The Primary Years Programme will be featured on #mdeschat Thursday, February 6th at 9 p.m. EST. I sat down with three PYP school leaders to discuss the benefits of using International Baccalaureate strategies at the elementary level. Their strong knowledge of PYP pedagogy should be helpful to all schools that are seeking to meet the needs of today’s learners.
Jason “Jay” Graham is a PYP Online Lead Facilitator, a PYP Workshop Leader, and a grade one teacher at Badung International School on the island of Java in Indonesia. Rachel Amstutz is principal of South Shore Elementary in Crownsville, Maryland. Walter Reap is principal of Germantown Elementary in Annapolis, Maryland.
1. When and how did your school become a Primary Years Programme school?
Jay: Bandung International School in Indonesia became a PYP in 2007. We went through a pre-authorization phase before I was at the school. The process is outlined here: http://ibo.org/become/authorization/
Rachel: In December 2010, I was invited to attend a PYP training to investigate the program as a possibility for our district. I attended and LOVED the philosophy. I lobbied for months afterward for my school to be considered for PYP implementation. I also began the long process of introducing PYP to my staff and parent community to build buy-in. Since my school did not feed directly into a MYP school, we could not be identified in the first round of schools. However, we were selected for candidacy in the 2nd year and have been on our journey to authorization since then.
Walter: We were officially authorized as a PYP school this year (2013-2014). This was a three year process that included creating synergy and getting stakeholder buy-in. I would say this continues even now, but began seven years ago.
2. Can you share how the Primary Years Programme addresses the “whole” child?
Jay: The Learner Profile which is at the heart of all 3 programmes (PYP, MYP and IB/DP) is paramount here. Check this document
Rachel: PYP encourages educators to be cognizant of the whole child at all times—in planning, in teaching, and in assessing. The Learner Profile reminds us to develop students who are well-rounded, caring, thoughtful, and capable of exploring topics from multiple perspectives. More than most other initiatives, PYP keeps the development of the whole child at its forefront and trains educators to be mindful of the social, emotional, spiritual and cogitative experience the child has in learning.
Walter: I believe the whole child is addressed through the programme of inquiry which looks to address intellectual, social, and emotional learning as well as personal skills. This is done by placing the learner in the center of the learning and building the learning experience (taught curriculum) around the learner. Students look to demonstrate learning both in and outside of school. Action is therefore the goal of the IB learner.
3. What is the role of formative and summative assessment in a PYP school?
Jay: In general formative is ongoing; summative is the ‘final’ showing of understanding. Each unit in Primary Years Programme (there are 6) has a summative assessment. I think the role of each is to gauge understanding throughout and then gauge understanding at the end.
Rachel: Assessment, both formative and summative, is clearly outlined in a PYP school. It may not look any different than any other school, but the school must develop an assessment policy to tell how assessments are used in the school. This document is a comprehensive explanation of all types of assessments, the frequency at which assessments are administered, etc. Therefore in my school formative and summative assessments are used constantly to assess students’ learning.
Walter: Formative assessment shows the progression of the learner through the unit planners. These assessments monitor student progress of the teaching and learning. Summative assessments provide opportunities for the learners to demonstrate their learning through the lens of one of the seven themes around the five essential elements.
4. Can you explain how the Primary Years Programme distinguishes between the written and taught curriculum?
Jay: Well I can point you to here if you haven’t seen it already. But the basic difference to me is the written is concerned about WHAT we want to learn and the TAUGHT is more about HOW we will learn the written.
Rachel: Certainly not any better than the IB can!
Written: http://www.ibo.org/pyp/written/index.cfm
Focusing on what students will learn and the 6 transdisciplinary themes, skills, etc….
Taught: http://www.ibo.org/pyp/taught/index.cfm
The written curriculum in action, focusing on HOW students best learn.
Walter: The written curriculum is the district-designed and planned curriculum including the scope and sequence of the documents developed by the content coordinators. In our building, teachers have flexibility when using the district’s curricular documents to develop the programme of inquiry.
5. How is your school addressing the transdisciplinary themes that are central to the Primary Years Programme?
Jay: In my opinion, not well. I wrote about how the homeroom teacher (me), music, Indonesian and Art teacher made explicit connections to the key concepts and central idea in this unit here. It is challenging though and it comes down to directed collaborative planning. We do have stand- alone planners for math etc. when needed.
Rachel: Our program of inquiry has been developed to ensure that a child who advances from K-5 at my school will experience all elements of the 6 transdisciplinary units. We’ve organized our program of inquiry to ensure that at each grade level the way in which they address the transdisciplinary themes is distinct from the way in which other grades address each theme. See our POI here:
http://www.aacps.org/applications/billboardmanager/southses/upload/SSES%20PoI%2013-14.pdf
This document includes each theme’s central idea, lines of inquiry, and key concepts.
Walter: We are using resource monies from Title One to provide additional planning days with substitute coverage to write and reflect on unit planners. This means that teachers have a built in day each month to come together as a grade level team and look at how students are progressing through the unit planners. As grade level teams are becoming more knowledgeable about the students in their classroom and how to structure/align learning, the planners are more cohesive as well as are a better fit for learning.
6. What has been the biggest plus of being a PYP school?
Jay: Inquiry based learning, freedom to learn, differentiation is promoted, non-standards based (no tests). I love how kids have freedom to learn, explore.
Rachel: The biggest advantage in being a PYP school is that the process has made (is making) my staff and me much more aware of our instructional decisions and more intentional about what we do. The process makes you really think through why you do what you do, what’s best for children, how to make learning meaningful enough to encourage students to take action, and it makes you ensure that students think about the world, the global community and their responsibility for it. Also, instructionally, PYP encompasses everything we know to be the best practices for promoting effective learning.
Walter: This programme has changed the culture of our entire school community. Nine years ago managing behaviors was the biggest challenge as a high poverty school. Our enrollment continues to be increasingly diverse, but there are more families who traditionally were sending their children to private schools who are now sending their children to their neighborhood school. The building culture is changing to one of learning and we have been able to align the use of Title One funds to promote a spirit of collaboration.
Thanks so much to Jay, Rachel, and Walter for sharing their passion and knowledge of the Primary Years Programme! We can all benefit from applying those good PYP strategies in our schools.
You can find Jason “Jay” Graham on Skype at jason.graham84, on Twitter @jasongraham99 and on his blog http://thelearningjourney.org/
Rachel can be followed on Twitter @rachelamstutz and on her blog at: http://excursionsineducation.blogspot.com/
Walter can be followed on Twitter @WalterReap