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Tag: Standards

Guidelines for Teaching and Learning with the IB

October 22, 2013 / / 0 Comments

I continue to enjoy going deeper in my understanding of the IB curriculum. Between this blog and the Edtech Co-Op podcast, I will report aspects of the IB curriculum as it covers all aspects of our student’s physical, intellectual, emotional, and social learning needs. Having worked at so many schools just starting their curriculum development process, I hope non-IB schools will turn to the IB to gather information and insights as they create their curriculum, mission statements, learner profiles, etc.

We often talk about our efforts in schools to meet the learning needs of our students, but we need a framework to build our teaching practices around. IB provides the framework through its Teaching and Learning standards and benchmarks. Here they are for your review.

IB Teaching and Learning Standards

Teaching and learning reflects IB philosophy.
1. Teaching and learning aligns with the requirements of the programme(s).
2. Teaching and learning engages students as inquirers and thinkers.
3. Teaching and learning builds on what students know and can do.
4. Teaching and learning promotes the understanding and practice of academic honesty.
5. Teaching and learning supports students to become actively responsible for their own learning.
6. Teaching and learning addresses human commonality, diversity and multiple perspectives.
7. Teaching and learning addresses the diversity of student language needs, including those for students
learning in a language(s) other than mother tongue.
8. Teaching and learning demonstrates that all teachers are responsible for language development of
students.
9. Teaching and learning uses a range and variety of strategies.
10. Teaching and learning differentiates instruction to meet students’ learning needs and styles.
11. Teaching and learning incorporates a range of resources, including information technologies.
12. Teaching and learning develops student attitudes and skills that allow for meaningful student action
in response to students’ own needs and the needs of others.
13. Teaching and learning engages students in reflecting on how, what and why they are learning.
14. Teaching and learning fosters a stimulating learning environment based on understanding and respect.
15. Teaching and learning encourages students to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
16. Teaching and learning develops the IB learner profile attributes.

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ICL Standards in a PYP School

October 10, 2013 / / 0 Comments

blend

The ICL team of the Washington International Primary School published the new Information and Communication Literacies (ICL) standards just as the Middle and Upper Schools recently did. See my previous post to view those standards. Sue Anderson, Dean Harris, and Dawn Darling were the authors of the new standards, which drew from the ISTE NETS and the AASL standards.

Besides blending the library and technology standards, the authors worked to apply the new standards to the International Baccalaureate (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP). They chose three of the Transdisciplinary Skills as the construct to build the standards. It doesn’t matter whether you teach at a PYP school or not, as these standards are helpful for any school as we look at the transdisciplinary skills of research, thinking, and communication.

Another helpful aspect of the standards is that they are organized around the PYP elements of action and reflection. This makes so much sense as we want our students to be reflective, fluent, and actionable in their understanding and use of the ICL literacies (i.e., information, technology, media, visual, & design).

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WIS Primary School Information & Communication Literacies Standards (ICL)

Research

Research Skills:

  • Follow an inquiry-based process in seeking knowledge in curricular subjects, and make the real-world connections for using this process in own life.
  • Develop and refine a range of questions to frame the search for new understanding.
  • Find, evaluate and select appropriate sources to answer questions.
  • Evaluate information found in selected sources on the basis of accuracy, validity, appropriateness for needs, importance, and social and cultural context.
  • Demonstrate mastery of technology tools for accessing information and pursuing inquiry.
  • Organize knowledge so that it is useful.
  • Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information.
  • Collect, analyze and process data and other forms of information to identify trends and solutions.
  • Use the writing process, media and visual literacy, and technology skills to create products that express new meanings.
  • Use information and technology ethically and responsibly.
  • Use social networks and information tools to gather and share information.

Research in Action:

  • IB Profile: Inquirer. Display initiative and engagement by posing questions and investigating the answers beyond the collection of superficial facts.
  • IB Profile: Open-minded. Seek diverse perspectives during information gathering and assessment.
  • IB Attitude: Confidence. Demonstrate confidence and self-direction by making independent choices in the selection of resources and information.
  • IB Attitude: Creativity.  Demonstrate creativity by using multiple resources and formats.
  • IB Profile: Thinker. Maintain a critical stance by questioning the validity and accuracy of all information.
  • IB Profile: Principled. Follow ethical and legal guidelines in gathering and using information.
  • IB Profile: Principled. Respect copyright/intellectual property rights of creators and producers.
  • IB Profile: Thinker. Demonstrate adaptability by changing the inquiry focus, questions, resources, or strategies when necessary to achieve success.
  • IB Attitude: Commitment. Display emotional resilience by persisting in information searching despite challenges.
  • IB Profile:  Thinker. Employ a critical stance in drawing conclusions by demonstrating that the pattern of evidence leads to a decision or conclusion.
  • IB Profile: Principled. Use valid information and reasoned conclusions to make ethical decisions.
  • IB Profile: Communicator. Demonstrate personal productivity by completing products to express learning.
  • IB Profile: Communicator. Create products that apply to authentic, real-world contexts.
  • IB Attitude: Curiosity. Display curiosity by pursuing interests through multiple resources.
  • IB Attitude: Curiosity.  Demonstrate motivation by seeking information to answer personal questions and interests.
  • IB Profile: Open-minded. Demonstrate motivation by exploring a variety of formats and genres.
  • IB Attitude: Enthusiasm. Display a willingness to go beyond academic requirements.

