Students Taking ACTION at Spicewood!

Spicewood is a No Place for Hate® school. No Place for Hate® helps to create and sustain inclusive school environments where all students feel valued and have the opportunity to succeed by promoting respect for individual difference while challenging bigotry and prejudice. No Place for Hate® is a school based initiative supported by the Anti Defamation League and began in Austin in 2004.

As an IB PYP school, Spicewood promotes the attributes of the IB Learner Profile in everything we do: our curriculum, classroom management, and in creating our school culture. We want to live the IB Mission Statement, so identifying with the goals of the No Place for Hate® initiative makes sense for us.

Because we believe in students taking action as a result of their inquiries, our No Place for Hate® student group is student lead, and student run. Students volunteer for the committee and then decide what needs to be done at Spicewood to promote empathy, compassion, respect and open-mindedness. They create an action plan and and then meet regularly to implement their self-selected strategies. Check out our students in action:

How Do We Know: The Power of Reflective Learning

This is a question we ask students all the time. In math they work through a problem and we ask them to explain their reasoning and evaluate their solution. While reading we ask them to check their comprehension and find evidence in the texts to support their conclusions. In science they have to prove their hypothesis or conclusions using evidence and observations. We ask them to write persuasive papers trying to convince us to see something from their perspective. We ask them to cite their sources and ensure they are reliable. Through all of this we ask: how do you know? This is one of the PYP Key Concepts, and also an IB Learner Profile attribute (reflective). Going this deep into what we do supports authentic learning. We want our students to be able to learn skills at school they will use as future students, and as human beings in the real world. Critical thinking skills are paramount to this task.  At Spicewood we strive to provide students with learning opportunities that ask them to go beyond knowing and engage in applying and reflecting.

One great example of this is our How the World Works unit in 5th grade. The central idea behind the unit is human and natural phenomena exist in our world and impact societies. This unit could very easily be a research project. Students choose a phenomena from a list and then research it. They could regurgitate where the phenomena is, the history behind it and they could maybe even list how it has impacted its society (if they could find someone's opinion on it). However we want kids to think. SO we ask our students to first determine criteria for phenomena. As a class they must decide what makes something phenomenal. There are no right or wrong thoughts, only justifications and evidence. Once they agree on the criteria they must choose a phenomena to explore and then see how it holds up to the criteria. Often this step sends them back to the drawing board because they have to revisit their thoughts on phenomena now that they have new knowledge. Through the whole process the criteria become fluid, as they learn new things and apply it to their definitions. They push boundaries, debate, and convince every step of the way. Some phenomena are "let in" in some classes, while others have determined them not to meet the expectations. We give students this control because they are reflecting and applying their knowledge because they have ownership This is not a top-down process that relies on facts and figures alone. Students have to infer, ask questions, explore and collaborate to get to the end of the process. They become experts on their phenomena and do it in a way they design. Think of the way you last learned something new. Was it because someone gave you a topic, asked you to create an outline and then write a report? Or did you dive into wide open research, discuss it with others, try some things, narrow your definitions and research some more? Learning, and inquiry, is an active process where students are engaged and in charge of answering: how do you know?

Check out some of our phenomena projects:

2nd Grade Explores Sharing the Planet

In order to understand the central idea living things share natural resources, students in 2nd grade began by examining what natural resources are and how they are used.  They listed resources like air, water, soil, trees, minerals and plants. They then had to consider the ways in which people use those resources and list those. Next students explored what animals need to live. They were then able to see how many of the resources we use every day are also important for the survival of plants and animals around us. To evaluate these connects students were asked to choose an animal that is endangered and look at which resource is causing it to struggle and how and why that resources are being compromised. Through this research students connected this new knowledge in a web to show the interconnectedness of all living things and examine the responsibilities we all have to preserve these resources.

Students are seeing the value in taking responsibility for their actions and growing their idea of the world around them. This is building on their knowledge while also providing them an opportunity to explore the concepts of causation, connection, and responsibility through life and earth science, world geography, and economics. Check out their amazing webs!

