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Learning & Teaching and Assessment

 

 

THE WRITTEN CURRICULUM

MYP students complete a significant piece of work over an extended period of time, encouraging them to consolidate their learning and reflect on the outcomes of their work through eight subject groups:

  • Language Acquisition
  • Language and literature.
  • Individuals and societies.
  • Sciences.
  • Mathematics.
  • Arts.
  • Physical and health education.
  • Design.

In Al Jabr Islamic School, all students also learn the Islamic Studies directly from the Quran, the primary source of knowledge. As the term Qur’an is a verbal noun that carries the meaning of a “continuous reading,” “recital,” or message that is recounted or listened to over and over again, the inquiry of different themes is connected to different surah and ayat that enable a more powerful reading and understanding the meaning of what Allah SWT had spoken to us.

 

THE TAUGHT CURRICULUM

The MYP aims to help students develop their personal understanding, their emerging sense of self and responsibility in their community.

Students learn best when their learning experiences have context and are connected to their lives and their experience of the world that they have experienced.

Using global contexts, MYP students develop an understanding of their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet through developmentally appropriate explorations of:

  • identities and relationships
  • personal and cultural expression
  • orientations in space and time
  • scientific and technical innovation
  • fairness and development
  • globalization and sustainability.

Teaching and learning in the MYP is underpinned by concepts and related concepts in each of the subjects to achieve conceptual understanding. Concepts are big ideas that have relevance within specific disciplines and across subject areas.

MYP students use concepts as a vehicle to inquire into issues and ideas of personal, local and global significance and examine knowledge holistically.

Approach to Learning

A unifying thread throughout all MYP subject groups, approaches to learning (ATL) provide the foundation for independent learning and encourage the application of their knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts. Developing and applying these social, thinking, research, communication and self management skills helps students learn how to learn. 

 

Service as action through community service

Action and service have always been shared values of the IB community. Students take action when they apply what they are learning in the classroom and beyond. IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate a commitment to service—making a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.

Service as action is an integral part of the programme, especially in the MYP Projects.

 

Inclusion

As part of the MYP curriculum, schools address differentiation within the written, taught and assessed curriculum. This is demonstrated in the unit planner and in the teaching environment, both of which are reviewed during programme authorization and evaluation.

We continue to meet national requirements for students with access needs. We, therefore, develop an inclusion/special educational needs (SEN) policy that explains assessment access arrangements, classroom accommodations and curriculum modification that meet individual student learning needs.

 

THE ASSESSED CURRICULUM 

Assessments are varied to provide students with the greatest chance to express what they know and can do and allows for different learning styles.

The assessment is handed-out, collected and assessed by the teacher. The assessment includes a set of instructions and the criteria with which the student’s performance will be assessed. The teacher assesses the work according to the criteria and awards an attainment level for each of the criteria assessed (e.g. a lab report may cover three of the six science assessment criteria).

The assessed work is then shared with the student. It is then that a teacher must provide feedback to the student about the work and the student may constructively question the attainment level awarded. The attainment levels reached in each criterion are then noted down with the other levels attained on previous work, include: 

Formative assessments are used by the teacher and student to reflect on what knowledge and skills have been learned and developed and can be applied.

Summative assessments take place at the end of the teaching and learning process and allow the student the opportunity to develop and show what has been learned and provide samples of their work to show their understanding. It also helps the teacher judge the level of achievement the student has attained.

Assessment criteria. Students have criteria with which they will be assessed. It provides guidelines on what teachers will be looking for when assessing the students’ knowledge and deeper understanding of the unit and unit question. It also helps the students know what is expected of them so that they can prepare and do the best they can. Often the student has the criteria before the assessment takes place. Criteria are sometimes modified to apply to specific assessment tasks or to suit the grade-level expectations.

 

The overall mapping or MYP in Al Jabr Islamic School as follow: