Prospective International Baccalaureate

1. Prospective International Baccalaureate Wildwood IB World Magnet School

3. Wildwood’s International Baccalaureate Mission As a community of learners, Wildwood is committed to implementing the Primary Years Program at our school with the cooperation of our principal, teachers, students and parents. We will implement the PYP to encourage life-long learners in a global society. Our students will also become globally aware and they will become critical and compassionate thinkers. Wildwood needs to look at what our students (the people we are nurturing) are learning to determine how international we are. We need to look everywhere since all aspects of the school, from philosophy through policy to practice, will reflect on the presence or absence of a sensitivity to the special nature of our school.

4. PYP schools develop students who are: wInquirers wPrincipled wThinkers wCaring wCommunicators wOpen-minded wRisk-takers wBalanced wKnowledgeable wReflective Student Profile

5. The responsibility of every teacher at Wildwood is to embrace the values and beliefs expressed in the philosophy of the PYP. We are committed to certain learning outcomes for students and to the types of teaching which will produce these outcomes. What do we want to learn? ( Planning) The teacher is accountable for: Planning collaboratively, involving students in planning for their own learning and assessment, planning which builds on their previous knowledge and experience, planning units of inquiry, addressing assessment issues, planning between curriculum areas, planning to accommodate a range of ability levels. How best will we learn? (Teaching) The teacher is accountable for: Using a range of teaching strategies, using different learning situations, viewing students as thinkers, building on what students know, using a variety of resources, empowering students to take action, pursuing inquiry, maintaining awareness of second language learners, addressing different types of ability. How will we know what we have learned? (Assessing) The teacher is accountable for: Viewing planning, teaching and assessing as connected, using a range of assessment strategies, involving students in shared reflection at the end of each unit, involving students, parents and colleagues in the assessment process, assessing the level of students’ current experience before embarking on new learning.

6. The PYP believes that students bring to the learning situation their own prior knowledge and engage with the curriculum through the activities designed by the teacher. The students make sense of their experiences or construct meaning. Our responsibility is to identify the students’ prior knowledge, provide appropriate experiences, assess their new learning and begin the cycle again. There are three types of curriculum: • Written • Taught • Learned What do we want to learn? Learners Constructing Meaning How will we know what we have learned? How best will we learn? What Do We Want to Learn?

7. When and how to assess Within the PYP, continuous assessment should be an integral part of teaching. The use of assessment to judge the effectiveness of both teaching and learning processes is essential to allow teachers and children to identify their strengths and weaknesses and the effectiveness of the program. The purpose and means of assessment should be clearly explained to the children. Formative assessment: Formative assessment is interwoven with the daily learning and helps teachers and children find out what the children already know in order to plan the next stage of learning. Formative assessment and teaching are directly linked; neither can function effectively or purposefully without the other. Summative assessment: Summative assessment takes place at the end of the teaching and learning process and gives the children opportunities to demonstrate what has been learned. Summative assessments may include any combination of the following: acquisition of data, synthesis of information, application of knowledge and process.

8. Authentic Performance Assessment Checklist • Does it allow for more than one answer or more than one way to solve problems? • Is it intrinsically interesting and gratifying? • Does it allow each student to contribute according to his/her own aptitudes? • Does it require multiple skills and behaviors? • Does it take them beyond what they already know? • Does it check for understanding rather than memorization or regurgitation of facts? • Is it connected to the Central Idea? • Does it involve a task as well as an evaluative tool? • Does it offer choices? • Does the assessment build in choice for the student? • Does the assessment reflect a number of multiple intelligences? • Authentic Performance Assessment Checklist

9. The Primary Years Program: • Provides an opportunity for learners to construct meaning, principally through concept-driven inquiry. • Traditional academic subjects are part of the PYP but it emphasizes the interrelatedness of knowledge and skills through a transdisciplinary program of inquiry. • The PYP focuses on the heart as well as the mind and addresses social, physical, emotional and cultural needs as well as academic ones. • The Primary Years promotes: • the construction of knowledge • the use of inquiry • the development of conceptual understanding • silent understanding through personal and cultural experiences • valid and varied assessment • international mindedness

10. The aim of the program is to help students acquire a holistic understanding of the six main themes: wWho we are wHow the world works wWhere we are in place and time wHow we organize ourselves wHow we express ourselves wSharing the planet This understanding comes about through the interrelatedness of five essential elements: wKnowledge wAttitudes wConcepts wAction wSkills Teachers and students from the school assess student work. There are two types of assessment in the PYP: wFormative assessment is interwoven with daily learning and helps teachers and students find out what the students already know in order to plan the next stage of learning. wSummative assessment happens at the end of the teaching and learning process and gives the students opportunities to demonstrate what they have learned. Primary Years Programme at a Glance

11. How international is our school? • The school’s culture should reflect and celebrate the cultures in the school. • The school’s climate offers safe and secure environment. • The school should take advantage of the diversity within the student body. • The adults in the school should model the learning outcomes for the children. • The resources offer access to different cultures. • The staff supports teachers from a range of nationalities, cultures and genders. • Support in ELL is offered. • Support in the host country language is offered. • The opportunity to learn further languages is provided. • Mother tongue language development is supported. • The language policy provides for language across the curriculum. • The school offers special needs provision. • The school community is empathetic towards adults within the community for whom the language of instruction is not the mother tongue. • The curriculum focuses on central concepts. • Positive attitudes are fostered. • Opportunities for meaningful action and social service are provided.

