chinese and Japanese gardens for story tellers
Teatro Milagro for plays in Spanish
[Please begin typing here]
© 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?
Stories inform, provoke, and make us
reflect on the world around us.
*What a story is
* the purpose behind stories
* How stories are created and shared
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.
This assessment proved which students
could really understand the purpose of
stories and reflect on their message. They
were better able to classify and apply their
understanding of stories to existing works,
rather than create their own. Analyzing a
known story, identifying the elements and
purpose, and taking them to a different
mode was more successful that having the
students write their own story.
This unit collaborates very well with Art
and Music. Students brought the
knowledge from the specialist class and
applied it in the assessment.
Art Teacher Reflection:
The unit would be strengthened by adding
a more in-depth look at the idea that
artwork can illustrate a narrative in
different ways. One way I might do that
would be to explore more examples of art
and storytelling with the class as a group.
Perhaps at the start of class once a week
we could complete the word scramble
game for a different piece of art that tells a
story, the same activity we did with
Thunder Rose but just with different stories
some well-known and others new to the
class. This would reinforce the skills of
identifying parts of a story that they
practiced when doing this same activity for
Thunder Rose. Students would work
together at the start of class to unscramble
the words that describe the basic elements
of the story in a chosen artwork by placing
the correct words that connect to the
setting, Plot, Characters, conflict and
theme.
What were the learning experiences
that enabled students to:

develop an understanding of the
concepts identified in "What do
we want to learn?"
Form: Students read a variety of stories
and genres: Myth, Fable, Folk tales.
Students are comparing and contrasting
these genres to see connections in all
stories. Students studied different stories
and identified the different story elements.
By comparing different stories they learned
that all stories have certain elements.
Students also explore different modes to
present a story: songs, poems, ballet,
plays, operas, etc. Hopefully we can have
enough time to arrange the story teller
next time. It would be an amazing
experience for students to have the teller
come in. They will connect better with the
central idea.
Connection: Students were able to make
connection between the stories and why
they were written. Students discussed and
wrote about the author's purpose.
We would like to consider adding more
social studies connections in this unit by
intentionally connecting stories to their
historical context. We can read the
biographies of the story tellers to put our
learning into historical context.
Reflection: Students summarized the
messages of different stories to encourage
reflection and connection to the world
around us.
demonstrate the learning and
application of particular
transdisciplinary skills?
Communication: Students completed
story mountains and retell orally and in
writing the story.
Acquisition of knowledge: What is a
story? How can you share a story? What is
the message of the story?
Comprehension: Students demonstrated
Also, the students could benefit from a
more thorough investigation of what
specifically can make a visual narrative
easy to understand and interpret. Identify
the most important visual information and
spend the majority of time showing that it
is the focus by making the image look
accurate and easily recognizable.
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.
The assessment this year demonstrated
pretty accurately the student's
understanding of the central idea and lines
of inquiry. It also pushed students to
higher level thinking and allowed the
teachers to see who was ready for that and
who was still developing that skill. One
thing that we can improve is provide
students two or three specific options in
order to be successful.
Art Teacher Reflections:
I would create a worksheet that teaches
while it also assesses students
understanding of the central idea. I would
especially put focus on each student's
ability to design, draw and cut out a
recognizable silhouette images. I should
also build time into the end of each class
where students reflect on strengths and
challenges they discovered/experienced
that day. I think I would do this in the form
of sticky note board in which students write
down one reflection they have on a sticky
note. This could be their ticket out the
door. During the intro of the next class, we
would discuss some of the most pertinent
information.
What was the evidence that
connections were made between the
central idea and the transdisciplinary
theme?
How We Express Ourselves:

The ways in which we discover and
express ideas, feelings, nature,
comprehension every time they read a
story.
Evaluation: Students understand the
author's purpose of the text.
Respecting Others: Communicate
respectfully to others about their opinion or
ideas.
Listening: Attention given to teacher
during reading alouds and following
instructions.
Reading: Stories, instructions
Viewing: Students shared their own
interpretation and point of view of the
story.
Fine motor skills: Drawing and writing
Time Management: Awareness of project
timeline and attempts to stay on track with
learning objectives on a daily basis
Art Teacher Reflection:
Acquisition of knowledge: What is a
silhouette?
Comprehension: Create a silhouette
image with attention to necessary visual
information
Evaluation: effective use of images in
several parts of the story telling process
Respecting Others: Communicate
respectfully to others about their artwork
and share classroom responsibilities
Cooperating: Working together to set-up
supplies, work at a table with others in
their group and then clean-up with their
project group each day. If exceeding, this
includes finding additional ways to help out
others.
Listening: Attention given to teacher
during instruction time and when additional
information is given throughout class time
Reading:
Instructions/Information/Questions on
handouts and worksheets
Viewing: Position oneself in a place where
they can see instructional materials and
also not be distracted by outside stimuli
Fine motor skills: Drawing and cutting
out details by moving pencil and scissors
slowly and in a controlled manner
Spatial Awareness: Navigates around the
culture, beliefs and values
The ways in which we reflect on,
extend and enjoy our creativity
classroom successfully without dropping

