MYP Overview
Big Questions. Big Ideas. Big Goals.
Overview of MYP at SVHS
We have completed our IB consultation, where an IB representative helps the school introduce and implement the MYP. We are now submitting our final authorization paperwork with evidence of our successful implementation of all components of the program. Once submitted, IB will visit the school to ensure implementation.
All 9th & 10th students are MYP students- students do not need to apply to participate in the MYP!
As part of the MYP implementation, we are working to align all 9th and 10th grade courses with MYP.
The MYP experience culminates in a personal project, an opportunity to explore an area of personal interest over an extended period while developing essential skills for IB courses in 11th and 12th grade.
SVHS offers a unique interdisciplinary program, the Think Big Program, to support 10th graders on their MYP personal project through art-based experiences and field trips.
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on the MYP Personal Project!
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on our Think Big Program!
MYP in the Classroom:
What does it look like to learn in an MYP Classroom?
MYP brings together three components of learning- content, skills, and concepts- using specific approaches to teaching, such as inquiry. An IB education uses explicit skills instruction to teach content using concepts to illustrate big ideas. Our goal is to balance the what with the how. The content for MYP is determined by the state of Maryland and Montgomery County Public Schools therefore MYP classrooms cover the same content as non-MYP classrooms in MCPS. MYP though serves as a framework to guide the inclusion of concepts and skills in the classroom as a lens for all learning. Additional information about the focus on concepts and skills can be found below.
Content
Determined by MD/MCPS
Concepts
Content and skills connected through BIG ideas or concepts that link units, disciplines, & the real world context
Skills
Organized by IB Approaches to Learning (ATL) featuring 5 academic & socioemotional skill categories
Focus on the IB Learner Profile attributes
Concepts: A focus on Concept-based Inquiry
Concept-based teaching, instead of only teaching students subject specific knowledge, helps students see larger concepts, or big ideas, that transcend a subject and might be applicable in more than one subject. For example, a unit on the human body can be framed under the larger concept of relationships. The concept of relationships can then be critically applied to another Biology unit on ecosystems, to a health class discussing healthy relationships, and to an English class discussing relationships in a novel. Covering both subject-specific topics while connecting them to larger concepts helps students retain the important real world ideas they will need in the future, as well as make connections between what they are learning in different classes. They also help foster students' ability to transfer ideas and skills from one subject to another.
Inquiry is a way of approaching lesson planning and delivery with a view that a teacher’s role is a facilitator of students’ journeys, rather than simply a provider of answers. Inquiry is based on the belief that all students bring something to the classroom and that teachers should respect and acknowledge that knowledge. Teachers should encourage students to make their thinking visible in order to address misconceptions and that the power dynamic in the classroom should be collaborative exploration between the student & teacher.
Inquiry looks like:
Having students analyze a graph, chart, picture, or excerpt before teacher instruction
Asking kids to come back to the stimulus with more information and annotating it
Teacher then sharing their annotations to check for understanding
Encouraging student generated questions after the lesson
Concept-based inquiry means that students are learning through exploration and investigation driven by their own curiosity and personal experiences both in and out of the classroom. Inquiry Content is connected across units, other courses and subjects, and to the real-world through big ideas or concepts. Combining inquiry with concepts allows students to develop a deep understanding of content, while also encouraging transfer and connections beyond day to day lessons or units.
Key
Concepts
16 BIG Ideas
Key Concepts are 16 big ideas identified by IB that are applied and transferred across MYP subjects. They help students see the larger context of their learning and develop deeper connections and transfer of content and skills. For example, some key concepts are Relationships, Change, Culture, and Systems.
Related Concepts
Subject-specific Big Ideas
Related Concepts are subject-specific big ideas extend learning, develop deeper understanding, and create different perspectives in a subject and for the larger key concept. For example, students might focus on the related concepts of setting, character, and point of view in an Language & Literature (English) class.
Global Contexts
Teaching and learning in the MYP involves understanding how key and related concepts, and content, apply to real-world and global contexts. MYP global contexts provide common themes for inquiries developing what it means to be internationally minded, and framing a curriculum that promotes multilingualism, intercultural understanding and global engagement.
Skills: Development of the Approaches to Learning & IB Learner Profile attributes
The Approaches to Learning (ATL), shown in the graphic above, are are deliberate strategies and attitudes that permeate the teaching and learning environment. In the MYP, teaching and learning focuses on the developing and reflecting on both academic and socioemotional skills. ATL supports the IB belief and mission that a large influence on a student’s education is not only WHAT they learn, but also HOW they learn. By interweaving ATL skills into content instruction, students develop a deeper understanding that allows for concept connections.
We believe...
ATL skills can be learned and taught, improved with practice, and developed incrementally.
They provide a common language that students and teachers can use to reflect on and articulate, throughout the process of learning.
In order to develop ATL skills that facilitate effective and efficient learning, students need models, clear expectations, developmental benchmarks (or targets), and multiple opportunities to practice.
The Learner Profile attributes are ten inspirational qualities to inspire and motivate the work of teachers, students, and schools, providing common language of the aims and values of all IB schools and defining what we mean by “international mindedness”. With its 10 attributes, the IB learner profile describes the kind of people—parents, students, educators—who will be needed to help make a better and more peaceful world. As these attributes represent our best expression of the core values of teaching and learning in IB programs, we work to ensure that they are explicitly referenced, modeled, analyzed, and reflected upon to serve as a constant aspiration for students and staff in every IB classroom.
Together, ATL and the Learner Profile attributes help develop the whole students into a capable and thoughtful global citizen prepared for success in school, career, and life