[See all my final project posts.]
Since I last wrote, Lindsay and I decided to use the MYP Next Chapter unit planner. This will allow the unit to be used again next year and helps us transition to the fall. Lindsay went to subject specific MYP training last month and I did some reading on my own. We worked together to come up with key and related concepts, the global context and the statement of inquiry. Since this is the first unit either of us is creating with these new elements, we know we might have to do some adapting as the unit progresses.
The last piece we’re trying to finalize is the inquiry question. We’d like to have 1 question from art and 1 from design for each of the types (factual, conceptual and debatable). Although I’m completely open to any and all feedback regarding the unit, I’d specifically love some thoughts about our inquiry questions! Please check out my brainstorm post and then leave me any feedback here (or on the unit planner). MERCI!
te(a)ch french 
Hi Lissa,
This looks good. I went to NC training a few weeks ago and have been writing Next Chapter Units this year. The new planner definitely lends itself to better units and ultimately better teaching and learning, but for me, it takes a bit longer to plan to make authentic the connections between the concepts and questions. (And I sometimes spend way too much time wordsmithing my inquiry statement). ^_^
What final product(s)/assessment did you decide on for this project? I think that is an important piece as your inquiry statement should be directly connected to the assessment.
I also think that the inquiry statement should be understandable to students, as we want them to be able to articulate their meaning and ideas surrounding their inquiry.
In our school, we want students to be able to refer back to the inquiry statement in their reflection and learning, does this statement make it easy for students to do that?
With your use of the word “media” it makes it seem that kids can present their final project in different ways, but I think it’s only through photography, right?
I do love your debatable questions for both art and design! They are great and I’d love to hear the kids responses to this at the end of the unit.
Could your first debatable question be turned into your statement of inquiry?
Like: Cultural differences affect the way a message (or media) is perceived.
But, in the end is that what you are focusing on? Or are you focusing on the education from the messages or how these messages are impacting the local/global community?
Sorry, I’m not sure how helpful this was, I love your unit and it’s making me think of a photography unit for my classes. I may have asked you more questions than help you with your question.
As always, I look forward to what you create and do with your kids, so keep posting. I’ll have mine up soon!
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Thanks Julie!! Asking questions is the perfect way to help me…your questions always make me think and articulate what’s in my head.
I definitely agree that the Next Chapter concepts, statement of inquiry and inquiry questions lend themselves to better learning. But we’ve been in the same boat…we worry so much about the wording and get hung up on it!
Our final product will be a social media campaign using photography aimed at changing people’s behavior (stop littering in Kuwait or come visit Kuwait).
We used the word media in our inquiry statement because we wanted it to encompass both photography and social media. We chose globalization and sustainability as our context because we want to focus on the interconnectedness of communities around the world, ‘the relationship between local and global,’ ‘how local experiences mediate the global,’ the opportunities and tensions provided by world-interconnectedness,’ and ‘the impact of decision making on humankind and the environment.’ We want students to think about how they can have an impact on people around the world using media (photography and social). Their goal is to have an impact on the decisions other people make.
Our focus isn’t necessarily the cultural differences but the interconnectedness of the world and humans’ impact on other humans. Does that make sense?
🙂
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