materials and losing items to the floor. This
was something had to specifically work on
during this unit because without groups
Students recognize different modes for
using organizational systems, they were
telling stories, apart from just reading or
especially having trouble losing work by
watching a movie. Students are now able
accidentally recycling silhouettes with
to take some pictures and use the images
paper scraps and dropping small images on
to create their own stories based on their
the floor.
own experiences. Students now know they Students learn to use the paper space
can sing a song and that songs have
provided efficiently without wasting large
characters and a plot that can tell a whole
amounts of paper. Students create images
story.
that are appropriately sized in relation to
Art Teacher Reflection:
other silhouette images and scroll paper.
Teacher showed a presentation that
Time Management: Awareness of project
illustrated how art throughout history has
timeline and attempts to stay on track with
told stories. We discussed the ways that
learning objectives on a daily basis
the art has changed and developed in
Dialectical thought: (Exceeding)
complexity over time along with the
Students had to thinking about two or
complexity of human civilizations.
more different points of view at the same
We looked at some different styles of art
time to effectively create this artwork.
and learned about mediums that artist's
Since it is a representational collaborative
chose to tell many types of stories. Some
piece with a variety of spatial challenges
stories lend themselves to a certain type of and and size constraints, students had to
media and it's important to think about the communication within their own group and
strengths and limitations that a type of
with other student groups around the
media has so that as an artist and
classroom. To formulate their collaborative
storyteller, your message is clear. Students questions for other groups, students had to
had several learning experiences that
think about the story from more than two
helped them to understand the larger
points of view. One specific challenge that
concept that there are many ways that
arose while exploring this skills was
artists choose to tell stories.
students being able to be sensitive to the
reasoning behind varying points-of-view.

develop particular attributes of
the learner profile and/or
attitudes?
Communicators: Students read, wrote,
and recited stories throughout the entire
unit.
Reflective: When students shared their
stories, they would go through the writing
process, editing and revising as a result of
their reflections.
Art Teacher Reflection:
Thinkers: The students had to think
creatively to recognize and approach
complex problems of telling a story using
silhouette images.
Communicators:
The students were challenged very much
with this project to improve their skills
working collaboratively in an effective way.
Risk-takers: The teacher helped build
their confidence when approaching
unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with
courage. For the most part, students are at
the developing stages of practicing their
independence to explore ideas and
strategies.
In each case, explain your selection.
© 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.
Most student questions were about
particular story plots like "Why would he
leave his children?" We were then able to
use these questions to talk about the
author's purpose and the message being
communicated by the story.
Art Teacher Reflection:
How much do these artists get paid?
Where do people get these ideas to make
art like this?
Students discussed which styles of art were
their favorites:
When describing her favorite painting, one
student described that they liked being
able to guess the emotions being recreated in the artwork. Some other
students expressed their interest in
paintings that were very realistic because
they like to to see the details. When we
discussed how the details add to the story,
one student talked about that they think
the details help tell the story because it
gives us clue about what is happening.
9. Teacher Notes
This year we improved the connection
between the subjects areas. The unit would
have been strengthened taking the
connection another step further.
An ideas about how improve the
connection:
Next year we could share information with
Art and Music about which stories are being
explored in the Language track classes.
One way to efficiently collect this
information could be to have students write
the stories being explored on a poster.
Then, the language track teachers could
make a copy of this poster and give it to
the Art and Music Teacher.
http://www.dejahleger.com/
(Crankie Artist)
How do I make a silhouette of a Mountain,
cow, bucket, fence, etc?
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 is a story?
How can you share a story?
Why do we have stories?
What connection do stories have to the
events happening in the world?
How does story connect to the world
around us?
How can we tell that the story has
achieved its purpose?
Art Teacher Reflection:
Introductory Questions:



What is the meaning of the word
collaboration?
What are some important things
to remember when trying to work
in a group?
What is a Silhouette?
Silhouette Art:


What do you notice about the
silhouette style of art?
Are there certain things to that
help a silhouette to be easier to
recognize?
Making a Silhouette Image:

What is the best way to draw a
silhouette?
Working as a group:
When working in a group...

How do you make decisions?
Art related to Storytelling:

Think about the past hundreds of
years ago, why did so many
stories get told through art
instead of being written down in
a book?
Provocations:



Digital presentation that show
stories being told by using art
throughout history
Digital Presentation showing
examples of silhouette images
that relate to the story of
Thunder Rose specifically.
Videos of Katherine Fahey's
crankie stories
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.
Students are now noticing the Arts like
ballet, opera, and theater. They now see
them as forms of entertainment that can
tell a story. They also are now more
interested in reading. Some students are
classifying books into different genres
because they are paying attention to the
author's purpose.
Some students have chosen to use a
similar art medium to tell their chosen
story in their language track classes. In
particular, one student chose to tell their
story of The Brothers Grimm using a selfmade shadow puppet theatre box similarly
to the art medium we used to tell our story
of Thunder Rose.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
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