The International Baccalaureate
Middle Years Program

301-951-6647

What is MYP?

The MYP is a coherent and comprehensive curriculum that provides a framework of academic challenge and life skills appropriate to students ages 11-16. The program is intended to promote the education of the whole person emphasizing the importance of a broad and balanced education. Our objectives in the classroom setting include skills and processes building around a framework of concepts; our aim is to teach not only content knowledge, but to also help students to develop a genuine understanding of the underlying principals in each discipline and to apply these in new contexts, in preparation for further learning.

In addition, the program aims to promote:

• A more coherent understanding of the world around us
• More responsible citizenship
• Learning how to learn, making learning a life-long process

MYP at B-CCHS

Students come to Bethesda-Chevy Chase from Westland Middle School to complete their final two years of the IB Middle Years Program. Here they’ll study a curriculum merging the Montgomery County Public Schools Instructional Guides with the MYP curricular framework. Simply stated, students will benefit from the MYP approach to academic study and life skills now immersed in the MCPS requirements. Our goal is to offer every ninth and tenth grade student at B-CC a more comprehensive course of study.

Why MYP at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School?

Most ninth-grade students are at an important juncture in adolescence; having left the comfortable world of middle school, they now enter the high-school environment where they must quickly adjust to a brand-new “operating system.” They are entering a phase where their social and cultural experiences inside and out of school have a great impact on their perception of themselves and their ability to deal with others. The Middle Years Program was developed to offer a degree of diversity needed at the ninth-grade level. Here, as in the tenth-grade, the MYP curriculum emphasizes developing learning skills, attitudes and knowledge needed to participate in an increasingly global society.

How are the final two years of MYP actualized at B-CCHS?

• All identified students are enrolled in a foreign language in 9th and 10th grade
• Students maintain a work portfolio in each of the eight subject areas (math, science, English/history, art, technology, foreign language, PE, and history) including one or more assessment tasks
• Every identified student submits a Personal Project at the end of the tenth grade
• A more concerted effort to work as an educational community among the grade level teachers
• Emphasis on greater community service and involvement in intercultural activities

IB Middle Years Program Update, January 2006

Link to MIDDLE YEARS PROGRAM Discussion Board

Link to Mentor Agreement

Link to Personal Project Calendar 2007-08

Link to Personal Project Guide 2007-08 IBO

Link to Personal Project Assessment Criteria

Link to Resources and Information for the Personal Project

Link to Tips for Planning and Scheduling Your Personal Project

Summer Project Packet 2008

Click the play button below to watch the "Learner Profile Video"