Session one: The BIG picture

1. Session one: The BIG picture Aim: To have a basic understanding of the philosophy and framework of the curriculum

2. Curriculum mattersThe BIG picture

3. The IB framework

4. Aims related to IBMYP and subject area – these must be at the forefront of all planning. This is the purpose of the curriculum. • Learner profile– these are part of the SoW aims and lesson objectives • Key concepts - Intercultural awareness; Holistic learning; Communication • AoIfocus – these provide the main focus for developing the connections between the disciplines, so that students will learn to see knowledge as an interrelated, coherent whole. 

5. Relationship of principles to curriculum IB mission statement MYP fundamental concepts and AoI IB learner profile written assessed curriculum taught

6. The key aim ‘Developing the capacity for lifelong learning, expert thinking, problem solving, effective communication and collaborative work in diverse human groups and working for and towards a sustainable future’

7. Oaktree International School aims • To provide a broad and in-depth course of studies that will develop understanding, skills and knowledge across all major disciplines, combined with increasing specialization in each of them. • To develop and encourage critical thinking, active enquiry, learning autonomy and a love for knowledge • To provide an environment for risk taking, creativity, original thinking, and individual research • To promote teamwork, shared endeavour and a capacity for self-evaluation • To stress that learning confers ethical responsibilities • To encourage personal responsibility combined with active engagement and service to others

8. IB learners strive to be • Inquirers • Knowledgeable • Thinkers • Communicators • Principled • Open minded • Caring • Risk takers • Balanced • Reflective

9. Fundamental concepts These concepts are based on: • Intercultural awareness • Holistic learning • Communication

10. Areas of Interaction (AoI) Students are required to experience and explore each of the five areas of interaction in every year of the programme: • approaches to learning (ATL), • community and service, • homo faber, • environment, • health and social education

12. Assessment • Assessment is continuous • Assessment criteria is related to the objectives of each subject group (provided for year 6, 8, 10) • Assessment needs to be formative • Assessment forms must vary • Opportunities for self and peer assessment must be provided in SoW and lessons • The recording and reporting of individual levels of achievement are organized in ways that provide students with detailed feedback on their progress

14. Recording and reporting • Do record marks for specific assessments on student summative assessment sheet • Do record specific targets to work towards • Do provide opportunities to reflect on targets and set new ones (at least once per term) • Provide MYP grade as a best fit based on all evidence to data (CW, HW, core assessment, class discussions etc) • Do monitor progress and develop intervention strategies where/when necessary (example of a summative assessment record sheet)

16. Recording and reporting • Regular (termly for year 6-8 and half termly for 9-10?) • Formative and clear link to AfL • Grades should NOT be based on individual assessments • Grades are best fit (until final assessment of MYP year 10)

19. Reports The school will use subject-specific criteria to indicate levels of achievement and IB ICT system. At the end of each term, students receive an interim report that has the marks related to specific criteria or IGCSE grade descriptors and formative targets on how to improve. At the end of the year lower school students receive a full summative report with an overall best fit IB grade. IGCSE students and IB students receive a full summative report with grades. Term 1: • Interim report with effort only M1-M5 • Interim report with relevant criteria marks and target for M1-M5 Term 2: First half term • Academic review for M4-M5 • Interim report for M4-M5 Second half term • Academic review for M1-M3 • Interim report for M1-M4 only • Full report for M5 with IGCSE grades Term 3: • Full report M1-M4 with MYP/ IB/IGCSE grade

20. Other stuff • Please do go to your MYP subject area. This will have many examples of all of the above related to your area and excellent forum area • Please use the OIS googlearea • Professional development Whole school: Planning effective lessons, incorporating the LP into lessons, AoI, AfL, starters and plenaries, Education for sustainable development, MYP grading IBO: On line and external, visits to other schools • At the end of every term, I will ask for your brief unit evaluation/reviews/reflections and you to complete a table to just list LP and AoI for each topic for whole school overview. • Week without walls

21. Session two: Your subject area for M1-M5 Aim: To have a basic understanding of your subject area at MYP and IGCSE level

22. MYP aims • ‘Life in the 21st century places many changing demands on students making the transition through adolescence. They are at a crucial period of personal, social, physical and intellectual development, of uncertainty and of questioning. The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Programme is designed to help them find a sense of belonging in the ever-changing and increasingly interrelated world around them and to foster a positive attitude to learning’

23. MYP framework

24. Aims and Objectives of subject groups - The objectives of each subject group are skills-based and broad enough to allow a variety of teaching and learning approaches. - The precise choice and organization of content is left to schools in order to preserve flexibility. • In some subjects the content is not specified while in others a framework of concepts or topics is prescribed for all students to address over the five years. Such prescription is kept to a minimum and schools expand their scope of topics and depth of treatment according to their individual needs and preferences.

25. IB and IGCSE tensions? • We need to attempt to deliver IGCSE through the MYP framework (at least for the next two years) • A conflict of philosophy? Possibly…

26. The dependent & interdependent paradigms of learning? A learning dependant paradigm Learners are: • Not engaged with the process of curriculum co-construction. • Passive recipients of teaching. • Not consulted on the curriculum. • Have limited opportunities to take responsibility for their own learning. • Unaware of how they learn. • Not given opportunities to explore the social and emotional aspects of learning. • Limited engagement in the process of AfL An interdependent learning paradigm. Learners are: • Partners in the planning of learning. • Active participants in their learning. • Co-researchers with their teacher’s in learning. • Decision makers in their learning. • Aware of learning styles & their learning preferences. • Aware of personal learning & thinking skills. • Have dialogue regarding learning through the process of AfL. • Able to take full responsibility for their own learning

