IB MIDDLE YEARS PROGRAM MOVES INTO B-CC WITH THIS YEAR’S NINTH GRADE CLASS

IB/MYP Coordinator
Kelly Caswell

The Middle Years Program (MYP) is one of three courses of study designed by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). The Primary Years Program is tailored for students third to fifth grade, the Middle Years Program for students from sixth to tenth grade, and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program for eleventh and twelfth grades. The MYP is inclusive and almost every student in the 9th grade at B-CC can participate successfully in the program. Simply stated, MYP is a course of study encouraging teachers and students alike to make their existing academic program more meaningful. The main thrust of this program is to “awaken intelligence, recognize the relationships between school subjects and the world around them, and combine knowledge with experience and critical observation.” (the IBO mission statement)

The beauty of MYP is its ability to blend easily with existing public school curriculum standards. IBO purposely designed the MYP curricular framework to be flexible enough to fit into most school district curriculums. And, when the MYP concepts are properly implemented in classroom instruction, MYP bears a remarkable resemblance to a term educators have coined “best teaching practices.”

Teachers whose class instruction is modified to include MYP methods will always emphasize inquiry methods over rote learning and problem-solving over repetition. Teaching conceptual learning is proven to enhance long-term learning retention because what is learned becomes more meaningful for the learner. A strong MYP curriculum should illustrate how knowledge has had a global impact and should cross subject boundaries. A good example of this is demonstrated by B-CC ceramics teacher, Kathie Grove, who begins her pottery unit by teaching her students about the elements of mathematical symmetry and balance.

To maintain a balance between the MCPS and MYP instructional approach, our 9th grade teachers use common planning time to organize and strategize. They coordinate learning activities, collaborate on teaching requisite learning skills, and devise strategies to help students learn to appreciate different points of view. The B-CC math instructors have worked together to devise lesson plans, projects, or even teamteach -- as Ms. Straus and Mr. Costello have done quite successfully. Students, too, are expected to be an active part of the educational process, becoming more responsible for the timeliness and quality of work they produce.

Thanks to the flexibility of the IBO curricular framework, B-CC determines its interim MYP objectives and the “details of the assessment practices in a way that addresses meaningfully the MYP aims and objectives and requirements.” However, there are certain MYP criteria the school must follow to maintain its IBO authorization. Students are expected to take the eight subject area classes each year they are engaged in the program and to undertake community service projects. The MYP coordinator is required to maintain work portfolios for each student and submit samples of class work (assessment tasks) from every subject area. Teachers are expected to incorporate the MYP subject area aims and objectives into their classroom instruction and to grade most of the assessments using some version of the MYP rubric.

In February, the 9th grade teachers will send one to three samples of assessed student work from each of the eight subject areas to the IBO in Cardiff, Wales, for examination. These samples will be examined“externally” by IBO assessors for feedback on our assessment practices and how well critical thinking skills have been built into daily classroom instruction. We undertake the IBO monitoring process for the same reason we assess our students -- to ascertain how well we teach and reach our objectives.

The final requirement for the MYP program is perhaps the most interesting component of the program. Students are encouraged, during the 10th grade year, to undertake and complete a summative assignment, also known as the Personal Project. The project must reflect a topic of genuine personal interest to the individual student, be it the design of a skateboard, the composition of a musical piece, the creation or direction of a play, or an analysis of fashion trends over the past 5 years. Students will exhibit their completed projects the following spring at the First Annual Tenth Grade Exhibition.

The MYP ideal promotes the growth of the whole adolescent. A solid education isn’t relegated solely to the domain of the academics; creating a community is crucial to maintaining a healthy balance in school life. Keeping this in mind, we have two home-stay exchange trips planned for next year, to Russia and England. Additionally, a trip to Croatia is on the drawing board for the year thereafter. MYP is engaged in community service as well. In January, the MYP student advisory board will begin to raise almost $8,000.00 in travel costs and supplies to send two students and two teachers to Ansuncion and Carapaguay, Paraguay, next summer as part of a community outreach project for The Center for International Education (www.LearnServeParaguay.org). These projects are only the beginning of what we can accomplish using MYP as a springboard to enrich our 9th and 10th grade learning community at B-CC.