Action Cycle

This post was written as a part of the CV PYP blog for parents, but I thought teachers may enjoy it as well: As many of you know, College View is a candidate school for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program. One of the essential elements of this program is for students to take action as a result of their learning. We believe that successful inquiry will lead to responsible action, initiated by the student as a result of the learning process.

Our hope is that students will move through the action cycle as a result of their learning. After each unit of inquiry, we hope to give students the opportunity and power to choose to act, to decide on their actions, and to reflect on their actions in order to make a difference in the world. 

IB PYP Action Cycle

Student initiated action can take many different forms. Action can be taken by an individual student, groups of students or as a school community. Action may take place at home, at school or in the community.

Action can be big or small. Last year, at College View, we had quite the range of student initiated action. After learning about how people rely on one another, a group of 4th grade students raised money for the Red Cross. This was a rather large project that included many students and impacted the community. On a smaller scale, we had a kindergarten student who had learned about life cycles, choose not to pick dandelions on the playground because she knew it would stop the life cycle. Both examples demonstrate how students took action as a result of their learning.

As parents, you can help your child's teacher by letting her know if you see your child taking action as a result of his/her learning. Our hope is that the units of inquiry are not just something they are learning, but that they are something that changes the way they think about our world. 

Teachers are just wrapping up their first units on the following concepts. Please let your child's teacher know if you see your child taking action as a result of his/her learning.

• Preschool:  Making and keeping friends
• Kindergarten:  Rules and routines in the school community
• 1st Grade:  Individual rights and responsibilities
• 2nd Grade: Personal Coices
• 3rd Grade: Survival in inter-related systems
• 4th Grade: Interdependence among groups of people
• 5th Grade: Personal, physical, social, spiritual and mental health