Reflecting: How we Connect Our Learning to the Real World

1st  grade started the year by exploring a unit on Who We Are. The unit explored how we learn about relationships by creating and maintaining friendships. Students examined the types of relationships in their lives and outlined how the choices we make impact them both positively and negatively.
Throughout the unit students and their teachers read literature and outlined the types of relationships the characters had. They looked at the attributes of the Learner Profile and connected them to the actions of the characters.
Once the unit was over students were asked to reflect on one of their relationships and talk about how they maintain it. This helped students connect all the new knowledge they have about relationships to their own life, while solidifying and applying their learning! Way to go 1st grade!

3rd Grade Explore Inquiry and the Scientific Method

In 3rd grade's unit on How the World Works they explored the following central idea: Making observations and drawing conclusions allows us to explore and understand the physical world. 
The big ideas in this unit are 1) engaging in the world around us and asking questions to understand it better, 2) how can I systematically explore to answer my questions, and 3) the process of inquiring into those questions and gathering relevant evidence to support claims.

Every step along the way students are using the transdisciplinary research skills of observation, collecting, recording and interpreting data. These are skills that help prepare them for inquiring into the scientific method and also supports students in developing a process for exploring their questions! One of the most important pieces of the PYP is giving our students the ability to learn how to learn. Instead of memorizing information and content we want them to be able to find answers, analyze and evaluate the information, and synthesize in order to expand their knowledge. These are skills they can apply to all subjects at school, as well as to their lives outside of school.

The summative assessment for this unit asks students to create their own investigation. This includes outlining the question to investigate, a procedure, and a prediction. Students will also reflect on how the observations and conclusions will help them understand the world around them.

Students engaging in real world questioning, developing skills to investigate and support their claims and then reflecting on how they know? Inquiry based learning at its best!

Student Led Conferences at Spicewood Help Students Develop a Growth Mindset

We believe in providing students the opportunity to lead their learning, to take responsibility for their successes, and to set goals to further their growth. When kids see that their efforts are productive and that they are in control, they begin to attempt new things and build their confidence as learners.

Each Fall at Spicewood all students take the lead for conferences by writing goals with their teachers and parents and sharing them at their conference. They set a variety of academic, self-management, and social goals that they commit to working on by outlining strategies. It is important that we don't just ask them what they need to work on, but how they plan to do it, and what support they need from us as educators and parents. By setting and managing attainable goals students learn valuable lessons about commitment and perseverance while also experiencing the rewards of achieving theses goals bit by bit throughout the year.

This process supports students as they build responsibility, and develop metacognition for their own strengths and needs. By building this valuable reflection into the learning process, students begin to realize what they need to do in order accomplish short and long term goals and can adjust accordingly. These are skills all our students need to be successful in the world.

At home ask your students to reflect on their day, sharing how they worked on their goal and what they need to do next. Celebrate their work and praise them for the effort they are making. We want our students to know that they are in control of their learning and develop a mindset of risk taking and growth. All too often our students are afraid to attempt things they won't be good at, but by showing them that effort and practice impact the outcomes of their learning, and beginning to not qualify themselves at "not good at ____", they see that they are indeed capable of achieving anything with awareness, effort, and support.

Read more about students and the value of a growth mindset.

10th Annual PYP Exhibition is a Success!

This year our 5th grade students explored the transdisicplinary theme How We Express Ourselves. The central idea is: creative expression can inspire people to take action.

All Spicewood students participate in and attend the Exhibition.

Students began this process by examining an event from history, then through research and the exploration of the PYP key concepts they found an issue, or theme, they believed to be at the heart of the event. Using this issue or theme, they created a unique creative expression in order to inspire people to take action.

This process began in February and involved visits with mentor teachers, as well as their own classroom teacher, specials teachers, the librarian and the instructional technology specialists. It was a collaborative event that asked students to explore the values and beliefs related to many historical events and then look at how that issue is relevant and prevalent today. The Exhibition asks students to take action on an issue with current significance. By exploring events and not just isolated issues students were able to make connections between events and really begin to identify what we as individuals could do to prevent these things.

A 5th grade student shares his thoughts and ideas relating to his event and issue.

Dr. Flores asks a student about her art project.

Dr. Flores speaks with a student about her project.

Dr. Flores views a presentation on integrity.

They also explored art, music, literature, movies, TED talks and other mediums to see how people are motivated and inspired to take action. They then used this information to create their own inspirational piece with the goal to inspire others to take action.

