PYP PASSION!

1. PYP PASSION! Wednesday, April 7th 2010

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. INTERNATIONALISM • Communicator • Caring • Risk Taker • Open Minded • Reflective • Principled • Thinker • Inquirer • Knowledgeable • Balanced

6. 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

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. SKILLS # 1 • Thinking Skills: • Acquisition of knowledge • Comprehension • Application • Analysis • Synthesis • Evaluation • Dialectical thought • Metacognition

12. SKILLS # 2 • Communication Skills: • Listening • Speaking • Reading • Writing • Viewing • Presenting • Non-Verbal communication

13. SKILLS #3 • Social Skills: • Accepting responsibility • Respecting others • Cooperating • Resolving conflict • Group decision-making • Adopting a variety of group roles

14. SKILLS # 4 • Self-Management Skills: • Gross motor skills • Fine motor skills • Spatial awareness • Organization • Time management • Safety • Healthy lifestyle • Codes of behavior • Informed choices

15. SKILLS # 5 • Research Skills: • Formulating questions • Observing • Planning • Collecting data • Recording data • Organizing data • Interpreting data • Presenting research findings

16. PYP ATTITUDES • Appreciation • Commitment • Confidence • Cooperation • Creativity • Curiosity • Enthusiasm • Independence • Respect • Tolerance • Integrity • Empathy

17. 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.

18. ACTION # 2

19. 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.

20. 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!

21. PYP CURRICULUM MODEL

22. WHAT DOES INQUIRY LOOK LIKE? • Exploring, wondering and questioning • Experimenting and playing with possibilities • Solving problems in a variety of ways ways • Making connections between previous learning and current learning • Making predictions and acting purposefully to see what happens • Taking and defending a position • Collecting data and reporting findings • Clarifying existing ideas and reappraising perceptions of events • Deepening understanding through the application of a concept • Making and testing theories • Researching and seeking information

23. ASSESSMENT