In between larger series of my PYP essential elements provocations and soon-to-begin SDGs provocations, I’m doing a short series on learner identities. Last week was an inquiry into what it means to be a writer. This week is on what it means to be a reader!
Resource #1: Reading Interest Inventories
There’s an abundance of reading interest inventories, but they all share the same goal: to help students learn and ponder more about themselves as readers. A definite must for this provocation! Explore a few below:
Now that I’ve finished my PYP essential elements provocations, I plan to begin the next series of inquiry-based provocations on the SDG’s (UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by 2030).
But first, I’d like to pause and do a couple of inquiries into more general learning identities. We all hope our students will move from “doing” math, writing, reading, or science” to seeing themselves as mathematicians, writers, readers, or scientists. Amidst the many curriculum-mandated tasks associated with those subjects, however, it can be difficult to hold on to this sense of identity.
This week’s provocation is meant to help students inquire into what it means to be a writer.
Resource #1: My recent post, “18 Best Videos to Get to Know Children’s Authors/Illustrators.” I had so much fun putting this compilation together with my kids. Almost a month later, my kids are still referring to specific videos in our house, recalling some funny thing Oliver Jeffers did or requesting a re-watch. Each of the videos offer a unique lens for what it means to be a picture book-maker, but below are a couple I would especially recommend in this context:
This is part of a series of inquiry-based provocations for essential elements of the PYP and the Learner Profile. For more, click here.
This is the last post in this series! However, I hope it will continue to grow via comments as readers add their own ideas.
Most students go straight to honesty and moral uprightness when it comes to defining integrity. But I also really like the secondary definition,
“the state of being whole and undivided.”
So much to unpack and explore with this concept, especially for those teachers working to set the stage for a new school year.
Resource #1: Alike by Pepe School
Resource #2: Bill Watterson: A Cartoonist’s Advice (comic by Zen Pencils featuring a speech by Bill Watterson)
by Zen Pencils, speech from Bill Watterson
Resource #3: Buster Keaton: Art of the Gag via The Kid Should See This (if you’re short on time, just watch 6:30-end)
Resource #4: Dove Real Beauty Sketches (at first I debated including this one, but the more I ponder, the more I think this kind of integrity to self is an essential part of the discussion).
Resource #5: Picture Books! (at first I thought about only including strong “moral of the story” books–and Strega Nona is one example of that–but then I thought about the many options that explore the concept of integrity with a bit more exploration, including with that idea of “being whole & undivided” (Extra Yarn) or even when honesty is a question up for debate (True Story of the 3 Little Pigs & This is Not My Hat).
Provocation Questions:
How does having integrity impact the lives of people around you?
How does having integrity impact your own life?
What are the different perspectives on what integrity means?
What responsibility to have integrity do we have for our communities? For ourselves?
This is part of a series of inquiry-based provocations for essential elements of the PYP and the Learner Profile. For more, click here.
What measures do we take to help our students cultivate research skills? Teach them to google? Help them take outlined notes? These and others might be helpful, but it might be time to go a little deeper and help them further break down what research skills really entail.
According to the PYP, this break-down includes:
Formulating questions: Identifying something one wants or needs to know and asking compelling & relevant questions that can be researched
Observing: Using all the senses to notice relevant details
Planning: Developing a course of action; writing an outline; devising ways of finding out necessary information
Collecting data:Gathering information from a variety of first- and second-hand sources such as maps, surveys, direct observation, books, films, people, museums & ICT
Recording data: Describing & recording observations by drawing, note-taking, making charts, tallying, writing statements
Organizing data: Sorting & categorizing information; arranging into understandable forms such as narrative descriptions, tables, timelines, graphs & diagrams.
Interpreting data: Drawing conclusions from relationships and patterns that emerge from organized data.
Presenting research findings: Effectively communicating what has been learned; choosing appropriate media
This week’s provocation is intended to help students investigate the nature of research skills for themselves.
This is part of a series of inquiry-based provocations for essential elements of the PYP and the Learner Profile. For more, click here.
Sometimes it seems like our world today is overcome with notions of in-group/out-group. But what if we can help our students find their common ground? This week’s provocation is centered on the PYP attitude of tolerance, which involves “work[ing] towards feeling sensitivity towards differences and diversity in the world and being responsive to the needs of others.”
This is part of a series of inquiry-based provocations for essential elements of the PYP and the Learner Profile. For more, click here.
As I come toward the end of sharing provocation resources for each of the PYP essential elements (just 3 to go!), I was surprised to realize that finding ones for social skills was tricky. But then I realized that was because I was looking at it as a whole instead of breaking down more specific skills. The PYP social skills include:
Accepting responsibility: taking on a completing tasks in an appropriate manner; being willing to assume a share of their responsibility
Respecting others: listening sensitively to others; making decisions based on fairness & equality; recognizing others’ beliefs, viewpoints, religions, & ideas may differ from one’s own; stating one’s opinion without hurting others
Cooperating: working cooperatively in a group; being courteous to others; sharing materials; taking turns
Resolving conflict: listening carefully to others; compromising; reacting reasonably to the situation; accepting responsibility appropriately; being fair
Group decision-making: listening to others; discussing ideas; asking questions; working towards and obtaining consensus
Adopting a variety of roles: understanding what behavior is acceptable in a given situation & acting accordingly; being a leader in some circumstances, a follower in others
In breaking them down, it became clear that I’ve been sharing resources for all these skills all along. There is so much overlap among all the PYP essential elements, but I think this is particularly the case when it comes to social skills. Each of the other PYP essential elements may help students investigate & build up their own social skills in addition to the specific attitude, skill, or attribute.
This is part of a series of inquiry-based provocations for essential elements of the PYP and the Learner Profile. For more, click here.
Communication is obviously a biggie. It shows up in the 4 C’s of 21st century learning. It comes up in the lists of skills employers most desire. It comes up in wellness articles and self-help books and relationship therapy.
Maybe it’s time we deliberately help students develop communication skills. As we do so, I hope we’ll also teach them more about what it means to be a communicator (see separate provocation on just that!). These resources are intended as a start; please feel free to add others in the comments that might help provoke student thinking and discussion.
Resource #1: How Miscommunication happens (& how to avoid it) by TED Ed
