International Baccalaureate Programme

Colonel Gray High School

IB DP Overview

• What is an IB Education?

What do you need to know about the IB DP?• The IB DP is an alternative way to graduate from Colonel Gray High

School• Students who are in the IB DP graduate using a different set of criteria than

those students who graduate provincially• Once the decision to enrol in pre-IB is made by current grade 9 students

entering grade 10 for September 2015 they are set on a different path to graduate**

• The same can be said for students currently in grade 10 entering grade 11 IB but in a different way.

** New graduation requirements mean that students enrolling in pre-IB programming are set on the IB DP graduation path starting in their grade 10/11 year. While we have always had an expectation that students who enrol in pre-IB should continue on with the IB DP, the new graduation requirements approved by the DoE mean that students who take pre-IB classes and then choose not to follow through with the IB DP will need to take grade 10 courses in their grade 11 year in order to fulfill provincial graduation requirements.

What is the IB DP?

• The IB DP is a pre-set programme of IB approved courses in addition to core requirements that all IB schools must offer world-wide.

• IB students formally start IB DP courses in their grade 11 year.

• Students study six IB classes as well as Theory of Knowledge.

• IB students also complete an Extended Essay and Creativity, Activity, Service

• The IB DP places the student at the center of his or her own learning.

• The IB DP is for motivationally gifted students, not necessarily academically gifted ones.

Students are in the middle

• In fact, our experience has shown that students who are used to getting high

marks with little effort often struggle to adjust to the workload demands and

assessment results in the IB DP.

• Those that stick with the IB DP and graduate report that they are glad they

made the choice despite the demands because of their success at university.

• Words that often describe IB students are:• Motivated• Resilient• Independent Learners• Inquisitive• Love of reading • Risk Takers• Thinkers• Caring• Willing to learn from mistakes• Driven by learning and not grades• Love of school and learning• … and more

Students are in the middle

• The IB is achievable by all students

but not all students want to achieve

the IB DP

• Some students really do prefer the

easier academic routes that are

available to them.

• IB LP Video

The IB Learner Profile

• All members of the IB community work to embrace the IB Learner Profile.

• The LP is infused into every aspect of the IB DP – all courses, all standards

and practices, all things “IB”.

• The IB asks DP teachers to support students as they learn how to learn for themselves

• The role of the IB teacher is NOT to provide students with content to remember – their role is to help students authentically understand material.

• You can’t memorize your way through the IB DP

Approaches to Teaching

Teaching in IB programmes is:

1. based on inquiry

2. focused on conceptual understanding

3. developed in local and global contexts

4. focused on effective teamwork and collaboration

5. differentiated to meet the needs of all learners

6. informed by assessment (formative and summative).

Approaches to Teaching

Moving from a traditional subject-focused style of teaching to a skills-based, process-oriented style aimed at promoting self-regulation of learning by students can be challenging for both students and teachers, but it has the potential to yield excellent results in terms of student engagement and development of learning skills.

Learning in IB programmes is:

Approaches to Learning

Robert Schwartz:

When I was younger I was inspired by the realization that many people don’t think very well. Too many people jump to conclusions and rarely think of more than one option or any disadvantages before they make a decision. I believe my key contribution has been to help students develop explicit strategies for better thinking that they can use to improve their thinking.

Approaches to Learning -Thinking

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

Stephen Covey

Approaches to Learning –Communication Skills

1. The ability to communicate, in written or oral form, and understand, or make others understand, various messages in a variety of situations and for different purposes.

2. The ability to listen to, and understand, various spoken messages in a variety of communicative situations, and to speak concisely and clearly.

3. The ability to read and understand different texts, adopting strategies appropriate to various reading purposes (reading for information, for study or for pleasure) and to various text types.

4. The ability to write different types of texts for various purposes. To monitor the writing process (from drafting to proofreading).

5. The ability to formulate one’s arguments, in speaking or writing, in a convincing manner and take full account of other viewpoints, whether expressed in written or oral form.

6. The skills needed to use aids (such as notes, schemes, maps) to produce, present or understand complex texts in written or oral form (speeches, conversations, instructions, interviews, debates).

• To function effectively in the school environment, students need to be adept at both peer-related and teacher-related social communication and behaviour.

• These skills are closely linked to communication skills and also to attributes of the IB learner profile, such as being caring (for example, through students being aware of the impact of their behaviour on others).

• Learning itself can also be seen to have a strongly social element. In this approach, learning is a fundamentally active social process, and collaboration is a crucial way of constructing understanding and making meaning.

