Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose?

1a) To inquire into the following:
transdisciplinary theme
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 and aesthetic.

central idea
Throughout History, people have interacted with each other and communicated
using arts.
Class/grade: 4 Age group: 8-10
School: code:
Title: Arts throughout History
Teacher(s): Alfonso
Date:
Proposed duration: 6 weeks number of hours over number of weeks 6 Weeks


1b) 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?
Goal: To create a work of art that is able to send a message across borders
Role: Student-artists
Audience: School
Situation: Our society is faced with issues and challenges thus we are in great
need of people who can make a difference. The AAP (Alliance of Artists in the
Philippines) is looking for student-artists who can create new and innovative
works to lead a change.
Product: Poem, Song or Poster, collage that can send a message of change.

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?
change, connection, perspective

What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
How people communicate through arts
How artworks provide insight and information
The role of arts in different cultures, places and times.
Development of art forms over time.

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
What is art?
What are the different forms of art?
How does art talk/communicate with us?
How has art help in understanding culture or messages?
Why is art always changing?


International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Planning the inquiry
3. How might we know what we have learned?
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? What evidence will we
look for?
Pre-Unit Assessment
The students will create a work of art that would show their understanding of
the central idea. They will try to show how people communicate during the
past until the present times.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What
evidence will we look for?
See Attachment below
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?
(Use attachment C: Learning Engagements Chart)
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the
attributes of the learner profile?
Research Skills- students will develop research skills as they observe artifacts from
the museums and other field trips, interview resource people, record and organize
their findings.
Self-Management- Students will develop self-management skills as they plan and
go through their research and as they work with their group mates.

Organization- planning and carrying out their research effectively

Time-Management- using time effectively and appropriately

Informed choices- selecting an appropriate course of action or behavior based on
various perspectives



5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
Articles on art
Field Trip: UST Museum. Angono Petroglyphs, Baldemor Studio, Blanco Family Museum
Resources Persons: Mr. Fred Baldemor and Mr. Dean Africa; sculptor and visual artist/designer
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
The classroom will have a discovery area with artifacts, books and articles related to the unit.
The work of the students will be displayed as their guide.
International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Reflecting on the inquiry
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.

The students showed their understanding of the central idea by coming up with an art work that
would show their understanding of the central idea and explain their art works.
Likewise the students also showed their understanding by reading books and coming up with
questions that they would like to inquire on.
Some observations of their understanding of art was when they unpacked the central idea and
they were able to come up with multiple examples of art. The students showed that art wasnt
limited to visual arts but also performing arts.
Through the various sorting out and shared inquiry engagements, the students were able to
come up with their own generalizations and insights about the different periods in history. Their
insights were the following: Art during prehistoric/ancient times would be on the culture and
observations of our early ancestors; medieval/middle ages would emphasize on religion and the
divine; contemporary age emphasizes on self-expression and avant garde art.

How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more accurate picture of
each students understanding of the central idea.

For next year, we have to make the instructions more explicitly. Especially in the third line of
inquiry wherein the students were unable to show the aspect of culture in their artworks.
To be able to give the students different opportunities to explore the different materials and
resources provided by the teacher.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the transdisciplinary
theme?

They were able to determine the different forms of arts used by people throughout history. They also
realized that people back then tried to communicate what their lives were- culture(means of living, beliefs
and what they value), through the Petroglyphs. The students also came to a conclusion that different art
forms from different eras send different messages. They concluded that arts from prehistoric time were all
about way of life; medieval time shows more about the beliefs of people and modern time arts are more of
self-expression.- from prehistoric art
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?

