Teacher(s)

Ogden Middle School/ High School faculty and staff

Subject group and discipline All

Unit title

Professional Development Long Term Planning

MYP year

1-5 + Grades 11,12

Unit duration (hrs)

1/15-
6/17

Inquiry: Establishing the purpose of the unit

Key concept

Related concept(s)

Global context

Change

Processes, structure, justification

Identities and relationships

Statement of inquiry
By making gradual changes to teaching processes, structures and strategies, every course at every grade level can create backwards designed, inquiry-based
units and lessons of study that will help our students succeed in the most rigorous high school and college level coursework while creating a tight, vertically-
aligned, Inernational Baccaulaureate curriculum at Ogden International School of Chicago.
Rationale: Inquiry is a central idea in IB approaches to teaching. Inquiry, interpreted in the broadest sense, is the process initiated by students or the
teacher that moves students from their current level of understanding to a new and deeper level of understanding Inquiry can take many forms, yet the
most successful is when students explorations and investigations are genuine and take them from existing knowledge to new levels of understanding. An
explicit expectation of the IB is that successful inquiry will lead to meaningful reflection and to responsible action initiated by the students as a result of the
learning process. This action may extend the students learning, or it may have a wider social impact. Teaching and learning through inquiry helps students
to grow in their capacity to:
make connections between previous learning and current learning

deepen understanding through the application of a concept

experiment and play with various possibilities

make and test theories

make predictions and take action to see what happens

research and seek information

collect data and report findings

take and defend a position

clarify existing ideas and reappraise perceptions of events

solve problems in a variety of ways.

Adapted from: MYP: From Principles into Practice, 2014

Middle Years Programme Unit planner

Inquiry questions
Factual What is backwards design? What does an inquiry based classroom look like? What are some methods that can help my students ask the right
questions? Whats the difference between an inquiry based unit of study vs. a traditional unit of study?
Conceptual What may need to change in my planning/teaching in order to shift to inquiry based units? What are we already doing that is working?
What evidence exists to justify this type of teaching? How doed backward designed, inquiry based planning align to our IB curriculum?
Debatable What other successful teaching strategies exist to prepare our students for a global world? Why should we make these changes?
Objectives

Summative assessment

IB Objectives:
A: Knowing and understanding
B: Inquiring and designing
C: Communicating
D: Thinking critically
Staff will be able to:
Plan units of study using all necessary IB
components.
Increase inquiry based teaching methods
Increase use of assessment and
qualitative data in order to appropriately
differentiate instruction
Increase student engagement,
achievement, and mastery of skills.
Use standards based grading in order to
properly monitor mastery of skills.

Outline of summative assessment task(s) including

assessment criteria:

Relationship between summative assessment

task(s) and statement of inquiry:

The summative task for this plan has several

components.

The three assessments described will be clear

indicators of Ogdens goal of shifting towards a
more standards and inquiry based structure.

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1) A comprehensive West campus vertical

alignment map. This map will comply with all
necessary components of the IB such as
Concepts/Global Contexts, statements of inquiry,
inquiry questions, assessment criteria, and ATL. It
will also provide quantifiable assessments in order
to track student progress and their mastery of IB
and district requirements.
2) Frequent instructional pop-ins and
departmental protocols from all West Campus
stakeholders. These pop-ins/protocols will
measure the effective usage of inquiry based
methods and pedagogy. Pop-ins will be conducted
and data will be collected regularly to track the
effectiveness of best practice approaches to
teaching.

The vertical alignment map ensures that all

teachers are using the appropriate IB structure.
Instructional pop-ins will give reliable information
regarding the shift in classroom activities and the
teachers role (identity) in the classroom.
The district info, while not 100% aligned to all of
the IB and school goals, will provide helpful
information since if we are planning effectively
and implementing changes in the classroom, we
will see an improvement in districts measures.

3) District/IB school data. Measures such as SQRP,

EPAS data, IB DP scores, and enrollment at Ogden
will measure the long-term benefits of these
changes to curriculum planning and
implementation.
Approaches to learning (ATL)

Communication: Give and receive meaningful feedback. Read a variety of sources for information and for pleasure.
Collaboration: Excersice leadership and take on a variety of roles within groups.
Organization: Plan strategies and take action to achieve personal and academic goals.
Reflection: Develop new skills, techniques and strategies for effective learning. Identify strengths and weaknesses of personal learning strategies
Information literacy: Collect and analyse data to identify solutions and make informed decisions.
Critical thinking skills: Revise understanding based on new information and evidence.
Creative thinking skills: Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes.
Action: Teaching and learning through inquiry
Content (Knowledge)
Staff will know:

Basic principles and

practices of inquiry
based
teaching/learning.

IB concepts and
requirements.

Backwards design
models and
justifications.

Standards based
grading philosophies

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Learning process
Weekly department
meetings:
Teachers will read
professional literature
that will engage them
in conversations
Learning
experiences and revolving around best
teaching strategies practices in inquiry
based teaching
strategies and
backwards design.
These reading will then
be the base of cycles of
inquiry where teachers

Teacher Mentorship

Instructional Pop-ins

Full Faculty
Professional
Development

and implementation
strategies.

implement new
methods in their
classroom and share
their findings with their
department colleagues.
- Department meeting
minutes.
Formative
assessment

Differentiation

- Discussion journals
and reflection activities.
- Reading annotations
and anecdotal
discussion notes.
Even though
professional readings
will be consistent
among departments,
the discussions and
resulting next steps
from meetings will
differ because each
department has
different areas of focus
and curricula.

Resources
Professional readings including by not limited to: Make Just One Change: Rothstein, Santana; Understanding by Design: Wiggins, McTighe
Discussion/Reflection journals
Mentorship protocols, google docs
Instructional pop-in protocols, google docs

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Reflection: Considering the planning, process and impact of the inquiry

Prior to teaching the unit

During teaching

After teaching the unit

What do students already know, and what can

they do?
There is a wealth of experience and expertise
within this building. There are teachers who are
already making these shifts in their instruction
and can be an asset to the rest of the staff. Its
going to be crucial to make sure that these
teachers are identified and are given the
opportunity to share what they are doing in their
classrooms and serve as mentors that others can
go to when in need.

What have students encountered in this
discipline before?
There has been mention of inquiry based teaching
and maybe even some PD on it in the past, but it
has not been tackled on a reoccurring basis where
teachers are given the opportunity to try new
methods, reflect, work with their colleagues, and
develop a schoolwide curriculum.

What does experience tell us about what to
expect in this unit?
Experience tells us that some will buy in to this
plan from the start, and it will take some
convincing for others. Whenever someone is
asked to change what theyve been doing, they

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will want to know why and how it will benefit

them. Its going to be important to show how this
is a positive change and can make their job as an
educator more fulfilling, dynamic, and ultimately
more fun. Having other colleagues share their
successes and using reliable, peer-reviewed
literature will hopefully show others why we are
doing what were doing.

Middle Years Programme Unit planner