The morning of the Exhibition! Final touches are put to the displays. I was rather proud of the kids today as they presented at their stands. They presented at an Assembly to parents and other invited guests, with scripts that gave some information from what they had learned in this unit. They sang Mad World to begin with and We Are The World with a harmony to conclude. Some people, including this one, had tears in their eyes at the end.
These grade 5 kids are surveying people, testing their questions, graphing and analysing results, interviewing people and researching issues around the world. Did do you much of that when you were in grade 5? In addition they present their learning at stands for 2 and a bit days to various groups that come to visit, from pre-schoolers to parents. I reckon it’s all rather impressive.
Sadly there’s one more unit to go after this.
9 responses so far ↓
1
Freya
// May 15, 2008 at 1:07 pm
This PYP stuff sounds hard core!
The only stuff I really remember from year 5 was the ‘cards’. Comprehension cards, grammar cards, whatever… grading yourself against the other kids.. “I’m up to the pink ones..”
Ick!
I’ve been having a discussion on a forum with people who home school or un-school their children, including one of the Boucher daughters, who after 6 months of home schooling her first packed him off to a mainstream school and he’s thriving. I hope that some of these more student guided methods don’t stay hidden away in the IB curriculum!
2
leighnewton
// May 15, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I am convinced that the inquiry approach is the best thing. It also helps having kids who are so focused. We don’t do grammar here. We note common mistakes and will have a mini-lesson on them but enormous time goes on the unit of inquiry, which integrates language, maths and specialist subjects.
3
Suzanne
// May 18, 2008 at 7:49 am
WOW! There is so much here for the kids to be proud of! What hard work and dedication to reach the finished product! Super kids… super instructor!!! I’m sure it was exciting to watch the kids get enthused and run with their projects! Congrats and back-pats to all of you! Hurray for a successful event! Everyone gets to be proud… the kids… the parents… the teachers… WIN WIN!!!
And Freya… we had those stupid color-coded reading comprehension things in America, too… it was called SRA!!! And nobody in my class could keep up with Rob Cook who was always 3 or 4 colors ahead of everyone else… we HATED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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leighnewton
// May 18, 2008 at 8:16 am
You’re looking at roughly half of the presentation in the two photos. When you got up close you realised that there was no way you could read everything. It would have taken several hours to standing to read through everything. They have skills that set them up for effective research and collaboration in the Middle School.
Suzanne, it’s interesting that you were using SRA as well in the USA. We had it in primary school, in the 60s. When I did teacher training I could see no reason for kids to do comprehension exercises as it seemed useless and ultimately frustrating for me. It must have seemed like a God-send for the teachers at the time as they could have a quiet lesson while kids struggled with these colour-coded tests. Thankfully, these days there is a lot more research that we can refer to. There are many skills that we can build in reading comprehension.
Reciprocal Teaching http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at6lk38.htm
uses summarising, clarifying, questioning, predicting.
One of my beloved resources, First Steps, http://www.stepspd.com/au/resources/firststepsliteracy.asp adds:
connecting, comparing, inferring, synthesising, creating images, self-questioning, skimming, scanning, determining importance, paraphrasing, re-reading, reading on, adjusting reading rate, using analogy.
All these analysing techniques can be used in assisting children’s comprehension, and they can be a lot of fun. Far better and motivating than SRA.
5
suz01
// May 19, 2008 at 6:38 am
Sounds like some great deep learning going on with those Grade 5 students - and the confidence they will have after presenting to groups of people for 2 days - fantastic! I wish our year 9 students could respond so independently - I think so many schools underestimate what the primary age kids can do, but by the time they are in high school they are so used to a more rigid learning environment, they struggle with student centered tasks.
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leighnewton
// May 19, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Year 9s are a special case that can only be grown out of!
These Grade 5s are still only 10-11 and still struggle with the grammar and maths of normal 10-11 year olds but they are building some great skills. The PYP calls them interdisciplinary skills: communication, self-management, communication, collaboration… We’ve found that students who arrive during the year don’t do as well as others who have known the system for a few years. Our hope is that the skills are those they can use forever in learning whatever they want to learn.
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suz01
// May 20, 2008 at 12:02 am
Yes, unfortunately that may be true Leigh (the growing out of issue). I am involved in an Experiential Learning program for year 9’s, and they absolutely struggle to adapt to the new learning approach, it really throws them. It is something they need to learn over time (or maybe re-learn?) and yet we are throwing them in the deep end, so to speak. Quite stressful for some….
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leighnewton
// May 20, 2008 at 3:59 am
Suz01 I don’t work with year 9’s but I’m wondering whether the way forward might be in small groups. Such groups should constantly change and be given various tasks. Group work is a challenge at any age but the more they do it the more natural and more respectful they become.
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suz01
// May 20, 2008 at 4:03 am
yes. Thats the direction we are going. 100 kids, usually divided into 4 classes, are divided into 5 pastpral groups instead. Then 75% of their assessment tasks are in a variety of small groups of 4-5. They are needing to learn about making choices base don more than just friendship, taking responsibility for their own learning…. but its a hard change for them to make.
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