With no prior experience with teaching in an IB PYP school, starting out last year in my new school as the Classroom Music Teacher was quite a daunting experience. I was truly blessed though to have great support in my Principal and other staff members who encouraged me to teach my music program from my previous school and try and link in to the class UOI’s where I could.
As I do in any situation I set about trying to impress as much as I could and link as often as I could to the classroom UOI which I thought would be the best PYP inquiry teaching.
What I found though was the skills/techniques I wanted to teach the children were not being done chronologically/developmentally as I tried to focus too much on the OUI taught in the classroom. I was a little frustrated with this and didn’t understand how I could honour my discipline of teaching musicianship and authentically link to the PYP units being taught.
At the beginning of this year I went to the 3 day course “Making the PYP Happen in the Classroom”. This was my first experience of IB PYP Professional Development and yes at the start I was completely overwhelmed by the whole thing.
While I learnt an incredible amount about how to teach using the PYP inquiry method my biggest question still wasn’t answered:
How can I teach classroom music in an IB school, using the inquiry methodologies to AUTHENTICALLY link to the class UOI and at the same time HONOUR my developmental curriculum.
This answer came 3 months later at an Arts Workshop for Single Subject Teachers presented by Theo Mandziy (Coordinator of Primary Single Subject Programme and Visual Arts teacher, Australian International School, Singapore)
At this workshop I realised I was focusing too much on the ‘UOI’ and not on the skill development of the children because I mistook linking with the classroom to be more important than the skill set I was teaching.
I was focusing on the topic/theme/idea eg using an indigenous song and then singing, dancing or playing instruments to it, rather than focusing on the skills & techniques and using my language during my lesson to link into the “concepts” being taught.
Theo presented 3 ways of planning:
- Specialist Driven UOI
This may be a wonderful concept & idea but Theo said it is very hard to pull off, especially if you are only part time. This is where the Specialist subject teacher/s plan the UOI and the classroom teacher links in with it.
- Link with a class UOI
Specialist teachers don’t need to link with every UOI, as long as you find at least one UOI to link with in the year that is suffice. To find this UOI look for authentic and purposeful links to the work in both classrooms, which allows you to honour the discipline that you are teaching.
You can write your own UOI that links with it or even take a line of inquiry from the classroom UOI.
The best way to link in is with the PYP Concepts being taught. Here the key is ensuring the language (key words/ideas) used in both class settings is the same or similar.
These links can be done before, during or after the class UOI is taught. For example this year I have linked with the Year 6/7 OUI on Ancient Civilisations by teaching my Ancient Celtic Music unit before the class did theirs and this worked fine.
- Stand Alone OUI
Single subject teachers don’t need to teach all 6 transdisciplinary themes because it is unrealistic & not authentic to the disciplines being taught. So while we need to teach 6 UOI over the whole year it may be more appropriate to teach from certain themes eg. “How we express ourselves”.
Our Stand Alone Units may also be taught throughout the whole year with no fixed start or end date. For example you may use Musical Elements as your UOI. Beat for example can be taught all year round as you refer to it along the way.
How have I now implemented this in my classroom?
I have since revamped my program have a look at my example overview from my Reception (5 yr olds) class:
view a pdf version here: IB PYP Single Subject Overview planner
I have 6 UOI, 4 year long ones & 2 that link to the classroom UOI.
To honour my discipline, I still use my developmental curriculum ‘The Interactive Music Room: A developmental classroom music program for interactive whiteboard, Book 1- beginning primary’ which I have adapted from ‘Music Room: A developmental classroom music program, Book 1 – Beginning Primary’.
However while this resource has been written with inquiry learning in mind, I always add other resources to this to enhance the UOI being taught and bring personal meaning to the students learning.
In the future I will post a blog on how I present and display this in my lessons.
I am and will be constantly looking at how I can better improve this. And in no way do I believe I have conquered this task of a 100% answer to my initial question, on how to authentically plan a PYP UOI as a specialist/single subject teacher. But I do believe I am now on the right path, or at least on the verge!
