Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: Age group:

Transdisciplinary 2 Grade 2
Transdisciplinary Theme
To inquire into the following: School: The International School
School code:
Where We Are in Place and Time
Title: Homes
 Orientation in place and time Teacher(s): Abad, Maria; Ahola-Weldon,
 Homes and journeys Kristie; Bellamy, Cassie; Briglia, Robert;
 The relationship between and the Fornell, Tamara; Fowdy-Drouhard, Lara;
interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, Jansen, Julie; Lee, Yu Yen; Levi, Ariana; Lira,
from local and global perspectives. Maria; Maruki, Masami; Musselman, Peter;
Olson, Janet; Pack, Dan; Prince, Britt;
Wirsching, Teresa ; Woods, Robert; Yin,
2nd unit 2 subject connections.docx Aiyun; Zou, Jing “Zoe”; zZimmerman, Fred
Central Idea Proposed duration
number of hours: over number of weeks:
Homes reflect local conditions.
(Week 7, 7 Weeks)
2nd grade unit 2 rubric.docx
2. What do we want to learn?
Summative Assessment Tasks
What are the possible ways of assessing students' understanding of the Key Concepts
central idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we
look for? Key Concepts
What are the key concepts to be emphasized within this inquiry?
homes
Summative: Performance Task  Form
Tasks:  Causation
Students will be given a choice of several scenarios for  Perspective
building a home. The scenario will include the following:
geographic location, weather, culture, and people who will
live there. Working in small groups, students will construct
the home and justify their decisions. Students will be able Related Concepts
to explain why it is a "home".
geography, architecture, culture, history
Assessment Tool: Rubric
Lines of Inquiry
Evidence: What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central
idea?
Students will be able to give a personal definition of
"Home". They will identify different structures for homes  What makes a home
around the world, and how factors such as geography,  Different homes around the world
weather, and culture influence how a structure is built.  Factors that determine where people live
They will understand the difference between a home and a
house.

Possible actions: Students may become interested in the Teacher Questions

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
different types of homes in the community. They may
notice people who live on the street and don't have a What is the difference between a home and a house?
home. What makes a home?
What do homes look like around the world?
Where do people live and why?
How does the weather, culture, tradition, economy etc
affect our homes?
Provocation: 3 little pigs
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Planning the inquiry
3. How might we know what we have learned? 4. How best might we learn?
 Prior Knowledge Learning Activities
This column should be used in conjunction with "How best might we learn?" What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or
What are the possible ways of assessing students' prior knowledge and students to encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and
skills? What evidence will we look for? address the driving questions?

 Students will write and draw about their homes.
Using this work, students will brainstorm as a
group about "What is a home?". This brainstorm
will serve as an introduction to key unit
vocabulary.
 Students will compare and contrast photos of their
home (or homes from our city) with homes from
around the world. This process will generate
questions to investigate regarding different homes
and the factors that influence why they are the
way they are.
Teachers will look for evidence regarding the student's
understanding of "home", how homes are the same or
different around the world, and why people live the way
they do.
Formative Assessment
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
 Key vocabulary: family words, seasons, weather
words, map words, simple architectural terms
(window, doors, roof, wall, bedroom, etc.), building
materials, shapes
 Factors to investigate: geography, weather,
history/culture
 In connection to the prior knowledge activity,
students will take photos of their own homes and
make maps of the insides of their homes.
 From there, students will begin to investigate
homes around the world. For each place, they will
investigate the geography, weather,
history/culture. They will examine different
materials that people use to make homes and
consider who lives in the home. Students will
construct 3D models of different homes around the
world using simple structures.

Homes reflect local conditions.  Students will interview people that come from
different countries around school to find out about
Lines of Inquiry: their homes.

What makes a home

 Make a map of where people live incorporating
Different homes around the world geographical features, scale, basic elements,
Factors that determine where people live compass. Students in class can identify where
After investigating homes from various cultures, students they live on a map.
will compare and contrast their findings in a venn diagram.
Teacher will look for evidence of understanding the
similarity and differences between homes around the
world. Transdisciplinary Skills
PYP Transdisciplinary Skills

Thinking skills Students will research different

types of homes and analyze how
 Analysis geography influences structures
 Evaluation and evaluating the materials
needed to build according to local
conditions.
Social skills

 Respecting
others

Self-management
skills

 Codes of
behaviour

Research skills
  Observing
 Collecting
data

Learner Profile
IB Learner Profile

 Inquirers Inquiring into different homes and

 Open- reflecting on and being open-minded
minded about the difference between a house
 Reflective and a home

