PYP PASSION!
Wednesday, April 7th 2010
FDR’S MISSION
Our mission is to empower our
students to pursue their
passion for learning, lead lives
of integrity and create socially
responsible solutions
FDR’S VISION STATEMENT
The school will provide an educational experience that:
 Is academically rigorous
 Enhances student learning through a diversity of teaching practices
and styles
 Encourages independent thought, collaboration and artistic expression
 Offers choices in curricular and co-curricular activities
 Promotes environmental responsibility and social awareness
 Is competitive by international standards.
For a community that is united by the
English language
FDR IS AN IB WORLD SCHOOL
 The International Baccalaureate Organization aims to develop inquiring,
knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more
peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
 To this end the IBO works with schools, governments and international
organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education
and rigorous assessment.
 These programmes encourage students across the world to become active,
compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with
their differences, can also be right.
 FDR offers all three IB programmes:
 The Primary Years Programme - EC3 - G5
 The Middle Years Programme - G6 - G10
 The Diploma Programme - G11 and G12
INTERNATIONALISM
 Communicator
 Principled
 Caring
 Thinker
 Risk Taker
 Inquirer
 Open Minded
 Knowledgeable
 Reflective
 Balanced
THE PRIMARY YEARS PROGRAMME
 FDR follows the PYP from EC3 - G5
 The PYP offers a child-centered curriculum framework that
ensures that the learning is:
 Engaging
 Relevant
 Challenging
 Significant
 Transdisciplinary
THE BIG FIVE!
 Knowledge: Significant and relevant content that we wish students to
explore and know, taking into consideration prior experience and
understandings.
 Concepts: Powerful ideas that have relevance within subject areas but
also transcend them. Students must explore concepts in order to
develop deeper understanding.
 Skills: Capabilities that the students need to demonstrate to succeed
in a changing, challenging world, which may be disciplinary or
transdisciplinary.
 Attitudes: Dispositions that are expressions of fundamental values,
beliefs and feelings about learning, the environment and people.
 Action: Demonstrations of deeper learning in responsible behavior
through responsible action.
TRANSDISCIPLINARY THEMES
 Who we are
 Where we are in place and time
 How we express ourselves
 How the world works
 How we organize ourselves
 Sharing the planet
CONCEPTS # 1
 FORM: What is it like?
 The understanding that everything has a form with recognizable features
that can be observed, identified, described and categorized.
 FUNCTION: How does it work?
 The understanding that everything has a purpose, a role or a way of
behaving that can be investigated.
 CAUSATION: Why is it like it is?
 The understanding that things do not just happen, that there are causal
relationships at work, and that actions have consequences.
 CHANGE: How is it changing?
 The understanding that change is the process of movement from one
state to another. It is universal and inevitable.
CONCEPTS # 2

CONNECTION: How is it connected to other things?
 The understanding that we live in a world of interacting systems in which the actions
of any individual element affect others.

PERSPECTIVE: What are the points of view?
 The understanding that knowledge is moderated by perspectives; different
perspectives lead to different interpretations, understandings and findings.

RESPONSIBILITY: What is our responsibility?
 The understanding that people make choices based on their understandings, and the
actions they take as a result do make a difference.

REFLECTION: How do we know?
 The understanding that there are different ways of knowing, and that it is important
to reflect on our conclusions, to consider our methods of reasoning, and the quality
and the reliability of the evidence we have considered.
SKILLS # 1
 Thinking Skills:
 Acquisition of knowledge
 Comprehension
 Application
 Analysis
 Synthesis
 Evaluation
 Dialectical thought
 Metacognition
SKILLS # 2
 Communication Skills:
 Listening
 Speaking
 Reading
 Writing
 Viewing
 Presenting
 Non-Verbal communication
SKILLS #3
 Social Skills:
 Accepting responsibility
 Respecting others
 Cooperating
 Resolving conflict
 Group decision-making
 Adopting a variety of group roles
SKILLS # 4
 Self-Management Skills:
 Gross motor skills
 Fine motor skills
 Spatial awareness
 Organization
 Time management
 Safety
 Healthy lifestyle
 Codes of behavior
 Informed choices
SKILLS # 5
 Research Skills:
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Formulating questions
Observing
Planning
Collecting data
Recording data
Organizing data
Interpreting data
Presenting research findings
PYP ATTITUDES
 Appreciation
 Enthusiasm
 Commitment
 Independence
 Confidence
 Respect
 Cooperation
 Tolerance
 Creativity
 Integrity
 Curiosity
 Empathy
ACTION # 1
 In the PYP, it is believed that education must extend
beyond the intellectual to include not only socially
responsible attitudes but also thoughtful and
appropriate action.
 An explicit expectation of the PYP is that successful
inquiry will lead to responsible action, initiated by the
student as a result of the learning process.
ACTION # 2
Reflect
Choose
Act
ACTION BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
 A parent reports to a teacher that her 4-year-old has
taken action at home, after having been on a school
excursion to a recycling station/sewage plant/center.
 Parent: On your trip did the children learn about water conservation?
 Teacher: It was one component of our investigations. Why do you ask?
 Parent: Because during the weekend I was starting the shower for my son. He
ran out of the room and came back with a bucket, and put it under the shower.
When I asked him what he was doing, he replied: “I’m catching the water that
is not hot enough yet for my shower, so I can save it and give the garden a
drink after my shower.”
 Teacher: That’s really interesting. He is taking action as a result of what he
learned. Please let me know if this continues and if you notice anything else.
THE EXHIBITION
 The Exhibition takes place in semester 2 of Grade 5
 It is a synthesis of all five essential elements in the PYP
and is the culminating event of the programme.
 Students work in groups and investigate a common area
of interest.
 The assessment of students in the Exhibition is process
driven rather than product driven.
 All that we do in the elementary school prepares
students for the Exhibition!
PYP CURRICULUM MODEL
The
Assessed
Curriculum
The
Written
Curriculum
The Taught
Curriculum
WHAT DOES INQUIRY LOOK LIKE?
 Exploring, wondering and
questioning
 Experimenting and playing with
possibilities
 Solving problems in a variety of
ways ways
 Collecting data and reporting
findings
 Clarifying existing ideas and
reappraising perceptions of
events
 Making connections between
previous learning and current
learning
 Deepening understanding
through the application of a
concept
 Making predictions and acting
purposefully to see what happens
 Making and testing theories
 Taking and defending a position
 Researching and seeking
information
ASSESSMENT
Assessment Strategies
Assessment Tools
Observations
Rubrics
Performance
Assessments
Exemplars
Process-focused
assessments
Checklists
Selected responses
Anecdotal records
Open-ended tasks
Continuums