MYP ATL and Learner Profile Week at VKE

“The interaction of knowledge and skills with experience is key to learning” ~ John Dewey

The last week of July 2019, at Victorious Kidss Educares (VKE), commenced with the celebration of ATL (Approaches to Learning) and Learner Profile week wherein our curious and enthusiastic MYP minds were put to work on developing and enhancing life skills. An ATL skill a day, throughout the week, our young inquirers will be offered a wide range of thoughtful and interactive activities to understand the diversity of human needs.
The International Baccalaureate® (IB) learner profile defines a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success. They imply a commitment to help all members of the school community, learn to respect themselves, others and the world around them. Approaches to learning supports the IB belief that a large influence on a student’s education is not only what you learn but also how you learn.
The week began with the students of MYP scaffolding an effective IB Learner Profile video with an objective to comprehend that the IB Learner Profile is the IB mission statement in action. With focus on Thinking Skills, our facilitators conducted subject specific, implicit and explicit activities, from MYP1 to MYP5 which encouraged the students to develop confidence, to try new strategies and explore new concepts and contexts for learning. To develop Critical Thinking skills explicitly, MYP1 students were engaged in Anagrams in which they observed the list of words given in the worksheet to further rearrange them in such a way that they can create multiple words from the same. To enhance the Creative Thinking skills explicitly, MYP2 champions sketched their ideas of an invention or a concept that they thought would be a cool invention to create novel solutions to authentic problems. Mathematics students of MYP2 developed Transfer skills as they were engaged in ordering the rational numbers and operations on rational numbers. Students were grouped as per their learning styles to maximize the output. To develop Critical thinking skills, MYP3 students were narrated stories which lead to an effective discussion to consider multiple perspectives.

MYP4 students were provided with two scenarios to test their fellow classmates with the scenarios in stylized interview sessions where one of them is the alien and the other is the travel guide. MYP4 History students were engaged in writing an analytical essay to compare the conflict negotiation that Maoris experienced, with an objective to encourage students to draw conclusions and generalizations. Students of MYP5 were engaged in creating an interview guide which helped in developing Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking and Transfer skills. Having researched about the causes of conflict of World War I and Treaty of Versailles, Individuals and Societies students of MYP5 attempted to simulate the conference conducted after WWI: The Treaty of Versailles.
With a variety in activities across the grades and disciplines, the day concluded with students reflecting mindfully on their learning using a variety of strategies thus showcasing their metacognition skills. Students are now looking forward to tomorrow’s exciting day full of fun filled learning!

DAY 2

Yet another day of excitement at Victorious Kidss Educares! In continuation to the celebration of ATL and Learner Profile week, the MYP teachers emerged with another surprise for the second day with stimulating activities for their students. The wonder skill for today was Research Skills. The focus was to augment the reading and referencing skills which is the key towards success in higher education.
The teachers of MYP 1, 2 and 3 designed activities which involved joyful learning. The MYP1 students, in pairs, were shared a list of quotes and were guided to research and access information about the author and inform the peer. To increase the complexity, the MYP 2 students were shown a video on the types of resources. At the end of the activity the students were expected to identify primary and secondary resources. An exclusive paired activity was planned for the MYP 3 students to help them understand the impact of media representations and modes of presentation. It was amazing to see the students being engrossed in the actions which evidenced their interest towards research work. In Science class, students enjoyed extracting information about the energy levels with the help of flashcards. Literature class was filled with creative work wherein the students were provided with an opening line and they continued the story describing the settings and characters of the story. French class was made interesting in which the teacher shared a visual diagram with quotes on the theme ‘Friendship’. Students used their skills to scaffold the quote and create a new one. This activity focused on brainstorming and visual diagrams to generate new ideas. The year group 13- 15 were given opportunities to enhance and encourage their analyzing and evaluation skills, to boost their holistic and intellectual development.
The MYP4 students were given a topic to research on Rubella, a Campaign or Programme initiated by an international entity such as World Health Organization. This online research activity enabled students to demonstrate their awareness of media interpretations of events and ideas, including digital social media. The MYP5 teachers shared a variety of sources to analyze a news story. The target for the students was to seek a multiple perspective from a range of sources and create a report of their exploration.
These purposeful activities were an enthralling for the teachers, as they were able to harness the inner talent of their students. It was an end to another busy day, filled with learning activities based on the students’ interest.

DAY 3

3rd Day of the ATL and Learner Profile week was dedicated to our competent ‘Communicators’ of VKE. Throughout the day, activities conducted, focused on demonstrating and enhancing the Communication skills ensuring that they catered the needs of verbal and non-verbal communication.
Our creative minds of MYP 1 wrote a scene for a silent movie for which they were assigned the roles of screenwriter and actors for a silent movie. This exercise gave students a great opportunity to act out, read and understand the importance of nonverbal messages. MYP 2 students were given four topics pertinent to environmental and social issues from which they expressed their point of views on the index cards. These index cards were distributed to other members in the class on which they stated whether they agreed with the statements mentioned. This activity further led to a discussion thus helping students negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers. MYP 3 readers were given articles from newspapers and magazines to read critically for comprehension. Students chose a piece of persuasive or factual article to note the conventions of the article. The objective of the activity was to skim through the whole piece of writing to become clear about the structure and through the development of ideas in the text.
MYP 4 students were engaged in ‘Cross Talk’ with a motive to help them exchange thoughts, messages and information effectively through interaction. This activity made the students aware of the importance of not dominating a conversation and of how listening is as important as making your own points. It also shows them how, while focusing on their own ideas, they may miss out on important arguments, or in fact pick up a surprising number of other ideas. The exercise developed a range of communication skills including summarising, arguing a point, supporting ideas with evidences. MYP 5 students produced a piece of writing on the topic “How Globalization affect our culture” using the essay writing strategy “PEEL” (projected in the classroom). Their write-ups were exchanged with their peers and using the tool- “ladder of feedback”, peers gave feedback to each other. This activity was conducted with a dual objective of effectively

Leave a Reply