Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose?

Class/grade: Grade 5

1a) To inquire into the following:

School: Domuschola International School

transdisciplinary theme

Title:

An inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities;

the structure and function of organizations; societal decision-making; economic
activities and their impact on humankind and the environment.
central idea

Age group:
School code: 7800

Government Systems

Teacher(s): Emilia, Bea, Dean, Brenn, Carmina

PYP Planner

Date: September 15 - October 20, 2014

Proposed duration: 48 hours over 6 weeks

Government systems influence the lives of citizens.

1b) Summative assessment task(s):

2. What do we want to learn?

What are the possible ways of assessing students understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?

What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?

Goal: Students will be able to design their own country with its own system of
government. They will construct their own countrys constitution and show
how their country is governed. It should include a description of the way the
government is organized by coming up with systems.

Focus Key Concepts:

- function
- perspective
- change
Related Concepts:
- equality
- citizenship
- governance
- law
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
- How government systems function
- Impact of government on citizens
-The rights and responsibilities of the government and the citizens
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
Who are the decision makers?
Why do we have laws?
What are the different government systems? What are their functions?How do they
function?
How does the government affect the lives of the citizens?
What are the rights and responsibilities of the government? How does it affect the
lives of the citizens?
What are the rights and responsibilities of the citizens? How does it affect the
government?

Role: President of a country

Audience: classmates, teacher
Scenario: The President, Benigno Aquino is giving Corregidor as your own

country. Considering the history, the events and the things that you have seen

from the Corregidor Trip, how will you improve or develop it into a place that is

highly developed like that of Singapore?

Product: A map brochure

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have learned?

4. How best might we learn?

This column should be used in conjunction with How best might we

learn?
What are the possible ways of assessing students prior knowledge and
skills? What evidence will we look for?

What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the
students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?

Students will create a poster of how their government would look like if they were to be a
president of their country. They have to show in their poster the different government systems
and their functions, the impact of their government on their citizens and the rights and
responsibilities of their government and their citizens.

What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Line of Inquiry
How
government
systems
function
Impact of
government on
citizens
The rights and
responsibilities
of the
government and
the citizens

What will be assessed?

Students understanding
that governments have
systems to create,
implement and review
laws.
Students understanding
that government
decisions and systems
affect the lives of its
citizens.
Both the government and
the citizens have equal
responsibilities for the
country.

How will evidence be collected?

Students compare and contrast the systems of
different forms of government through a table chart.

Using the same chart as above, students on another

column write the impacts of each government on its
citizens based on their systems.
Students identify the rights and responsibilities of the
government and the citizens under the different
colonizers. Using a graphic organizer of their choice,
students compare the rights and responsibilities of
the government and the citizens under each
government.

Tuning-in:
Free-day - Students will be given a 40-minute free time to do whatever they wanted to do. Then they will discuss their answers on
the following questions:
o What happened with-in the 40-minute time given as your free time? Why do we need rules/routines?
o Who sets routines? Why?
Brainstorm, sort and organize who makes decisions on the following:
a. home b. school c. community
o
Why do they need to make decisions? Why do we have rules at home? Why do we have student handbooks in school?
Students will be watching video clips about lives in some barbaric places. Then they will share their ideas on:
If I were the leader in that place.
Students look at the rules we have at school and in their homes. They then discuss and share the impacts of these rules on them.
(Continued in Attachment A)
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the learn er profile?
A. Transdisciplinary Skills
Thinking Skills:
Analysis - By learning about the different functions of the government system, students will be able to analyze the impact of
government systems on the lives of citizens
Synthesis - By learning about the rights and responsibilities of the government and the citizens, the students will be able to
understand that both have equal responsibilities to the country.
Social Skills:
Respecting others - By knowing and understanding about the different systems of the different types of government, students should
be able to recognize that other people's beliefs, viewpoints and ideas may differ from ones own
Cooperating - Students will be able to cooperate to work within their groups after having realized that others viewpoints and ideas
differ from their own.
Communication Skills:
Reading and Writing - Students will be able to improve their reading and writing skills in this unit as they gather facts and express
their ideas and opinions about a certain topic.
Research Skills:
Formulating Questions- Students will be able to develop more skills in formulating questions for their research.
Observing- Students will be able to develop more strategies on how to observe details needed for research.
B. Learner Profile
Knowledgeable - Students will be able to inquire about the government system of the Philippines and compare with the others. They
may also inquire into the different government systems in Philippine history and compare them.
Open-minded - Students will be able to understand and appreciate how different countries strive to achieve good governance.
C. Attitudes
Tolerance - Students will be able to develop this attitude when they become sensitive to the decisions and points of view of others
Appreciation - Students will be able to develop this attitude when, after learning about the different systems of a government, they
get to appreciate how these governments strive to achieve good governance

