Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose?

Class/grade: Grade 5

Age group: 10-11 y/o

1a) To inquire into the following:

School: Domuschola International School

School code: 7800

transdisciplinary theme

Title: Colonization and Influence

An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and
journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the
relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations,
from local and global perspectives.

Teacher(s): Emilia Umaming, Bea Halal, Brenn Bavia,

PYP planner

Carmina Gutierrez, Dean Chua

Date: September 15 to November 2, 2015
Proposed duration: 42 hours over 6 weeks

central idea
Evidence of past civilizations can be used to make connections to present-day
societies.
1b) Summative assessment task(s):

2. What do we want to learn?

What are the possible ways of assessing students understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?

What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?

Goal: Students will be able to design an artwork connected to past civilizations.

They will have to explain how past civilizations will be preserved through this
artwork.

Focus Key Concepts:

form
change
connection
Related Concepts:
continuity
progress
difference
influence
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

Role: Artists
Audience: DIS community
Scenario: You are building a museum and is planning to come up with an exhibit
of artifacts that show past civilizations. What kind of artifact would you like to
display in your museum? This artwork should be accompanied with an art
statement on how past civilizations should be preserved.
Product: Artifacts (paintings, lanterns, masks)

Characteristics of civilizations and societies

Connections between past and present.
Implications for the future
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

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Are past events important? Why?

How are the events in the past connected to the present?

How do past events affect or influence the present?

How does it affect the future?

Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have learned?

4. How best might we learn?

This column should be used in conjunction with How best might we

learn?
What are the possible ways of assessing students prior knowledge and
skills? What evidence will we look for?

What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the
students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?

The Philippine History Timeline - Basing from the previous unit, come up
with a timeline, highlighting the different factors in the past that
contributed to how the Philippines is right now or highlighting on the
development of the country during the period of the First Filipinos up to
the present
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context
of the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Line of Inquiry

Characteristi
cs of
civilizations
and societies
Connections
between
past and
present
Implications
for the future

What will be assessed?

Students understanding
that all civilizations and
societies have certain
characteristics that made
them flourish or fail.
Students understanding
that our present time
have evidences of the
past.

How will evidence be collected?

Students choose 3 civilizations or societies
or combinations thereof to compare and
contrast there characteristics. They also
identify the characteristics that made them
flourished or failed.
Create a chart that shows a connection of
the past civilization to the present.

The different periods in

the past have significance
in the future.

Using the chart they used in LOI #2

assessment they continue to include the
implications of these connections to the
future.

Tuning-in:
Memory Down the Lane Students recall some significant events and experiences of their student life. Then the
class will come up with connections of those events to how Grade 5 is today.
Students do a picture gallery walk where the pictures contain different artifacts of the past. They analyze said
artifacts and they write what they think each artifact tells about the past.
Students look at the different festivals that we have in the Philippines and they tell their connections to the past.

Students are shown a video clip that shows a civilization in the past. They identify any connections that they can
make to the present time.

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of
the attributes of the learner profile?
A. Transdisciplinary Skills
Thinking Skills

Comprehension - Students will be able to understand and explain the information that they have read from the different sources.

Metacognition - By looking into the different periods in the Philippine history, students will be able to understand the different influences of of these past
civilizations in the Philippines. The students will also understand that these past civilizations can be connected to present-day societies.
Research Skills

Formulating Questions - As students will be looking back to history, they will be able to come up with inquiry questions that will help them connect the
past to the present.

Presenting Research Findings - From the inquiries that the students will be having, they will be able to come up with outputs that will explicitly show
their understanding of a certain topic.
Communication Skills
Reading and Writing - Students will be able to improve their reading and writing skills in this unit as they gather facts and express their ideas and opinions about
a certain topic.
Social Skills

Cooperating - Students will be able to work with groups and by sharing ideas and taking turns with responsibilities in coming up with outputs.

Respecting Others - In as much as students will be able to understand the past, students will be able to know the implications of those past to the
present and to the present especially when it come to culture, tradition or practices of different individuals. With these, students will be able to develop
a sense of respect to others opinions, beliefs and ideas.
Self-management Skills

Informed choices - As students respect others, they will be able to choose suitable actions that would show how they respect and appreciate others.

Time Management - Students will be able to use their time wisely so that they will be able to accomplish tasks on time.
B. Learner Profile
Reflective - Looking back at the effects of civilization to the lives of people, the students will be able to improve on the kind of actions that they will be having in
their lives.

