All About IB

IB MYP Coordinator

IB (International Baccalaureate) Acronyms and Vocabulary

IB (International Baccalaureate) Acronyms and Vocabulary 

 

Anticipated Student: A junior student who is completing the requirements for the IB Diploma.

 

Approaches To Learning (ATL) (MYP): systematic development of learning skills: communication, collaboration, organization, self-management, reflection, research, informational literacy, media literacy, creative and critical thinking.

 

Approaches To Learning (ATL)/PPS (Personal and Professional Skills): a course required for the Career-Related Program.

 

Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS): a core component requirement for the IB Diploma. Student learning and experiences outside of the classroom. 18-month commitment to exploring areas in creativity, activity and service. Seven areas of growth are documented through goal setting and reflection.

 

CP: IB Career-Related Programme, a two-year programme designed for ages 16 – 19 or grades 11 and 12. Students take IB courses and CTE courses.

 

Key Concepts (MYP): key ideas that cross disciplines and should be used when developing integrated units of study. Aesthetics, Change, Communication, Communities, Connections, Creativity, Culture, Development, Form, Global interactions, Identity, Logic, Perspective, Relationships, Systems, Time, Place and Space.

 

Course Student: A junior or senior student who is not working toward the IB Diploma  or the IB Career-related Certificate, but is taking an IB course and therefore is taking an IB exam.

 

Diploma Candidate: A senior student who is completing the requirements for the IB Diploma.

 

DP: International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, a two-year comprehensive programme, designed for ages 16 – 19 or grades 11 and 12.

 

Extended Essay (EE): a core component requirement for the IB Diploma. The EE is a 4,000-word research paper written by a Diploma Candidate, Students choose their own topics and are supervised by a faculty advisor.

 

External Assessments (EA): A component of a class, such as Literature essays or May IB exams, that is not graded by the JLHS teacher, but rather is sent to an IB examiner for assessment.

 

Global Contexts (MYP): A set of contexts that encourages students to explore international-mindedness and global engagement. These are included in unit planners and taught in units: Identities and Relationships, Orientation in space and time, Personal and cultural expression, Scientific and technical innovation, Globalization and sustainability, Fairness and development.

 

Group Subjects: IB full Diploma candidates are required to take classes in six subject areas: 3 higher level and 3 standard level:

Group 1: Literature

Group 2: World Language

Group 3: Individuals and Societies

Group 4: Experimental sciences

Group 5: Math

Group 6: The Arts or an IB Elective

 

Higher Level (HL): A course of study with increased depth and breadth of subject in comparison to a 

Standard Level (SL) course. All HL courses are a two-year course sequence with exams the senior year.

 

Internal Assessments (IA): IB required assessments. Depending on the subject, the IA could be oral exams, projects, essays, experiments, case studies, etc. that are scored by the teacher. IB externally moderates randomly selected samples of these assessments to ensure that the teacher is scoring appropriately.

 

Marks: IBO’s language for grades given to internal and external assessments as well as exams.

 

MYP: International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme, designed for ages 11 to 16 or students in the 6th through 10th grade. MYP courses include Language and Literature, Individuals and Societies, Language Acquisition, Health and Physical Education, Mathematics, Sciences, Arts, and Design.

 

MYP Certificate: Students who are taking at least the 2nd year of a world language in 10th grade, complete community service in 9th and 10th grade, successfully complete a Personal Project, and successfully complete MYP assessments in their courses receive the Certificate at a ceremony at the end of the school year.

 

Orals: Students in English A1 (Group 1) and World Languages (Group 2) must complete oral presentations. These presentations are sent to IB examiners for assessment. (Students in Film and Visual Arts complete a similar process.)

 

Paper: IBO’s language for an exam in a subject area. An IB exam is never just one exam, but rather a series of “papers,” often administered over the course of two days.

 

Personal Project: a requirement for the MYP Certificate. All sophomores must complete a Personal Project. The PP includes a report, a journal, and a product or outcome. Students choose their own topics and are supervised by a faculty advisor. Students display their projects at the Personal Project Showcase in the spring.

Scores from projects are sent to the IB along with samples for moderation.

 

Predicted Grade (PG): IB teachers submit to IB their prediction of the Subject Result the student will earn in their IB subject. Students do not see these grades, nor do they figure in their ultimate IB grade in the subject. They are used for initial acceptance to universities in countries other than the United States.

 

PYP: International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme, designed for ages 3 through 12 or grades K–5.

 

Reflective Project: a requirement for the Career-related Programme. The IBCP Reflective Project is an in-depth body of work produced over an extended period and submitted in year 2 of the programme. Students identify, analyse, discuss and evaluate an ethical dilemma associated with their career-related studies. Students choose their own topics and are assigned a faculty supervisor.


Theory of Knowledge (TOK): A core component requirement for the IB diploma. TOK is the IB Diploma Programme capstone course, which asks students to reflect on the nature of knowledge. This course integrates all six subjects with the goal of teaching students that all knowledge is related.

Overview

The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Program (MYP) in Fairfax County is an all-inclusive program for students in grades 6 through 10; students can choose to pursue the FCPS MYP certificate in tenth grade.  All students in the MYP benefit from this educational framework that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world and become critical and reflective thinkers.

The MYP aims to develop active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning.


The programme empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers. 

The IB Middle Years Programme: 

  • Addresses holistically students’ intellectual, social, emotional and physical well-being
  • Provides students opportunities to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills they need in order to manage complexity and take responsible action for the future
  • Ensures breadth and depth of understanding through study in eight subject groups
  • Requires the study of at least two languages (language of instruction and additional language of choice) to support students in understanding their own cultures and those of others
  • Empowers students to participate in service within the community
  • Helps to prepare students for further education, the workplace and a lifetime of learning.