Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: 1 Age group: 5-7 School code: 7500
To inquire into the following:
School: American International School of Abu Dhabi
• transdisciplinary theme: How we express ourselves:
An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, Title: Imagination
nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend
and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic. Teacher(s): Hannah Al-Jeniaibi, Lyndsey Madden, Gerri Breton-Palmer, Faiza
Vassanji, Tanya Deschamps

• central idea: Stories are told through the arts Date: May 2009

Duration: 75 hours over 6 weeks

Summative assessment task(s):
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central Responsible person: Tanya
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
2. What do we want to learn?
Student writes their own story/or tells it orally, then they must choose another
way to ‘tell’ their story (a play, an artwork a song) What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
08/09:
Connection, Perspective and Reflective
• Students show understanding that stories can be told in different ways by
completing a web. What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
• Art show/ Gallery walk in the library.
• the purpose of an illustration (Connection)

• how illustrators have different perspectives (Perspective)

• how stories can be told through different media (Connection)

• how stories told through the arts make you feel (Reflective)
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

• How are stories connected to their illustrations? (Connection)

• How are our interpretations of a story the same and different?

(Perspective)

• How can we retell a story without text? (Connection)

• How do stories told through the arts make you feel? (Reflective)

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

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?
• Media web
• KWL chart to brainstorm different media
• Picture walks through various types of stories and art books
• Artwork for discussion
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
• Author study written reflection, how are things the same or different
• Discussion at various points throughout unit
• Perspective activity – listening to Winnie the Witch and drawing a
picture
• Ways a story can be told discussion
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?
Dream catchers Swimmy Art
Math link – patterning Best Bouquet
Plays or puppets Van Gogh Sunflowers, Starry Night
Jan Brett pencil drawings Andy Warhol pictures
Perspective listening activity Cinderella material art collage
Australian Aboriginal Art Barbara Reid clay
Hieroglyphics Writing activity based on cinema trip
Picasso Art Self-portraits
Papier mache Masks
08/09:
Each teacher chooses one focus book and makes sure this book is represented by the students in
three different ways. Each teacher also works on a variety of other stories and representations using
the PYP Arts scope and sequence.
• Tanya: Intro: Book “Windows”, no text, only paintings. – students make up their own stories and
share them with partners and class – Book “ Where the Wild Things Are”, make cartoon, write
story and illustration, act in a movie.- made large monsters using paper plates - Large posters
borrowed from Secondary Arts Department: Look at one every other day (whole class activity). -
read a variety of stories about polar bears - soap stone carving - print polar bear pictures - artic
scenes using pastels - draw arctic animals with pencil- read Goldilocks: plasticine bears clay
Goldilock - acting out with felt finger puppets - illustrate this story.
• Faiza: Intro: Book “Anansi – make illustrations of the main character (What do you think she looks
like?) – make foil masks – write own stories - Read the Rainbow Fish story - each student makes
a fish for a wall aquarium - cube stories - diaramas - paint wash fish pictures - fabric collage
rainbow fish. - Egyptologist mum came to speak about Egypt - drew hieroglyphics cards (code
writing) -Winnie the Witch illustrators perspective of a scene.
• Lindsey: intro: Description of a scary scene with sound effects – use colored pencils when
designing a scenery – watch Ms.Nelson video – read this also – listen to the tape – read poems
and illustrate.- read Charlie and the chocolate Factory - Make book: Design front cover of book
using was crayons- draw the scene of Charlie finding the ticket using charcoal and glitter - paint
the chocolate room using squeezy paint - oil pastels on the river - draw an invention room chalk
and water - lickable wall paper hall way - coloured pencils for tv room - see through plastic for
glass elevator - large collage -make golden tickets - clay models of characters - stick puppets-
design, draw and make an invention. Van Gogh pictures using oil pastels in order to look the
artist perspective - Out of the window imaginative story & art work using tissue paper.
• Hannah: intro: Listen to classical music (variety of compositions) – draw lines when listening –
color in the shapes to make a contemporary piece of art- Chinese Book “Eyes of the Dragon”
(each student received a section of the picture to copy with chalk)– individual chalk pictures of
dragons - make a fan; Magic Fan story – Native American story from internet –– retell the story –
design a totem pole - Alice in Wonderland: Andy Warhol water colour pencils - individual
drawings of Mr.Rabbit - Sunflowers Van Gogh paintings
• Geraldine: intro: Read “the Nut cracker” (4 different books)– watch dvd of ballet - Barbie and the
Nutcracker video – design head pieces in order to pose in a photo story later on: Girls; flower
head pieces and snow flake head pieces, boys; rat masks. – all students make oversized lolly
pops, candy canes and other sweets for the photo story - made photos with students as
characters for very large book - students took part of the story to illustrate and they had choice of
medium; paint - pastels - glitter - collage - water colour pencils - cellophane cut out window
frames - charcoal portraits of characters - lolly stick puppets of the characters - illustrate a line of
the story in their own way - designed and sew cushion cover - wrote a story about getting a
present and made the box the present came in using papers mosaic patterns.
 5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
• Books: Fairy Tales, Cinderella books, Swimmy by Leo Lionni, Winnie the Witch by Valerie Thomas
• Various authors: Barbara Reid, Brian Wildsmith, Eric Carle, Jan Brett, Bill Martin Jr., Kevin Henkes, Tommy DePaola, Lauren Child
• Video: DVD: Cinderella
• Various art supplies: Yarn, newspaper, paint, pastels, clay, fabric, powder for papier mache, green tissue paper, salt, straws.
• CD: Peter and the Wolf, The Snowman