12. Factors for consideration of internationalism: • Wildwood’s culture and the extent to which it: accommodates, reflects and celebrates the cultures represented at Wildwood. • Wildwood’s climate and the extent to which Wildwood offers a safe, secure, and stimulating environment to all students. • Students and the extent to which the school takes positive advantage of the diversity within the student body. • The example set by the adults and the extent to which they actively model the profile advocated by the students. • The curriculum and the extent to which it focuses on key concepts, explores transdisciplinary themes, develops essential skills, fosters positive attitudes, and provides opportunities for meaningful action and social service. • The resources and the extent to which they offer access to different cultures. • The staffing policy and the extent to which it supports teachers from a range of nationalities and cultures. • The language policy and the extent to which it offers support in the mother tongue of students, provides for languages across the curriculum, provides the opportunity to learn further languages, is empathetic towards adults for whom English is not their mother tongue. • The special needs policy. • A commitment to reflection. • A commitment to extension and the extent to which we link with other PYP schools. • How International is Our School?

13. How will we know what we have learned? • Process of Inquiry • Assessing the process of inquiry as well as the result of inquiry is recognized as an important objective of the program. Teachers should record the detail of the inquiry initiated by the students. • Teachers should consider whether: • the nature of the students’ inquiry develops over time; whether they are, in fact, asking questions of more depth. • the children are becoming aware that real problems require solutions based on the integration of knowledge that spans and connects several subject areas. • the children are mastering skills and accumulating a comprehensive knowledge base in order to conduct their inquiries successfully and find solutions to their problems. • the children are demonstrating both independence and an ability to work collaboratively. • Hands on doesn’t mean inquiry but inquiry can mean hands on. • You could save time if you told the students what to do and how to do it, but more understanding will occur if they do it. They’ll be more engaged and the struggle will help them learn. • Inquiry based means setting up the game so the student is the investigator. If they are having difficulty, ask “What are you thinking about trying first?” • You can’t teach everything with inquiry but a little bit of inquiry can be in everything you teach.

14. Beginning at the Beginning. . . • What is IB?. . . . • The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The elementary program that is offered by the IBO is called • The Primary Years Program. • All IB programs have a similar base-they are learner-centered and inquiry-based. This means that teaching begins with, and builds on, the curiosity of the students, their capacity to understand the materials, and the questions they ask. • By emphasizing a combination of content, skills, independent critical thought, and international understanding, the IB program encourages students to become active, compassionate, and lifelong learners, prepared for a life of active, responsible world citizenship. • The IB program was developed by educations from around the world and it emphasizes internationalism and identifies what students from all cultures should learn in six subject areas: language, social studies, mathematics, science and technology, the arts, and personal, social and physical education. We will use the NC Standard Course of Study to teach the curriculum; however, we will use the Primary Years approach to organize and teach the curriculum through carefully planned and approved units of study. • A structured Inquiry Approach to learning is the basis of the program whereby students learn to ask and formulate answers to meaningful questions. Teams of teachers, including art, music and physical education specialists, develop Units of Inquiry that provide significant, relevant and challenging learning experiences across the curriculum. Community service opportunities and activities promote caring and responsible attitudes among students. The Goal of IB

15. Knowledge Using the strategy of guided inquiry, students explore specific units of study for 10 or more lessons per week. These transdisciplinary units are developed around the six themes. Each grade level is expected to complete 6 units per year. These units should be carefully planned across the grade levels to provide a complete and coherent elementary curriculum. • Transdisciplinary Skills • The PYP views the development of these skills as essential for the success of the student: • Social • Research • Thinking • Communication • Self-Management • The development of these skills is incorporated throughout our units of inquiry.

16. Concepts The PYP encourages students to use these eight key concepts to help guide the inquiry: wForm – What is it like? wFunction – How does it work? wChange - How is it changing? wCausation – Why is it like it is? wConnection – How is it connected to other things? wPerspective – What are the points of view? wResponsibility – What is our responsibility? wReflection – How do we know? By focusing on these concepts, the students develop higher order thinking skills and better questioning techniques. Action The PYP seeks to also develop positive attitudes and action within the students towards others and their community. Students are actively taught the PYP Attitudes. The students are also expected to leave the program with the attributes that make up the PYP Student Profile. Knowledge, Transdisciplinary Skills, Concepts, Action

17. Strategies for Assessment • The following methods of assessment have been identified as central to the work of primary school teachers. They cover a broad range of approaches. It is essential that they be seen as a package since they have been selected in order to provide a range of approaches and therefore provide a balanced view of the child. • Observations: All children are observed often and regularly with the teacher focusing on the whole class as well as focusing on one child or activity and from non-participant to participant. • Performance assessments: These are assessments of goal-directed tasks with established criteria, that are authentic challenges and problems. Audio, video and narrative records are often useful for this kind of assessment. • Process-focused assessment: The students’ transdisciplinary skills are observed often and regularly and the observations are recorded by: • noting both typical as well as non-typical behaviors • collecting multiple observations to enhance reliability • synthesizing evidence from different contexts to increase validity. • Checklists, inventories, and narrative descriptions are common methods of collecting these observations.

18. Selected responses: These are single occasion, one-dimensional exercises. Tests and quizzes are the most familiar examples of this form of assessment. Open–ended tasks: These are situations in which children are presented with a stimulus and asked to communicate an original response. The answer might be a brief written answer, a drawing, a diagram or a solution. Portfolios: These are collections of children’s work that are designed to demonstrate successes, growth, higher order thinking, creativity and reflection. A portfolio should be thought of as an exhibition of an active mind at work. The PYP promotes the view that the child, teacher and parent all have a significant role to play in student learning. Together, the assessment strategies form the basis of a comprehensive approach to assessment and represent the school’s answer to the question How will we know what we have learned? When and How to Assess