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.

:

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?