by Chris Keller, PYP Coordinator, Lakeside -

In a PYP (Primary Years Programme) school, the culmination of primary school learning is the exhibition unit, in which students carry out an extended, collaborative inquiry. The exhibition synthesises the essential elements of the programme: knowledge, transdisciplinary skills, concepts, attitudes and action. It’s an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the http://www.cis.edu.sg/page.cfm?p=408International Baccalaureate (IB) learner profile that have been developing throughout their time in the PYP and to celebrate their learning and share it with the whole school community. This year the students developed their personal inquiries in the transdisciplinary theme ‘Sharing the Planet’ and connected to the central idea ‘Rights and responsibilities shape the lives of individuals and communities’.

As a PYP Coordinator, I am always excited when the Exhibition unit begins. It’s a clear opportunity to see where students’ interests develop and how they grow as independent learners in a collaborative group. At any given time during the unit, if you walked into the Grade 6 pod and classrooms, there was evidence of real learning taking place. There were groups of students meeting in open spaces, having conversations with mentors, interviewing a person from the local community, making telephone calls to visit a local organisation, researching with print material and reliable internet resources, or creating surveys and planning experiments. Excellent opportunities were provided for students to explore their ideas creatively through drama, poetry, photography, music, visual arts and ICT.

Every student had time to reflect on their daily learning and make their thinking visible through conversations, reflections in their learning blogs or on their class blogs. They thought about new understandings to their questions and issues and what their next steps should be. The engagement and energy were high because they had to choose what issue to explore, justify why and plan it out. They had to not only ask themselves just WHAT? but SO WHAT? and NOW WHAT? The exhibition was about student choice and learners taking ownership of their learning.

As students use and provide evidence of the 5 essential elements of the PYP they must ask themselves ‘How will what I’ve learnt result in positive change?’. This is the action component of the PYP Exhibition. There were many actions that occurred as a result of student learning, some of these were immediately evident and some may occur in the future.

A few of these tangible actions were:

• Shifts in students’ thinking
• Getting parents to change their choices when purchasing items
• Volunteering at a school for disabled children
• Visiting a soup kitchen to help deliver food to an HDB
• Using ICT tools to create videos that were posted to develop awareness of issues
• Collected PE equipment and sent it to the PIO School in Cambodia
• Creating leaflets to share about animal adoption

Students are usually nervous before they begin the exhibition and teachers think about each student and how they can be successful during the process. CIS students truly demonstrated enthusiasm and commitment, and made valuable connections for rich and meaningful learning. The students not only gained new knowledge but they also further developed lifelong skills needed in the real world, long after formal schooling.

Please view here a great example of PYP exhibition video prepared by Grade 6 students Frank, Adam, Cordelia and Alexandra.

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