The companion and the framework builder
Everything the session covers, written down — plus the printable template for building a framework for one skill of your own.
The Framework Builder
PDF · printable · find the Threshold, the Pivot and the Complexity in your skill, then turn them into the prompts students follow
Student Struggle to Solutions — Workshop Companion
PDF · the PEEL worked example, the three frameworks built live, and what to do when AI does the thinking
Both are free to print and share inside your school.
You teach the same skill every year. Students still get stuck at the same step.
Not because they aren’t trying. Because the step they’re missing is one you stopped noticing years ago. You take it automatically — what to look at first, when to stop gathering and start interpreting, what turns a list into an argument — so it never makes it into the instructions. You see the finished product and know what went wrong; they see a blank page and don’t know what to do first. When they stall, they wait for you, or they open a chatbot. This session is about writing down what your own mind does, in order, so students can follow the moves without you.
In 31 minutes, you'll walk away with
Not a theory of skills — a way of writing down your own thinking so a student can follow it.
The question that exposes your blind spot
“What do I actually do, in order, to complete this task?” Answer it honestly and every step becomes a guiding prompt. Two rules come with it: if you can’t write it down, you can’t teach it — and if you assume they know, you fail them the way others already have.
A worked example you can reuse on Monday
The analytical paragraph (PEEL), taken apart on Langston Hughes’s “I, Too”. Students deconstruct a model sentence by sentence, then write their own with a guiding question at every step. Strip out the poem and it’s a framework for every text you teach.
Three frameworks, built live
A design teacher’s “What species of wood did the designer choose?” — and the vocabulary its next question quietly assumes. A TOK teacher’s leap from a local story to a global question, and the steps missing in between. A business teacher analysing a financial statement in four moves, then breaking the hardest one down again.
A lesson that doesn’t need the chatbot
Why “generate five business ideas for me” happens, and what to do instead: agree when laptops come out, rewrite the task as thinking questions, and use AI to build the framework only after you’ve done the thinking — “I didn’t write this, but I engineered this.”
Reteach the step, not the lesson
With the thinking on the page, you’re free to walk the room and see which step each student is on. When the whole class stalls at step four, you stop and reteach step four.
The Framework Builder
The printable template behind the session: find the Threshold, the Pivot and the Complexity in your skill, turn them into orienting anchors, thinking prompts and doing prompts, then test the result the way Ioana and Brian test theirs — does it give students the answer, or the map to find their own?
This is for you if
- You teach any subject, K-12 — IB (PYP, MYP, DP, CP) or any curriculum — and explain the same skill again every cohort
- Your students say “I don’t know what to do next”, or quietly open a chatbot instead
- You want something you can apply to one skill this week, not a whole-school initiative
- You’d rather watch teachers build frameworks from their own subjects than read about it
Skip it if
- You want a finished bank of frameworks to download — you’ll build your own, for your own skill
- You’re mapping a whole-school skills continuum or ATL scope and sequence — this is one teacher, one skill, one framework
Bonus: The Inquiry-Driven Classroom Starter Kit
Register and all five field guides land in your confirmation email — 60+ templates, 50 driving questions, and AI-resilient task designs.
The Lesson Flip Kit
12-page guide · 10 templates
The Differentiated Inquiry Toolkit
10-page guide
The Question Flip
9-page guide · 50 questions
The 30-Second Close
6-page guide
The AI-Resilient Lesson Design Guide
8-page guide
The kit is free either way at edodo.app/download/inquiry-starter-kit — registering just saves you the form.
Ioana Badicioiu
Workshop Leader · Coordinator, The Inquiry-Driven Educator
International educator and inquiry practitioner supporting concept-based learning across the DP and MYP programme.
Brian Jackson
Workshop Leader · The Inquiry-Driven Educator
International educator focused on inquiry-driven practice and disciplinary thinking in the secondary classroom. Brian works with MYP, DP and CP teachers on making quality visible to students — exemplars, criteria, and the questions that drive real thinking.
Ioana leads this one. She has taught English literature and language acquisition in six countries, and the paragraph framework in the session is one she uses with her own students. Brian builds alongside the room — the design question that opens “Your turn” is his.
Do I have to watch it in one sitting?
No. It’s chaptered, and if you leave your email we remember where you stopped. Short on time? “Frameworks are mental habits” (8:54) and “Built live — analysing a financial statement” (24:03) are the whole method in about seven minutes.
My subject isn’t English — does the PEEL example transfer?
That’s why it’s the example: everyone can read one paragraph, so you’re watching the deconstruction, not the literature. The rest of the session is design, TOK and business teachers applying the same move to their own skills, and the Framework Builder has starting points for maths, sciences, the arts, languages and humanities.
Do I need to sign up to watch?
No — it plays right here. Leave your email if you want the link and the resources sent to you, plus the 5-guide Inquiry Starter Kit. One email, unsubscribe any time.
Is it really free? What’s the catch?
Really free, no card. The recording and both PDFs are yours to keep and share with your department. If you like how Ioana and Brian teach, their seven-week certificate is the deeper version — that’s the whole business model.
Is this about stopping students from using AI?
No. There’s no detection software and no ban. The argument is simpler: when the thinking steps are on the page and the laptop comes out only when the lesson needs it, there’s far less for a chatbot to do — and you can use AI yourself to build the framework, once you’ve done the thinking.
Do I need to teach IB?
No. The examples come from IB classrooms because that’s where these teachers work, but nothing depends on an IB programme. It works anywhere a skill has to be taught more than once.
Can I share this with my department?
Please do — send them this page rather than the video file. It plays for them straight away, and the PDFs are right underneath.
Is there a live version?
Yes. The live sessions are where you build your own framework in the room and get feedback on it, which a recording can’t give you. Upcoming dates are on the workshops page.
Coming to a live one?
The live sessions are where you work on your own material and get feedback in the room.
See upcoming live workshops