During this process they met with other Spicewood teachers who acted as mentors guiding them through a reflection of their journey through the PYP. They examined the themes while looking through their portfolios, reflected on the Learner Profile attributes and discussed perspective and the key concepts in relation to their chosen event.

The result was an amazing display of their collective understanding of what it means to be a PYP learner. They used all their transdisciplinary skills to present their products and truly inspired every visitor we had. We are so proud of our 5th grade students and all the teachers along their journey!

2nd Grade Explores the Economy During Spicewood's Market Days

During 2nd grade's How We Organize Ourselves Unit, students examine the economy and its components. One of the things they explore is the relationship between work and personal, financial and societal needs. In order to experience the laws of supply and demand and investigate the role of taxes in our society, students create products to market and sell to their peers. Some of the resulting earnings are then paid as classroom taxes and the "citizens" have input on how they are spent. It is a wonderful way for kids to synthesize their learning through role play and experience!

Using the Inquiry Cycle to Guide Our Learning

The IB encourages teachers to facilitate learning, versus "teaching" students. In a PYP classroom a teacher's role is more about guiding learning, supporting ideas and helping students make connections. It is much less us as adults imparting what we "know" to students so that they can "remember" it. We want our students to construct their own knowledge, because this is how they learn best. We want them to build off of what they already know, adding news ideas, thoughts and concepts to their already established experiences and understandings. This constructivist approach is guided by inquiry. This type of learning goes beyond the basic level of learning (which is simply acquiring knowledge). We ask them to be able to interact with these new ideas using higher level/critical thinking skills such as apply, analyze, synthesize and evaluate (the PYP thinking skills). This relates directly to the idea that we want to focus on what is relevant, and worth knowing. One way we guide this learning is by using INQUIRY. Inquiry is a collaborative way of learning that gives kids the opportunities to engage in experiences that challenge their thinking and build on what they already know and can do. Here is an example of an inquiry cycle that we often use to organize those experiences:

This image was created by John Crawford in conjunction with Elizabeth Crawford for U.S. Fund for UNICEF curriculum.

Students do learn and grow at every step along the way, the goal of our learning is to use it, to take ACTION. Tuning in is where we establish the value in what we are exploring, and provoke new ideas by discussing what we know and how. We then engage students in a variety of learning experiences to tune in to the idea and begin to establish our thoughts and some connections. We sort out our learning by sharing and collaborating and can then learn from each other. This motivates us to ask questions and go deeper, based on what we now know we can ask WHY regarding more specific aspects of the inquiry-the students then go further. Towards the end of our inquiry we can draw conclusions and begin to alter our choices and behavior in ways that constitute ACTION. At this point students who are still really engaged in this idea can continue their learning at any point in the cycle again.

This is a loose, fluid approach that allows for all types of learners to go at their own pace and pause and investigate what they want to know. It also encourages us to use each other as a resource along the way. We cannot learn in isolation.

Tune in to learn more about how our 5th grade students are using this approach for their Exhibition.

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IB Continuum Night at Westwood

Last night Westwood hosted an evening dedicated to learning about the IB continuum: PYP, MYP and the Diploma Program. All three programs presented their framework, shared work samples from RRISD's authorized campuses.  There were also student representatives from all the IB schools in our feeder pattern (Spicewood, Anderson Mill, Grisham and Westwood). Spicewood was lucky enough to be represented by 5th grade students Helen, Shannon, Carly, Greta, Emma, and Sunny. They shared some of their work and also spoke about the benefits of the PYP program from their own standpoint. They all mentioned the strength of the Learner Profile and how Spicewood is a caring place where students are celebrated for their work as peacemakers. Thanks girls!

If you were unable to attend the event, view the presentation here.

Resources for Learning About the IB Primary Years Program

PYP is such a broad and encompassing framework for learning, there are so many fascinating components to delve into. Many of our parents attend our parent education night (check out the one coming up at Westwood High School on February 13th) but I know you also look for ways of exploring PYP on your own.

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite resources for learning about the PYP. Here are some suggestions:

Sharing the PYP Blog: hosted and sourced by the IBO it shares perspectives on the many different facets of PYP from practitioners around the world
Inquire Within: a great shared blog about the various forms of inquiry, questioning and student driven learning
More Curious Minds: a blog  by John Barell reflecting on inquiry and concept based learning

If you have other resources you would like to share, link them in the comments!