Thinker - Students will be able to think of the different implications of civilization in the lives of the people and the environment in the future.
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
Places: Corregidor; Intramuros; China-Great Wall of China, Forbidden City, Terracota Warriors Audio-Visuals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuUMe

43A3E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuUMe-43A3E, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhDY4KJuvc0, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px9tE0ZTsw0
Reference Books: Questions and Answers about World History, Ancient Cities, Ancient and Medieval History, History Through the Ages
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?

A class mini museum will be set up in the classroom where artifacts and photos of different civilizations are displayed.
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Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students understanding

of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and
teaching of the inquiry should be included.

What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

Relevance: Students were able to become aware of how civilization began and
how the people survived to meet their needs in the environment where they are in.
They got conscious of why these evidences of past civilizations came to be and its
significance to the people before. As a result of the field trips and research outputs
that the students had, it initiated them students to discuss and share about how
these past civilizations are connected to the present.
The impact of typhoon Ruby which just recently affected the Philippines made the
students have a stronger connection with what kind of civilization we have at
present. It helped them understand also that civilization is developing and that as it
is being innovated, still it can be connected to the present or it will be in the future.
Engaging and Challenging: Students enjoyed sharing and discussing their ideas
and concepts learnt from their field trips, readings and researches about the
evidences of past civilizations. Though it had been tough to generate concepts and
connecting the past to the present, they felt satisfied when they were able to fully
understand the concepts and do their tasks with ease.
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each students understanding of the central idea.
As some of the evidences of civilization in the element of art and music were taken
in the single subjects, it would be better if next year, expert groups could also be
accommodated by arts and music so that Arts can also help in the inquiry about the
history of the art technique, and so with Music.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and
the transdisciplinary theme?Through a graphic organizer, the students came up
with an output identifying the evidences of past civilizations and how they are

connected with the present civilization. They also made connections of these
civilizations to the future and they realized that even with the development and

progress of civilization in the different periods in history, they are connected to each

other and they have their own significance in their own specific period.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

develop an understanding of the concepts identified in What do we want to

learn?
Form - The students were able to identify some of the examples of the different evidences of past civilizations in the
world and their country. Some of the evidences they cited were the traditional instruments as compared to the modern
instruments that we have now. From these evidences, they were able to determine the reasons why they are
evidences of past civilizations.
Change - The students were able to see how the civilization changed from the past to the present and could be in the
future. This was evident when the students identified techniques in art which evolved throughout the years such as
resist. Using this technique, the students came up with different materials that resist each other and them came up
with an artwork using those different materials. The students also understood this concept when they had to know how
sports developed through time. Thus the use of pedometers, beep test. dynamic warm ups and stretching routines
were the things that they have identified in the present civilization which they said might be improved in the future.
Connection- The students made connections from the past civilization to the present. With the identified evidences of
civilization in the past, the students explained the concepts behind them and then identified some evidences in the
present with the same concept.

demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

Thinking Skills - The students displayed these skills when they had to think of concepts related to the evidences of past
civilization so that they will be able to make connections to the present and in the future. Some of the evidences in
civilization that they have thought about are the musical instruments that are the the same and different from the past
and the present.
Research Skills - The writing or the creation of the blogs about the evidences of past civilizations made the students
display this skill when they had to read, gather and take notes on the facts that they need to include in their blogs. This
also gave them the opportunity to know more about the place and to answer their own personal inquiries.
The students also researched on the history and application of the arts technique learned with minimal guidance from
the teacher.
Communication Skills - During the presentation of their blogs, the students were able to share what they have posted
in their blogs to the class. With the peer assessments that they have done orally to give suggestions and comments with
each others blog, it was already evident that the students displayed this skill.
Social Skills - This was displayed by the students during their group works especially when they have to discuss as a
group to come up with their output.
Self-management Skills - With the field trip that some of the students had in China, they showed this skill when they
had to think about their safety and having a healthy lifestyle while staying away from the comfort of their homes. The rest
of the students also displayed this skill when they had to work as a group to come up with the expected output that they
have to come up with about the Philippine civilization.
The students also developed this skill when they had to be aware on the development of gross motor skills especially on
large muscle groups, reaction time and body control with the activities that they had done in PE.
develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
Reflective - After identifying the present civilizations that we have now and after realizing that due to innovation and
development, they have identified some positive and negative results especially to the environment. It made them think
about the implications of the present civilization in the future where people will be more eco-friendly. From this, they
were able to show being reflective.
Thinker - The students showed this profile when they thought about the negative and positive effects of development
and innovation. From this, they have thought of better results which might happen in the future. They have identified
environment friendly homes, and vehicles.
Respect - The students displayed this attitude when they have realized the importance of past civilizations in todays
society. It made them show respect with the varied ways of how people survived before and with how they lived.
Appreciation - This attitude was also shown by the students when they already understood the connection of the past
civilization to the present and the presents implication to the future. Somehow, it made them understood that all of these
are connected to each other and they have their own significance in the periods where they were developed and made.

