Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
Class/grade:
Gr 6
Age group:
11-12 year olds
To inquire into the following:

transdisciplinary theme
Where we are in place and time
An inquiry into
 orientation in place and time;
 personal histories;

central idea
Learning about previous generations helps us
understand the relationship between the past and
the present.
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?
Interview with a historian.
As ‘ historians’, the students will be interviewed about their work, particularly in
regard to their recent work in documenting family histories (ie book they have
recently published about their family) . Among some of the questions they will be
asked is this one :
How has learning about previous generations helped you to understand
the relationship between the past and the present?
School: Northbridge (NISC)
School code:
003902
Title:
Teacher(s):
Date:
Dave, Mark
PYP planner
24 Sept- 2 Nov 2012
2. What do we want to learn?
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Connection: how previous generations affect current life
Change: What has/hasn’t changed between generations
Perspective: perceptions and preferences (how the generations are different)
Related Concepts: global citizenship (action) heritage,
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
 Ways to find out about the past
 How aspects of the past still influence us today
 Why some behaviours and practices have changed or remain the same
Interviews may take the form of TV (video), magazine (written) or radio (spoken).
Students will need to show or provide evidence of how they have:

inquired about the past (primary and secondary sources used)

what sparked their curiosity about their own family, wonderings they’ve had

become knowledgeable about life during previous generations and what
connections they have made with their own life.

Become more appreciative of their own family’s heritage
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
How have significant historical events have shaped personal or family histories?
How do people view history?
Interpretation of history – perceptions vs facts
Planning the inquiry
3. How might we know what we have learned?
4. How best might we learn?
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?”
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?
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and
skills? What evidence will we look for?


Interviewing skills (approaching people to interview, preparing questions
recording information, presenting findings, listening to get more information)
Students create a family tree to show family members and record what they know
about those family members.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
We want the students to understand:

That they have a family tree (genealogy) and they can find out about the
past by asking/interviewing them about the past
Social Studies






use primary sources (such as parents and grandparents) to find out about life in the past
comparing and contrasting the past with the present
identify how the past has been documented
appreciate their own heritage
explore and share instances of change and continuity in their personal lives and their family.
sequence events, routines, personal histories in chronological order.
Create family trees and discuss the people represented on I and what is known
about these family members
Bringing in artefacts significant to their family
See think wonder – old photos of Phnom Penh. What do I think has changed?
Why (wondering why it changed)? To provoke wonderings and questions about
the past. Field trip around Phnom Penh, looking at various sites to see what is
the same and/or different.
Sharing stories and folk-legends to explore how stories/information is often
passed on. Diaries and letters that document the past.
Guest speaker – listening to and responding to a personal history.
Exploring good interviewing techniques – open questions, responding to
comments, drawing out more information.
Find out from family members about aspects of life in the past (music, art, work,
play) and record on concentric circles/segments. Look for connections and make
comparisons between the past and present.
Write a family history that sequences events in chronological order. Uses a
timeline to sequence events and support the narrative.
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for
the development of the attributes of the learner profile?
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art,
computer software, etc, will be available?
Cambodia living arts
Inquirers – how do we find out about the past
Knowledgeable – about life during previous generations
Open Minded – (first part of MPYPH description)
Curiousity – wanting to know about their family members
Empathy – understanding why certain things have happened, impact on families
Appreciation – appreciating their own family history
VK – personal project
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community
be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Family trees,
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Research – planning presenting
Communication – speaking and listening during interviews
Thinking – analysis, synthesis, dialectical thought
Music – responding to student inquiries if they arise.
Art to support independent inquiries that have arisen. In lessons looking at cultural art.
Reflecting on the inquiry
family
6. To stories
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.
Learning about previous generations helps us understand the
relationship between the past and the present.
The summative assessment task demanded that the students explore family histories and
identify what had changed from the past to the present. When teaching the unit, we found
that we really did stick to the family history aspect instead of diverging.
Some of the students made connections to the values of their families – such as work ethic,
high expectations, protectiveness etc (Someth, Mony, Emily, Pich, JeungSoo, Avril).
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.
It was a good idea for the students to explore family histories as they could access
information from primary sources in their home language. It was wonderful for the
Resear
students to find out more about their families. As most students are Khmer, their
family histories are quite sad, with the culture focusing more on the present and future
rather than a past)
The interview tied in well with the biographies – together these gave us a more
rounded view of their understanding.
Appealed to a variety of modalities – written and oral.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?
An inquiry into
 orientation in place and time; - khmer students recognised that decisions made by their
grandparents have effected where they grew up.
 personal histories; - Personal histories was EXPLICIT – every single students found out something
new about their family history. Most of the unit revolved around this – kept the unit focused for the
St ofentire
thetime.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
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?”
Connection: Biography (connection to family); Family trees.
Change: Field trip comparing Amazing Cambodia photos to sites,
Perspective: See think wonder (amazing Cambodia); interviewing a range of people about similar
events, writing biographies to show their point of view. Sharing stories and folklore,

demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary
skills?
Communication – interviewing and writing biographies, litening to stories,
Research – formulating questions for interviews.
Thinking: Analysis – See think wonder, responding during interviews,
Social - respecting others when sharing a their personal hist
Reflecting on the inquiry
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
9. Teacher notes
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight
any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
Next time
Prior to introducing the central idea, get the students to write their own personal
history. Then look at their immediate family (after doing a family tree) and what
they can write about these family members. How can they find out more about
these people? (this will enable them to compare themselves as a primary source,
in comparison to other sources - secondary)
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 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.
Haroon – has questions for his grandfather when they see each other again
Someth – wants to hand his family history onto his younger brother (he’s not quite
ready for it yet)
After sharing the central idea and lines of inquiry, the students would then put
themselves in the role of ‘ historians’ and look at ways of finding out about their
parents and grandparents – interviewing, looking at photos, letters etc. The
students can then create a family history book with personal histories about
various family members.
Pchhum Ben is the best time for this unit to happen – it’s a cultural time where kids
see their families and can ask them.
Sharing of family stories – do kids hear stories from their family?
At the beginning of the year – write a biography about yourself (bring it out again
for this unit)
Literacy
Books – get a whole heap of Khmer rouge biographies etc Stories of people in
Cambodia
Focus on biography text type (text and language features) right from the beginning
Research – questioning and interviewing to gather information
Instead of just one biography, next time get student should compile a
book/collection of family stories.
Visual Arts
At the start of the unit, each class looked at the traditional arts of Cambodia
(shadow puppets, stine carving and weavings) or the iconic images (apsara, nagas,
and buddhas) of the art. Then they created a piece reflecting on this art style.
After looking at street art from a variety of cultures and journaling techniques,
students created a “Pieces of Me” mixed media collage to understand and explore
their own family histories which influence who they are today.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007