January2013

=January Newsletter=

Important Dates:
Winter Break Feb. 16 - Feb. 24.

From the MYP Coordinator

Dear Parents:

In an effort to keep you informed about the Middle Years Programme at our school, here is a brief summary for you.

The MYP is a five-year programme for students 11 to 16 years of age. The components are: 10 Learner Profile Attributes, 8 Subject Areas, 5 Areas of Interaction, Teaching Methodology, Assessment, Community and Service, Personal Project, and Supplemental Programmes.

**The Learner Profile:** This is the basis for all International Baccalaureate Organization programmes. It is based on ten attributes that all students are encouraged to practice all through life:
 * Being an Inquiring Person
 * Becoming Knowledgeable
 * Being a Thinker
 * Being a Good Communicator
 * Being a Person of Principle
 * Remaining Open-Minded
 * Being a Caring Person
 * Being a Risk-Taker
 * Remaining Balanced
 * Being Reflective

**Subjects:** The language of instruction for all subjects is English, except for Language B classes (French or Polish). Subject areas are:
 * World Studies
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Science
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Mathematics
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Language A: English
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Language B
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Polish
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">French
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Physical Education
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Design Technology
 * Arts
 * Music
 * Visual Arts

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Areas of Interaction:** Each unit of study has a connection to one of these areas:
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Approaches to Learning:** How we learn and communicate our knowledge
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Community and Service:** Our relationships in society and our responsibilities
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Human Ingenuity:** How and what we create and its effects to self and others
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Environments:** Our relationship and responsibilities to the world
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Health and Social Education:** Our physical, social, and emotional well being

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Teaching Methodology:** In bringing these components together in our teaching, we seek to address the student intellectually, emotionally, and socially. Our learning objectives focus more on how all fields of knowledge are connected than on simply learning facts and repeating them on tests. We prefer using primary and secondary sources as the basis for teaching and learning. We have textbooks, but we use them as reference materials for consultation -- not as the basis for studies.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Assessment:** Students are assessed with tests and quizzes, but also by having them demonstrate and apply their knowledge. For these assessments we use criteria published by the International Baccalaureate Organization that uses rubrics, student expectations, and checklists for each subject.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Students also take the International Schools Assessment, a standardized test to help us develop our curriculum. We do not use this test to rank students’ performance.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Community and Service Programme:** Middle Years Program students are required to participate in Community and Service activities. These can be selected and managed by the students or by the school. Students maintain logs of their activities, including their personal reflections.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Personal Project:** At the end of the end of their fourth year in the Middle Years Programme, students choose a topic that interests them. During their fifth year they conduct research under the guidance of a Personal Project Supervisor. At the end of the year they present their findings, along with a “product” that they created as the result of their project. This is the culminating activity for the program at all MYP schools worldwide.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">**Supplemental:** In addition to the regular academic load that all students carry, these are additional programs sponsored by the school:
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Extra -Curricular Programme
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Mother Tongue Programme
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">English for Second Language Learners
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Teaching of English as a Foreign Language
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Various extracurricular activities
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">White School
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Green School
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Academic field trips in Poland and abroad

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Sincerely, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">Nina Franco, MLS <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">WIS MYP Coordinator <span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif;">franco@fem.org.pl

**Middle School Physical Education**

All MYP students have been participating in their Volleyball Unit. They have been learning, practicing and performing forearm passing (bumping), setting and underhand serving skills through participation in various activities and games. MYP 1 and 2 students have been participating in modified volleyball matches, called bounce volleyball, in which the ball is allowed to bounce one time each time it goes over the net. This bounce allows students more time to track the ball and practice their skills. The older students are now playing authentic volleyball matches and have been concentrating on passing the ball to teammates before sending it over to the other side.



