Planning Ahead
As the new year starts (for us at least) the annual revision of the TOK scheme of work occurs. The reflection on the results and the marking always leads to some insight or another. Requesting the essay back now is both painless and efficient (if you have a good printer!). The examiner’s comments can contain some insights, although the new e-marking system is still having some teething problems.
Assessment – what level of support?
The IB recently released a short paper on the issue of teacher’s supporting assessment tasks. How much can the teacher support the development of a summative assessment? How much feedback or editing is valid? From my own experience in a number of school across the world, this question is often answered by the culture of the school. However, the IB quite rightly expects there to be a standard so that all students are assessed fairly. The article can be found in the IB Asia Pacific December 2011 eNewsletter at http://issuu.com/ibasiapacific/docs/ibap_enewsletter_issue_dec_2011.
Many IB teachers would agree that the introduction of the learner profile to the program has added depth to both our courses and to the broader ways in which schools develop contexts and cultures for learning. In many ways, the learner profile partners with the core curriculum to create learning environments that foster a broader set of competencies and outcomes linked to “21st century learning”. As classroom teachers, what are some of the ways that we can use the learner profile to enhance student learning? Here are four suggestions:
1. Be a teacher-leader in making the learner profile part of the school culture.
All teachers need to be aware of the profile and have it in mind when guiding students in all aspects of their learning experience. For example, all six areas of the profile could be easily integrated into practices and policies regarding student behaviour. Additionally, in considering their overall program, are students approaching their learning as inquirers who are balanced and reflective? If not, how can we facilitate this?
My students have now been registered with IB for the 2012 exams, and, as usual, I have a couple who have decided to go down the option B route.
Globally, option B has never been a particularly popular choice, with a consistently small percentage of candidates choosing it over the years, and by far the majority taking option A.
The visual arts guide for the 2016 course will be published in a little less than three years time – around about March of 2014.
At present the new course looks quite different to the current one.
I am going to continue the ICT trend from last week with a second useful site I have found. This is Quia.http://www.quia.com/
It has been interesting to observe reactions at various workshops–both online and face to face–regarding the English A1 and new course syllabi rubric, prescribed lists (PWL/PLT and PBL/PLA) and assessment components.
On the one hand, some participants feel that the ‘choice’ is too broad. They would simply like someone to tell them which works they should do, in what order and how. Often, they misinterpret the ‘lists’ as ‘reading lists’ which they must master wholly.
This is the fourth post in a series discussing the changes made to the new IB Economics Guide (first exams 2013) which can be found is on the IBO’s Online Curriculum Centre (OCC). This post will focus on Assessment while subsequent posts will cover the Internal Assessment and changes that will impact the teaching of Economics at the Higher Level.
The new course guide introduces Assessment Objectives (AO). These objectives outline what will be expected of students, namely that they:
As teachers, we talk a lot about assessment. Do we need it? Do we want it? What kind? Criterion-based? Multiple choice tests? Project? Visual? And what do we do with it once we have it? Report on it? Re-do it? Shelve it?
As MYP teachers, we know assessment is not just a by-product of learning. We assess for learning more than we assess of learning — well, at least we should be, but I know it’s not always easy. Some schools are still stuck in “old” ways and… well, Rome wasn’t built in a day. But regardless — we know we must assess.
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