Superintendant Brian Ewert visited our MYP Personal Project Open House this spring. Check out his Supe Scoop video.
The MYP is “an educational framework that encourages students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world. At a time when students are establishing their identity and building self-esteem, the MYP is uniquely designed to offer a well-rounded education and help students achieve success in school and life” (ibo.org).
The MYP is compatible with state standards and LPS graduation requirements, and every single 9th and 10th grade student at LHS is part of the MYP through their coursework. It features an inquiry-based, concepts-driven curriculum, innovative assessments, and a personal project each 10th grader gets to design and develop based on something that interests them. The IB Diploma Programme is then open and available for each 11th and 12th grader to pursue as they progress in their high school career.
“We decided to pursue the Middle Years Programme with the goal of engaging every single kid. We want every single kid to feel like they belong at Littleton High School, and we want to engage those kids in real-world, global context issues,” said LHS science teacher and former MYP coordinator Mike Montgomery at the Board of Education meeting on March 10, 2022.
The MYP includes research-based staff development for teachers in the form of national trainings, Colorado roundtables through the IB Association Rocky Mountain Schools, and includes extensive resources for teachers.
The IB Middle Years Programme from International Baccalaureate on Vimeo.
The MYP
· 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 either French or Spanish to support students in understanding their own cultures and those of others
· Empowers students to participate in service within the community
· Helps prepare students for further education, the workplace and a lifetime of learning
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 International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) is comprised of eight subject groups:
The MYP requires at least 50 hours of teaching time for each subject group in each year of the programme. Students have the option to take courses from six of the eight subject groups within certain limits, to provide greater flexibility in meeting graduation requirements and individual student learning needs.
Each year, students in the MYP also engage in at least one collaboratively planned interdisciplinary unit that involves at least two subject groups
MYP students also complete a long-term project, where they decide what they want to learn about, identify what they already know, discovering what they will need to know to complete the project, and create a proposal or criteria for completing it
