5th Grade Exhibition

2013 A Tribute to Heroes

What is the Exhibition?

A culminating project for the PYP A collaborative inquiry that begins with personal

interest and passions, and extends to community action

An inquiry that requires the students to apply their learning from previous years

An opportunity to unite the school community in the essence of the PYP: transdisciplinary inquiry in the spirit of personal and shared responsibility

A celebration of who our students are as learners

Students will use the PYP Transdisciplinary Skills

Communication Skills: working on teams, explaining, describing and listening to mentors

Social skills: team work, coming to consensus

Research Skills: note taking, documentation, writing

Self-management Skills: goal setting Thinking Skills: analyzing, creating,

reflecting

Transdisciplinary Theme: How We Express Ourselves

Central Idea:

We celebrate the best of humanity through art, words, film and action, inspiring all to act heroically; creating positive change in our world.

Lines of Inquiry

(form, function) What are heroic qualities? (connection, perspective) Why are some

people identified as heroes? (connection) How are we connected to our

heroes? What do our heroes have in common?

(responsibility) How do we pay tribute to our heroes?

(reflection) How does this tribute inspire us and others to act heroically?

Hero Celebration Days, May 2- 3rd

Our Culminating Celebration will include hallway art displays for individual heroes, collaborative projects including short films, music, artwork, poetry and web pages (on global site myhero.com) to view in the lower school tech lab. All XIS, parents, families and community are invited to attend our celebration, and invited to comment on student webpages.

How will this happen?

The subject of our inquiry is heroism. After individual students choose a hero, then student groups will be created, based on connections students find. It may be a shared interest, category of hero, or heroic traits that are shared.

Student groups will create lines of inquiry and begin research. They will plan their investigation, do the research, write and choose a way to express their learning.

How Much Time will Students Spend Working on the Exhibition?

The students start brainstorming ideas and thinking about concepts the week beginning the 4th of March

They work with their small groups and their mentor to research, plan, and reflect on their action. This will take about 6 weeks from March 12th to May 3rd.

The last week of April will be finalizing their presentation; Hero Celebration Days are May 2-3rd

Students will still have Math and Language Arts lessons during this time, but the majority of each day will be used to work on inquiries.

The Mentor’s Role

1. You are an advisor, a coach, a cheerleader.2. Student groups will contact you, establish a meeting

time weekly that fits YOUR schedule.3. Groups will share their lines of inquiry, their goals, and

their plan the first meeting.4. At each meeting, groups will write notes on their group

wiki site, reflect on progress, and ask for you to do the same. These sites will be accessed by homeroom teachers to problem solve, and assess student progress.

5. Rather than tell them what action to take, your role is to ask probing questions, and encourage their communication and problem solving.

6. Ultimately, students need to ensure their research is done, their writing complete, their chosen expression finished on time, and oral presentation practiced.

Developing Student Critical Thinking Skills

Ask open-ended questions about their project

Allow them to solve their own problems Let them be responsible for their own

learning Encourage independent inquiry and respect

student ownership of the process Monitor, challenge, question and clarify

How Do We Assess Students’ Work?

“Exhibitions are the best way to measure learning because they put the kids right in the midst' of their learning.” Dennis Litky

We assess the learning process We assess the student presentation Student’s self-assess their individual efforts and

collaboration using rubrics

Something for Us All to Remember…

The process is more important than the product!

The Exhibition is a celebration of who our students are as learners!