Academic honesty/integrity (Akateeminen rehellisyys)
Academic honesty is respecting one’s own and others’ work. Academic honesty is completing the schoolwork without plagiarism, cheating, stealing someone else’s work or having unauthorized help from another person,
Assessment criteria (Arviointikriteerit)
Each IB subject group has its own IB-criteria, which are used as assessment tools during the MYP years. These criteria support the objectives of the subject. The achievement levels of the criteria are from 0 (has not achieved) to 8 (has achieved the highest given descriptors). The IB assessment criteria support inquiry-based teaching and learning. The subject specific criteria are shared with the students annually.
Assessment task (Arviointitehtävä)
A piece of work that is assessed (task, test, project…) in order to measure development towards the aims and objects of the subject. An assessment task produces material that can be assessed using criteria shared with the students before the taskl.
ATL-skills (Oppimisen taidot)
ATL is short for Approaches to Learning. In MYP the ATL-skills are divided to following categories:
Thinking skills
Critical thinking
Creative thinking
Transfer
Research skills
Information literacy
Media literacy
Self-management skills
Organization
Affective skills
Reflection
Social skills
Collaboration
Communication skills
In Ressu we have a special ATL skills path from 1st to 9th grade so that we can ensure that these skills are developing. You can find more information in the ATL-skills section of this site.
Formative assessment (Formatiivinen arviointi)
Formative, or continuous, assessment is one way to ensure the ample ways of assessing during the studies. It takes place at the same time as the studies and the idea is that it enhances the learning. Formative assessment can be self-reflection, peer-assessment or assessment by the teacher. For example portfolio work where the student reflects on the own learning and gets feedback from the teacher is a good example of formative assessment.
Global contexts (Globaalit yhteydet)
In MYP the subject specific and interdisciplinary contents are approached using six global contexts as help. They are:
Identities and Relationships
Orientation in Space and Time
Scientific and Technical Innovations
Globalization and Sustainability
Fairness and Development
Personal and Cultural Expression
In Finnish national curriculum the transversal competencies have a similar function.
Holistic learning (Kokonaisvaltainen eli holistinen oppiminen)
Holistic learning means combining the new information with the previous knowledge and, in that way, connecting fragmented information into bigger entities.
IB
IB comes from the words International Baccalaureate, and it consists of three curriculum programmes that are coordinated by International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). At Ressu Comprehensive school the students on grades 1-6 study according to (Primary Years Programme) and the 7-9th graders study according to MYP-(Middle Years Programme). The third programme is the so called “IB-high school”, Diploma Programme (DP).
IB attachment to the final report (Päättötodistuksen IB-liite)
Our students will receive an appendix to their final report card, stating that they have been studying according to the IB MYP programme framework. However, a student is eligible to this appendix only if they have successfully completed the personal project, which is a requirement at the end of the MYP programme. A criteria-based assessment of this project can be found in this appendix, as can also be a comment from the project supervisor. However, the student will receive their national final report card even if they are not entitled to this MYP appendix. In addition, the appendix states whether the student has completed the required Service as action -activities during the upper grades, which is also a requirement of the MYP programme. Students studying in English Acquisition classes (BD classes) will also receive an IB criteria based final assessment in English in accordance with the IB language acquisition level "Proficient".
Intercultural awareness (Kulttuurien välinen ymmärrys)
In a nutshell Intercultural awareness means that a person understands both their own culture and other cultures; especially the similarities and differences between the cultures.
Interdisciplinary unit "IDU" (Monialainen oppimiskokonaisuus "MOK”)
An interdisciplinary unit covers objectives and contents from several subjects, which makes it easier to see the topic of the inquiry from a wider perspective. Usually there are at least two teachers involved in an interdisciplinary unit. There is a separate set of criteria that can be used for assessing the interdiciplinary units. Most years the students have at least one bigger IDU every term.
Inquiry Based Learning (Tutkiva oppiminen)
Inquiry based learning follows the inquiry cycle: Inquiry, action and reflection.
Inquiry Questions (Tutkimuskysymykset)
Each unit should have several Inquiry Questions that the students and the teacher are trying to answer to during the unit. The questions can be developped together with the students. The idea is to come up with many kinds of questions 1) factual 2) conceptual and 3) debatable in order to get a deeper understanding of the topic
International-mindedness (Kansainvälisen ennakkoluulottomuus)
An international-minded person sees him/herself as a part of the global community and understands the responsibility it brings.
Key concepts (Avainkäsitteet)
Conceptual understanding is one of the aims of IB. Concepts are used in teaching and learning to make connections between fragmented knowledge. There are 16 common key concepts for all the subjects: Aesthetics; Change; Communication; Communities; Connections; Creativity; Culture; Development; Form; Global interactions; Identity; Logic; Perspective; Relationships; Time, place and space; Systems. In addition to these common concepts each subject group has their own related concepts.
