Nature doesn’t need people.

People need nature.

Provocations are in the PYP are meant to inspire and instill curiosity, but also can serve teachers as means to find out about prior knowledge and any possible misconceptions. Provocations can connect to concepts or knowledge but also can be linked to creating new student questions, a new direction for the inquiry or suggest action and service.

I used to struggle with provocations, often opting for a video etc until I realized that a    provocation can be something very simple but if it is authentic, such as an artifact, a question, a statement, a poem, a song, or photos displayed, it will be very powerful. I now understand that provocations can and should happen throughout a unit as well to deepen students thinking, inspire student questions and providing opportunities for student-initiated inquiry.

Here are some wonderful blog posts and resources that have inspired me:

• http://blogs.ibo.org/sharingpyp/2014/09/30/conceptual-provocations/
• https://makinggoodhumans.wordpress.com/tag/provocations/
• http://teachingthepyp.blogspot.com/2016/03/provocations.html
• http://honorsgradu.com/category/inspiring-inquiry/pyp-transdisciplinary-themes-provocations/