Focus Attitudes
Focus Attitudes

 Appreciation
 Curiosity
 Respect

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software,
etc, will be available?
Field trip: walk to buildings around the surrounding area to identify homes vs. other structures
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to
facilitate the inquiry?
Field trip: walk to buildings around the surrounding area to identify homes vs. other structures
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
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?
Homes reflect local conditions.
What were the learning experiences that
 What makes a home enabled students to:
 Different homes around the world
 Factors that determine where people live  develop an understanding of the
concepts identified in "What do we want
Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing to learn?" form, causation, perspective
evidence of students' understanding of the
central idea. The reflections of all teachers 1. Students identified differences between houses in
involved in the planning and teaching of the different climates. Students identified the shape of
inquiry should be included. the roof, building materials, etc.
This unit was relevant because they could connect 2. Students build houses and homes using local
their personal homes to the unit. They understood materials - Pacific NW homes are built out of cedar
the difference between home versus house through trees.
their writings and discussions. Kids would say "my" 3. Students inquired different types of maps:
bedroom but "the" office. political, climate and physical. Students explored
How you could improve on the assessment the globe as well.
task(s) so that you would have a more 4. Students compared and contrasted between
accurate picture of each student's houses and homes.
understanding of the central idea.
This year the assessment felt incomplete. We felt
that we couldn't get all of the information that we
needed to assess understanding. We propose the
following changes for next year:
Goal: Students understand that homes reflect local
conditions.
Role: Design team
Audience: Family who has never lived in this local.
Scenario: Design team needs to design a home for
the family. They need to include as much detail s
possible because this family knows nothing about
living there in this specific environment.
Product: Design team has to complete the
following: Visual representation, brief written
justification, and a short oral presentation
Standards: Student needs to participate in a least
two components of the product. Meeting: Student is
able to design a home that reflects all of the
different factors included in their scenario.
What was the evidence that connections were
made between the central idea and the
transdisciplinary theme?
Where We Are in Place and Time
 Orientation in place and time
 Homes and journeys
 The relationship between and the
interconnectedness of individuals and
civilizations, from local and global
perspectives.
*Students were able to identify where they live and learner profiles. We believe that it is an important
where other countries are located in a map and
globe.
*Students were able to compare a contrast the
difference between houses and homes from the past Communicators: when working in groups students
and present. Eg. Native Americans homes, different will need to be good communicators in order to
homes in the antique and current homes in the
same country.
*Students were able to make connections between
the structure and materials of a house with the local Appreciation: students worked on appreciating of
conditions: geography, weather, population, etc.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
Reflecting on the inquiry
8. What student- initiated inquiries arose from
the learning?
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries
and student questions and highlight any that
were incorporated into the teaching and
learning.
*How can we keep a home safe?
*How people can live without electricity, for
example in an igloo?
*How to maintain the house in good conditions?
5. Students made a mind map using sentence
frames: when I say home, I think of..., etc
6. Students drew pictures of their own homes.
7. Students created a book that explains different
factors for choosing a home.
8. Students reflected on their homes, then they
drew and wrote about their dream homes taking
into consideration the different factors that have
been discussed in class.
 demonstrate the learning and
application of particular
transdisciplinary skills?
Thinking and Research - analysis and evaluation:
Students learned the concepts of house and home,
the analyzed it and broke it into components for
each one of them.
Students analyzed at the conceptual and physical
level: Students identified differences between
houses in different climates. Students identified the
shape of the roof, building materials, etc.
Social Skills: Next year we would like to add
cooperation as a specific focus. Students will be
working as designers in teams, they will need to
cooperate in order to work appropriately.
 develop particular attributes of the
learner profile and/or attitudes?
Profile:
We would like to add caring as one of the
thing to focus on when designing a home for
someone else, especially taking into consideration
special needs, environment, living with others, etc.
achieve their desired team goal.
Attitudes:
We would like to incorporate co-operation.
what they have house and homes.
9. Teacher Notes
Since we are looking at geography, weather,
history/culture
Proposed change in line of inquiry:
Instead of:
Factors that determine where people live
It could be:
Factors that determine how people live
We would like to add caring as one of the
learner profiles. We believe that it is an important
thing to focus on when designing a home for
*What architects take into consideration when someone else, especially taking into consideration
building a house? special needs, environment, living with others, etc.
*Why are houses in different places made from Maria Lira 2nd grade
different materials?
*How animals build their homes?
*How to build a house?
*how do you make a house stable?
*how to cope with disaster and how to re-build?
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.
3 little pigs
What did you learn about houses from this
book/story?
What is the difference between a home and a
house?
What makes a home?
What do homes look like around the world?
Where do people live and why?
How does the weather affect our homes?
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.
Kids at home built toy houses and shared them at
school. One girl told the teacher that she saw a
home with a flat roof and she was afraid it was
going to cave in from the snow. Another student
noticed that the vacation home in Florida had tile
floors because it is hot.
*
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2011
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