Spring: A time for Reflection at Spicewoood

"We don't learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience." -John Dewey

Each Spring Spicewood students engage in a reflection that connects them to the collaborative goals they set at the beginning of the year, and has them sharing a year's worth of celebrations with their families. It is so exciting to see them flipping through the pages of their portfolios, eyes opening wider at each page as they look at their work from the year, and mark their progress with smiles and pride!
All Spicewood students will engage in portfolio conferences on May 6th. From kindergarten to 5th grade, Spicewood's learners lead and facilitate their own conference as they share their work across the PYP transdisciplinary themes and subject areas!
In addition to our portfolio conferences that day, our 5th graders are sharing the culminating project of they PYP journey through the Exhibition. This year our students are exploring the ways that creative expression inspires people to take action! Beginning in March students are shepherded through the project by a Spicewood staff mentor who has helped them not only plan for their project, but also reflect on their learning throughout the program. Each week they meet and look at the impact of the essential elements of the PYP: skills, knowledge, concepts, attitudes and action. In small groups students discuss how their learning has been impacted by exploring these things and what it means for their perspectives as learners and how they view the world. These conversations are a way to consolidate the aspects of a PYP education, while simultaneously completing a project that exemplifies all the elements of the program.
Reflecting on experiences encourages insight and transfers understanding to new contexts that go beyond the classroom. Students solidify growth when they are asked to control their learning, and we believe this process is enhance by exploring and discussing this learning with others. This is also part of inquiry, we learn and expand on that learning by the presence, ideas, thoughts, and questions of other learners. For students at Spicewood this continues through to the reflection process and is shared at our Spring conferences!
We hope you join us on May 6th to watch our students synthesize their year and joyfully share it with those around them!

Visible Thinking Routines Bring Inquiry Alive

Collaborative learning is a practice we engage in to promote inquiry. We believe that student talk leads to a more complex understanding of the concepts we are exploring. Students learn through verbalizing/recording their ideas and observations and from the ideas and observations of their peers. These thoughts interact to broaden understanding, build perspective, and give depth to our own thinking. One way to build these conversations into our classroom is to practice Visible Thinking Routines from Harvard's Project Zero. These routines promote thinking by building upon shared understandings through dialogue and questioning.

This week in 3rd grade students in each class engaged in a thinking routine called: See, Think, Wonder. This is a routine designed to engage students in observational skills and inferring in order to think about what we see on the surface and what we can conclude and wonder about as a result of those observations. 3rd grade launched their Sharing the Planet unit and are beginning to explore ecosystems and the ways organisms interact within them. They are looking to investigate the factors that impact communities within ecosystems. As a way to formatively assess what students know about ecosystems and its components, each teacher engaged in a version of See, Think, Wonder.
Students were given the opportunity to look at a variety of ecosystems and record and share what they saw and how this made them think about (draw conclusions) what their observations meant for the ecosystem (i.e. it looks like a drought, I wonder if this has impacted what grows or lives there). Students took turns discussing with their peers and drawing conclusions about their thinking.
Visible Thinking Routines are a powerful way to engage students with images and texts and go beyond the immediate and obvious information. Check out Project Zero's page to learn more!

2nd Grade Students Express Themselves Through Poetry!

2nd graders have just wrapped up their How We Express Ourselves unit on poetry (Central idea: people express themselves through poetry). As a way to celebrate their expressions, they invited their families and the community to come hear them read them live, as well as share them on various forms of media.
While exploring ways to share their poems students considered the various forms of technology they could integrate in order to reach a wider audience and to express their creativity in different, and innovative ways.

Embracing Diversity in the PYP

This year our No Place For Hate student group created a Diversity Tree to celebrate all the languages we currently speak, as well as the languages of our direct ancestors.  This is one way we embrace both our diversity, and the mother tongue languages of our teachers and students. In Spicewood's recently updated Language Policy we state:

     "Language is valued as central to developing critical thinking, and is considered essential for the cultivation of intercultural awareness and the development of internationally minded and responsible members of local, national, and global communities. We feel that students and parents who speak another language bring an added perspective to learning. We value their views and encourage them to share."


This is one way we are honoring the transdisciplinary theme of Who We Are while demonstrating the Learner Profile attributes of communicator, and inquirer and the attitudes of appreciation and respect.

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!

How Do We Learn?

Inquiry is a student driven approach to learning that allows our students to construct their own meaning. This is powerful when you consider that knowledge transfer is at its strongest when:

Student autonomy and initiative are accepted and encouraged.
By respecting students' ideas and encouraging independent thinking, teachers help students attain their own intellectual identity. Students who frame questions and issues and then go about analyzing and answering them take responsibility for their own learning and become problem solvers.

The teacher asks open-ended questions and allows wait time for responses.
Reflective thought takes time and is often built on others' ideas and comments. The ways teachers ask questions and the ways students respond will structure the success of student inquiry.

