curriculum planning

EIBP7123-IB-Professional Learning

Inspired by the Quality Teaching Elements in NSW Public School(2003).I realized there are some basic guideline to produce quality teaching and learning. Thus, I am using this guideline to reflect and evaluate my programme plan in details.

According to the research, there are three dimensions of quality teaching elements including intellectual quality, learning environment quality and significance of the knowledge.

Intellectual Quality

Deep Knowledge-knowledge is deep when it concerns the central ideas or concepts of a topic.

Deep Understanding-Deep understanding is evident when students explore relationship, connection and draw conclusion in relatively systematic and complex way. 

In my programme plan, the big idea (Key concept, significant concept, Area of interaction) is the main core of the entire programme plan. My learners were given different approaches to develop their understanding of the significant concept. For instance, they read “The little prince”, investigate on the Avant Garde movement, Dadaism, and hence make connection. Besides, graphic organiser such as words splash, mind mapping, Traffic light, Think pair share were used as a ongoing reflection template to determine their level of understanding after each lesson. I think my learners did construct deep knowledge in the learning process. 

Problematic Knowledge-Knowledge is treated as being socially constructed, and hence subject to political, social and cultural implications.

My learners were using different subject context, including Language A and Humanities to elaborate the key concept: change and its impact to the society. Besides, they were exploring specific skills and techniques to accomplish their summative task. They faced difficulties throughout the whole development process of creating their final art work. They start from simple initial ideas and slowly develop into comprehensive process which is  another evidence of learning problematic knowledge. 

Metalanguage-Lesson high in metalanguage has high levels of talk about language and how texts work.

In the first session of visual arts class, we always discuss about the significant concept, unit question and Area of Interaction in depth. My learners studied the original meaning of each word and interpret it in various perspectives. For instance, in our first lesson, we discuss about the word “change” as a verb, a noun and the etymology of the word because I always impose that knowing the origin of the word is important in order to have a deep understanding of the concept.

Quality Learning Environment

Explicit Quality Criteria-High explicit criteria identified by frequent, detailed and specific statement about the quality of work.

High expectation-Emphasises the high expectations is not about how many students are participating in the lesson, but about how many students are participating in challenging work.

Based on the feedback from my learners to the formative assessment, I recognised some learners have difficulties in conceptualise ideas. Some learners were not aware of the objective and expectation of the task. Although most of my learners enjoyed the process of completing the formative, but learning outcome for each task was not clear. And I realised the importance of Task Specific Rubric for each formative task. 

Student Direction-Included choice of activities, time spent on activities, pace of the lesson, criteria by which they will be assessed.

In the practical learning session, some of my learners were not engaged, I should have prepare handout or worksheet as a task for them to fulfil while I was having individual tutorial for the photo editing learning session. Besides, learners will have a better understanding if the basic guideline of the software tools was given at the beginning of the lesson. They can explore and develop their skills more in depth.

I need to improve on appropriate time management and allocate relevant material and resources in the learning session. Use of variety of effective and engaging activities can improve the quality of learning environment.

Learning environment is part of my evaluation practice. Having an Art room with proper art facilities such as easels, drawing boards, various media for drawing and painting would be more efficient for learning. I need to make sure the facility room is well-equipped before I start the lesson. Besides,the physical change of the learning environment will make a great impact on learners’ interest and passion for Art. Learners would feel the artistic environment to learn and paint.

Social support-Encourage and value effort, participation and the expression of one’s view in the pursuit of learning.

At the beginning of the programme, I faced difficulties in differentiation teaching strategies. Some of my learners were not engaged at the first lesson. After seeking advice from my colleagues and coordinators, they suggested scaffolding or mentor mentee system in group activities. I choose the pairings based on which students I knew can work well together & have different strengths & weaknesses. Each group was given a set of questions (structured) to help with research. I also encouraged the more passive students to participate by speaking up their opinions.

 Significance

Background Knowledge-May include prior knowledge or “out –of –school” knowledge, such as local knowledge, cultural knowledge, personal experiences and knowledge of media and popular culture.

During my teaching session in programme plan, some of my learners suggested to visit art gallery or filed trip. I think a visit to a graphic design company would be relevant to this programme because it involves a lot of software editing skills and techniques. Thus, I will try to implement field trip or gallery visit in the following programme plan to allow them explore and experience the “out-of-school” knowledge.