Change - the students were able to identify and create art from different periods. They were also identify the
development of art forms over time by cutting out pictures and placing these in a timeline. In the Blanco
museum, the students were able to see the changes in the paintings done by the children, from simple line
drawings to complex and still life imagery.
Connection - the students were able to show connection by relating their understanding of the previous unit
(Beliefs and Values) with the current unit. Through the UST Museum they saw how art plays a huge role in
propagating beliefs during the time of the Spaniards. In the Blanco Museum, they were able to interpret that
the paintings done by the family were all about the things that they value in life and what they believe in
(strong sense of family ties, Filipino culture).
Perspective - The tuning in and finding out phases gave them the opportunity to see different ways how
people express themselves through arts. They also had the time to interpret the message that the artist is
trying to send to them during their exposure to different artifacts, photographs, songs, books and articles that
are related to the unit.

demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

Research Skills:The students were able to demonstrate these skills by formulating their own questions that
led them to inquiring more about their unit and during interviews. They also tried to observe and record their
observations during the engagements like fieldtrips, artifact/photo/song analysis.
Communication Skills- The students demonstrated their communication skills each time that they collaborate
for a group output. They also shared their explanations of their own art work to the class.
Self Management Skills- They had shown these skills during the field trips for they are required to behave
properly. They were also asked to manage their time in accomplishing the tasks that were given to them.
Social Skills- the engagements that were designed gave the students the opportunity to socialize and work
with the entire class.
develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.
Creativity - the students were able to show their creativity by coming up with different artworks that would
show their understanding of the different lines of inquiry and the central idea. They used different mediums to
express their understanding, such mediums are the following: the use of clay, canvas and paints, tiles,
tangrams and plaster of paris.
Appreciation - the students were able to show appreciation by expressing their own thoughts and ideas
about a particular art work that they saw during the field trips, they would comment on whether the art is
beautiful or not.
Commitment - the students were able to show commitment by finishing their task and making sure that what
they did is correct. They especially showed this when they had to revise their stories in the tangrams and clay
stories that did not show the context of culture.
Communicator - the students showed being a communicator by sharing their ideas and thoughts during the
shared inquiry phase, by asking questions, interviewing key resources persons and presenting their learnings
in class.
Open-minded - the students showed being open-minded by relating their previous knowledge with the
current unit. Likewise the students were able to relate this unit with that of the previous unit.
International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Reflecting on the inquiry
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any that were
incorporated into the teaching and learning.
Student Questions
Why is art important?
Why are words used as a way of art?
What are different histories of art?
What is the purpose of art?
When was the first art work made?


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.
How does art talk/communicate with us? : : this question drove the students in
interpreting or extracting the message of the different art work that we have in class.
They realized that they have different interpretations because of their previous
experiences and what they feel during the time that they were asked to interpret an
artwork.
How has art help in understanding culture or messages? : this question helped the
students to look and adopt different perspectives in order for them to understand the
context of the art being made. Through this they were able to come up with their own
assumptions and conclusions about time periods and places in communities.
Why is art always changing? : this question drove the students to analyze the
different art works over time and give their conclusions about why different periods in
history: mans art changes from the simple to the complex.
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.
Learning to appreciate different art forms from different eras is an evidence of change in behaviour.


9. Teacher notes
Strengths:
The unit should retain the field trip sites
The unit should also retain the time periods used to drive the inquiries.
The assessments were planned and executed very well except for the third line of
inquiry.

Next year:
The unit should also focus on the performing arts
The teachers need to encourage students to be a risk taker by inquiring on arts from
different places and contexts and also try to explore unfamiliar or challenging media
they should take into consideration art themes
we also need to focus on interviewing key resource persons
Seeing art in action

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Attachment...

A. Key Learning Outcomes
Key Understanding
What do we want students to understand by the end of the unit?
Arts have contributed and help develop thoughts across borders
The arts have enabled people to understand one another
It has help in the development of cultures and civilizations across history.
Knowledge outcomes and Skills outcomes
What do we want students to be able to know by the end of the unit?
What do we want students to be able to do by the end of the unit?
Identify the forms of art used by people to communicate over time
Identify how arts have aided communication
Identify the messages that different artwork provide
Determine the the general insight and information that artwork from different eras provide
Determine the role of arts in different cultures and place
Determine the role of arts from the eras
Determine how art forms developed over time
Determine factors affecting the development

B. Assessment Opportunities
Line of Inquiry What will be assessed? How will evidence be collected? What type of assessment will be used?
How people communicate through arts People interacted with each other and
communicated through arts
Arts have contributed and help develop
thoughts across borders and time
Knowledge Product
Observations
Rubric
Anecdotes