Higher-level thinking is encouraged.
The constructivist teacher challenges students to reach beyond the simple factual response. He encourages students to connect and summarize concepts by analyzing, predicting, justifying, and defending their ideas.

Students are engaged in dialogue with the teacher and with each other.
Social discourse helps students change or reinforce their ideas. If they have the chance to present what they think and hear others' ideas, students can build a personal knowledge base that they understand. Only when they feel comfortable enough to express their ideas will meaningful classroom dialogue occur.

Students are engaged in experiences that challenge hypotheses and encourage discussion.
When allowed to make predictions, students often generate varying hypotheses about natural phenomena. The constructivist teacher provides ample opportunities for students to test their hypotheses, especially through group discussion of concrete experiences.

The class uses raw data, primary sources, manipulatives, physical, and interactive materials.
The constructivist approach involves students in real-world possibilities, then helps them generate the abstractions that bind phenomena together.

These suggestions are adapted from In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms by Jacqueline G. Brooks and Martin G. Brooks (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1993)

These are the ways we engage students in learning at Spicewood and in the PYP. Ask yourself when the last time you learned something new was. What types of learning experiences took place before you felt your knowledge or skill was solidified? Now how can we help students have these types of experiences so that they can master new understandings and make connections to their learning?

PYP Learner Profile in Action

At your goal-setting Fall conference your child's teacher shared Spicewood's Learner Profile Continuum with you. This is a document that provides teachers and students with a place to reflect and assess the student's growth in the ten Learn Profile attributes (inquirer, knowledgeable, thinker, communicator, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-taker, balanced and reflective).
Together, the IB learner profile attributes represent key aspects of intellectual, personal, emotional, and social theories of learning that interact with and inform each other. The attributes clearly reflect, and concisely express, the IB’s unique mission and history. They shape and mutually reinforce each other.

By engaging in conversations with our students about how they exemplify these attributes, and using this dialogue to set goals, we are both outlining their value and helping students continue to develop these skills through reflection and practice. The Spicewood Continuum also allows your child and his/her teacher to communicate their specific strengths and goals so that you can support their progress at home.
If you have any questions about our Leaner Profile Continuum, please do not hesitate to contact me at doriane_marvel@roundrockisd.org

Inquiry in the PYP

Last weekend, Ms. Kim and I flew to LA for three days to attend an IB PYP workshop on inquiry. Inquiry-based learning is a learning process through questions generated from the interests, curiosities, and perspectives/experiences of the learner. When students engage in learning centered around their own questions, curiosities, and experiences, learning is an organic and motivating process that is intrinsically enjoyable.

We reflected on the way we learn best, and then looked at the learning environment we provide for our own students. When reflecting on the ways WE learn best we came up with:

• subjects that are relevant and interesting to us
• tackling real-world questions, issues and controversies 
• collaborating and interacting with other learners in a variety of ways
• solving problems or creating solutions
• exploring concepts through a variety of materials and resources
• sharing our learning with others and then reflecting and revising our ideas based on feedback
• opportunity to practice and revise our thinking

     We really enjoyed meeting with educators around the United States to discus the best ways to  support inquiry based learning in our classrooms. We know that we learn best when given the  opportunity to engage in the process using using inquiry driven strategies, so that is what we  are committed ti providing for our own students!

Spicewood Parent IB NIght

Please join us on Thursday, October 24th at 6:00 pm for a parent information session called "What is an IB Education?"

“constructing meaning”       “sustained inquiry”       “critical reflection”
“broad and balanced”         “effective teaching and learning” 

"meaningful assessment"            “creativity and imagination”

“conceptual”        “rigorous”    “aspires to empower”        “principled action”

Driving questions:
What is the leaner profile and how does it impact my child’s education?
How is inquiry used to drive student learning?
What is the action cycle?
How can I support action at home?
What is the IB continuum?
How does reflection enhance learning?

What Do We Value?

The IB recently released a new document that aims to clearly communicate what lies at the heart of of an IB education.
It states: "The aim of all IB programs is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world."
With that in mind IB programs focuses on learners, develops effective approaches to teaching and learning, works within global contexts and explores significant content.

Spicewood's own vision echoes these values:

Spicewood aspires to be a community of caring, global-minded thinkers.

This summer Spicewood teachers and administration sat down together and asked ourselves: What do we value? Why are we here? What do we want our students to know and be able to do? This vision is our answer to that question. We value students treating each other, the planet, and fellow humans with dignity and respect by being caring. We value our community, and what it means to collaborate and exist as a member of it-our commitment to one another and our roles as members. We value looking outside of ourselves, our families, our city and our state-to the wide world around us and asking: What can we learn?and What are the different perspectives?

We live our vision and are proud to embody it along with you, our Spicewood community.