International Baccalaureate - Primary Years Program

In addition to teaching the practice of the Learner Profile, the PYP also prescribes a curriculum framework with five essential elements; knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes, and action.  Each of these elements is connected to the Learner Profile and used to construct our school’s curriculum.

KNOWLEDGE:  Students in the Primary Years Program attain knowledge through the six transdisciplinary units taught at each grade level.  The units are called “transdisciplinary” because they are not limited to a single subject area (such as science), but rather pull and connect content from all subject areas (science, social studies, math, reading, writing, technology) through a central idea.  Each unit’s central idea is a big, conceptual understanding that would be relevant to anyone in the world. More detailed information from all subject areas are then woven together to form the content of each unit.  

The IB provides six  Transdisciplinary Themes to construct these central ideas and units around – Who We Are, Where We Are in Time and Place, How We Express Ourselves, How the World Works, How We Organize Ourselves, and Sharing the Planet.  The six units from each grade level are aligned across each grade level and from grade to grade to insure a well balanced program.  This is referred to as the Program of Inquiry (POI). The POI is a continual work in progress and will change periodically.  Teachers collaborate regularly to develop these units, reflect on their effectiveness and make changes as deemed appropriate.  The majority of our state and district curriculum will be woven into and taught within these units.  However, not all state and district benchmarks can be connected.  Therefore, explicit instruction of these will occur outside the confines of the IB units.

CONCEPTS:  The following concepts are also incorporated into the transdisciplinary units; form, function causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility, and reflection. When collaborating to write the units, teachers decide which of these concepts best match the central idea of each unit and develop lessons to reinforce them.  Focusing on these concepts allow students to grasp “the big picture” of what is being taught and a way to connect the detailed facts presented to them.

SKILLS:  The PYP promotes the teaching of numerous social skills, communication skills, research skills, thinking skills, and self-management skills.  Instruction and practice of these skills are worked into each lesson of the transdisciplinary units.

ATTITUDES:  In order to take on the acquisition of new knowledge, concepts and skills, students must display certain attitudes toward learning and the people around them.  The PYP teaches students about how each individual’s approach to every situation can positively, or negatively affect the outcome.  The attitudes; appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect, and tolerance, and their impact on student success, are taught throughout the school by all the Helen Keller staff.  If a student possesses and displays these attitudes, they are demonstrating practice of the Learner Profile.

ACTION:  The final essential element of the PYP is student action.  The ultimate goal of the program is to have students independently choosing a course of action, taking that action, and then reflecting on it.  All the other pieces of this program prepare students to do this with skill and integrity, with caring and thoughtfulness.  While we are looking for this to occur, without adult prompting, at all the grade levels, the PYP has set up a 5th Grade Exhibition.  The last IB unit in 5th grade will be written and conducted by each student. This is their opportunity to demonstrate action in the world. Specific information about the exhibition will be provided to 5th grade parents at Curriculum Night in the Fall of each school year when Keller has become an authorized IB school.