Related Concepts and Why they Matter.

Having created my previous 2 units of inquiry, Who We Are and How We Express Ourselves, my thinking for the final two UOIs followed the same process (See previous posts). I had decided that my two final UOIs would be How We Organize Ourselves and Sharing the Planet. As you can see below, clear connections can be made to our 5 Through Lines (Related Concepts) in each of the units.

I started to wonder about the connections between the 5 ‘Through Lines’ that have been identified and conceptual understandings in each of the 6 subjects. I found that I could find clear links to each subject and through line. Some are more obvious than others but connections could be made. Below is an examples:

After making connections between the 5 ‘Through Lines’ identified, UOIs and conceptual understandings, I started to think about how I may organise my UOIs throughout the year. I have had some experience with this in the past which has involved staggering the starts of each of the UOIs until by the end of the year each of the 4 UOIs were running simultaneously. Within my thinking process these were the times the children would be introduced to each of the UOIs and a time for teacher focus on the conceptual understandings and intended learning for each unit. Throughout the year the ‘through lines’ would connect each of the UOIs and conceptual understandings. These connections would although the learners to develop a concrete understanding of each related concept as they would view them through various lens.

I also remembered a visual created by Yuni Santosa which demonstrates how different inquiries can run throughout the year. Again, the related concepts, or through lines, would make it possible to seamlessly move in an out of each of the UOIs.

I finished by thinking about how to track the children’s learning in each of the UOIs throughout the year. As mentioned in the first post of this series of blogs a one point rubric could be created at the beginning of the year that could include the intended learning linked to each of the related concepts or through lines.

As a EY educator I would feel very happy to explore the suggested approach to inquiry. I still wonder what it may look like if I were to continue to the next year level. How would we create new related concepts? How would they connect and progress from this year?