1. What is our purpose?

Class/grade:5 Age group: 10-11

To inquire into the following: School: CMIS School code:060195
 Transdisciplinary theme: Where we are in place and time: Title: Civilizations
An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and
Teacher(s): Pushpita Nandy, Sumita Barua (Music) and Jalal Uddin (PYPC)
journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the
Date: 9th December, 2018 – 7th February, 2019
relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and
Proposed duration: 48 hours over 6 weeks
civilizations, from local and global perspectives.

Central Idea: Evidence of past civilizations can be used to make connections to 2. What do we want to learn?
present day societies.
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
Summative assessment task(s): perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for? Key concepts: Change, connection, form
Related concepts: continuity, progress, difference, validity.
Task : Each student will choose a civilization discussed in class. They will What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
research different aspects of the civilization, and how it helped to shape our
 Characteristics of civilizations and societies
lives today. Each student will put together a presentation educating their
classmates about how the daily lives of their civilization were meaningful to the  Connections between past and present
makeup of the specific civilization, and to our current daily life.  Implications for the future
Evidence to look:  Processes involved in collecting, analyzing and validating evidence
 Characteristics of the ancient civilization
 Connections between past and present What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
Teacher question:
 What do you understand by past?
Strategy : Open-ended.
 Why is it important to study past?
Tools : Rubric.
 What are the differences between past life and present day life?
 Name some things that were different in the past.
 How do we know about things in the past?
 What does an archaeologist do?
 What is a civilization? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAQAAJo1fI0
Provocation:
Students will be exposed to some pictures /artifacts of ancient times, so that they can explore
more about it.
3. How Might we know what we have learned? 4. How best might we learn?

What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the students
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?” to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills? What Tuning In (3 days):
evidence will we look for?  Warmup: Students will share what all they already know, what they want to know and later
Prior Knowledge Task : what they have learned in the trans disciplinary theme and fill in the KWL Chart.
 Watching the Weslandia read aloud and discussion: Weslandia is a short picture book about a
 KWL Chart or Brain Storm: Students will think about and share what boy who creates his own civilization in his backyard. He developed different elements of
they already know, what they want to know, and later will share what civilization to make it run successfully. The class to identify characteristics of civilizations and
cultures after watching Weslandia. Some examples of characteristics that could be identified
they learned about in the unit. Discuss key words such as Civilization, while reading this book are: language, food, employment, entertainment, leadership and
government, laws, currency, religion, etc.
Inventions, Change Over Time might.
 Students watch the Weslandia read aloud and discuss the characteristics of Finding Out (10 days):
 Reading from relevant books. Using a map to understand why civilizations developed near rivers.
civilization.
 Students take some questions home with which to interview their relatives in order to find out
information about their ancestors. They will share the results of the interview in small groups.
 The students read through a fact sheet on archaeology and the various tools needed for it. They
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines apply this knowledge in various tasks like matching tools to their functions.
of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?  Students will be able to name and locate significant ancient civilizations on a map of the world.
 The student discuss Indus valley civilization under the following headings-“Town planning”,
”Houses”, ”Religion”, ”Art and Culture”, ”Agriculture”, ”Life of people”. The teacher and the
FA1 Assessment Task: students compared the past civilization and the present civilization using a Venn diagram.
Students choose any two civilizations to compare and contrast the characteristics.  The impact of Indus valley civilization on our present civilization.
They also identify the characteristics that made them flourish and fall.  Investigate which simple machines were developed by past civilizations (for example, lever,
ramp, pulley, screw, wheel).
What will be assessed: Students’ understanding that all civilizations and societies  Explore the principle of using gears to provide more work for less energy.
have certain characteristics that made them flourish or fail.  Analyse why and how we still use simple machines.
Assessment tool: Rubric  Visit to the regional museum.
Assessment strategy: Observation Sorting out (10 days):
 Guest speaker (history professor) will be invited to give a lecture related to civilization.
 Civilization essentials: Students work in groups answering questions about what they would need
FA2 Assessment task: for their civilizations to survive on a deserted island. They will then have to relate their findings
Students create a chart that shows a connection of the past civilization to the present. to the basic features of a civilization in essay form.
What will be assessed: Students’ understanding that our present times have  Exposure and looping back of various organizational tools like Venn diagrams and t-charts are
evidences of the past. done here.
 Historical detectives-knowing the role of an Archaeologist and how they investigate.
Assessment tool: anecdotal record  Students will integrate music through researching music in different civilizations. They will get to
Assessment strategy: process focused assessment know the connection between music of past and present, and how music influence society.
Going further and making conclusion (6 days):
 Venn-diagram to assess their understanding of past and linking it to present.
FA3 Assessment task: Be an archaeologist: Students in a group will work like archaeologists  The students start personal and individual research for the presentation of their summative task.
They are given the criteria of the rubric on which they will be assessed, as a guide for the mas
.They will analyze the given artefacts. They will divide their work by assigning different roles to
they research and prepare.
their group member like timer, scribe, presenter and discussion leader. They will articulate their  Students reflect individually on the understanding and learning gained from the unit.
understanding of archaeological processes with other groups. Strategy: selected response;  Students are able to apply and share new learning with others. Can apply learning to new
Tool: Checklist. contexts creating/constructing/doing in their summative task
 What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?
Transdisciplinary skills:
Communication skills –present timelines and their artifacts and other pieces of work to their
classmates;
Research skills –developing questions, recording data, presenting results from an interview during
visit.
Learner profile:
Inquirers–ask questions and find information about different civilization and they will find out about
their past.
Risk takers – students will create a museum. Something they have not done before.
Open-minded and principled–listen to a range of histories and traditions and develop respect for other
cultures and other customs.
Attitudes:
Cooperation: Learners will show cooperation while working together peacefully.
Appreciation: Learners will become appreciative while learning about the contributions of ancient
civilizations.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
https://www.google.com/search?q=pictures+of+artifacts+for+civilization&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjwhPT-
hozbAhUJQo8KHQ0pBBQQsAQIJA&biw=1366&bih=613 (pictures of artifacts), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization (Civilization), https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=IAQAAJo1fI0 (history of civilization), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k544jQEleQM (ancient age), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9bcohqsTGk (roman
empire), https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/6vz8hc/which_civilization_has_the_best_music/ (music), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d2XdFsnkgQ -
westlandia