Approaches to Learning – Social Skills

CASEL core social and emotional learning competencies (2013)(Image reproduced from http://www.casel.org/social-and-emotional-learning/core-competencies )

• This skill category breaks down into two separate areas:

1. Organization skills—managing time and tasks effectively, goal-setting, etc.

2. Affective skills—managing state of mind, self-motivation, resilience, mindfulness, etc.

Approaches to Learning – Self Management

• One of the most crucial skill sets needed for success in the DP are organizational skills, and within that the particular skill of time management.

• Students at both secondary and tertiary levels are very aware of their own deficiencies in this area, but often do not have effective strategies to overcome them (Weissberg et al. 1982).

• Good time management• Is part of self-directed learning• Reduces stress and increases academic performance • contributes significantly to successful “strategic” study

• Time management is not something we can assume that students will do naturally—as with all ATL skills, it is a specific skill that must be taught and also modelled.

• If we expect our students to be well organized and punctual, to work methodically throughout the year and to meet all deadlines without last minute panic, then we must model strategies to help them achieve this goal.

Approaches to Learning – Self Management: Organization

DP teachers can help students organize their time by coordinating their deadlines for students so that assessments are well spread throughout the school year. If teachers also help their students learn how to break down assignments into achievable steps and to timeline each step, plan out revision and study plans for tests and examinations, and build study timetables, then much poor time management will be alleviated.

• The development of affective skills is a key part of the development of self-management skills. This can enable students to gain some control over their mood, their motivation and their ability to deal effectively with setbacks and difficulties. There is also an important link between this area of ATL and the crucial area of student health and well-being

• Resilience• Resilience appears to be the affective concept that is most inclusive

of almost all other desirable affective elements of the successful DP student. The resilient learner is mindful, persevering, emotionally stable and self-motivated. For the resilient learner, any challenge entails the possibility of failure and frustration, but it is this possibility that makes the challenge interesting and intrinsically motivating (Alfi, Assor and Katz 2004).

• Self-motivation• no one can ever really motivate anyone else; the only true

motivation is self-motivation (Brandt 1995). All we can ever hope to do as teachers is to arrange the variables that we have some influence over to help self-motivation to arise and then to facilitate its development.

Approaches to Learning – Self Management: Affective

Mindfulness• Mindfulness means simply becoming

more aware of your own perceptions as they happen, and in your thinking as it occurs. Helping students learn how to “stay in the moment” can help them to overcome distractions, increase attention and improve concentration

• How do you conduct research? Where do you look? Is print dead? What about talking to people?

• Today there is so much information available to you that it isn’t enough to key a word or two in a search engine to find your answer …• You need to discern, select, cross reference, compare,

contrast, evaluate, critically analyze, synthesize and create.

Approaches to Learning –Research Skills

Training in information-literacy and media-literacy skills is vital for every student who is engaged in any form of inquiry learning. Feeling overwhelmed by information is a common concern of students, but by developing their research skills students can learn to narrow down the scope of their researching and cope with the volume of information they produce. This is particularly the case with internet-based research, as “In the Internet world, the ease of finding something obscures the difficulty of finding the right thing” (Gustavson and Nall 2011: 291)

• CAS is organized around the three strands of creativity, activity and service defined as follows.• Creativity—exploring and extending

ideas leading to an original or interpretive product or performance

• Activity—physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle

• Service—collaborative and reciprocal engagement with the community in response to an authentic need

Creativity, Activity, Service

• Students engage in CAS experiences involving one or more of the three CAS strands. A CAS experience can be a single event or may be an extended series of events.

• Further, students undertake a CAS project of at least one month’s duration that challenges students to show initiative, demonstrate perseverance, and develop skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, and decision-making. The CAS project can address any single strand of CAS, or combine two or all three strands.

• Students use the CAS stages (investigation, preparation, action, reflection and demonstration) as a framework for CAS experiences and the CAS project.

• There are three formal documented interviews students must have with their CAS coordinator/adviser. The first interview is at the beginning of the CAS programme, the second at the end of the first year, and the third interview is at the end of the CAS programme.

Creativity, Activity, Service

• CAS emphasizes reflection which is central to building a deep and rich experience in CAS. Reflection informs students’ learning and growth by allowing students to explore ideas, skills, strengths, limitations and areas for further development and consider how they may use prior learning in new contexts.

• The school and students must give CAS as much importance as any other element of the Diploma Programme and ensure sufficient time is allocated for engagement in the CAS programme. The CAS stages offer a helpful and supportive framework and continuum of process for CAS students.

• Successful completion of CAS is a requirement for the award of the IB Diploma. While not formally assessed, students reflect on their CAS experiences and provide evidence in their CAS portfolios of achieving the seven learning outcomes.

