IB Middle Years Program

Recognized around the world as a premier program of study, the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program focuses on thematic instruction where learning is part of an integrated whole. Important concepts that support global thinking, civic-mindedness and service learning are fundamental to the program. Students in the MYP are bright, passionate young people who thrive on challenges and real-world problem solving. Involved in school and in their communities, these leaders of tomorrow know they can make a difference. We promote intercultural understanding and respect as an essential part of life in the 21st century.

The Middle Years Program is an internationally recognized program of study that was founded in 1992 and currently exists in 79 countries throughout the world. There are 850 authorized schools serving 400,000 students and we are happy to be one of them at Plaza Middle School. The MYP was established at Plaza in 2002.

For more information about Princess Anne High's IB Program, please visit Princess Anne High's IB Program page.

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programs of international education and rigorous assessment. These programs encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

• In the program model for the MYP, the first ring around the student at the center describes the features of the program that help students develop disciplinary (and interdisciplinary) understanding. Approaches to learning (ATL)—demonstrating a commitment to approaches to learning as a key component of the MYP for developing skills for learning.
  • Approaches to teaching—emphasizing MYP pedagogy, including collaborative learning through inquiry.
  • Concepts—highlighting a concept-driven curriculum.
  • Global contexts—showing how learning best takes place in context.
• The second ring describes some important outcomes of the program.
  • Inquiry-based learning may result in student-initiated action, which may involve service within the community.
  • The MYP culminates in the personal project (for students in MYP year 5).
• The third ring describes the MYP's broad and balanced curriculum.
  • The MYP organizes teaching and learning through eight subject groups: language and literature, language acquisition, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, arts, physical and health education, and design.
  • The distinction between subject groups blurs to indicate the interdisciplinary nature of the MYP. The subject groups are connected through global contexts and key concepts.
  • To accommodate the eight classes, a modified block schedule is utilized. Students see their core teachers (math, science, social studies, language arts every other day and their elective teachers every day).
  • At the end of the 8th grade, students may accumulate up to 7 high school credit hours.

• At the center of international education in the IB are students with their own learning styles, strengths and limitations. Students come to school with combinations of unique and shared patterns of values, knowledge and experience of the world and their place in it.
• Promoting open communication based on understanding and respect, the IB encourages students to become active, compassionate lifelong learners. An IB education is holistic in nature—it is concerned with the whole person. Along with cognitive development, IB programs and qualifications address students' social, emotional and physical well-being. They value and offer opportunities for students to become active and caring members of local, national and global communities; they focus attention on the processes and the outcomes of internationally minded learning described in the IB learner profile.
• The learner profile is the IB's mission in action. It requires IB learners to strive to become inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. These attributes of internationally minded people represent a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond a concern for intellectual development and academic content. They imply a commitment to implement standards and practices that help all members of the school community learn to respect themselves, others and the world around them.

• Plaza IBMYP Informational Video
• Plaza IBMYP Frequently Asked Questions

• Academic Honesty
• Assessment
• Inclusion
• Language

IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment. IB World Schools value service with others as an important way to engage in principled action across a range of overlapping local and global communities. Through responsible action, tightly connected with sustained inquiry and critical reflection, young people and adults can develop the kinds of attributes described by the learner profile that are essential for success in future academic pursuits and for adult life. The MYP aims to help students develop their personal understanding, their emerging sense of self, and their developmentally appropriate responsibility in their community. As students become more aware and acquire a better understanding of the context, and of their responsibilities, they become empowered to make choices about how to take thoughtful and positive action. This action will be different from student to student and from context to context. The action may involve students in:

• feeling empathy towards others
• making small-scale changes to their behavior
• undertaking larger and more significant projects
• acting on their own
• acting collaboratively
• taking physical action
• suggesting modifications to an existing system to the benefit of all involved
• lobbying people in more influential positions to act

• MYP teachers participate in worldwide professional learning communities through IB Global professional development. The ultimate goal of the Global PD team is to improve learning outcomes for students.
• MYP teachers are tasked with designing authentic units of study that they tailor to meet the needs of their students.
• Teachers in the MYP are also required to submit concept based curriculum units to educators from around the world and receive feedback that guides improvement of instruction for their students.
• Taken as a whole, the curriculum provides a balanced education that will equip young people for effective participation in the modern world. More information and videos can be accessed online at https://www.ibo.org/myp/