Grasping MYP Assessments

A couple of weeks ago I attended a Zoom session facilitated by the South Australia Middle Years Programme Coordinators Network. The session was based around the creation/development of conceptual assessment tasks in the the IB programme. As previously posted, I am on a significant learning journey at the moment, teaching within an IB framework. Over the last three weeks I have created three new assessment tasks, so this session was timely for me as I reflect on these recent tasks.

The biggest takeaway was the GRASPS acronym as shown below. This will help me to structure future assessment tasks that I create and also to relate specifically back to the key and related concepts. I am starting to understand these a lot more now and have been getting help around how to embed key and related concepts into units I develop, but still need to ensure these are included in assessment tasks. Finally, GRASPS will help with how to relate everything back to the statement of inquiry - also an area I need to develop further.

The second takeaway was related to the unit plan and how this can directly impact on the final assignment (side note - I am unsure why, but the words assessment and assignment seem to be used interchangeably!). The below points were new to me, but make a lot of sense. I've tried over the last few years to title units and develop units based around learning objectives, rather than topics. I particularly get frustrated when PE teachers name and refer to units purely based on sports! Sports may be the practical medium, but generally aren't the purpose of the unit! I now understand that unit titles as inquiry questions directly gives flexibility to explore the key and related concepts. These unit questions should be created in a way to hook learners and set them up to be involved in an exploratory inquiry! The presenters also suggested the questions are based off of real life events, to relate to global contexts too.

For the last 20 minutes of the session, we were grouped into our curriculum areas to have a discussion. I was grouped with two other teachers who were both from the same school. This breakout discussion made me realise 1) how much I have learnt over the last few months and 2) how much I love the inquiry based model MYP offers. These two teachers were involved in the session because their school is shifting to the MYP IB framework next year, so they were looking for ideas and greater understanding. I was proud that I could actually discuss, explain and use correct terminology for my experiences of what MYP IB looks like in action to date (particularly in a PE setting)!

I'm looking forward to being involved in more of these sessions and discussions, and also implementing these two major takeaways over the coming months.

I'm back treading water!

One of the biggest changes about teaching in Australia is the change of curriculum. In NZ, knowledge and implementation of the curriculum and the HPE achievement objectives is one of my strengths. Here however, I'm completely thrown back into the deep end trying to learn the Australian Curriculum - I feel like a first year again! In addition, Pedare (my new school) teaches the Middle School through International Baccalaureate - another mindset shift and terminology overload! Therefore, I have been on a learning journey throughout my first term reading the handbook, engaging in online PD and having discussions about what on Earth IB is. 

Essentially, IB is split into 8 subject groups, and the Middle Years Programme and is a 2, 3, 4 or 5 year programme. Pedare runs the IB programme across 4 years (Y6-Y9/the middle school). IB describes the aim of the programme as "a framework of academic challenge that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world, and become critical and reflective thinkers" (p.128). This does link closely with the NZC aim for students to be active lifelong learners, but the biggest difference is the world focus at the forefront. I have found it interesting and exciting that the aim is to ensure that learning is globally contextualised.

At the heart of IB is the IB learner profile, as included alongside. This profile highlights 10 key attributes IB aims to develop, that aren't related to academic success. Ideally, students are able to demonstrate each of these attributes/personal qualities by the end of the IB programme. The below video gives more detail, as well as the IB website.

When planning a unit of work within an IB programme, there are several parts included. I've tried to break down the major jargon here - there's a bit to take in! One is the key concepts. There are 16 key concepts as identified below. Teachers use these key concepts to create units of work both within their discipline of teaching, as well as interdisciplinary. Something I'm excited about, is there appears to be greater opportunities to create integrated units of teaching and learning, which of course was a highlight for me last year. From my understanding these key concepts are the broad, overarching ideas that can be explored and demonstrated differently across the 8 subject groups.

Key concepts are broken down further into the related concepts. Related concepts are subject specific, so can vary from class to class. For instance, in Health and Physical Education some related concepts are energy, movement and space (see more here about HPE in the MYP IB). There are however some common concepts across subjects such as the descriptor 'explain'. I think that this is fantastic for students to have common language like this across their classes, because then there is greater consistency. Something that has really frustrated me previously, is when including words such as 'explain' in students' learning tasks or assessments, the expectation of what this actually looks like may be different across subjects. This small yet significant issue is resolved by the IB terminology used consistently (in theory), and hopefully reduces barriers to student success (as the language in the questions is not new to them). This consistency is also evident among the summative assessment tasks, which all have the same structure and language.

As well as key concepts and related concepts, to incorporate 'the real world' each unit also includes global contexts. IB believes that by using global contexts in teaching and learning, this may increase student engagement because of greater relevance and meaning to their lives.

Teachers combine the KC, RC and GC to create a statement of inquiry. This statement is what should be at the front of the teaching and learning programme. Therefore it should be one sentence in student friendly language, and readily available to be referred to throughout lessons.

Finally, a large component of IB is learning how to learn. The essence of this is that students not only understand what they are learning, but also why they are learning and what knowledge and skills they need to be able to learn (this links directly with my previous school's pedagogy Ako Orewa). There are five categories titled the Approaches to Learning; communication, social, self-management, research and thinking.

So, where to from here? A couple of things I've been left thinking about and want to explore, develop, and practice in the months to come;

- Explicitly using the learner profile attributes in my teaching and learning, so students know what they are developing

- Creating statements of inquiry, and including them within learning programmes 

- Down the track I think it would be great to co-construct units with the students, so they actually help to decide what KC's, RC's, GC's are included in the unit and ultimately what the statement of inquiry is

- Greater understanding of the 4 criteria/strands of the HPE curriculum, which I haven't even mentioned here (these appear to be similar to NZ's A.O.'s)

So there you have it, IB described in 844 words!