Next week we will host two of the authors of the IB Middle Years Program. They will spend the week with our Middle and Upper school teachers working on unit planning and assessment practices. Lisa and Lynn, as we know them, are among the best in the world in delivering high quality professional development to educators.
Unit planning in the International Baccalaureate is different than traditional lesson planning. Whereas lesson planning seeks to address a particular lesson for a day, and often encompasses daily plans over the course of a week, progressing toward an end goal or set of goals, unit planning begins with the end. This approach, known generally as Backwards by Design planning based on the seminal work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTigue, starts with a guiding unit question of enduring significance. For example, in mathematics, a central idea might be "how are rules used to identify and present sequences and relationships?"; in science, "how can we express and manipulate space?"; in history or literature, "how is knowledge organized and communicated over time?".
Once a central idea is determined, our educators then consider an area of focus and the significant concepts that will be addressed within the unit. If we use the central idea "how is knowledge organized and communicated over time?", the area of focus (in IB terms, the Area of Interaction or AOI) might be "human ingenuity, and the understanding that innovation is driven by curiosity and necessity". A significant concept that would pair successfully with both the central idea and the AOI might be "curiosity of the ancients still shapes how we understand the world today".
Once the central idea, AOI, and key concepts have been identified, teachers are then challenged to determine an appropriate assessment task. They are guided by a unit planner, and asked significant questions such as: what task(s) will allow the students the opportunity to respond to the unit question, what will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding, and how will students show what they have understood? Note the use of the term assessment task rather than exam or test. This is because an exam or test may, in fact, not effectively assess a student's understanding of a central idea or key concepts, nor may these more traditional assessment forms provide an accurate picture of the student's ability to demonstrate and apply newly learned skills and understandings to novel problems.
Once the above are determined, teachers go through a similar process of identifying core content and skills that must be taught or further developed in order to ensure that the student will be successful in completing their summative task. They are asked to consider how their unit will contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills, what IB defines as Approaches to Learning (ATL). An example of ATLs would be the development of laboratory skills (scientific methodology). Teachers outline the variety of learning experiences they will conduct in class (e.g. group discussion, debate, laboratory explorations, etc.), the teaching strategies they will use to support individualized learning, and the resources they will leverage to facilitate understanding.
Educators in fully developed IB schools are asked to do all of the above, and to receive feedback from their IB Coordinators and their subject area teams prior to the introduction of a new unit in their classrooms. Once a unit is taught, educators are required to engage in systemic reflection on the quality and delivery of their units. Furthermore, in an authorized IB school, planning takes place in such a way that these central ideas and concepts are linked in developmentally appropriate ways across all subjects and all grade levels school-wide, constituting a fully formed and vetted curriculum.
I have described the process of unit planning for the Middle Years Program, grades 6-10. While the terminology is a little different, the same planning process is part of the Primary Years Program, grades PPK-5. Our teachers are mid-stream in this process. Implementation of the IB is akin to returning to a world-class graduate school of education for an advanced degree in curriculum and instruction. So when you see your child's teacher(s) around campus, give them a high five and words of encouragement. We have a ways to go, but we have also come so far, which is all do to the professionalism and commitment of our faculty and support staff. We are well on our way to becoming a truly elite, world-class school.
See you around campus.
Unit planning in the International Baccalaureate is different than traditional lesson planning. Whereas lesson planning seeks to address a particular lesson for a day, and often encompasses daily plans over the course of a week, progressing toward an end goal or set of goals, unit planning begins with the end. This approach, known generally as Backwards by Design planning based on the seminal work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTigue, starts with a guiding unit question of enduring significance. For example, in mathematics, a central idea might be "how are rules used to identify and present sequences and relationships?"; in science, "how can we express and manipulate space?"; in history or literature, "how is knowledge organized and communicated over time?".
Once a central idea is determined, our educators then consider an area of focus and the significant concepts that will be addressed within the unit. If we use the central idea "how is knowledge organized and communicated over time?", the area of focus (in IB terms, the Area of Interaction or AOI) might be "human ingenuity, and the understanding that innovation is driven by curiosity and necessity". A significant concept that would pair successfully with both the central idea and the AOI might be "curiosity of the ancients still shapes how we understand the world today".
Once the central idea, AOI, and key concepts have been identified, teachers are then challenged to determine an appropriate assessment task. They are guided by a unit planner, and asked significant questions such as: what task(s) will allow the students the opportunity to respond to the unit question, what will constitute acceptable evidence of understanding, and how will students show what they have understood? Note the use of the term assessment task rather than exam or test. This is because an exam or test may, in fact, not effectively assess a student's understanding of a central idea or key concepts, nor may these more traditional assessment forms provide an accurate picture of the student's ability to demonstrate and apply newly learned skills and understandings to novel problems.
Once the above are determined, teachers go through a similar process of identifying core content and skills that must be taught or further developed in order to ensure that the student will be successful in completing their summative task. They are asked to consider how their unit will contribute to the overall development of subject-specific and general approaches to learning skills, what IB defines as Approaches to Learning (ATL). An example of ATLs would be the development of laboratory skills (scientific methodology). Teachers outline the variety of learning experiences they will conduct in class (e.g. group discussion, debate, laboratory explorations, etc.), the teaching strategies they will use to support individualized learning, and the resources they will leverage to facilitate understanding.
Educators in fully developed IB schools are asked to do all of the above, and to receive feedback from their IB Coordinators and their subject area teams prior to the introduction of a new unit in their classrooms. Once a unit is taught, educators are required to engage in systemic reflection on the quality and delivery of their units. Furthermore, in an authorized IB school, planning takes place in such a way that these central ideas and concepts are linked in developmentally appropriate ways across all subjects and all grade levels school-wide, constituting a fully formed and vetted curriculum.
I have described the process of unit planning for the Middle Years Program, grades 6-10. While the terminology is a little different, the same planning process is part of the Primary Years Program, grades PPK-5. Our teachers are mid-stream in this process. Implementation of the IB is akin to returning to a world-class graduate school of education for an advanced degree in curriculum and instruction. So when you see your child's teacher(s) around campus, give them a high five and words of encouragement. We have a ways to go, but we have also come so far, which is all do to the professionalism and commitment of our faculty and support staff. We are well on our way to becoming a truly elite, world-class school.
See you around campus.