This is my last school related post. It will cover a lot about the IB curriculum and the daily routines of the students and teachers. Since the IB curriculum is international, it is used in America, therefore, it is hard to compare similarities and differences in teaching content since it aligns very closely.
Disclaimer: It is hard to compare Swedish schooling directly to American since we are in an international school with an international curriculum. They use a mixture of British, Australian, and American lessons and content. Therefore, it is not really 100% "Swedish" schooling.
Curriculum
The IB curriculum is strongly based on inquiry units. Inquiry covers the topics of science and social studies. Both subjects are switched off every few weeks. For example, my class has been doing ancient artifacts and civilizations since I've been here in early February. They will switch to a weather unit in science in March. These inquiry units will be trans disciplinary, meaning that their language lessons will be centered around the inquiry. For reading, we have been reading myths and writing about them since they are connected to Greek civilizations.
The individual inquiry units cover the 6 major IB headings. So our ancient civilizations fell under "Where we are in Place and Time". Under each heading is the type of "lens" you are looking through to discover the topic, which changes in each grade. Every year, the students will add on a new lens to look through the same heading. The picture below has the 5th grade's topics of exploration boxed. My 2nd graders had another topic listed in the boxes.
Another part of inquiry is about the learner. The whole school has "Learner Profiles" which state the qualities a learner should be: communicator, inquirer, caring, courageous, principled, balanced, etc.
They also include what kind of skills are needed to be successful in the classroom. Each classroom has the skills posted on the wall, such as research, communication, thinking, social, and self-management. I like that the posters have examples of what each skill entails for the students to remember.
My teacher has an inquiry spinner on her wall. The arrow moves according to their point in the inquiry. The "tuning in" is the first part of the unit. As they progress, they move to finding out, sorting out, going further, making connections, and taking action. I love this cycle because it really gets the students involved in their learning. In the US we talk about rigor and relevance and this dives deeply into the relevance aspect. My teacher also challenges my students sometimes in the tasks involved, increasing the rigor. There is an adequate balance of both. In the upper grades in the school, they have more explorations anddifferent names for the same types: Form, Perspective, Change, Function, Responsibility, Causation, Connection, and Reflection.
Lastly, one thing that I love about curriculum is that they use a resource called "Talk4Writing". In this, the teacher will have a story map with pictures on it. Each picture and part of the story has an action associated with it. This is great for the school since the students are all EAL (English as an Additional Language), meaning that they do not speak English as their native language. The motions and pictures help them associate words and meanings. It's similar to whole brain teaching and sign language.
Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdvJZD-cplg&t=28s
Differences
One thing that they do not do at the school is give grades. My school in Texas does not do grades either, however, most American schools report grades. Instead, the school does a scale, similar to my student teaching school. Students will get a letter that represents the progress they are making. For example, if they go above and beyond, then they'd get the X for exceeds and extends. If they are not making adequate progress, they will receive a B for beginner. C is for competent and M is for mastery.
Similarities
One similarity between the ISGR and American schools is the inclusion of students with special needs or students who need extra supports. There are resource teachers who come in and help the classroom teachers on designated time and days. They help monitor the students' work and behavior, as well as teach small groups. They do not have separate special education classrooms.
They also differentiate very well at the school. The students are grouped on ability level in all the subjects so that they can work at their own pace. For example, math groups are shapes. The higher achieving students will be a shape with less sides (circle). The students who need the most support will have the shape with the most sides (hexagon). In reading, the blueberries need the most support since there are more in a bunch. The watermelons need the least amount of support. Students are given pre and post assessments often to gauge their group placements so they can move up or move down.
They also differentiate the work within each group. So all the blueberries had less questions than the watermelons. They also had simpler comprehension questions that were more surface level rather than thinking beyond. The same applies to math. The circles had more difficult word problems than the hexagons. I love that they cater to the needs of the diverse students.
Below are the questions for level 1-3. They differ slightly.
Routine
Differences
One major difference between the Swedish schools and American school routines is a break called "Fika". This is a coffee and snack break for teachers that happens once or twice per day. When the kids go outside to play, the staff all gather in the staff lounge and drink coffee, eat, and socialize. Every Friday and Tuesday after school (for staff meetings), they have a FIKA meal. A certain grade level team will bring in food each week and set it out for everyone to eat. This is a great way to show community with each other and to take a break from the day.