How artworks provide insight and
information
Art work provides information.
The arts have enabled people to
understand one another.
Knowledge Product
Observations
Rubric
Anecdotes


The role of arts in different cultures,
places and times.
Art has an impact on the culture, places
and times
Arts have helped in the development of
cultures and civilizations across history.
Using a map, students will identify the
different art forms from different
continents (American, Asian and
European)
Rubric
Anecdotes


Development of Art Forms over time Art form has developed over time.
Arts change and develop to face the
changes in society and culture
Product
Timeline showing how the forms of art
developed
Rubric
Anecdotes



C. Learning Engagements
Tuning in and preparation to find out:
What variety of activities will be used to:
engage all students in the topic? hook?
assess prior knowledge?
refine further planning?
lead into the finding out experiences?
Engagement and gathering prior knowledge, pre-assessment, questions for inquiry, goal setting. Sometimes students will require some immersion in the topic if little is known/ experienced.
Students are exposed to different art forms. They share their ideas, observations about artifacts, photographs, books and articles related to our unit. They create questions
worth inquiring and worth knowing. They listened to music, read poems, and viewed photos. After that, identify the message behind those form of arts.
They will dissect the central idea as a group and come up with a mind map that will show their initial understanding of the central idea.

Finding Out
Data collection
Experiences to assist students to gather new information
about the topic
Experiences and texts that add to the knowledge base.
Emphasis on gathering first-hand data in a range of ways
(usually shared experiences)
Teachers & Students Questions
Teacher and student questions that help drive the inquiry
Focus questions to for inquiry
Sorting Out
Gauging, organizing or representing new
information
Activities to assist students to process and work
with the information and ideas they have gathered
about the topic (including exploring values)
Organizing, analyzing and communicating the
information gathered using a range of vehicles (e.g
through Maths, Arts, English, Drama, Music or IT)
Analyze artifacts, photographs, articles, songs
and other form of arts
Interview artist and find out the message of the
art work that they made
The students will go to different sites such as:
museums, art studios and artists residence.


The students will find out about how art sends
messages through different mediums
Student Questions

Why is art important?

Why are words used as a way of art?

What are different histories of art?

What is the purpose of art?

When was the first artwork made?

Teachers Questions
What is art?
What are the different forms of art?
How does art talk/communicate with us?
How has art help in understanding culture or
messages?
Why is art always changing?

Class tile art: Students will show their
understanding of the first LOI, How people
communicate through arts by creating a tile
mosaic that shows how people back then and up
to the present communicate through arts.

Making Generalizations: Students will show their
understanding on the 2nd LOI by creating
generalizations on the insights and information
the arts from different eras are trying to send.

Creating stories: The students are expected to
show their understanding on the line of inquiry-
the role of arts in different cultures, places and
times by creating a stories that somehow show
the role of art in different cultures, places and
times.

Timeline: For the last line of inquiry (Development
of art forms over time), students create a timeline
that shows how art developed through time.







Going Further
Activities to challenge and extend
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated.
Due to time constraints, the class was not able to do further activities related to the unit.
Drawing conclusions
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated. Students draw conclusions of what they have learnt. This is an
important time to evaluate the success of the unit and the needs and achievements of individuals. This is where students put it all together.
The class was able to conclude that art has been used to communicate different messages that have led to new understandings, insights and generalizations. At the same
time art has also led us to understand past and extinct cultures that gives us insight into past beliefs, values and cultures. Likewise, art can be found in many forms and
these forms can espouse changes in thinking, behavior and perspective.
Reflecting and Taking Action
To reflect on what has been learnt and process of learning. It is important that students be given opportunities to act upon what they have learnt. Actions are things that students can themselves and from which they
can see results.
One result of this unit is that we became more appreciative of the different art forms. We also realized that not all art works are beautiful. This made us more open minded
and respect others perspective of what is beautiful. We realized that we can actually express ourselves in a variety of ways like what we did in our summative assessment,
to send a message of change across borders. Our class mostly sent a message about our current problems in our environment.