Reflecting on the inquiry

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?

9. Teacher notes

Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight

any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.

For this unit, the students already showed an understanding of the concept
development at the beginning of the unit when they have discussed that in the past,
the mode of transportation of people were animals while today, we use cars. This
understanding made them identify the different concepts that we needed for the
summative assessment.

What is the importance of past civilizations in our life today when they are already
in the past?
Why civilizations exist?
What are the best civilization the ever existed?
What makes a civilization?

At this point teachers should go back to box 2 What do we want to learn? and
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the
inquiries.
What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?
Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability
to reflect, to choose and to act.
After learning that past civilizations are still important because it is where future
generations reflect on how to value what they have, the students thought of taking
care and valuing their culture.

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After typhoon Ruby hit the country, the students read articles about typhoons and
its impact in the environment and to the lives of people. They connected this to the
present civilization which helped them in identifying the concepts that they need
their summative assessment.
The teaching of research skills is really important in this unit and we may need to
look at our long-range plan to ensure that this teaching is a focus. Even the use of
blogs for outputs should also be considered.
Although ample opportunities were available for students to extend themselves to
higher levels of thinking and deeper levels of understanding using more complex
resources, we need to ensure that we continue to plan for differentiation for the
students with more limited literacy skills or students who are still working with
lower-order thinking skills. Increasing the levels of support and providing more
simplified resources, especially on research projects, will be helpful.
Consider the possibility of groupings across different classes in order to share
expert research or to inform summative assessments.

Attachment...
A. Learning Engagements
Finding Out

Sorting Out

Experiences to assist students to gather new information about the topic

Experiences and texts that add to the knowledge base. Emphasis on gathering first-hand data in a
range of ways (usually shared experiences)

Data collection

Field trip to China: Great Wall of China, Forbidden City and Terracota Warriors
and gather information on the different characteristics of Chinese Civilization. They
also look at any influences of this civilization to the present time and their
implications to the future.
Field trip to Intramuros and Corregidor and find-out the different characteristics of
societies or civilizations that settled there. Their contributions to the present and
their implications to the future.
Students in groups are assigned civilization and society expert topics. They find
out their characteristics, their contribution to the present time and their impact to
the future.
They also research about the characteristics of their assigned civilization topic
related to sports, music and the arts and their contribution to the present time.
Students look at the different events that are happening in our society. They then
find-out the connections of these to the past. After that they also look at the
implications of these event to the future.

Gauging, organizing or representing new information

Activities to assist students to process and work with the information and ideas they have gathered about
the topic (including exploring values)
Organizing, analyzing and communicating the information gathered using a range of vehicles (e.g through
Maths, Arts, English, Drama, Music or IT)

Students create a travel blog that would show the characteristics of the
Chinese Civilization based on the information and pictures they gathered
during their field trip. Part of the information they place in their blogs would be
the connections of these to the present time and their implications to the
future.
Students write a descriptive text about the characteristics of the civilizations
and societies that took place in Intramuros and Corregidor.
Students come up with categories of the different characteristics of the
different civilizations and societies. Beside each categories, they are at
present.
Students create a before, now, furture chart for sports, music and visual arts
where they put their characteristics in the past an then they write how they
are at present and how would they be in the future.
They create a timeline of events that would show connections of different
events that are happening at present.

Going Further
Activities to challenge and extend
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated.
Students go over their questions that werent yet answered and they conduct an individual research on their own.
Drawing conclusions
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated. Students draw conclusions of what they have learnt. This is an
important time to evaluate the success of the unit and the needs and achievements of individuals. This is where students put it all together.
Students come up with a generalization chart to show their learning of the whole unit.

Reflecting and Taking Action

To reflect on what has been learnt and process of learning. It is important that students be given opportunities to act upon what they have learnt. Actions are things that students can themselves and from which
they can see results.

Students come up with a discursive essay about the topic, Tourism destroys ancient cultures. This is the opportunity for the students to share their opinions as tourists to
other countries and their observations about the effects of tourism to the places that they have visited. This was also the opportunity for the students to identify ways of
preserving the cultures that they have in their families.