From Posters to Practice: Cultivating PYP Classrooms

As I walk through the halls of a school building, I am always looking for evidence of the culture and beliefs of the learning that takes place there. When I open a classroom door and peek my head inside, there is a lot of data: the furniture arrangement, where the teacher’s desk is (or isn’t), the classroom “decorations” and signs that thinking is taking place, and whether posters/charts on the wall are fixed or ever-changing, as well as who is creating the “decorations” in the classroom. The whiteboard is actually one of the most telling places in a classroom. It often includes the schedule and topics for that day, as well as the teaching points in a lesson. Sometimes I see student names on the whiteboard, and it makes me wonder why they are on there. 

As a coordinator that was new to my school, these walks made me question where we were as a school in terms of our implementation of the program. You see, I remember in my early days of being a PYP practitioner, my PYP coordinator insisted that I had the Learner Profile on display as well as the Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry. One of my new-to-the-PYP colleagues HATED this and thought it cluttered up her classroom wall space, encroaching upon her word wall and anchor charts.  I personally never resented this ask and always enjoyed finding fresh ways to display unit of inquiry work, but this debate about prioritizing our framework in our classroom environment has left an indelible mark. Should we, as pedagogical leaders, insist on having the framework on display? 

I’ve sat on this question all year long. Carefully observing classrooms and reflecting on whether or not elements of our program are being showcased in our learning areas, and whether or not that translated into better practice. To be honest, my view is still mixed. 

Is it a POSTER or a PRACTICE?

Display posters from Teacher Pay Teacher or Twinkle can just be a static fixture to appease the “PYP Gods”, as one teacher liked to refer them. But when I twisted his arm to post the Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry during the unit, his practices with concept-based inquiry improved. He referred more to our elements and started to use these teacher-centric materials as manipulatives. It could have been an odd coincidence, but I would like to believe that because it was in his eyesight, it was a reminder to ratchet up his inquiry approaches and refer more to our learner profile and approaches to learning as well. However, I had another teacher who had beautiful displays of the PYP jargon but never shifted from a very teacher-centered learning environment. Student agency?-that was only for students who were “good listeners” and “respectful”. So displays are hardly a telling sign of the quality of the practices. 

Why am I reflecting on this, you might ask? Why do I give a hoot about classroom displays? Well, anyone who has recently gone through or will be embracing an onsite IB evaluation visit understands why I am contemplating this. The environment of our schools provides an essential clue into our classroom practices and the overall “strength” of our PYP program. 

What are the telling signs of a constructivist classroom? As a PYP coordinator, making edicts on how our classrooms “should” look like I think would miss the goal of developing our skills as PYP practitioners. Instead, I think if teachers carefully examined the Life Long Learning Strand of the 2020 Standards and Practices, they can begin to think about what this could look like in the classroom environment. Here is a little brainstorming I have done as I think about what might be on “display” in our learning environments.

These ideas are hardly an exhaustive list. Moreover, any simple search on Pinterest will provide LOTS of visual examples of these ideas, and I love heading over to Sharing the PYP blog to see great models of practice. But I think what we really need to keep in mind is that these elements of our PYP program are not just classroom decorations, but living documentation of the robust learning that is taking place within its walls. Steeping our walls in the artifacts of learning shouldn’t be viewed as a chore, but a joy to curate all the wonderful moments we create in our learning communities by putting our PYP principles into practice.