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Key concepts:

In the Middle Years Programme (MYP), each subject area has key concepts that are used as a framework for knowledge. They are powerful ideas that we explore through different topics to try to understand the world around us. In MYP language and literature, there are four key concepts that we use as the basis for study. These concepts are:
• Communication
• Connections
• Creativity
• Perspective

Related concepts:

Genre and conventions, Structure, Point of view, Character, Theme, Setting, Style, Intertextuality, Purpose, Audience imperatives, Self-expression

Learning Skills:

Learning in the MYP is primarily inquiry-based learning. This means that you are encouraged to ask questions in order to understand the many ways that language and literature interacts to form the world as we know it. Your learning will continually cycle through three different phases.

Inquiry:

Ask questions. Your curiosity is one of your best assets as a student.

Action:

An important part of conceptual learning is action. Action in the MYP might involve learning by doing, service learning, educating yourself and educating others.

Reflection:

Reflection in your learning helps you to look at the facts from a different perspective, to ask new questions and to reconsider your own conclusions. You may then decide to lead your inquiry in a different direction.

As an MYP student, learning through inquiry, action and reflection is central to your education and forms the foundation of acquiring knowledge and conceptual understanding.

The objectives covered:

Both the skills and the objectives are closely related to the assessment criteria that your teacher will have made available to you. There are four assessment criteria and each one is designed to measure your skills in a different area of language and literature as follows:

Criterion A - Analysing - Maximum 8

Criterion B – Organizing - Maximum 8

Criterion C - Producing Text - Maximum 8

Criterion D - Using language - Maximum 8

You will engage in a variety of activities, continually refining your skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, Viewing and Presenting.

A: Analysing

This objective refers to enabling you to deconstruct texts, in order to identify their essential elements and to extract meaning from them, through demonstrating an understanding of the creator's choices, the relationships between the various components of the text, and making inferences.

The last two years of the MYP should prepare you to:

• Analyse the effects and purposes of the content, context, language, structure, technique and style of texts created by others
• Analyse the effects of the creator's choices on an audience
• Justify your opinions and ideas, using appropriate examples, thorough explanation and accurate terminology
• Compare and contrast works
• Connect literary and non-literary features across and within genres or texts.

B: Organizing

This objective requires you to value and demonstrate an understanding of and an ability to organize your ideas and opinions using a range of appropriate conventions for different forms and purposes of communication. You must also recognize the importance of maintaining academic integrity by respecting intellectual property rights and referencing all sources accurately.

These last two years of the MYP should prepare you to:

• Employ organizational structures that serve the context and the intention
• Organize opinions and ideas in a sustained, coherent and logical manner with ideas building on each other
• Use language-specific conventions to show the reason for the order of your ideas
• Acknowledge sources as pe recognized convention
• Use a presentation style suitable to the context and intention

C: Producing text

This objective requires you to engage in the process of text creation with an emphasis on both the creative process itself and on the understanding of the connection between you, the creator, and your audience. You will explore and appreciate new and changing perspectives and ideas. As a result, you will develop the ability to make choices aimed at producing texts that please you, the creator, and your audience.

These last two years of the MYP should prepare you to:

• Create works that demonstrate your insight, imagination and sensitivity
• Make choices that serve the content, context and intention, and which are designed to have an impact on your audience
• Select relevant details and examples to justify ideas
• Employ a range of literary techniques
• Explore and reflect critically on new perspectives and ideas arising from your personal engagement with the creative process.

D: Using language

This objective expects you to develop, organize and express yourself and communicate thoughts, ideas and information. You are required to use accurate and varied language that is appropriate to the context and intention. This objective applies to all written, oral and visual text.

These last two years of the MYP should prepare you to:

• Use accurate and varied vocabulary, sentence structures and forms of expression
• Use an appropriate register and style that serves the context and intention
• Use correct grammar, syntax and punctuation
• Use correct spelling (alphabetic languages) or writing (character languages) and pronunciation
• Use appropriate non-verbal communication techniques in oral, presentation or visual work

Knowledge:

The role of knowledge in supporting conceptual understanding is below:

Knowledge, facts and examples > Related concepts > Key conceptual understanding

Global Contexts:

The global context is the setting or background for studying the key and related concepts. There are six global contexts: 1. Identities and relationships
2. Orientation in time and space
3. Personal and cultural expression
4. Scientific and technical innovation
5. Globalization and sustainability
6. Fairness and development
The choice of global context is influenced in several different ways. Scale – study of a concept on an individual, local or global level Relevance – your education needs to be relevant for you and the world you live in, and this will influence the choice of context.

International mindedness – IB programmes aim to develop internationally minded students and this is supported through using a variety of contexts to understand concepts.

Approaches to learning (ATL) skills:

There are five groups of ATL skills namely
• Thinking Skills
• Social Skills
• Communication Skills
• Self-Management Skills
• Research Skills

Summary

Remember that conceptual learning happens when you use the inquiry cycle, develop your ATL skills and increase subject knowledge. These three factors work together to develop detailed understanding of the four key concepts in language and literature: communication, connections, creativity and perspective. IB NCR Academy helps students to focus on conceptual learning to construct a deeper understanding of the big ideas in life and the world around us.