 |
The two days IB Primary Years Programme Workshop on ‘Assessment in PYP’ and ‘Inquiry in PYP’ were very much appreciated by all staff who attended the sessions.
‘Assessment in PYP
The program, delivered by Shane Murphy, was meaningful for all teachers, whatever their role or experience within the Primary Years Program is. Mr. Murphy combined meaningful activities with information and discussion. He helped the participants to get a feel for the role of Assessment for Learning within the Primary Years Program, encouraging all to be creative in their choice of assessment tools and strategies.
 |
On the first day, Mr Murphy assessed all participants in the "traditional way" on their knowledge of basic IB Primary Years Program information! This activity reminded everyone of how uncomfortable some forms of assessment are for students. The role of Self Assessment was discussed at length and useful samples of assessment methods were shared by Mr Murphy. The Summative Task for Day 1 was to collaboratively produce a chart showing what we had learned and understood about Assessment for Learning.
The second day focussed on particular forms of assessment and how these are shared by the school with parents/students such as the G5 Exhibition, SLC, Report Cards and P.T.M. The Summative Task, this time, was to create an assessment rubric for a birthday party.
The workshop reassured the participants that what is already being done in school is excellent, but that there are also opportunities to review practice and perfect the approach to Assessment for Learning.
Workshop on ‘Inquiry in PYP’
 |
A workshop on ‘Inquiry in PYP’ was attended by the teachers of PYP at school on 28th and 29th September, 2012. Mrs Khona Bhattacharjee was the workshop leader. She had a lot to enlighten the staff about the inquiry process. Teachers were told about different inquiry cycles, usage of ‘tool-box’ tuning-in activities, unit planners, pre-assessment, advantages of inquiry-based approach to teaching-learning over thematic approach, etc. The workshop was a lot of fun since it was very interactive. Many of the teachers’ doubts were cleared efficiently by the leader. The entire process was a great learning process for staff.
