Demystifying the related concepts

 

I lead many PYP workshops, and one of my favourites is Making the PYP Happen: Implementing Agency.  I absolutely love working with teachers new to the PYP to help them make connections between the various elements of the programme.  One of the most challenging aspects for new teachers PYP is writing central ideas.  In my workshops I walk them through a process of identifying the related concepts they want to address in a unit, and then we work on how we can put these together with a strong verb in order to write a central idea that will be universal and timeless, and so transferable to new contexts.  Of course at this point the question arises: where do we find the related concepts?  The seven key concepts are already defined by the PYP, but the related concepts are sometimes trickier to find.

The related concepts are generally drawn from the individual scope and sequence documents.  Of course the documents you use could also be the national curriculum documents of a particular country.  You will also find related concepts in the descriptors of each PYP transdisciplinary theme and in the PYP strands in each subject scope and sequence.  Drawing concepts from the different subjects, and putting them together into a central idea, will ensure that the unit is truly transdisciplinary.  

This resource contains six tables, one for each transdisciplinary theme, broken up into strands, each of which contain several related concepts.  Toddle has done a brilliant job, as always, of publishing these in an easy to use format.

I hope this resource is useful to you as you design your PYP units.

Click here to download Your Go-to List of PYP Related Concepts