MYP does not require teachers to create individual or weekly lesson plans. Rather, teachers work collaboratively to create unit plans that are used by all teachers within the same year/phase level. Unit plans include descriptions of both formative and summative assessments for that unit.

See an example of an English Language Acquisition unit below (provided by the IBO)

Each grade/phase level team must record unit plans on ATLAS.

Subject Group Overviews (SGOs) outline the units taught for the whole year, similar to a syllabus. At KCIS, our SGO is our Grade/Phase-level Atlas page so there is no need to create a separate SGO document for each grade and phase.

Key concepts represent broad ideas that are both relevant within and and across disciplines and subjects. The four key concepts attributed to Language Acquisition are communication, connections, creativity, and culture.

Related concepts help guide exploration of key concepts in greater depth. Inquiry into related concepts helps students develop more complex and sophisticated conceptual understanding. Teachers are not limited to the related concepts listed in the chart below and may choose others when planning units, including from other subject groups.

The Global Context provides the big why for the inquiry. It helps students see the relevance of what they are learning by connecting the unit's inquiry to common humanity.

A note on Global Contexts: Many inquiries into Language Acquisition concepts naturally focus on personal and cultural expression, and identities and relationships. Over time, however, students should be offered multiple opportunities to explore all MYP global contexts.

The Statement of Inquiry (SOI) is a combination of three elements: the Key Concept, the Related Concept(s), and the Global Context.

SOIs must explain clearly what students should understand and why that understanding is meaningful .

They are not written in the form of a question.

Everything in the unit aligns with the SOI. The SOI informs the inquiry questions, the content of the unit, the learning activities included, and the types of assessments used.

• When writing your SOI, remember that it:
  • Should not use proper or personal nouns or pronouns
  • Should have a present tense verb, contain at least two concepts and a global context exploration
  • Is a transferable idea
  • May need a qualifier (often, may, can) if it is not true in all situations, but is still an important idea.

Further guidance: MYP From Principles to Practice, page 62

Example of an SOI for a unit on myths and legends:

Global context: Identities and Relationships

Key Concept: Connections

Related concepts: theme, point of view, empathy

Myths, legends and folktales connect people across the world, using universal themes which express traditions, beliefs and values.

CHECKLIST:

• includes a key concept, related concepts, and a specific, relevant, and engaging global context exploration
• develops specific disciplinary knowledge that supports transferable understanding
• establishes the unit’s relevancy and long-term value by articulating a clear, meaningful purpose for the inquiry

Inquiry questions are drawn from, and inspired by, the statement of inquiry. Factual, conceptual and debatable questions give shape and scope to the inquiry and promote critical and creative thinking.

Inquiry questions are meant to be covered explicitly in a unit. To ensure that inquiry questions are both relevant and essential, it is recommended that teachers choose one question to focus on for each category. If your team would like to have more than one inquiry question in each category, the question that will be covered explicitly in your unit should be listed first.

CHECKLIST:

• demonstrates clear understanding of the relationship between facts, concepts and debates
• develops deep understanding of concepts and context combined in the statement of inquiry
• includes teacher- and student-generated inquiries
• helps to prepare students to undertake summative assessment
• is addressed explicitly at some point in the unit

In this box on Atlas, you will select the criterion or criteria that will be summatively assessed in your unit.

For Phases 2, 3, and 4, Criterion D (Using language in spoken and/or written form) must be summatively assessed each unit.

• A student's Criterion D score will be based on the written responses they provide to assessment questions. A separate criterion D summative assessment should not be created.
• A student's criterion D score for the assessment should be based on their language usage throughout the assessment, not just within a single response.

In the Differentiation box on Atlas, teachers must include:

• 1 strategy for students who may struggle with the unit content
• 1 strategy for students who may not find the unit content challenging enough

Resources include, but are not limited to:

• names of novels or Holt stories covered in the unit
• visual texts
• links to videos
• grammar worksheets
• websites used as teacher references

As all of the above should be included in the Content box, the Resources box should read "SEE CONTENT"

Prior to teaching the unit

This section of the Reflection should be completed by each team member before the unit begins. Some guiding questions include:

1. Why do we think the unit or the selection of topics will be interesting to the students?
2. What does experience twll us about what to expect in the unit?
3. What, if any, changes were made to the unit from last year's version?

During teaching

This section of the Reflection should be updated by each team member while the unit is being taught. Some guiding questions include:

1. What difficulties did we encounter when working through the unit?
2. What can we adjust or change?
3. Which activities did the students love? Which did they not enjoy?
4. How well are the formative tasks aligning with the summative assessment?

After teaching the unit

This section of the Reflection should be completed by the team following moderation of the summative assessment. Some guiding questions include:

1. How well did the summative assessment task serve to distinguish achievement levels?
2. Was the summative task sufficiently complex to allow students to reach the highest level of inquiry according to their phase?
3. Which texts should we add/remove for the future?
4. Which teaching strategies were particularly effective, and why?