Narrative-Use of narrative is high when stories are written, told, read and viewed or listened to help illustrate or bring to life.

I have included the literature book “The little prince”, “The colour purple”, poem “The important Book” and a series of formative task in this programme plan. They wrote poem as self evaluation. I think narrative is a good approach to construct abstract perception, hence develop cognitive thinking skills. Besides, learners were creating their story behind the final art work-photomontages. I realised narrative is really a provoking creativity. 

As conclusion, I feel that the evaluation stage is the most difficult among all Modules, but it reflects my strength and weaknesses, area I need to improve on and action need to be taken.

I gained a lot of experiences and knowledge from completing this assignment but I always feel that knowledge is never ever enough. I will continue to reflect and evaluate my professional ongoing practice.

The transition period

Grade7 facing difficulties in conceptual learning not only in visual art, but almost all subjects.
Two weaknesses:
1) Basic knowledge of all subject area are not in depth.
2) Passive learning attitude, lack of motivation.

I was using pyp key concept to explain myp unit planner in their first lesson, compare and contrast the pyp and myp elements in detail in order to instil the basic understanding of the framework. Although we had a orientation workshop on the first week of the semester, they are still in the fog.
Compare to Grade 8, they were whole bunch of enthusiastic intellectual learners in their Grade 7 last year.


Macro

If we observe the present pyp learning structure and activities, the UOI as the main core of each inquiry unit interweaving with all content need to be taught in all subject area.

Fractual knowledge

The main misconception of most of the specialist teachers is that they are not intergrating the content to the UOI and expend the knowledge to the specific subject area, but they act as a supportive role for the homeroom teacher to deliver the UOI. Hence, the UOI loses it purpose as an "unit of inquiry", but it turns up to be a "theme" for all. There is a thin line between thematic learning and inquiry learning, they might have exactly the same activities, content and lesson plan, but the outcomes are vary.

Conceptual knowledge

The different between thematic learning and inquiry learning lie on the weighing of key concept in the lesson. If a teacher placing the key concept of UOI as the context of the entire unit, lesson will be deliver based on this "common ground" for all subject area. Hence, students are able to construct conceptual knowledge in abstract perception while making connection in all content(subjects).
Key concept in pyp is the generalization and principles(Dr Lynn's 3D curriculum) for all subjects, teacher should always refer to the main core rather than treat the "key concept" as a reflection tools or thinking tools. This is the main issue in current pyp structure and it affects the students thinking level drastically.

Conceptual learning

History of mind map dating back to the third century. Philosophers used graphic diagram to interpret concept, words and thought. Mind maps are visual perception of ideas, it boosts memory retention of information.

We had a closure discussion of the unit: " Change" today.

unit question: Is destruction a path of creation?

Significant concept: Meanings are always different.

Lesson started with "The Important Book". Students were to observe and write down the structure of the poems in the book in relation to their development process of the photomontages.

Word splash was written on the whiteboard included all the content and context we have learned in previous lesson. Students have to make connection between content, context, unit question and significant concept, and write down their thought on the board.

Yuen Ann was able to capture the abstract perception of "metaphor " when he was analysing connection between Dadaism and Duchamp's "The Fountain ".

Jothini was able to analyse the structure of the poems in "The important Book" and the connection to "The little prince". Awesome and innovative ideas sparkling the borad and her DW.

Mariam is always the philosopher who is able to make connection between the unit question and more than 3 context.

Sample connection:

The purpose of revolution in Humanities in relation to the Avant-Garde art movement Dadaism. Hence, answer the unit question and elaborate the significant concept in their DW.

What is the purpose of change?

"The little prince" in relation to Marchel Duchamp's "The fountain".

What make the meaning of an object?What does " meaning" means? Why are meanings different in various context? Did your photomontage achieve the desired new interpretation of the object? What are the difficulties throughout the process of constructing a new meaning?

Reflection

This activity was experimenting Anthony Gregorc's one of the Ordering ability theory:

Random: Lets your mind organize information by chunks, and in no particular order. When you are using your random ability, you may often be able to skip steps in a procedure and still produce the desired result. You may even start in the middle, or at the end, and work backwards. You may also prefer your life to be more impulsive, or spur of the moment, than planned.