For me I have loved (and will continue to) the chase of aspiring to plan in the most effective and authentic way in a PYP school. I am becoming a better teacher for it and can’t wait to see the results.
How has it changed me as a teacher?
The skills, techniques, activities, songs and instruments haven’t changed. It has been the vocabulary I use when teaching which has changed as I focus more on the way I deliver information to the children to keep the lines of inquiry at the forefront of my lessons.
My questions to other PYP specialist/single subject teachers out there are: How do you plan? What has worked for you in your school? How do you link to the classroom UOI while staying true to your discipline?
Read part 2 in this series showing how we developed the programming further in 2014 onwards.
Teach to transform!
Cheryl
If you like my work, please support me by buying me a coffee. thank you for your support.
mrsbmusicroom.com 
Hi Cheryl,
I am also teaching as a music specialist at an IB School and has been struggling with the same problems. I’m glad that I found your blog, it gives me lots of new ideas. I look forward to read more about your IB planning =)
Cheers
Serena
Hi Serena, great to hear from you. Nice to know I’m not the only one grappling with this. Glad I could help with my blog. I’d love to know how you go with some of the ideas and how you implement & improve them.
Cheers
Cheryl
Thanks a lot Cheryl, I am so glad my PYP coordinator send the link to your blog!
I did not go over all the posts and articles yet, but I feel this is what I needed.
Reading this post reminds me about my experiences.
I will follow your blog and certainly will come back with questions and hopefully I can help you as well.
Blessings,
Nona
Thanks Nona, I hope to write some more posts soon. I have been flat out lately but will share this years planning once I have it sorted.
Blessings
Cheryl
Dear Cheryl,
Saya juga mengajar di sekolah IB dan saya menemukan pertanyaan yang sama dengan anda. Namun, lebih dalam lagi, saya memiliki pertanyaan yang cukup fundamental. Saya percaya bahwa dengan musik kita dapat mengajarkan apapun secara tekstual dan kontekstual, 6 tema transdisiplin yang direkomendasikan IB hanya beberapa diantaranya. saya percaya kita bisa mengajarkan 6 tema transdisiplin tersebut melalui musik. sesuai dengan rekomendasi IB (perencanaan, pelaksanaan dan penilaian yang sudah disebutkan dalam dokumen Making PYP Happen dan target atau goal siswa dalam Art Scope and Sequences) dan menggunakan paradigma IB adalah cara belajar yang terbaik menurut IB.
Pertanyaan saya, apakah bedanya sekolah IB dengan sekolah yang dianggap IB sebagai sekolah Konvensional jika kita guru musik IB mengajar musik secara stand alone?
Semoga pertanyaan ini bisa membantu anda mencari lebih dalam.
Terimakasih 🙂
Thank you for your thought provoking questions. These questions are the same ones I have been thinking about too. Yes I agree that integration can happen and it could be possible to teach across the 6 transdisciplinary themes in music if that was your focus, but is it necessary?
At an IB conference I attended it was stressed that your first importance is to teach the discipline/skill set of music and to plan IB into this so as to fully respect the subject of music, while still teaching the IB inquiry approach.
When you take into account as a specialist subject we are only one part of the class’s education then we need to collaboratively plan together with the other subject teachers to ensure that the 6 transdisciplinary themes, concepts, skills, knowledge, attitudes and learner profiles are being covered in the whole education of the child.
hi there. looking forward to reading more about the pyp music in your blog as i may have to teach it too and it scares me! (but interests me too)
Hello Cheryl,
It’s nice to see a different way of IB planning in Music. I would love to plan skill based stand alone year long units for my students, but my supervisor insisted that I should collaborate with all the classroom units with all year levels, unless I find a better way to fill out the UOI for each year long unit. With my collaboration unit, I would just add on to the year level’s UOI since we are sharing the same central idea, but I wonder if I am required to fill the UOI on my own on the skill based unit.
How do you fill out your UOI for your stand alone year long unit, and what about UOI for your collaboration unit?
Thanks.
thanks for your comment, I have been thinking of writing another post on this incorporating some downloads of my planning from this year. I will post it soon basing it on your comment above.