If you would like to learn more about the Volleyball units please go to the following PE wiki links (first one is for MYP 1 and 2 and the second one is for MYP 3-5):

https://wis-pe.wikispaces.com/6th+and+7th+Grade

https://wis-pe.wikispaces.com/8th%2C+9th+and+10th+Grade


 * WIS WOLVES BASKETBALL IN PRAGUE **



The girls and boys middle school basketball teams just competed in a friendly tournament in Prague from January 25-26. If you would like to see information, scores, pictures and videos please go to the following basketball wikipage link:

https://wis-pe.wikispaces.com/WIS+Wolves+Middle+School+Basketball

=Mathematics=

MYP 1
In grade 6 we were learning about algebram, playing games and solving some questions. We found out that patterns are almost all over the place. In math I enjoyed solving IN/OUT questions. What I want to learn more is finding the rules in questions.
 * Hojung:**

MYP 2
This month we have been working on Algebra like about Coordinates, factorising, simplifying algebraic expressions and some mote. We did coordinates which were fun because we did funny shapes from the instructions like a dinosaur. The thing I found hard was Factorising and Substitution.
 * Victoria:**

MYP 3
MYP 3 students are finishing Pythagoras Theorem unit. They did research about Pythagoras’ life, his discovers and the society that he established. They also found a few proofs of theorem and presented them to rest of the class. At the moment they are learning how to use Pythagoras Theorem to find the perimeter of figures composed of or including right-angled triangles.

MYP 5
MYP 5 students are still working on their Equations Unit. They learned many methods to simplify algebraic expressions and solve equations. In their las assessmetnt task, they had to maximize the flow along an open channel made from a folded sheet of metal. They considered how to get the biggest flow rate from a given piece of metal sheet.

=VISUAL ARTS=

MYP 1
Grade 6 has been studing Landscape - Antartica Unit. First they were learning what aerial perspective. They applied knowledge in first task with watercolor aerial perspective painting. You can see results in the first photo. The second image is an evidence of their hard work with second task - painting Antartica Landscape with acrylic paints.



MYP 2
Grade 7 has been learning about Pointillism. First they had some appreciacion in historical point of view, later we were discussing contemporary ways of using pointilism. They did traditional pointillism task (first photo bellow) and now they are in process of compliting some solution with using bottle caps.

MYP 3
Grade 8 has started unit about Contemporary Art movement - Land Art. In the first part of January they were completing Ceramics Unit. Before starting their crucial task MYP 3 has been learning by action. Here is relation





MYP 5
Grade 10 has been completing ILLUSTRATION Unit task. They are in process of doing folder of illustration for the book chosen. Folder will contein a set of illustration to one book. They using different tools and method, very often it is mixed technique.

Language A MYP 1

In MYP 1, we spent the first few lessons this year reviewing essay writing which was the focus of our last unit. We also practiced some exam skills, by doing timed essays on different topics. We have now started our new unit on Autobiography. During the unit we will be thinking about our own lives and our own experiences while also analyzing techniques for making writing more engaging and applying them to our own writing. We will be reading Roald Dahl’s autobiography and the students will be writing extracts for their own autobiography. They have already completed the introductions and I've learned some interesting things about them all!

MYP 2

In MYP 2, we have come to the end of our Science Fiction unit. The students are now working on their final assignment for the unit – an essay on their vision of the future. We have reviewed the features of a good essay; introductions with a thesis statement, body paragraphs with topic sentences, supporting detail and concluding sentences, and conclusions which summarise the main arguments. We have also been practicing some exam skills by doing timed essays on different topics. Our next unit will be about writing stories of younger children.

