Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
To inquire into the following:
Transdisciplinary theme:
Class/grade: 5th grade
Age group: 10-11
School: Ogden International
School code:
How we express ourselves: An inquiry into 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; our appreciation of the aesthetic.
Title: Heritage
Central idea:
Date: 10/15/13 – 11/26/13
PYP planner
Teacher(s): Taneal Sanders, Edgar Lopez, Michael Tavill
Heritage and histories are preserved and expressed through oral storytelling.
Proposed duration: number of hours: 60
over number of weeks: 6
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?.
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Oral Story telling: Students will research through family interviews the values and
beliefs and traditions of their heritage. They will orally express a story from their
heritage to their class.
Students will write a story that reflects the lessons, values and morals of their heritage.
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?
Key Concepts: Change, Causation, Connection
Related Concepts: relationships, consequences, impact, expression
Criteria: Students will be able to:
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Explain the role of story telling
Information that needs to be included this genre of story telling
Recognize patterns in the storytelling of various cultures
Assessment tool: See attached
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Teacher- and student-developed rubric.
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Oral presentation.
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Written product on which oral storytelling is based.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
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Ways oral storytelling preserves heritage
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Cultural similarities and differences in story telling
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Morals, values and lessons expressed through story telling
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
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What is heritage?
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What is oral story telling?
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How does oral story telling preserve heritage?
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What are cultural similarities in story telling?
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What are cultural differences in story telling?
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Which morals, values and lessons may be expressed through oral story telling?
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?
4. 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?
Planningweb
the on
inquiry
Concept
cultural and heritage stories (students will add to and refer back to this over
the course of the unit to reflect on their developing understanding)
Graphic organizers (for example, Venn diagram, concept web, KWL) on storytelling
literature describing main components.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Students will write and publish stories about groups or populations from which their families originate,
describing traditions and culture which are important in those societies and the changes undergone.
Assessment tool will be a rubric which includes evidence of preserving tradition and history.
Students will partner up to compare and contrast cultural similarities or divergences in comparable
traditions in the stories they have written. Assessment will be oral presentations describing their
comparisons
In order to give the students a global perspective on the importance of story telling a library of heritage
oriented books from around the world will be available to read. Students will identify morals, values and
lessons offered in these books.
The students understanding through class discussion about the importance of morals, values and lessons
in diverse societies and storytelling roles in the continuation of these heritages.
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Teacher will stimulate student interest about oral storytelling using library of heritage books.
Students will fill in comparison chart of terms: morals, values and lessons.
Students create concept webs to illustrate their current knowledge the components of heritage type stories.
Collect and explore a wide range of artifacts illustrating values, lessons and morals from varied cultures provided by the
child’s family.
Students will choose partners and discuss points of contrast and similarities in student created stories.
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Teacher will provide ongoing opportunities for promoting language development through storytelling and re-telling.
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Invite parents to come and tell stories in mother-tongue language and explain the morals, values and lesson i9nherent in the
story.
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Children can draw, paint and/or narrate a story to the class which expresses morals, values and lessons from their culture..
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Children to bring in own objects that show their beliefs and values and orally carry out a see think wonder relating to each
object.
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They discuss in groups about how cultures and the associated heritages have affected the area and this community.
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Students will discuss & share their understanding and importance of signs and symbols expressing the values of a variety of
heritages with their teacher and with their friends in the class.
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Students will develop an understanding about why these symbols were developed and how they help in expressing morals,
values and lessons
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Teacher will provide them a variety of situations in the form of pictures of stories and discussions where the students will
compare and contrast heritages and the manner in which they express morals, values and lessons.
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Students will have the opportunity to create a skit and act it out to express the morals, values and lessons of a culture.
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Students will create a family tree with the assistance of family members.
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Students will interview parents on the change of practices in their heritage from the time they were children to the present.
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Students are to create leading questions for the parents to answer vis a vis their family heritage.
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the
attributes of the learner profile?
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Students participate in a Socratic seminar with questions or statements that are aimed at
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Provoking in-depth discussion and expression of ideas. For example, what are some of the reasons people use oral as
opposed to written storytelling.
Students will understand the dynamic nature of oral story telling versus written stories.
Students communicate through presentation of their stories representing aspects of their heritage.
Students show a caring attitude by understanding how cultural similarities and differences are expressed through
storytelling .
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5. What resources need to be gathered?
Reading in small groups: short stories. With lessons , values and morals.from different cultures.
Students researching the heritage of their families and communities.
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What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
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Using the internet to research beliefs and posture towards nature reflected by the
Dad, Tell Me a Story: How to Revive the Tradition of Storytelling with Your Children by John McCormick 5 copies available fororal;
classroom
Ordered
Amazongroups
storytelling
of various
The Storytelling Classroom: Applications Across the Curriculum by Sherry Norfolk 1 copy for teacher Ordered Amazon
Transdiciplanary
skills:
Thinking
research skills, and communication skills.