Hi Cheryl
As someone who follows the teaching pedagogy and philosophy of Zoltan Kodaly I have found the challenge of incorporating inquiry based learning within a method which is concept driven in the Primary Years. However, I have found that there is commonality within both in regards to philosophical approaches to both. Kodaly’s views on the importance of folk song (and his work as an ethnomusicologist) ties in very nicely with the concept of ‘Who We Are’ – in that the cultural heritage of communities within any time and place can be reflected through the indigenous song of a country. Then working out to the global folk song heritage (as children’s songs are the same all around the world). As singing is the core music activity within Kodaly methodology I have found this works really well….and the girls really love to know the stories that are the cornerstone of the Australian bush ballad.
Thank you for your post Donna. I agree with you, Who we are and How we express ourselves are the major concepts that I focus on linking in with the class UOI. Sticking “true” to music teaching pedagogy and philosophy is that challenge we face and I believe tweaking the way we deliver this is how we can incorporate inquiry learning.
Hi! Thank you for this post. I’m on my third year in teaching IB PYP. I’m also trained with Kodaly Method of teaching. Linking the two philosophies has been a challenge for me. Good to know that I’m the only one with the same challenge! Looking forward to reading more posts regarding this.
Thanks a lot!
Did you read my mind? Like the other posts, I’m a music teacher (and band director) at a wonderful IB school. I’m struggling as well to implement IB strategies in my room. Like you, I want to be authentic. And I feel that music and PYP go hand-in-hand, it’s finding the linkages that makes it challenging. I can’t thank you enough for your blog!
Hi there, I began teaching music at an IB school a year ago and faced exactly the same challenges. However, while at an IB training on Music and Inquiry, I learned that specialists are not required to teach 6 UOI per year. We can do as many or as few as we see fit. It is all right there in making the PYP Happen!!! Now I do four. Three stand alone’s per grade level and I authentically integrate with one UOI for each grade. I am hoping to develop a well articulated, skills based, developmental PYP music program that I can share of the OCC by year’s end! Wish me luck!
Yes this year I am trialling blending my previous stand alones into 2 stand alones (Making & Responding) to marry it with the Australian Curriculum and then at least 2 integrated, unless there is no way of integrating. We’ll see how that works after reflection at the end of the year, so far going OK!
Now that I’ve had a little more experience with PYP and MYP I’ve got the planning more in sync with my Kodaly philosophy. I’ve created a year long skills stand alone unit (which came from my scope and sequence) and then interrupt it when I link. However I always start the year with a whole school ‘How we use the Learner Profile in Music’. This is working much more effectively for me.
Hi can anybody share their overview, I have been teaching at a PYP school for the past 4 years and still struggle with the whole system. I have 319 kids that I see on a weekly basis and teach mostly skills.
Your help welcome please, suggestions.
Regards Michelle
Hi Michelle I’m happy to share my overview with you. If you want to email me at donnacianciosi@gmail.com I can show you what I do.
Thank you Donna!
Hi Cheryl,
I just came across your blog and so grateful I did! I teach grades K-8 and was told I need to connect with every unit of every class! Crazy. I tried it this year and it was not my music curriculum and some of it was “filler” – was deeply frustrated. Do you know where it states that we can do as many or as little connections to the classroom UOI as we see fit?
Also – I am building a brand new program – it is going well – plus learning the PYP & MYP at the same time. I really want to build my own overview and Scope & Sequence. Is there anyone out there that has done this and would be willing to please share so I can get ideas to make my own? I really want to spend time on it this summer and needing some help and inspiration.
I am in Ontario, Canada. Thank you in advance!!
adeboerjones@sjkeagles.com
Hi Andrea,
Ask your PYP Coordinator for the ‘IB primary years arts scope and sequence.pdf’.
