IMYC in Action
This page explores the different stages of the Process to Facilitate Learning that is followed for every unit of learning in the International Middle Years Curriculum. The links attached go to our “Curriculum Focus” series in the Principal’s Blog, with a deeper exploration of each stage of the process.
Every IMYC unit is given a “Big Idea” to connect all the subjects together. The “Big Idea” is a concept that can be explored through all subjects, such as “Relationship” - Every individual thing is affected by other things. These units follow the process outlined in the image below:
Entry Point: The start of a new theme in the IPC, the Entry Point is designed to engage and excite students about the theme and give the teacher a memorable hook to refer back to during the unit.
Knowledge Harvest: Designed to find out what students already know about their new theme, based around the different subject areas. Teachers can use this to identify gaps and opportunities for extending learning, as well as discovering what questions their students have.
Explaining the Theme: Used to share what subjects will be covered for the IPC theme and what they will be learning about in each subject area. This allows students to have a clear understanding of what will be covered in the unit.
Research: Students are provided opportunities to complete a variety of research tasks over a unit, using both physical and digital resources to further their knowledge, skills and understanding.
Record: After performing each research task, students are tasked with finding ways to record and share the information gathered during their research. This can take many forms, from presentations to classroom conversations.
Reflect: Time is given during each learning task cycle for students to pause and reflect on what they have just learned, connecting it to their theme and the world around them.
Overarching Reflection (IMYC context): As well as reflecting at a subject level, IMYC students also take time to build connections between subjects, towards the Big Idea, through their personal experiences, and to the wider world.
Exit Point: An opportunity to dig deeper into the Big Idea and their subject learning and expand upon it, while connecting to the Big Idea, IMYC learners use their overarching reflections to support the creation of their Exit Point media project. This takes place at the end of every unit.
As the image of the Process to Facilitate Learning shows, learners will have formative and summative assessments throughout the unit, be provided opportunities to be given agency in their learning, and explore metacognition further to find techniques to support long term memory retention.