Another difference is that the children have 2 break periods a day. They also call them "breaks" over recess or brain break. Many schools in the US are incorporating brain breaks in addition to recess. However, the US brain breaks are shorter than the ones here. Here they get 2 breaks, 20 minutes and 30 minutes. Teachers do not have to be outside with them on breaks, so the teachers meet in the staff lounge. Unless the teacher is on duty, which they switch off on, so each teacher has duty once a week. They also go outside ALL the time, snow, rain, and sun. They all have rain/snow pants and boots, so the Swedish believe that weather shouldn't stop them from playing outside. This means there is no indoor recess if it is too cold or rainy. The kids get fresh air no matter what which is great!
Instead of eating in a big cafeteria, they eat in a small room called the "Bamba". It is basically a smaller version of a cafeteria. Each day, students get free hot lunch servd to them. They are required to take 2 types of vegetables from the salad bar in addition to the meal being served. There is also vegetarian options available, as a lot of the students eat vegetarian. The lunches are amazing! I have always gone back for seconds. It is not like American hot lunches like pizza and burgers. They offer pasta bolognese, chicken and rice, potatoes, gravy, beef stew, etc. They are healthy options and a step up from American lunches and camp food. I wish that students and teachers got free lunch served to them. This way, everyone has access to the same food, and no student will be left without food. After the students are finished, they ask to scrape their plates. Depending on how much food is left, we tell them to scrape and go to break or we have them sit down and finish more food. This is to prevent a large amount of food from being wasted.
As mentioned in a previous post, the students use public transportation over school buses and cars. We went on 2 field trips while here. The first one we went ice skating and the second one we went to the Stadsmuseum (city museum). We were exploring Viking civilizations and artifacts they used. Going to the city museum was a great experience for me! I got to go twice because another class needed another adult chaperone. The rule is to have 1 adult to every 5 kids and they were short an adult. It was interesting to see the difference of 2 classes on the same trip. The whole 2nd grade went on a trip to the museum, but went on different days. The first trip I went on, the poor kids didn't have a seat on the bus since it was so crowded. Since they were standing, they were flying all over the bus when the bus would stop and go. Luckily, when my class went, they all got seats. We only had an hour to explore the exhibits so we did it quickly. We did not go through the whole museum. Field trips in America tend to be much longer than 1 hour. But it is great that students can talk about the artifacts they saw in the museum and apply it to their lesson. Experiencing the artifacts makes it more meaningful to them.
One thing that was interesting to me is that the school does not have bells. There is no morning bell or end of day bell. School starts at 8:30 and the doors open for students at 8:20. They trickle in but do not have late passes if they are tardy. The end of the day is 2:30. The teachers just end their lesson, have the students clean up the room, and dismiss them. The parents wait outside if they are picking their children up. Many times, my students don't leave the building until 2:40-2:45 since they talk a lot in the hall while getting ready. The teacher does not walk the students out and there is no such thing as carpool or after school duty. Some kids will go to PAL which is an after school program.
Lastly, a main difference is the daily schedule of events. I have taken a photo of each day's schedule. Monday is the first picture and Friday is the last. Each day has a different special (art, music, P.E., Swedish). The specials are also in different time blocks each day. The subjects move around too. Some days we have spelling, others we don't. Sometimes we have handwriting, others we don't. The 3 steady subjects we do everyday are language, math, and inquiry. Each lasts about 30 minutes-1 hour. It does make it a little confusing for me since I never know what to expect. Also, if activities go over time, the teacher just readjusts the schedule. Each day, students normally have "finishing or quiet time" where they catch up on work. This is convenient for students who work at slower paces. However, in the US we don't have time in the day for this.
Similarities
A few similarities are that we have the same specials (minus Swedish) and that there is no dress code. In some US schools, they teach Spanish or another language. Since children are great at picking up languages, it is good that schools are including it as a subject. I wish I had learned a language fluently. The Swedish classes are also based on ability. There is a beginning class, intermediate, and advanced. The grade is separated and mixed based on the student's ability. Therefore, there are 3 Swedish teachers.
The students do not have a specific dress code. They can wear whatever they want. Many US schools do not have dress codes. A lot do have dress codes, but since some don't it is a similarity. The only requirement for students is that they wear socks or "indoor" shoes inside the classroom. This is because their outdoor shoes are boots and track in mud, dirt, snow, etc. Students also change clothes for P.E. which they do in the US, also.