The IB Continuum

• To improve student learning.

• PYP Review.
• Recommendation from PYP Authorization.
• Revised Approaches to Learning (ATL) in MYP.
• Identified the need to vertically articulate skill development
across the school.
Skills in the PYP
 Examples of IB guides
PYP:
Making the PYP Happen (2009) Transdisciplinary skills.

MYP:
From Principles into Practice (2014)
Subject-specific guides (2014)
Teacher Support Materials (TSMs)
Further guidance for developing ATL in the MYP.
DP:
Approaches to teaching and learning in the DP (Pilot 2013-
2014).
Subject guides.
TSMs.
IB Standards and Practices, 2014
THE LEARNER PROFILE
 Mind the Gap

• Skills are documented in planning documents; but are brief

and not always linked to a learning engagement and
assessed.
• Missed opportunities in formative assessments.
• Skill-developing engagements are taking place but were not
well documented.
• Some skills are covered more frequently than others.
• Thinking skills are specifically lacking.
Are we teachers of skills or teachers of
content?

http://www.islschools.org/qatar
 Definition of a skill

A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-

determined results and/or the ability to choose and
perform the right technique at the right time,
effectively and efficiently.

http://www.redwingexpress.com/blog/the-
three-best-hard-skills-to-have/
Washing my car in the UK
http://www.meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?2619-Detailing-Process-for-Lambo-Gallardo-at-WAC-Car-Detailing
 Skills

PYP-MYP-DP Skill
Categories PYP Skill Clusters

Communication Speaking, Listening, reading, writing viewing,

presenting, non-verbal communication
Social Accepting responsibility, respecting others,
cooperating, resolving conflict, group decision
making, adopting a variety of group roles
Gross motor skills, fine motor skills, spatial
awareness, organisation, time management,
Self-management
safety, healthy lifestyle, codes of behaviour,
informed choices
Formulating questions, observing, planning,
Research collecting data, recording data, organizing data,
interpreting data, presenting research findings
Thinking Acquisition of knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation,
dialectical thought, metacognition
 Skills

PYP-MYP-DP Skill
Categories MYP Skill Clusters

Communication Communication
Social Collaboration
Organization
Mindfulness
Emotional management
Self-management Affective Self-motivation
Perseverance
Resilience
Reflection
Research Information literacy and Academic Honesty
Media literacy and Academic Honesty
Thinking Critical thinking
Creative thinking
Transfer
 Skills
PYP-MYP-DP Skill
DP Skill Clusters
Categories
Critical thinking
Creative thinking
Thinking Transfer
Metacognition
Reflection
Communication Communication
Social Collaboration
Mindfulness
Emotional management
Affective Self-motivation
Self-management Perseverance
Resilience
Organizatio Managing time and Tasks
n Goal setting
Media, Information literacy
Research
Academic Honesty
 Skills
Most explicitly taught in my school

Least explicitly taught in my

school
Transdisciplinary skills are just that – transdisciplinary. Regardless
of the programme/curriculum, most inquiry schools recognise some
framework of skills and dispositions that are shared across all
subject areas. These may include, for example, social and self
management skills thinking skills and communication skills….

These skills should be inquired into as part of students’ learning

experiences. Highlighting the same skills in specialist programs (not
all of them every time – but at least some!) helps students transfer
their learning AND widens the scope of inquiry. For example –
students exploring ways to give others feedback in the classroom
can consciously practice and extend that skill in PE, in art, etc. If any
aspect of planning is shared between generalist and specialist
teachers I think it should be this.

http://justwonderingblog.com/2014/09/22/inquiry-and-the-specialist-teacher/
What we have decided to consider in our
planning.
ALL skills need to be explicitly developed.
Almost any skill could potentially be explored in a
given unit, so it necessary to be strategic
regarding what skill(s) to focus on:
• the learning outcomes/objective strand(s)
that are being taught and assessed by
criteria.
• the summative task.
• the learning experiences/formative tasks
that build to the summative task.
 Why Skills?
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-strategy-with-neal-schaffer/

Requirement from Programme Standards and Practices

C2: Written Curriculum

1b:
The written curriculum includes an ‘approaches to learning’
planning chart for all years of the programme.

What planning process might we implement in order to

meet these requirements?
 KG How the world works planner
Self-management skills:
Organization – students will have the opportunity to organise themselves
and their group as they put together their presentations
Time management – students will need to be able to demonstrate that
they can work to a given time limit in order to complete the different stages
of their life cycle

Research skills:
Collecting, recording and organizing data – students will be able to
choose and animal to research and collect information on this animal. They
will need to record and organise the information in a way that will be
presented.
Presenting research findings – for the summative assessment the
students will choose how to present their research findings with their group
to peers, parents and other members of the school community.

Social skills:
Cooperating - students work cooperatively in a group, sharing materials
and taking turns while they are working on their summative assessment.
Resolving conflict – students will need to listen carefully to others; 18
KG How the world works checklist
KG Skills Map for How the world
works
 International Education Primer 24 November 2014 21
Thinking Skills Map EC1-G5
 Where do we go from here?

PYP:
• Continue to document skill development throughout the year

• Work more closely with single subject teachers to focus on

shared understanding of skill development
 Choosing the skills for your unit
• Examine a learning outcome/objective strand
from your own unit. Determine what thinking
skills are inherent in the learning
outcome/objective strand?

