Unit 5 Provocation

Hello PYP6 Community!

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a provocation is something that provokes, arouses or stimulates. In the PYP we use provocations at the beginning of and throughout the different units of inquiry as a means to provoke emotion in our students, arouse interest in an idea and/or stimulate connections to concepts. A lot can be gained from a provocation, including: information about what the children already know and connect with, their level of thinking, and their motivation towards the learning. 

In Unit 5, our Central Idea is 'Settlements are originated according to people's needs and opportunities.' Our first provocation for this was in the form of a visualization. Students were told to close their eyes and imagine the scene set by the teacher... 

You and your class are at the airport about to board the plane for a class trip to Spain. You and your friends talk excitedly as you get onto the plane, find your seats and buckle your seat-belts. The captain announces over the intercom that he expects a smooth overnight flight to Spain. The plane takes off, you lean back and relax and drift off to sleep. All of a sudden you are awoken by a loud bang. Then the nose of the plane starts to point down. You realize the plane is falling from the sky! The pilot comes over the intercom, sounding panicked "One of our engines exploded, we need to crash land!" (sound of an airplane crashing played in the classroom). You look around, amazingly everyone is fine. You get out of the plane and look around. It is obvious that you are in the middle of nowhere and are stranded.

Students were then told that nobody is coming to find them, so they need to orientate and organize themselves:

• First, students chose a place where they crash landed, either an island, a mountain or the desert. 

• Then they drew the place they chose with all of the natural resources. 

• After that they discussed as a group what they would need and how they would organize themselves. 

• Finally, they presented this information to the class.

Here are some 'snapshots' of the provocation as it happened in our classrooms:

PYP 6 Beta

PYP 6 Omega

PYP 6 Sigma