Middle Years Programme

The International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum is a globally recognized leader in the field of international education. IB programs encourage students, ages 3 to 19 years, to be active learners, well-rounded individuals and engaged world citizens. Founded in 1968, IB programs are offered by more than 3,000 schools in 139 countries to approximately 845,000 students. GB West is one of 13 Wisconsin schools that offer an IB curriculum. GB West focuses on ensuring that all students reach an ever-increasing standard of academic excellence despite the socioeconomic, interpersonal, and familial challenges.

Your child will engage in rigorous inquiry lessons that teach them how to think and problem solve. Your child will learn how to use the IB rubrics (grading descriptors) and continue to study a world language. 

MYP uses five core ideas or approaches to learning (e.g. Thinking, self-management, Research, Social skills, Communication).

Communication is critical to expressing your knowledge and sharing what you have learned with others. Your child already speaks multiple languages, they speak and write with their friends differently than with you as their parents and again differently with their grandparents or teachers. They speak body language to communicate. 

Language is so critical to learning that it has historically been the first aspect removed from a culture as a means of control. Language is power and the MYP gives students additional languages to communicate and continue to grow as learners. We think in words, the more words we have the deeper our thoughts.

All MYP students take a world language, which gives them access to a world of knowledge.

The MYP stresses academic rigor. At West, we believe that all students can rise to set expectations, so we expect a lot. Teachers will continue to differentiate their instruction so that every child can succeed and have equal access to the content. IB at West stresses the process of learning and student growth.

Your interest in your child’s school work is always a great motivator for their success. Continue to help them to grow academically and socially. Encourage academic integrity. Talk about our environment, international affairs, international understanding, and cultural awareness, as you continue to build your child’s knowledge and pride in our home culture. Listen to how your children are changing as thinkers.

The middle years are very exciting. Ask questions that start with:

• "Tell me about..."
• "Suppose you could..." 
• "Can you elaborate on...?"
• "What do you think about...?"

Show interest in your child’s higher level thinking skills. Your child will be awaken to new levels of reality when we as teachers and, you as parents value their intellectual capacity and sense of personal integrity.

West is an IB World School. Your child is automatically enrolled in MYP.

As teachers, the first thing we do is organize your child's sequence of lessons. We also plan using the same guidelines from sixth to tenth grades. We want to create an intelligent flow of instruction. Next, we design concept based units to deliver instruction in meaningful chunks. Each unit includes an emphasis on one of our three big concepts, holistic education, communication skills and internationalism.

The MYP is a philosophy, or approach to the organization of curriculum, and guiding concepts that extend across all courses. West MYP teachers use the five lenses (Thinking, self-management, Research, Social skills, Communication skills) to view our subjects. We expect quality work and thoughtful reflection, and we help the students archive their achievements in portfolios. We hope that the IB experience will help kids acquire the needed skills to function well in the world and make it a better place.

We often talk about the "student profile." This refers to a list of the characteristics we help you to foster in your students. The qualities include being principled, open-minded, caring, balanced, inquiring, and knowledgeable.

We try to encourage kids to be thinkers, communicators and risk-takers. We want to set them up to be lifelong learners.

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.

The focus of approaches to learning in the MYP is on helping students to develop the self-knowledge and skills they need to enjoy a lifetime of learning. ATL skills empower students to succeed in meeting the challenging objectives of MYP subject groups as well as prepare them for further success if they choose to pursue a rigorous academic programme like the IB Diploma Programme. Ultimately, ATL skills help to prepare students for responsible participation in local and global communities.

In the MYP, ATL encompasses both general and discipline-specific skills. Many ATL skills are applicable to all MYP subject groups; these general ‘tools for learning’ are then tailored to meet the specific needs of students and subjects. In order to develop ATL skills that facilitate effective and efficient learning, students need models, clear expectations, developmental benchmarks (or targets), and multiple opportunities to practice. While ATL are not formally assessed in the MYP, they contribute to students’ achievement in all subject groups. Teachers provide students with regular, specific feedback on the development of ATL skills through learning engagements and that provide formative assessment.

Every MYP unit identifies approaches to learning skills that students will develop through their inquiry and demonstrate in the unit’s summative assessment.

The most effective way to develop approaches to learning is through ongoing, process-focused disciplinary and interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Teachers can use key and related concepts along with global contexts as vehicles for teaching effective learning strategies. Likewise, approaches to learning can be powerful tools for exploring significant content. This dual focus (content and process) promotes student engagement, deep understanding, transfer of skills and academic success.

Over time, students should develop clear and sophisticated understandings of how they learn best and how they can evaluate the effectiveness of their learning. This kind of self-regulated (independent and autonomous) learning helps students:

• reflect purposefully on their learning (metacognition)
• understand the diversity of human learning needs 
• evaluate and provide evidence of their learning 
• meet MYP subject group aims and objectives 
• share responsibility for creating productive, cooperative and safe learning environments 
• develop the confidence to try new strategies and explore new concepts and contexts for learning 
• prepare for further study and responsible participation in local and global communities.

The Personal Project is a requirement of all MYP sophomores.  It is meant as a showcase for students to demonstrate learning that occurs on their own, outside of the normal school curricula.  They are ultimately assessed on their ability to learn something new and reflected on that process of learning rather than the end product.  The Personal Project represents a minimum of twenty-five hours of outside work during the school year.  During the year they will meet with an assigned teacher to help guide them through the process and reflections on their work. They will ultimately submit their report (with supporting evidence), bibliography and Academic honesty form to be Internationally grade by International Baccalaureate Organization.

The personal project encourages students to practice and strengthen their approaches to learning (ATL) skills, to consolidate prior and subject-specific learning, and to develop an area of personal interest. The personal project provides an excellent opportunity for students to produce a truly personal and often creative product/outcome and to demonstrate a consolidation of their learning in the MYP. The project offers many opportunities for differentiation of learning and expression according to students’ individual needs. The personal nature of the project is important; the project should revolve around a challenge that motivates and interests the individual student. 

Each student develops a personal project independently. MYP projects are student-centered and age-appropriate, and they enable students to engage in practical explorations through a cycle of inquiry, action and reflection. MYP projects help students to develop the attributes of the IB learner profile; provide students with an essential opportunity to demonstrate ATL skills developed through the MYP; and foster the development of independent, lifelong learners.

There are multiple resources available from the Project Coordinator and Advisory Teachers