• How will the student be expected to

demonstrate these skills? (learning
engagement/performance of understanding)

Note:
How will you determine the level of
achievement of those skills?
 MYP Planning
Unit Plans Process

Continue to revise our subject-specific unit plans in light of

2014 guides by the end of the 2014 to 2015 academic year
using the new unit plan on ManageBac. Careful attention
will be paid to the alignment of MYP objective strands to
ATL skills that will be developed in the learning experiences
section of the unit plan. Those skills will be measured by the
summative assessment tasks but students will also receive
ongoing formative feedback from the teacher as the skills
are taught within the learning process.

http://www.freshstitches.com/how-to-work-with-two-yarns-at-once/

http://biblicalpreaching.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/example.jpg
Horizontal Planning
Teachers to meet every 2 weeks for 30 minutes in subject
year groups (Year 1, etc.) to discuss how to design
learning experiences around the ATL skills that were
agreed upon for the unit that is currently underway.

kipedia:Extended_image_syntax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi
Vertical Planning
Teachers to meet every 4 weeks with their subject groups
for 60 minutes to discuss their approach to ATL skill
development with input from the MYPC and ATLC who have
a broad picture of the ATL development process.
Student self-assessment
Students at ISL Qatar have always been given opportunities
to reflect on their learning – end-of-unit, end-of-calendar year,
written reports, etc. We would now like students to focus
more explicitly on how they perceive their own skill learning
and development. Currently, students in Years 1 through 3
create a reflection portfolio based on the ATL skills. The ATL
skills need to become more of a centerpiece for the portfolio
as we ask the students to reflect and conduct a self-
assessment of the skills developed and manifested in their
work.
The Projects
 Community Project: Year 3
students will have the
opportunity to consolidate
their community
service/action experiences
through the community
project. This will be an
opportunity for students to
use certain ATL skills as they
complete this project.
 Personal Project: Year 5
students will continue to use
this component of the
programme to demonstrate
their knowledge in one or
more of the ATL skills.
Implicit in the way we teach

Implicit in the way we teach?

Should they be?
Can they lead to deeper learning and
understanding?
TSM planning guides
Biology Subject Guide Example

Thinking
ToK, Essential Ideas

Communication
Presentations,
write-ups etc.

Social skills
Group work

Self-management
Practical activities
Timing
Completing tasks

Research
Individual tasks
 Biology Guide Example

Concept of models
Class discussion on what makes a good model
Cholesterol article Concentrate on the predictive aspects
Scanning and high lighting Meta cognition (how we know what we know)
main points to construct a
brief list of what cholesterol
is used for in the body
Transfer (from English
reading)

Look at Diagrams of the two models

Compare to what we know about
membranes
Stop motion animation on Look at the TEMs web page of
Within guide transfer! Membranes
construction of a
Membrane Use series of questions to get
Include how phospholipid students to
maintain structure ask the correct questions
(weeble!!) Critical thinking
Creative thinking
 Planning and Scope and Sequence
documents

Year: 2014- Subject: Biology Grade: 11

You may want to divide
Assessments
course into Sections
Chapter/page in
practical
wee text/Resources LE (Learning
Date WE Topic/Theme /activity skill/objective Homework Work sheets ToK ATL Summative Formative
k specific text has engagments)
(PSOW)
chapters
The bean activity, learning Measuring
How to use Stats, is it true in transfer (looking
how to use excel, simple Beans Excel use, SD
07/09/2014 1 Introduction Stats Web pages only? implications and Write up labs Biological for universal writeup
writeup, QA and Notes on Kidney and Ttest,
limitation of stats experiments application)
SD distributiongraphs, t beans,
1 Mrs Gren activity and the
rock, 2 Cell time line linked
to cell theory, 3 SA/Vol
Calculation, 4 SA/Vol Agar 1 CT, 2 R +CT, 3
Gel activity, 5 Table of CT, 4 Soc, 5 SM
Microscopes animal and Microscope Complete
14/09/2014 2 advantaged/disadvantage of Microscopes living non living +CreT, 6 R +
plant, hay culture (2 hrs) activities
multi/ uni cell, 6 Stem cell Com, 7
research (stargardts Coll+Com + Ref
disease) and presentation,
7 microscopes looking at
cells
1.1 Introduction to cells
1 Cell time line link to
equipement (microscope
1 R+ CT, 2
fast poster), 2 Eu/pro cell
Drawing cells, How do we know CreT,+Comm+R
21/09/2014 3 Tems various cells activity, 3 drawing Pro and Eu/pro cella
interpreting TEMs (Cell theory)? 3 Comm+R 4
Eu cells and annotate, 4
CT+Comm
QA regarding perception
1.2 Ultrastructure of cells and first hand observations
Another way
Activity
How is research taught?

• Lib guides
• Use of a tool such as Noodle tools
• A consistent citation system

Do we need a continuum for these skills?

 Thinking skills
PYP (Grade 4)
Describing perspectives: in character, as part of the ‘living
museum’, the explorer explains their perspectives of their
discovery and also explains the impact of their exploration from
the others’ perspectives.
MYP
Looking at different travel writing elements, consider their
different impact on an audience.
DP
Looking at different models of plasma membranes.
Making a list/table of the similarities and/or differences.
Evidence for both.
Using the ideas to draw a conclusion about the material (can
also be used to build on the concept of models in Science)
 The DP Approach?
Through questions
Link to how it has been done
Meta cognition
Ask how do we know? What did you do to learn this?
Reflection
What did you do? What did you learn? What did you do well?
How might it have been better?
Creative
What changes did you make? Are they useful?
Critical
What is the evidence? Does it all agree? Which is more
important?
Transfer
Have we used this somewhere else? Can we use this
 Where do we go from here?

All three programmes:

• approach the teaching and reinforcement of skills

within and across the programmes.

• What will be the best way to teach the skills at our

school – implicitly or explicitly – and a consistent
model?

• use whole school meetings and professional

learning days to further skill development and
mapping.
Where do we go from here?
 The Exit
Card
Reflections and emails
We would like to compile and send on
to the participants after the
conference, your responses to the
following:
How does/will your school ensure that
students experience a continuum of
skill development and application?