Children Tell Stories: Teaching and Using Storytelling in the Classroom (Multimedia DVD included with the book) by Martha
Hamilton 1 copy for
teacher
Orderedskills,
Amazon
Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck in book room
Learner’s Profiles: thinkers, open minded, reflective.
Access to internet for cultural research.
Collection of artifacts representative of the values, morals and lessons brought in by students.
Access to music from cultures representative of our student population, (Japanese, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Serbian, Irish, Native American.)
Examples of instrument used in different cultures.
Multimedia materials such as paints and textiles to illustrate the written document they create as well as the symbols they create representative of their heritage.
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Children will learn songs from a variety of cultures which represent their respective heritages coordinated with the music teacher.
They will arranged in small group configuration. Members of the community involved in oral stories invited to the classroom or teleconferenced in.
Students will have scheduled access to the library.
The classrooms are set up for student-led and guided inquiry; some of that set-up is planned with the children.
Students will use the computer lab for research
Reflecting on the inquiry
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
6. To 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.

Students used the knowledge gained through this unit to reflect on the similarities
and contrast of different cultures and their heritage as expressed through morals,
values and lessons in the stories. Students used this knowledge to reflect not only
on their heritage but also the process of preservation.. The parental involvement
reflected the various ways in which the family heritage was preserved..
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When conducting interviews of their parents students found out that the questions
led to stories being told about their heritage and how it expressed the values, morals
and lessons inherent in that culture. These student created questions were successful
in encouraging conversations beyond the scope of the answers.
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Through oral story telling students were able to gain insight in to how the story
teller preserved their heritage through memory..
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During the skits in which small groups organized performances. The symbols of the
heritages involved were visible due to the nature o9f the presentation medium.
Children used artistic resources to create some of the symbols. Others used the
existing ones exhibited in the classroom.
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 .
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Clearer structure and guidelines could have been given for the oral storytelling
components of this activity. There was confusion about the oral activity clouded by
the students having to present a written product as well. Possibly two different
activities, the one being strictly oral with no publication and the other strictly
written without oral presentation.
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A question and answer session by classmates after the skits would have been
helpful to clarify some of the symbolism of cultural titles and names.
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Some families had very little recollection of their cultural heritage. The option of
allowing students to explore other cultures besides their own might have been more
fruitful. The pairing up of children to create on story is also a possibility.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central
idea and the transdisciplinary theme?
The connection between the central idea of preserving heritage through oral storytelling and the
transdisciplinary theme was evident in the stories expressing the cultural heritage of many students
through words, symbols and artifacts ascribed to those cultures. Many were expressions created by the
students representing, sometimes, newly found knowledge of their respective heritages and their use in
highlighting the values, history, lessons, and beliefs of said.
©
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
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demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
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develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.
Key ConceptsChange: The students demonstrated the concept of change by understanding the difference,
when interviewing parents and other family members on the change of practices in their
heritage from the time they were children to the present.
Causation: Many of the students interviews and family histories indicated the arrival in the
United States. The cause of the families migration (employment, leaving areas of war and
political unrest, wishing to keep families and communities together) became very clear to the
students whose families or communities were involved in these uprooting.
Connection: When students were involved in activities such as comparing and contrasting
elements of different cultures connections between many of the morals, traditions and values
of disparate cultures showed underlying patterns. Often these were noticeable in communities
and families which originated from proximal geographic location. Most heritage seemed to
share very basic general concepts such as the strength of family ties and associations with
their communities.
Transdisciplinary skills
Communication: Students utilized the skill of presenting their stories in front of the class.
They also used non verbal communication skills through the application of art resources
representing symbols of their cultures.
Research: Students used research skills by formulating questions for their families’
interviews. Recording this data and transcribing it to the oral storytelling tradition included
students organization skills.
Learner profiles attributes and pyp attitudes.
Inquirer: Students exhibited the attitude of inquirer during interviews with their family and
community members. They were given guidance to formulate questions which would satisfy
these inquiries.
Open Minded: Students were exposed to vastly diverse cultures and the expression in which
the heritage of these cultures were expressed in oral storytelling. Students were able to
understand other cultures through comparing patterns extant in most cultures.
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.
Special education accommodations:
Where does my family come from?
What does heritage mean?
How does heritage change in family over time?
Why does culture change when families change their location?
What are the differences and similarities between heritage and culture?
Why is oral storytelling a good way to pass down heritage in a family or community?
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.
Student created family trees.
Students copied symbols representative of their heritage and culture.
Students bought in artifacts during the project.
Students created versions of stories that are part of their heritage and which express
its values, morals and lessons.
Students used costumes, artifacts and objects during their oral storytelling.
Students discussed similarities in their different heritages.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Students worked with peers to complete long range activities.
Students were assisted with the questions developed for interviewing family anf
community members.