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
Audio-Visual: http://educationportal.com/academy/lesson/forms-of-government-monarchy-democracy-oligarchy-more.html#lesson, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdh9xo47OWM,
Places: Camp Crame, Pasig City Hall, Ayala Museum Literature: Philippines Pride, Vote For Duck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX9fTuv9xc8
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Magazines and books related to government will be displayed in our UOI museum.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students understanding

of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and
teaching of the inquiry should be included.

What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

Relevance: The students, in general, developed a certain degree of awareness of the importance of
government systems, how the systems function and how the systems affect the lives of the citizens.
They became conscious of accepting each other's uniqueness and individuality making them more
considerate with one another and making them appreciate each others point of view. They were also
made to understand and realize the importance of having systems for them to live in a harmonious,
orderly and a better society.
Engaging: The students enjoyed sharing and discussing their ideas and concepts learned from their
readings, researches, and survey about the different forms of government, especially learning about
how each government is different from another. They were also engaged in discussing and sharing
insights about the different kinds of government systems that the colonizers imposed in Philippine
history, especially that they were able to connect well with what they saw in the dioramas of Philippine
history at Ayala Museum.
Challenging: The students found it tough and demanding, though interesting, to know and carry out their
responsibilities as good citizens, especially knowing about the effects of having good systems in their
lives. They felt overwhelmed that children as young as their age can already contribute to society,
therefore considering their actions as big accomplishments.

How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each students understanding of the central idea.
The assessment could have been better if west dwelt on the concepts. We could
have more focused our assessment in a smaller context using such concepts as
compared to a bigger concept like a country.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and
the transdisciplinary theme?
By looking at the different systems that each government has, students were able to
see the interconnectedness of human systems and community that influence the
lives of citizens. Through their knowledge and understanding of the systems in
government, they were also able to make connections to the concepts of structure
and decision-making.

develop an understanding of the concepts identified in What do we want to

learn?
Function - From the readings and watching video clips about the different forms of government, they realized that each
form of government has its own way of functioning or ruling its country. Knowing about these made them more curious to
know how it feels like to also experience those other forms of government.
Perspective - From the persuasive texts that the students read and written for the Book Fair, the students were able t o
understand that with the different forms of government, each leader has his own way and belief of making his place
better.
Change - The students were able to see that forms of government change through time, too. Even with the government
systems that took place in Philippine history, it has also changed from the period of the early Filipinos to the coming of
the colonizers until we obtained our independence from the Americans.

demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

Thinking Skills - The students were able to display this skill specifically when they had to think of the different
systems, how they functioned and their effects on the lives of the citizens when they went on a field trip to Corregidor.
With the different sites they had seen, they had to identify what kind of system was there before the war. They also
developed this skill when they had to come up with their summative assessment. Planning and analyzing how to come
up with a good country and a good system and enumerating its effects on their citizens was a good manifestation of
this skill.
Social Skills - Students worked and interacted with each other during the different learning engagements, especially
when they had to work as a group and had decisions to make when coming up with their generalizations.
Communication Skills - The students were able to share their ideas as a result of their readings from the texts about
the government systems in Philippine history. The students were able to display this skill when they had to come up
with their Powerpoint presentations to share in class what they have read about the different government systems. This
also opened the opportunity for the other students to offer additional information and to raise questions for clarification.
Research Skills - The students were able to observe and gather information from their field trips for this unit. Knowing
how the government systems changed in the different periods of the colonizers in the Philippines, the students w ere
able to observe and take notes of the differences of the systems implemented by the different colonizers.
develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
Knowledgeable - The students were able to know that there are different forms of government in the world. Likewise in
the Philippines, they were also able to know that the government system that we have now was not the kind of
government system that the early Filipinos had.
Open-minded - Knowing that each form of government in the world is different from each other and, yet, we can still
work together for peace despite the differences, the students were able to develop this profile by looking at themselves
as different from each other too. By knowing this, they understood that even if they are different from each other and
even if their perspectives are different from each other, they became open minded so that they can still work as a class
to make their class better.
Tolerance and Appreciation - Being open-minded students now, they have become more understanding of the
differences that they have from each other and learned to appreciate the ideas that their classmates are sharing in
class.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Reflecting on the inquiry

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?