Page 2 states
“It is the school’s responsibility to find opportunities to infuse arts teaching and learning in all areas of the curriculum that are relevant to the community of learners and reflect the educational theories underpinning the programme. The school’s programme of inquiry provides a relevant and authentic context for students to create and respond to arts. Wherever possible, arts should be taught through the units of inquiry and should support students’ inquiries. The direct teaching of arts in a unit of inquiry may not always be feasible. However, teachers have a responsibility to help students to make explicit connections between different aspects of their learning. Students need opportunities to identify and reflect on “big ideas” within and between the arts strands, the programme of inquiry, and other subject areas. The role of inquiry in arts is important as students engage in building understanding of these links and arts in the world.”
It continues onto page 3 where it talks about 3 different ways to contribute to the outcome of the transdiciplinary program; ‘Developing or supporting’, ‘Preparing for or following on from’, or writing your own ‘Independent arts inquiry’ unit.
In this 3rd option is where you look at the classroom unit of inquiry and rather than try to link in with the unit being taught, you link in with either the; Transdiciplinary Skills, Concepts, Attitudes or Learner Profiles being specifically taught by the classroom teacher.
In regards to an overview scope and sequence I have developed mine in relation to the schools POI, in reference to which units I can link with and then with the Australian Curriculum as to what I need to cover at each level.
Hi Cheryl.
Loved reading your blog.
I am starting as Ib specialist teacher for Dance at a school in India, and am trying to put together my stand alone planner and Dance UOI. I have some how found 2 UOI to integrate with in each grade. How ever the Stand alone planner is proving a little complex.
Would you advice any blog from a dance teacher, or something??
I have to find the balance in teaching the discipline and making the dance syllabus work in an IB format.
Thanks
Regards
Yes I found this hard too. At first I wrote stand alones for all of the elements of music, but over the first couple of years found this to be a lot of work and very time consuming, also frustrating that often I will teach multiple elements in one lesson. After speaking to other schools we decided I would write 2 stand alones based on the 2 overarching areas in the curriculum – Making & Responding (for Australia this is the same for Dance too) and these stand alones are taught all year round. The Lines of inquiry are then written to cover the elements of music e.g. pitch, beat, rhythm etc (dance would be space, time, dynamics and relationships). This way you can still teach the discipline and make the IB format work and really not change the way you have always taught. In your day to day teaching, ensure you teach with the inquiry methodology in mind which is easy in the arts anyway.
You can also choose to link with concepts/trans skills/Attitudes/Learner profiles if you can’t find an authentic link.
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I have been a music teacher for many years, but have only been at an IB PYP school for the past 2 years. Although we have had a successful program, I have continued to struggle with teaching music curriculum and tying it to the classroom teachers programs. I would appreciate any information you could send my way. I’m trying to write a curriculum, but could really use help. I have the music scope and sequence, but still find it quite vague. I look forward to hearing from you,
Vickie
Hi Vicki, thanks for your comment, What kind of help would you like? I am getting quite a few comments here so wondering the best way to provide help for everyone as it seems to be a very common theme and concern for everyone. would you like some more specific blogs posts or examples of unit planners? Have you read both of my posts on IB planning?
thanks
Cheryl
Thanks for answering so quickly. I could use some sample unit planners.
I think some ideas on unit planners would be great too – or even if people posted ideas on how they connect with the differebt UOI – we could come up with a cool list maybe?
I teach Creative Movement at an IB school and struggle with the same stuff you do. It is hard to fulfill my objectives and develop the specific gross motors skills my young students need while at the same time follow the lines of inquiry proposed by the UOI. I love the way you have incorporated the UOI that have something to do with your subject and how you have left stand alone units for your specific curriculum. I will be proposing this model to my Academic Coordinator and I am sure she will love it!
Thank you for commenting, glad my post has been helpful for you. Best of luck in moving foreward in your IB journey!
Hi Cheryl,
I am teaching visual art in a PYP school and now under new administration I have been told that I cant teach stand alones and cannot have separate UOI. I was told that I should just follow the TD theme of every grade level and teach under that theme. It is not easy to integrade with every unit classes are doing. Its so frustrating.
When you can’t authentically link with transdisciplinary theme, link with concepts, transdisciplinary skills, attitudes or learner profiles they are learning in that unit instead.