27. So what can we do then? • IGCSE content – yes • BUT through active teaching and learning we can promote our aims, the learner profile, fundamental concepts and where/when possible the AoI

28. A whistle stop tour of your MYP subject area • Go through your MYP handbook • Examine and note • Key aims and objectives of the subject • Main concepts/branches and skills of the subject • Main elements of a successful curriculum • Main elements of assessment (criteria and progression) • Link of assessment criteria and interim objectives

29. A whistle stop tour of your IGCSE subject • Go through your IGCSE syllabus • Examine and note • Key aims and objectives of the subject • Main concepts/branches and skills of the subject • Main elements of a successful curriculum • Main elements of assessment (criteria and progression) • Assessment and examination papers

30. To do… • MYP subject descriptor • IGCSE subject descriptor • Long term SoW • Unit plan for first half term for each year group • Medium term SoW for first half term for each year group

31. Session three: Curriculum planning Aim: To put principles into curriculum practice

32. Relationship of principles to curriculum IB mission statement MYP fundamental concepts and AoI IB learner profile written assessed curriculum taught

33. Steps for subject curriculum development (M1-M3) Step 1: Long term plan • Brainstorm and list key questions/topics/themes/issues you feel will meet the aims of the overarching curriculum and provide opportunities for students to meet your subject area learning objectives and related assessment criteria as well as the AoI and learner profile characteristics. • Try and aim for one or two topics per half term • Really think carefully about the knowledge, understanding, skills and values you intend students need to learn • (Use blank MYP long term plan doc and see MYP1-3 geography example)

34. Geography long term SoW example

35. Steps for subject curriculum development (M4-M5) IGCSE Long term plan • Go through your syllabus content • Map out your long term plan (finishing by Easter 2013)

36. Step 2: Unit planner • Step 2: Unit planner • Complete stage 1 of MYP unit planner for one unit of work • Complete stage 2 of MYP unit planner (be clear about the core assessment for the topic and related criteria) • Complete more detailed medium term SoWusing proforma • Review MYP unit planner • Implement/on going evaluation • Overall evaluation and development (use blank unit planner and see example)

37. The unit planning process IB mission statement IB learner profile MYP fundamental concepts Content – the topics we teach in our subjects The contexts – provided by the areas of interaction MYP unit planner

38. MYP curriculum planning - the intention • The content of the subjects should be aligned with the MYP objectivesfor each year of the programme through vertical planning. • The areas of interaction provide the context for teaching and learning. • These elements need to be at the start of curriculum planning in the first stage of planning- see stage 1.

39. Stage 1 of MYP unit planning (abridged)

40. How does this work in practice? The unit planner is meant as a tool: • Starts from an area of interaction context • Includes the MYP objectives in stage 1 of the planner • Let’s take an example of a unit from a school that has started to develop their MYP curriculum in the way we just described. How can the unit planner help to further develop this unit?

41. Example from current school curriculum • Biology, MYP 3, Photosynthesis, 4 weeks • Unit question: • How do plants grow? • Content: Students learn about • photosynthesis as the key process producing new plant biomass • carbon dioxide for photosynthesis comes from the air and that the water is absorbed through the roots • chlorophyll enables a plant to utilise light in photosynthesis • the role of the leaf in photosynthesis

42. Example continued • Assessment: • Criterion B: communication in science • Criterion C: knowledge and understanding of science • Criterion F: attitudes in science • Links to the areas of interaction: • ENVS: the effect of environment on the growth of plants and the effects of plants on the environment • HSE: the importance of plants for food • ATL: problem solving, research skills, collaborative skills, presentation skills • HI: how can we protect or conserve plants and influence how they grow

43. Using the unit planner To make a start, schools sometimes copy and paste the ‘old’ unit plan directly into the planner This could form a starting point for reflection upon the unit • What would this look like in terms of the previous example?

44. “Old content” in planner

45. Looking through Environments

46. Looking through Human ingenuity

47. From there.... • These two examples have different unit questions that could lead to very different learning activities and could address different objectives. • The teacher will need to decide which content, skills and objectives he/she wants to address in the unit to determine the most suitable unit question. Numerous assessments tasks may best reflect the complexity of unit questions and significant concepts. The assessment would be included in stage 1. • Thus, the process is not linear but recursive with all steps influencing each other

48. Significant concepts As stated in MYP: From principles into practice on page 74,  “the MYP unit will be guided and driven by the MYP unit question that integrates the significant concept(s) of the subject matter with the context provided by one of the areas of interaction”.    The significant concepts must be rooted within the subject group first, once the understanding of the concept is consolidated from the disciplinary perspective, students will be in a position to engage in meaningful interdisciplinary understanding later.

49. What makes a good unit? 1. Setting the context and summative assessment(s) • Is the unit driven by an open-ended, multifaceted unit question that engages students? • Are the significant concepts and unit question conceptually based? • Does it focus on one main area of interaction and potentially leads to interdisciplinary learning? • Will the unit be guided and driven by the MYP unit question that integrates the significant concept(s) of the subject matter with the context provided by the areas of interaction? • Do the assessments distinguish students’ engagement with the MYP unit question and learning objectives? • Do the assessments provide varied opportunities for the students to show their knowledge, understanding, skills and attitudes? • Have appropriate assessment criteria been selected and aligned with subject objectives?

50. What makes a good unit? 2. planning for student learning and development • Does the unit involve students in a range of learning experiences planned in response to the MYP unit question ? • Does the unit plan achieve year level/subject objectives? • Do these experiences aim to have real life applications and develop skills for life as well as subject skills development? • Does the unit build on the prior knowledge of the students and how is this facilitated? • Will the unit use a variety of resources and teaching methodologies that meet the needs of the students? • Will positive attitudes be constructed and encouraged?