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Language and Mathematics in the PYP...

 

One common question parents ask about PYP is: How are language and maths taught in a PYP school?

Most of the time, maths and language learning is embedded in the units of inquiry. Sometimes, though, it is necessary to teach students skills without the inquiry to help them progress. Where possible, teachers will still use inquiry learning and teaching methods for these skills lessons and will provide opportunities for students to practise what they have learned within the units of inquiry. Below is an overview of how language and maths practices in classrooms across the world are changing.

 

How are language practices changing?

 

Increased emphasis on:

Decreased emphasis on:

promoting integrated language development

teaching language as isolated strands

language as a transdisciplinary element throughout the curriculum

language as a separate discipline

additional-language teachers viewed (and viewing themselves) as PYP teachers

additional-language teachers seen as solely single-subject teachers

a literature-based approach to learning language

using skill-drill texts and workbooks to learn language

a teaching approach that sees making mistakes in language as inevitable and necessary for learning

a teaching approach that focuses on encouraging students not to make mistakes in language

reading for meaning

decoding only for accuracy

reading selected according to interest level

reading selected according to decoding level

student-selected reading materials

teacher-directed reading materials

making world classics available for reading

having only school classics available for reading

making culturally diverse reading material available

having only monocultural reading materials available

focusing on meaning when reading and writing

focusing primarily on accuracy when reading and writing

encouraging appropriate cooperative discussion in the classroom

enforcing silent, individual work in the classroom

students engaged in spontaneous writing

students carrying out teacher-imposed writing

a variety of scaffolded learning experiences with the teacher providing strategies for the student to build on his or her own learning

activities where teachers simply model language for students

writing as a process

writing only as a product

 

How are mathematics practices changing?

 

Increased emphasis on:

Decreased emphasis on:

connecting mathematical concepts and applications to learning

treating mathematics as isolated concepts and facts

manipulatives, to make mathematics understandable to students

rote learning, memorization and symbol manipulation

real-life problem solving using mathematics

word problems as problem solving

instruction built on what students know, what they want to know, and how they best might find out

instruction focused on what students do not know

a variety of strategies for possible multiple solutions emphasis on process

one answer, one method, emphasis on answer

students being encouraged to speculate and pursue hunches

the teacher as the sole authority for right answers

a broad range of topics regardless of computational skills

computational mastery before moving on to other topics

mathematics as a means to an end

teaching mathematics disconnected from other learning

the use of calculators and computers for
appropriate purposes

a primary emphasis on pencil and paper computations

programme of inquiry as the context for learning

the textbook as the context for learning

students investigating, questioning, discussing, justifying and journaling their mathematics

the use of worksheets

students and teachers engaged in mathematical discourse.

teacher telling about mathematics.

 

 

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