Why the Library Matters in the IB PYP

I love books. I truly believe that books open minds, help us travel the world without leaving the room, and inspire children to see things from a different perspective.

Whenever I can, I start a lesson with a picture book or a story. Sometimes it introduces a new concept, sometimes it sparks a discussion, and sometimes it simply helps my students make connections they hadn't thought about before. I've often found that one well-chosen book can launch an inquiry better than a worksheet ever could.

That's one of the reasons why the library plays such an important role in the IB Primary Years Programme. In an IB school, the library isn't just a place to borrow books—it's an essential part of learning. Librarians work closely with teachers to select books that support the current Unit of Inquiry, encourage students to ask questions, explore different perspectives and deepen their understanding of the central idea.

Even if your school doesn't have a dedicated library, a thoughtfully curated classroom library can become the heart of inquiry. The right books, available at the right time, invite children to wonder, investigate and make meaningful connections across subjects.

One of my favourite classroom activities was our weekly Book Club. Children introduced the book they had just finished—without giving away the ending!—and tried to convince their classmates to read it. If someone borrowed the book because of their recommendation, they earned points towards an end-of-year prize. It was always wonderful to see books being passed from one enthusiastic reader to another.

Books also created countless opportunities for reflection. It wasn't unusual for us to discuss a character's actions and relate them to the attributes of the IB Learner Profile. Was this character a Risk-taker? How did they show they were Caring? Were they Reflective? These conversations helped the children understand that the Learner Profile isn't just a poster on the wall—it's something we can recognise in ourselves and in the stories we read.

And inquiry doesn't stop with literacy. A non-fiction book about the water cycle can become the starting point for children to write The Adventures of a Water Droplet. A story about migration can lead to rich discussions about identity and belonging. The possibilities are endless when the right book finds its way into the hands of a curious learner.

Choosing books that are age-appropriate, engaging and connected to your Units of Inquiry takes time, and I know how challenging that can be. That's why I created a small virtual library called The Inquiry Book Club—a collection of book recommendations that I hope will inspire PYP teachers around the world and help them find the perfect title for their next inquiry.

If you're looking for new books to enrich your classroom library, I'd love you to take a look at The Inquiry Book Club. I hope you discover a few new favourites!

From remembering to creating: guiding our students through Bloom’s Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy

Hi there! 👋

Today I’m going to introduce something that school teachers are already familiar with, for sure, but… as the old Latin saying goes, repetita iuvant! 😉

Sometimes, revisiting well-known concepts and looking at them through practical examples is exactly what we need to make ideas clearer, more meaningful and easier to apply in our everyday teaching practice.

So today, let’s talk about a powerful tool that can help us design learning experiences that truly support our students’ thinking journey: Bloom’s Taxonomy. 🌱

In our previous post about cooperative learning, we talked about Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) — those powerful thinking skills that allow our students to analyse, evaluate and create — often compared with Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS), which are connected to remembering and understanding information.

But here’s the important thing: both are essential! 💡

They are all part of one of the most famous tools in education: Bloom’s Taxonomy.

📚The six levels of the pyramid represent the different steps our learners go through as they build knowledge:

🔹 Remembering
Recalling facts, information and previously learned skills.

🔹 Understanding
Explaining, describing, comparing and making sense of information.

🔹 Applying
Using knowledge in new situations and real-life contexts.

🔹 Analyzing
Exploring information, identifying patterns and making connections.

🔹 Evaluating
Expressing opinions, making judgements and supporting ideas with evidence.

🔹 Creating
Designing, inventing and producing something new.

✨ Why is Bloom’s Taxonomy such a valuable tool when planning learning experiences?

Because learning is not just about collecting information. In fact, meaningful learning happens when students are gradually supported in moving from “I know this” to “I can use this, I can question it, I can create something with it.”

This is closely connected to Bruner’s scaffolding theory: as teachers, we build the right supports at the right time, accompanying our students step by step until they can become more independent learners.

For example, imagine introducing the topic of historical sources to a Grade 3 class. A possible learning journey could look like this:

📌 REMEMBERING activities

• Sharing what students already know about the past.

• Learning the definition of “historical source”.

• Identifying different types of sources and examples.

📌 UNDERSTANDING activities

• Classifying sources according to their type.

• Creating diagrams or organisers to describe their characteristics.

📌 APPLYING activities

• Bringing historical objects from home.

• Interviewing parents, grandparents or members of the school community to discover how objects were used in the past.

📌 ANALYZING activities

• Describing a source in detail: what it was used for, where it came from, why it was important, how it compares to modern versions.

• Looking for similarities and differences between objects brought by classmates.

• Creating mind maps about historical sources.

📌 EVALUATING activities

• Discussing which sources are the most valuable for historians and explaining why.

• Interpreting the meaning of a source within its historical context.

📌 CREATING activities

• Designing a presentation about the sources investigated.

• Creating a timeline showing how objects have changed over time.

• Building a classroom museum. 🏛️

The beautiful thing about Bloom’s Taxonomy is that it can be applied to any subject and any topic. Whether we are exploring science, history, languages or mathematics, this framework helps us design learning experiences that go beyond memorisation.

And there is another important connection: the development of these thinking skills is deeply linked to the development of competences. If we think of competence as the combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes, values and emotions that learners use in real situations, we immediately see why the top of the pyramid — analysing, evaluating and creating — is so important.

🌟 For this reason, understanding and applying Bloom’s Taxonomy is a powerful skill for every teacher. It is not only useful in IB contexts; it is a universal tool to help our students become curious, independent and lifelong learners.

Because the goal is not simply for children to remember more…

…it is for them to think more. 💭✨

Quiero leer este post en español

📍Do you struggle with a challenging class, where many of your students get distracted and their academic performance doesn’t reflect all the effort you put into preparing and teaching your lessons? 

📍Does this situation frustrate you, and would you like your students to learn more while enjoying the process? 

👉Something similar happened to me during my elementary teaching internship, and in my latest book, Pygmalion in the Classroom: A Real Experience—based on my senior thesis and my internship at a primary school in Madrid—I’ll tell you how we managed to turn things around and achieve resounding success! 

Don’t miss it! 

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