Middle Years Program (MYP)

The MYP organizes teaching and learning through eight subject groups. The program promotes interdisciplinary study that helps students make important connections between academic subjects.

Integrated teaching and learning helps students analyze complex issues and develop the habits of mind they need to participate in our increasingly interconnected world. 

The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Program (MYP) comprises eight subject groups:

• Language acquisition.

• Language and literature.

• Individuals and societies.

• Sciences

• Mathematics

• Arts

• Physical and health education.

• Design

Each year, students in the MYP also engage in at least one collaboratively planned interdisciplinary unit that involves at least two subject groups.

MYP students also complete a long-term project, where they decide what they want to learn about, identify what they already know, discover what they will need to know to complete the project, and create a proposal or criteria for completing it.

Assessment at Estrella Mountain is used to support student learning. This means that teachers gather and analyze data on a student’s performance using an IB rubric and then provide him/her feedback to help improve his/her performance. MYP assessment is made using a IB rubric with the MYP criterion and a task-specific clarification. 

The MYP assessment system is called a criterion-related assessment and it is important that both students and parents/guardians understand how this assessment works as it is a change from previous grading in a traditional school. Assessing students using a rubric is very helpful because the student knows before starting the work what needs to be done to reach the highest levels of achievement. It also helps teachers clarify and express their expectations about assignments in a way that students are able to understand. Students receive feedback based on the criteria outlined in the MYP rubric and the task specific clarification. 

 

What Are The Assessment Criteria?

Schools must regularly report student progress towards the MYP objectives using the prescribed subject-group assessment criteria. The criteria for each subject group represent the uses of knowledge, understanding and skills that must be taught. The MYP assessment criteria across subject groups can be summarized as follows.
 

Academy Honesty

Estrella Mountain has developed and implements an academic honesty policy that is consistent with IB expectations.

Our school uses the policy of academic honesty to promote principled communication in developing personal integrity in teaching, learning and assessment.  The assessment policy outlines the teacher's responsibility to teach academic honesty and allow the student to demonstrate his/her own knowledge and the skills acquired. Students are required to adhere to the policy and demonstrate their own learning. 

 Through approaches to learning, students develop skills that have relevance across the curriculum that help them “learn how to learn”. Approaches to learning skills can be learned and taught, improved with practice and developed incrementally. They provide a solid foundation for learning independently and with others. ATL skills help students prepare for, and demonstrate learning through, meaningful assessment. They provide a common language that students and teachers can use to reflect on and articulate on the process of learning.

Approaches to learning are most powerful when teachers plan and students engage with them in connection with significant and relevant content knowledge in order to develop transferable understanding. All teachers in MYP schools are responsible for integrating and explicitly teaching ATL skills.
 

Developing student responsibility for ATL

Some of the key questions to be answered by students with respect to ATL skills include:

• What are my present skills in this area and what evidence do I have of my development? 

• What skills can I improve? 

• What new skills can I learn?

When specific ATL skills become an explicit focus for teaching and learning, students can begin to take responsibility for their own development. Over time, students can identify themselves and their competence in any learning strategy using terms like these:

• Novice/ beginning – students are introduced to the skill and can watch others performing it (observation) 

• Learner/ developing – students copy others who use the skill and use the skill with scaffolding and guidance (emulation) 

• Practitioner/ using – students employ the skill confidently and effectively (demonstration) 

• Expert/ sharing – students can show others how to use the skill and accurately assess how effectively the skill is used (self-regulation)

A concept-based curriculum that uses ATL skills effectively enables all students to become stronger, more self-regulated learners.

The IB program has an annual community service requirement. In the International Baccalaureate Program, service means, “contributing to the school, local, national or worldwide community to make life better for others, especially the disadvantaged”. Students will identify a project that is within the scope of this definition. Doing community service work, on campus or off, affords students opportunities to learn about themselves and the community in which they live. The purpose is to promote a better understanding of “community”, to engage students in action or service, and to reflect on the experience. Increased social and self-awareness, initiative, time management skills, opportunities for creative expression, teamwork, commitment, elevated self-esteem and personal integrity are just some of the potential personal benefits of a successful community service experience.

Hour requirements by grade level:

• 6th Grade: 6 hours
• 7th Grade: 8 hours
• 8th Grade: 8 hours