The Communicator
PYP and MYP Update
January 2016
The Current State of IB at Peirce
Primary Years Programme (PYP) - Candidate School - Authorization Visit Spring 2017
Middle Years Programme (MYP) - IB World School - Evaluation Fall 2017
The Learner Profile
We act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness and justice, and with respect for the dignity and rights of people everywhere. We take responsibility for our actions and their consequences.
Spotlight on IB
The PYP at Peirce
Check out all of the inquiries your children were involved in during their
last PYP unit. It is all posted on the bulletin board by the main office.
Preschool
How We Organize Ourselves
Strand: interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities
Central Idea: People play different roles in society that impact our community
Key Concepts: responsibility; function; causation
Related Concepts: citizenship, impact; consequences; role
Lines of Inquiry:
1. The responsibilities members have in a community
2. How a community functions
3. How our actions impact the community
Kindergarten
Strand: rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things
Central Idea: Animals and plants interact to create a system
Key Concepts: change; causation; connection
Related Concepts: plants; animals; relationships
Lines of Inquiry:
1. How plants and animals affect each other
2. The role environment plays in the lives of plants and animals
3. What living things need
First Grade
How We Express Ourselves
Strand: our appreciation of the aestheticCentral Idea: Stories can engage their audience and communicate meaning
Key Concepts: perspective; reflection
Related Concepts: beliefs; interpretation
Lines of Inquiry:
1. How to construct a story
2. What stories can teach us
3. How stories are created and shared
Second Grade
Where We Are In Place and Time
Strand: orientation in place and timeCentral Idea: The past impacts the future
Key Concepts: connection; perspective; reflection
Related Concepts: similarities; differences; impact; relationships; chronology; history; progress
Lines of Inquiry:
1. How we got to where we are
2. Everything changes
3. Historical change
Third Grade
How the World Works
Strand: how humans use their understanding of scientific principlesCentral Idea: People apply their understanding of forces and motion to invent and create
Key Concepts: form; causation
Related Concepts: structure; differences; sequences; impact; inetic and potential energy; transformation of energy
Lines of Inquiry:
1. the natural laws of motion
2. magnetism and static electricity
3. How understanding forces and motion help mankind
Fourth Grade
How We Express Ourselves
Strand: the ways in which we reflect and extend creativityCentral Idea: Creative expressions provide ways to communicate ideas and emotions.
Key Concepts: reflection; perspective; connection;
Related Concepts: communication; beliefs; interpretation; symbolism; voice
Lines of Inquiry:
1. Creativity can communicate ideas
2. The value of creation
3. How ideas form and grow
Fifth Grade
Who We Are
Strand: what it means to be humanCentral Idea: Certain characteristics help define our species today.
Key Concepts: perspective; connection; change
Related Concepts: relationships; adaptation; philosophy; identity
Lines of Inquiry:
1. How humans compare to other species
2. Human evolution
3. Personal identity
The MYP at Peirce
Key Concepts
Key concepts are big ideas, which form the basis of teaching and learning in the MYP. They engage students in high order thinking, helping them to connect facts and topics with more complex conceptual understanding. The 16 key concepts in the MYP include: Aesthetics, Change, Communication, Communities, Connections, Creativity, Culture, Development, Form, Global Interactions, Identity, Logic, Perspective, Relationships, Systems, and Time, place, and space.
MYP students take action to help the people affected by the Syrian Crisis
Discussing The House on Mango Street
What does identity mean?
6th Grade- Conceptual Based Learning in Action
"Our key concepts is identities. We learned your identity changes due to events in your life. Houdini's identity changed when his mother died and when he became famous."
- Andy Hernandez
"In science we just started a unit on plate tectonics. We are learning how plate tectonics can impact global interactions. The movement of the plates can create a volcano then that changes the the land forms. Both of those things impact people globally." - A.J. Haddon
7th Grade- Conceptual Based Learning in Action
"In science, our key concept is change. The best example of change that we have learned is natural selection with the peppered moth population. Where the moths lived, the trees used to have white bark so it was easy for the white moths to blend in with the bark so the birds couldn't see them to eat them. The population of white moths changed because it increased. Then factories came and the waste from the factories made the bark turn black. Now the white moths were easy to see and the black moths were camouflaged. The population of the black moths increased and the white moths decreased. Change happens all of the place."- Natasha Gonzalez
A conversation during a book club about The Lord of the Flies:
"A common theme we keep reading about is personal identity and how kids have had to take care of themselves in tough situations."
"Jack's identity is changing because he is rebelling and not following the leader anymore."
"Ralph, who is the leader is worried because everyone is stressing out and started to not trust the group."
"Piggy's identity has changed because people have been mean to him and now he is not talking to anyone."
"The fear of not being rescued has really impacted the identities of all of the characters."
- Sara Sosa, Elia Brooks-Sims, Yuritzy Moreno, and Issac Villegas
8th Grade:
"We are reading the House on Mango Street. Our key concept is culture. The book is about the Mexican culture and has different stories about womanhood and the imbalance of power between women and men in the Mexican culture. We have also worked a lot with the ATL of perseverance. We are learning how to persevere as the characters in the book had to in order get out out of a bad situation." - Mayerli Sumba
"Last unit was all about linear equations, which is when you need repeated addition. This unit is about exponential equations, which is repeated multiplication. We are going to use this to explore the population of rabbits in Australia. We will need to analyze data to find the growth factor and then write an equation that shows the relationship. Our key concept is global interactions"
- Brent Young and Daniel Garcia
Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies
773-534-2841
Jillian Estanich - MYP Coordinator
773-534-2564
Website: peirce.cps.k12.il.us
Location: 1423 West Bryn Mawr Avenue, Chicago, IL, United States
Phone: 773-534-2440
PYP Disclaimer for Being A Candidate School in the International Baccalaureate
Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies is a candidate school* for the Primary Years Programme. This school is pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Peirce Elementary School believes is important for our students.
*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted.
For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit http://www.ibo.org