• The CAS programme formally begins at the start of the Diploma Programme and continues regularly, ideally on a weekly basis, for at least 18 months with a reasonable balance between creativity, activity, and service.

• All CAS students are expected to maintain and complete a CAS portfolio as evidence of their engagement with CAS. The CAS portfolio is a collection of evidence that showcases CAS experiences and for student reflections; it is not formally assessed.

Creativity, Activity, Service

• Completion of CAS is based on student achievement of the seven CAS learning outcomes. Through their CAS portfolio, students provide the school with evidence demonstrating achievement of each learning outcome.

Creativity, Activity, Service

• The extended essay is assessed against common criteria, interpreted in ways appropriate to each subject.

• The extended essay is:• compulsory for all Diploma Programme students• externally assessed and, in combination with the grade for theory of

knowledge, contributes up to three points to the total score for the IB diploma

• a piece of independent research/investigation on a topic chosen by the student in cooperation with a supervisor in the school

• chosen from the list of approved Diploma Programme subjects, published in the Handbook of procedures for the Diploma Programme

• presented as a formal piece of scholarship containing no more than 4,000 words

• the result of approximately 40 hours of work by the student• concluded with a short interview, or viva voce, with the supervising

teacher (recommended).

Extended Essay

In the Diploma Programme, the extended essay is the prime example of a piece of work where the student has the opportunity toshow knowledge, understanding and enthusiasm about a topic of his or her choice. In those countries where it is the norm for interviews to be required prior to acceptance for employment or for a place at university, the extended essay has often proved to be a valuable stimulus for discussion.

• Cultural humility

• Multiple viewpoints, balanced resources

• A better understanding and appreciation of each other

International Mindedness

• International-mindedness is central to the IB mission and a foundational principle to its educational philosophy; it is at the heart of the continuum of international education.

• An IB education creates learning communities in which students can increase their understanding of language and culture, developing as successful communicators with the skills needed for intercultural dialogue and global engagement.

• Students, teachers, and leaders in the IB school communities have a range of perspectives, values, and traditions. The concept of international-mindedness builds on these diverse perspectives to generate a sense of common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet.

The IB DP Curriculum

• Six courses over two years• 3 at the “Higher” level (HL) ~ 240 hours• 3 at the “Standard” level (SL) ~ 150 hours

• The CORE – Extended Essay, CAS and Theory of Knowledge (~ 120 hours)

• Three HL courses:• English• History• Biology

• Three SL courses• French B or French Ab Initio SL• Math SL• Chemistry or Visual Arts SL

The IB DP Curriculum

• Two Assessment Worlds• Provincial marks (exams, report cards)• IB Assessments (internal assessment and IB

exam)• Provincial assessments - % based• IB assessments – graded 1 – 7• Graduating with the IB DP

• An anticipated score of IB 2 in all courses(50% in the provincial world)• The completion of all CORE work• The completion of all course requirements for IB

subjects• A conversion scale is used to reconcile IB marks with

provincially defined equivalency.

The IB DP Curriculum

• Assessments are used in a variety of ways• Written Work• Recorded oral assessment• Presentations• Lab work• Art work (visual arts)• Math Exploration• Historical Investigation• etc.

• Check our school’s IB website for details: www.edu.pe.ca/gray

Applying for pre-IB placement

• We only have space for 30 students in our pre-IB cohort

• Pre-IB is not a prerequisite for the IB programme

• You will be given support during your Y10 year if you are interested in the IB DP and are not a member of the pre-IB cohort.

• All interested students need to fill in an application (see website) and submit it by no later than March 17th

IMPORTANT

Do not apply for our pre-IB classes if you are already certain you don’t want to take the IBDP in grade 11 and 12.

Applying to the programme if you are out of the Colonel gray school zone• Currently, any student who is interested in the IB DP and lives out of

the Colonel Gray zone must apply to transfer to CG.

• Currently, once the transfer process is approved, you are considered a member of the CG zone regardless of your address.

• The Public Schools Branch does not provide bussing for students out of the normal bussing zone for our school.

• You may wish to hold off on transfer requests until you hear back from us regarding placement in the pre-IB cohort.

For grade 9 students

• The decision to enrol in pre-IB should not be made lightly.

• You are setting yourself on a very different path to graduation, given the updated grad requirements.

• Pre-IB classes:• English 421B, Science 421B, Math 421B and Writing 421B

• Additional Courses• History 421A or 421F, French 421F or French 421A and electives

• Possible electives:• Band students take Physical Education paired their with music class• Students who are not in band can take physical education or other

electives, including Physics 521*

* This would require a strong Math 421 mark.