2) Contextualism and theory of knowledge

Palle Yourgrau (1983) argues that contextualism allows for dialogues such as the following since it claims that the standards for knowledge shift from context to context:
A: Is that a zebra?
B: Yes, it is a zebra.
A: But can you rule out its merely being a cleverly painted mule?
B: No, I can’t.
A: So you admit you didn’t know it was a zebra.B: No, I did know then that it was a zebra. But after your question, I no longer knew.

     

 

Change

Grade 9 had their first lesson of new Quarter today:
The butterfly effect.
Key concept: Change
Significant concept: Tiny variations create recurrent impact
AOI: Human Ingenuity

After briefting the unit title, significant concept and AOI. I wrote down the unit question on the whiteboard, surrounded by different areas of investigation. A number of six highest ability students were being called and stand in the front of the class. They were to choose their members based on my requirement. Leader A(boy), can only choose 2 girls, Leader B(girl) can only choose 2 boys, one with spec, one without so on and so forth.
They were given 6 different theme to answer the unit question:
How does little things change the world?

A. "What is the origin of butterfly effect?"
B. "What is Lorenz system? What is chaos theory"
C. "How does butterfly effect relate to weather prediction?"
D. "What is collective bahaviour? What constitute popular culture?"
E. "How does Altruism affect the society? What is the purpose of caring?"
F. "How does self- actualization benefit the community?"

Differentiation
Students were given 20 minutes in a number of 3 in group to complete the given task.
Answer the given question, use the same answer to relate to the unit question.
Question 1 and 2 are direct questions which fit under Bloom's "Knowledge" first level of thinking.
Question 3 need analysing and sythesizing skill.
Question 4 to 6 fit higher thinking level which require students to interpret a meaning in depth.

Technical problem
The wifi connection was slow as usual, this is the most unpleasant part of the teaching when something is really out of your control. It delayed the duration of the activity hence affected the schedule . Only three group were able to present at the end of the class.

During presentation, each group (audiences) were given a piece of note as their task, including"2 good points ","2 weaknesses", " 2 personal opinion"," conclusion" and " 2 questions". After each group presented, audiences have to comment base on their task given.

Tiny Variations create recurrent impact

SC: Tiny variations create recurrent impact
unit question: How does little thing change the world?

Narrative approach --Concrete example

Tuning in
Review the SC,AOI and unit question, write down on the whiteboard.
Short briefting about the definition of "The butterfly effect."

Task
Guiding question: How do initial ideas drive creativity?
Students to watch a video clip of Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously.
http://www.ted.com/talks/janet_echelman.html
Inspired by the video, answer the unit question and elaborate the understanding of SC.

Class discussion before they accomplish the task
Knowledge:Students take turns to create a flowchart based on the storyline of the video on the whiteboard.
Analyse: Teacher to explain the changes of ideas affected by the environment and materials from one to another stages. How does the initial idea being carried out? How big the impact can be?
Sythesize: Based on the narrative example, students to make connection in order to answer the unit question.
Create: This will be a sample flowchart for your summative assessment. How does your idea grow?
Do you see the butterfly effect now?

Step 1: Uthaiya to elaborate the storyline. Teacher goes around to give individual guidance and ensure differentiated learners are well taken care of especially those who have language proficiency issue.

Step 2: Explain the cause and consequences of the change from each to another stages.
Why is the change of material?
The story started from a great "fall", the artist arrived in India but loss her paints in the journey.
She was considering ot use local media, bronze as replacement but the cost is too high. How does she resolve the problem? (related to our previous SC: destruction as a path for creation.)

She walked around the beach and get her initial idea from the fisherman.
She started her first sculpture"wide hips" using fishing nets, slowly developed into a bigger scale collaborate with local fisherman. Through years, the idea growing big involving industiral included both manufacturing and enginering field to fulfill the artist's dream. The impact of the original idea growing from one to another city. Scale and materials changing from time to time.
Provoke different perspectives based on the storyline. Ask students to think about the changes of the artist as a person, and the changes of an initial idea to huge sculpture, changes of materials from different circumstances.

Step 3: Students to write down their reflection and thoughts in DW.


Homework--Preparation for next week studio practical work
Investigation on William Morris's art work. Patterns making start from a basic form.