Research Reflections:

  • Monitor own information-seeking processes for effectiveness and progress, and adapt as necessary.
  • Monitor gathered information, and assess for gaps and weaknesses.
  • Determine how to act on information (accept, reject, modify).
  • Reflect on systematic process, and assess for completeness of investigation.
  • Assess the processes by which learning was achieved in order to revise strategies and learn more effectively in the future.
  • Assess the quality and effectiveness of the learning product.
  • Interpret new information based on cultural and social context.
  • Evaluate own ability to select resources that are engaging and appropriate.

Thinking

Thinking Skills:

  • Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning.
  • Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g. textual, visual, media, digital)
  • Make sense of information gathered from diverse sources by identifying misconceptions, main and supporting ideas, conflicting information, and point of view or bias.
  • Continue an inquiry-based research process by applying critical-thinking skills (analysis, synthesis, evaluation, organization) to information and knowledge in order to construct new understandings, draw conclusions, and create new knowledge.
  • Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real-world situations, and further investigations.
  • Connect learning to community issues.
  • Read to make connections with self, the world, and previous reading.
  • Seek information for personal learning in a variety of formats and genres.
  • Connect ideas to own interests and previous knowledge and experience.
  • Organize personal knowledge in a way that can be called upon easily.

Thinking in Action:

  • IB Profile: Thinker. Demonstrate flexibility in the use of resources by adapting information strategies.
  • IB Profile: Thinker. Employ a critical stance in drawing conclusions by demonstrating that the pattern of evidence leads to a decision or conclusion.
  • IB Profile: Open-minded. Maintain openness to new ideas by considering diverse and global perspectives, changing opinions or conclusions when evidence supports the change, and seeking information about new ideas encountered through academic or personal experiences.
  • IB Attitude: Empathy. Respect the differing interests and experiences of others, and seek a variety of viewpoints while collaborating with others and participating as a member of the community.
  • IB Profile: Inquirer. Connect understanding to the real world.

Thinking Reflections:

  • Seek appropriate help when it is needed.
  • Recognize new knowledge and understanding.
  • Identify own areas of interest.
  • Recognize the limits of own personal knowledge.
  • Recognize that resources are created for a variety of purposes.
  • Recognize how to focus efforts in personal learning.

Communication

Communication Skills:

  • Collaborate with others to broaden and deepen understanding.
  • Collaborate with others to exchange ideas, develop new understandings, make decisions and solve problems.
  • Conclude an inquiry based research process by sharing new understandings and reflecting on the learning.

Communication in Action:

  • IB Profile: Principled. Use information technology responsibly.
  • IB Profile: Principled. Practice safe and ethical behaviors in personal electronic communication and interaction.
  • IB Attitude: Confidence. Demonstrate leadership and confidence by presenting ideas to others in both formal and informal situations.
  • IB Attitude: Commitment. Show social responsibility by participating actively with others in learning situations and by contributing questions and ideas during group discussions.
  • IB Attitude: Cooperation.  Demonstrate teamwork by working productively with others and communicate what has been learned.
  • IB Profile: Knowledgeable. Use knowledge and information skills and dispositions to engage in public conversation and debate around issues of common concern.
  • IB Attitude: Respect. Respect the principles of intellectual freedom.
  • IB Attitude: Appreciation. Show an appreciation for literature by electing to read for pleasure and expressing an interest in various literary genres.

Communication Reflections:

  • Use interaction with and feedback from teachers and peers to guide own inquiry process.
  • Assess own ability to work with others in a group setting by evaluating varied roles, leadership, and demonstrations of respect for other viewpoints.Adopted Spring, 2013.
Adapted from the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner (American Association of School Librarians, 2009) and NETS for Students (International Society for Technology in Education).

 

Adopted Spring, 2013.
Adapted from the Standards for the 21st-Century Learner (American Association of School Librarians, 2009) and NETS for Students (International Society for Technology in Education).

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Your Standards or Mine?

May 24, 2008 / / 1 Comment

Chris O’Neal will join us this Monday for the SOS podcast. We will 

discuss the Essential Question of whether or not we need standards for technology as a subject area. If technology integration is the process of finding ways where technology can help teachers of math, science, music, etc., reach their subject area standards, then the answer seems pretty straightforward.

Thus, it doesn’t seem that we need standards for technology. Yet, we need to ask ourselves where we hope the technology will take us. As discussed in the SOS podcast, we want our schools to shift from a 20th-century learning focus to what EduBloggers term “21st Century Learning”.

These 21st-century learning skills need standards and benchmarks that, just like the technology, need to be integrated into all curriculum areas of our schools.

Three years ago, we went through the process of reviewing and refining our technology standards at my old school, HKIS. From the start, a team of teachers, instructional technologists, librarians, and administrators looked at learning rather than technology tools to drive our committee work. After months of research and discussion, we came up with the “Information and Communication Literacy” standards and benchmarks that focused, as the name implies, totally on the handling and communication of various forms of information.

What drove home the point that technology is just a tool to support learning is that we spent only one moment in standard creation or the dreaded wordsmithing. We adopted the forward-thinking “Academic” standards and benchmark another committee had created! They already had begun bringing 21st-century thinking skills into our curriculum by making them the learning outcomes for all our academic efforts.

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