Language awareness (Kielitietoisuus)
Language awareness is in focus both in IB-philosophy and in the Finnish national core curriculum. The curriculum states: "Eri kielten käyttö rinnakkain koulun arjessa nähdään luontevana ja kieliä arvostetaan. Kielitietoisessa yhteisössä keskustellaan kieliin ja kieliyhteisöihin kohdistuvista asenteista ja ymmärretään kielen keskeinen merkitys oppimisessa, vuorovaikutuksessa ja yhteistyössä sekä identiteettien rakentumisessa ja yhteiskuntaan sosiaalistumisessa. " (OPS 2014 s. 28) This means seeing using different languages at everyday school work as something natural and something that should be appreciated. In language aware communities people discuss the attitudes towards languages and understand the importance of the language in learning, interaction, building one's own identity etc. This also means seeing every teacher as a language teacher teaching the language of their own subject.
Language of instruction (Opetuskieli)
The language of instruction is Finnish on A and C classes and English on B and D classes. The exceptions to this are language lessons where the language of interaction can be (partly or totally) the target language and some of the optional subjects where there might be students from both streams. In order to make sure that everyone is qualified for the further studies, even the students in the English stream go through the most essential subject specific terminology even in Finnish.
Learner profile (Oppijan ominaisuudet)
The aim of all IB programmes is to encourage student growth towards international mindedness. At Ressu Comprehensive School we encourage students to become active and responsible members of local, national and global communities through supporting student development in line with the learner profile attributes. We strive to be: inquirers, principled, caring, balanced, reflective, communicators, thinkers, open-minded, knowledgeable and risk-takers.
MYP
MYP is short for Middle Years Programme and just as the name says it is the middle one of the three IB curriculum models (see IB for more info about the programmes)
MYP coodinator (MYP-koordinaattori)
MYP-coordinator is a teacher who uses part of his/her working hours for supporting the implementation of the MYP at the school. MYP-coordinator is the person who you should turn to if you have any questions about, how MYP at Ressu works.
MYP Personal Project (MYP-projektityö)
At the end of the MYP i.e. during the 9th grade, students are expected to complete a personal project. The estimated time used for the project is approximately 25 hours. The project work is based on student’s own interest. Student will set goals for their learning and for the project outcome. The process follows the inquiry-cycle. Each student will have their own supervisor from the staff. The student creates a report of their personal project which is then assessed according to the project specific criteria. During the spring term the personal project is presented in an exhibition. By completing the personal project student is eligible to obtain an attachment to their final report card.
MYP portfolio
The students have subject specific portfolios in most subjects (these can be for example in Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams or other platform) and these are usually part of the assessment in the subject. In addition to these portfolios we will launch later on this year a separate MYP portfolio which is about showcasing the skills learned during the MYP. The idea of this portfolio is that the students reflect on their own learning and save there work that they themselves are proud of. This portfolio can be shared for example with parents, grandparents etc. and it is possible to transfer it to the student's own Google account after the comprehensive school ends. .
Rubric (Arviointirubriikki)
Rubric is usually a task specific assessment chart which gives more information about the criteria and grading of the task, It is used to give more specific feedback. If a task specific rubric is used, the teacher goes it trough with the students before they start working on the task.
Service as Action (Toiminta yhteisön hyväksi)
The aim of the MYP program is to develop student's understanding of the community and encourage the student to take actions for the community. Each student is expected to complete one Service as action –credit per academic year and follow the process of planning and reflection.
Students are also encouraged to participate in the activities of the students’ council, to participate in organizing community events in the school and to develop the school spirit. In addition, pupils take part in the school's everyday chores, such as lunch room duties and recess kiosk activity.
Statement of Inquiry (Tutkimusväite)
The Statement of Inquiry summarizes the whole unit. It is the topic, global context and key concepts all combined into one sentence.
Subject groups (Aineryhmät)
IB divides the school subjects into eight different subject groups. All of these groups have their own subject specific assessment criteria that are being used as a means of varied ways of assessment. The teacher of these groups meet on regular basis and support each other in things like planning the units, assessment and developing ideas. These groups are:
Arts: Music, Visual Arts, Drama
Design: Crafts and Design, ICT, Home Economics
Language and Literature: Finnish language and literature, Finnish as second language
Language Acquisition: Swedish, A-English, Proficient English (B-stream), Spanish, French
Physical Education
Individuals and Societies: History, Civics, Ethics, Religions, Health education
Mathematics
Science: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Geography
Summative assessment (Summatiivinen arviointi)
Summative assessment takes place at the end of the term, school year, unit or some other bigger entity. The grades for the report cards, larger projects and tests that cover a bigger entity are some examples of summative assessment (for example in Language Acquisition a verb or word quiz would be part of formative assessment whilst a video or a longer essay in the end of the unit would be counted summative assessment).
Unit (Jakso)
The studies at Ressu consist of units of various lengths* and each one of them is their own entity. Units can be either subject specific or interdisciplinary. The contents of the units come from the curriculum and all of them have their own topic of inquiry. The inquiry questions and studying/inquiry methods can be planned together with the students. Before starting a unit, the teacher has made a unit plan which is shown (in its simplified form) to the students and if needed also developed together with them.
*Note! In MYP the length of the units varies whilst in Ressu PYP the units usually last six weeks.