Scott Foresman stories: (Our Literacy Programme)

1.2 Look at That
1.3 My Buddy Stan
1.4 The Gingerbread Man
The Rolling Rice Cake
June and the Mule
Poem Flip Chart Dwight the Knight
Our First Grade Play
You Will See

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
• Various works of art displayed in the classroom
• Art showcase in the library
• Field trip to the Cinema
• Puppetry Show in the Exhibition Center? (Thursday 19 March 09 is the only available date!)

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

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.
• This was a high interest unit
• We loved the art gallery at the end, it was great to have so many parents and
staff join us in our celebration
• The children were able to tell how they did the art
• They became very skilled at looking at illustrations and using them to predict
what a story was going to be about
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
In each case, explain your selection.
• develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
During each gallery walk the students made predictions and asked about a
story. We were continually working with student questioning and answering
student questions within this process. The questions were an ongoing way of
approaching the content.

• demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

How could your improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a
more accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.
• The growth in student responses was tremendous during this unit. We could
have made use of student reflections on their responses at the beginning and
their responses at the end using the criteria to measure and compare growth.
• The writing assessment needed to be completed immediately following the
field trip.
• develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
Reflective & Creativity: The students really became aware of the differences in
perceptions while comparing the different illustrators and how they showed the
same story. The students could also compare their own artistic responses and
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea see how their perceptions are different from others in the class.
and the transdisciplinary theme?
Open-Minded & Appreciation: The students developed a strong ability to
• Students continue to build connections through the artwork in stories shared appreciate the work of others as well as value and tell about their own artwork.
after the unit. They learned that art can all be good and that within that we all have
• Teachers are continuing to use the same response language and attention to preferences
comparing information in units that follow, along with using their artistic
expressions to show information

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

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 08/ 09:
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
• Work should be on display for longer
• Students asked excellent questions and gave different perspectives and opinions
on various material • A reflection page for visitors

• They were able to point out the materials/techniques used in illustrations
(watercolors/clay etc.)
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.
• The timing of communication to parents was good
• Remember to send a text message again.
• Most parents saw the art during the conference day, the timing of the year
could be different.
• Arts exhibiton could be set up of parents to see during conference day.
• We need to look at the Arts scope and sequence and make informed choices
of a shared use of medium and stories next year.

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.
• Students brought art/materials from home: aboriginal article, Australia book, Ugly
Duckling books.
• One student painted Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at home

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007