Books - “Inquiring Into Our World” Primary Social Studies Books 5A and 5B, Curriculum Planning & Development Division Ministry of Education,
Singapore by Marshall Cavendish Education

Places: National Museum

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Movie : 10,000 B.C
Students will be exposed to some pictures /artifacts of ancient times ,so that they can explore more about it.
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose? 7. To what extend did we include the elements of the PYP?

Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’ What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the
planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included.  develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
Homeroom teacher: This was a very interesting unit. Students enjoyed Form - Students demonstrated the understanding of form by studying the major
investigating about different civilizations. Understanding the dates used in
civilizations of the world and finding out the characteristics of each civilization.
History such as BC/BCE, AD/CE and the Timeline of major civilizations at the
beginning of the unit made it very easy for the students to understand how They compared and contrasted these civilizations to find out which
different achievements influenced other achievements. We watched a video characteristics are similar and which ones are different. By comparing different
“Westindia” in order to introduce what civilization meant. From the video, civilizations, they learned that most civilizations have certain characteristics. For
students were able to identify the characteristics of civilization as language, example, most civilizations have a reliable food supply, a social structure, a
food, employment, entertainment, leadership and government, laws, currency, government, religion, a form of writing, unique arts and architecture and some
religion, etc. form of technology. These characteristics are what form civilizations.
Maths was integrated when time line was taught. The students learnt how to
Change – Students demonstrated their understanding that aspects of past
create a time and adding timelines, exploring the concept of past time.
In Bengali, students studied an ancient civilization of Bangladesh named Wari- civilization have survived over time. In their second formative assessment they
Bateshwar ruins. created a chart that shows a connection of the past civilization to the present. In
In PSPE, students looked at the connection between past and present Olympic the chart, each student looked at a civilization of their choice, noted the
Games. They wrote about the games that were played then and the new achievements made to present day and looked at how that invention has
additions to the Olympic Games being played present. changed overtime. For example, the Nile civilization invented telling of time
using obelisks, sundial and the Egyptian water clock. Today, we tell time using
clocks
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a
more accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea. Connection – Students demonstrated the understanding that various systems
developed in the past and affect the evolution of the civilization
For the first formative assessment, students need to have more practice on
how to use the Venn diagram. Other graphic organizers such as the matrix  demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
could also be taught so that the students have a choice on the graphic RESEARCH SKILLS
organizer they would like to use.
Collecting – Formulating questions and collecting relevant and factual
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea information. The students read books on civilizations from the library, searched
and the transdisciplinary theme? the internet and went to the museum to gather information on the civilizations.
Students chose a civilization for their research and tried to connect past Presenting findings – Presenting findings to their peers with visual
features and cultures with present-day lifestyle and culture. This showed that representations and clear explanations. Students prepared PowerPoint
they made a good connection between central idea and the theme description. presentations and presented to the class. They also drew charts to show the
connection between past and present.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Listening – students listened to each other present
Reading - the students read books on different civilizations
 Reflecting on the Inquiry

9. Teacher notes
Strengths Areas needing improvement
 develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?  Creating a timeline of major  Next year we need more
In each case, explain your selection. world civilizations and a related books.
chart titled “Understanding  We need to choose interesting
Risk – taker - Dates in History” at the movie other than 10 000 BC
Inquirer – beginning of the unit was because it was boring.
Open-minded - They are open to perspectives of other civilizations’ useful.
theories. They seek and evaluate a range of points of view, and are willing  The YouTube video of
to grow from the experience. “Weslandia” introduced the
Principled - characteristics of
Thinkers - They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and civilization.
creatively to recognize and approach complex problems.  The textbooks, “Inquiring
Into Our World” Primary
Social Stuudies Books 5A
and 5B, curriculum Planning
& Development Division
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning? Ministry of Education,
Singapore by Marshall
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and
Cavendish Education were
highlight any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
very helpful for this unit.

At this point teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn? and
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving
the inquiries.

What students-initiated actions arose from the learning?

Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their

ability to reflect, to choose and to act.