MYP 3

In MYP 3, we have come to the end of our unit on identity and the students’ final assignments were due on Thursday. They had to write a personal narrative on something they felt important enough to write about. During the unit, we read the novel __The Outsiders__, analysisng the text for techniques for making writing engaging and building on what we learned in the autobiography unit in MYP 1 and the creative writing unit in MYP 2. We also looked at the structure of a personal narrative and analysed several examples. With the ISA tests coming up soon, we also reviewed the features of a good essay and practiced writing essays in test conditions. Our next unit will be on public speaking and we will be asking the question, //What makes a good speech?//

MYP 5

In MYP 5, we are coming to the end of our unit on Perspectives. While reading the novel __Noughts and Crosses__ by Malorie Blackman, we discussed the use of violence to bring about social change. Each student then conducted research into ways people have tried to bring about social change in the past and methods used. The topics were: The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in the USA, Apartheid in South Africa, The IRA and Ghandi. The students put together power point presentations to share what they had learned with their peers. The students are now in the process of completing their final assignment for the unit – an extended essay on their opinion on whether violence is ever justified to bring about social change. The next unit will be about interpreting drama. The students will be studying __Macbeth__ by William Shakespeare and looking at how the play can be interpreted in different ways. The student teacher from Holland, Ms Hemelsoet will be working with me on this unit and doing a lot of the teaching.

=**Music**=

In February, we will be analyzing and composing simple pieces of music focus on musical forms. The aims for MYP grades are as follows:
 * MYP 1: Rondo
 * MYP 2: Variation
 * MYP 3: Polyphony (imitation technique, canon, fugue)
 * MYP 5: Musical genres. Absolute and program music.

=DESIGN TECHNOLOGY=

MYP 1
Grade 6 was worked with they e-portfolios. They have completed portfolio in Prezi and now they are doing class-portfolio webside getting familiar with creating Google Sites. The good content of e - portfolio is a crucial issue for current unit.

MYP 2
Grade 7 has been working with Word Processing and Typography. They created the class presentation about the rules of good typography. They will be presenting this during book week on March. Now they started they big task conected with creating 3D model of their initial letter.

MYP 3
//During the month of January we have been preparing issues for Folk assembly, which is coming on February 6, 2013. We made some folk designs on a wooden utensils and made presentation about our folk from our own country.// Shivangi

Here is an invitation card made by Hania.

MYP 5
// In January, the MYP 5's worked on designing our own sled. While working individally, we also went over proper way of writing a Design Brief and Design Specification. // Minhae

Language B Polish Phase 1 (MYP 1) We just finished our unit about family. Students created the presentations about their families, likes and dislikes.To see the examples of students' worksplease click here. media type="custom" key="22072070"

Phase 2 (MYP 2, MYP 5) Students have finished their unit body and well being. During this unit students have learned vocabulary needed to describe their being especially when visiting doctor. They also came up with a guide for teenagers "What to do to be healthy". To see an example of this please click here

Phase 3-4 (MYP2 MYP 3) During just finished unit "Poetry"students have met few Polish poets, they learned about them and they read some poems. For their final assessment students were expected to write a biography of the poet and analyze one of the poems. It was very hard and interesting experience for them as they never had read Polish poems before. If you want to see the presentation about Julian Tuwim by Oliver Stania please click here

=World Studies=

Students in all grades have been working on current events related to their units on revolution, political and technological. They were asked to discuss the different viewpoints represented and address our key concept of change by evaluating the causes and consequences of the event featured in their story.

Here are some samples from. ..

MYP 1



MYP 2



MYP 3



MYP 5



=MYP Science:=

MYP1: Students are working how animals are classified using: domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus species and how scientist know if something is living. The student have chosen an animal from the movie Finding Nemo and are creating a presentation on how it is classified and why it is considered alive.

MYP2: Students are studying about the different types of biomes that are found on our wonderful planet. Each student was given a different biome and are working on preparing a poster on the different characteristics about their biome.



MYP3: Students just finished our mini unit on sound where they had to see how wave properties affect the pitch and volume of a sound. Currently, the students are working on a presentation of different applications of waves in everyday life such as: radio, wifi, television, walkie talkie, etc.



MPY5: Students are continuing their unit on organic chemistry. We have finished learning how to name organic compounds, so we will move on to simple organic reactions.