9. Teacher notes

Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight

any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.

Unit of Inquiry

Why do we have to have government systems?

Why are systems important?

What could happen if we dont have government systems?

What are our responsibilities as citizens?

What are the responsibilities of our government?

At this point teachers should go back to box 2 What do we want to learn? and
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the
inquiries.

What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?

Having the students go on field trips helped them engage more with what we had
been doing in the classroom. This also made me realize the importance of field
trips to these group of students.
The Ayala Museum field trip was something that aroused the curiosity of the
students about the kind of life that the Filipinos had during the time of the
colonizers.
Knowing more about the government, the trip to Camp Crame helped them to
understand more about how laws are being implemented, who are implementing
and who are making the laws.
The field trip to Corregidor and the engagements undertaken during the field trip
was a big factor in making the students understand more about systems. It was a
good opportunity for them to finally see and prove what we had been talking about
in the classroom. As evidenced by their summative assessment, the students were
able to show a full grasp about systems and how systems influence the lives of
citizens.

Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability

to reflect, to choose and to act.

English

The students somehow tried to take the initiative of organizing their classroom
especially in fixing their classroom library and making sure now that the classroom
is in order before they leave.

The debate that the students had about Dictatorship and Democracy somehow
helped the students to become more Open-minded. The sharing of argumentsand
proving/defending their arguments with facts ignited their interest in writing
persuasive texts.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Attachment...

A. Learning Engagements
Finding Out

Sorting Out

Experiences to assist students to gather new information about the topic

Experiences and texts that add to the knowledge base. Emphasis on gathering first-hand data in a
range of ways (usually shared experiences)

Data collection

Gauging, organizing or representing new information

Activities to assist students to process and work with the information and ideas they have gathered about
the topic (including exploring values)
Organizing, analyzing and communicating the information gathered using a range of vehicles (e.g through
Maths, Arts, English, Drama, Music or IT)

Line of Inquiry 1: How government systems function

Students evaluate the different systems that are in place in their classroom and
their different subjects.
Students interview their parents and grandparents about the government system
that they have witnessed and experienced in the Philippine history.
Students are grouped according to the different kinds of government which they
will research on communism, democracy, dictatorship, monarchy.
Line of Inquiry 2: Impact of government on citizens
Students evaluate the impact of rules and essential agreements that we have at
school. They also evaluate the impact of their learning, demonstration and
application of the learner profile.
Students also include in their interview tasks with their parents the impact of the
systems of government on them and on others.
Students also analyze the different lives of people living in communist, democratic,
dictatorship and monarchial countries and connect these with their systems in
place.
Students read an article about Limiting Government. They learn more about the
importance of the constitution, separation of powers, rule of law, consent of the
governed and the rights of the minority.

Line of Inquiry 3: The rights and responsibilities of the government and the citizens

Students list down the rights and responsibilities that they have at home and their
parents to them.
Students find-out the different rights and responsibilities of their school and
themselves in the school.
Students also look at their rights and responsibilities for their countries. Likewise,
they also find-out the rights and responsibilities of our government to them.

Students create an editorial cartoon that would compare and contrast the 4
kinds of government.
Students come up with a T-Chart that would illustrate or tell us about the
impacts of systems on individuals or groups.

Students compose a song that would show the rights and responsibilities of the
government and citizens.

Going Further
Activities to challenge and extend
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated.
They compare and contrast the different systems of government the Philippine colonizers had Spaniards, Americans and Japanese.
Students analyze the lives of the people during the Spanish, American and Japanese colonization and connect these with the systems of governance that they had.
Drawing conclusions
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated. Students draw conclusions of what they have learnt. This is an
important time to evaluate the success of the unit and the needs and achievements of individuals. This is where students put it all together.
Students come up with a generalization chart to show what they learned about the unit.

Reflecting and Taking Action

To reflect on what has been learnt and process of learning. It is important that students be given opportunities to act upon what they have learnt. Actions are things that students can themselves and from which
they can see results.

Students come up with a system for their classroom and decide to revisit their essential agreements so that they will change the things that are not effective with
agreements that they think will help in improving the systems that they have in the classroom.