Back to School: MYP Global Contexts
September 9, 2019 | International Baccalaureate, Middle Years Programme | No Comments
After a long summer, it can be tough getting back into the swing of things. I feel like it took me the first 3 weeks to really get settled back in to how to teach again! I wonder about the Google analytics for the search terms ‘back to school’ and ‘ice breakers’ at this time of year. I know that I do that every year!
I’d like to keep track of a few things that I tried this year that worked out well mostly for my own reflection. If this is of any use for other teachers, then I’m happy!
For context, I am a Homeroom Advisor for Grade 6 (MYP 1), and am teaching 2 classes this year; Grade 7 (MYP 2) and Grade 8 (MYP 3) Individuals and Societies. Individuals and Societies (I&S) is an integrated humanities course for International Baccalaureate students.
MYP Global Contexts with MYP 3 students
I credit my colleague for the idea for this activity. This year is the 2nd time I’ve tried it, and all of the students have been really engaged!
For this whole lesson and more like it, please check out my Teachers Pay Teachers page.
For the beginning of the year, I like to get the students discussing with their new table groups. I try to have a good mix of boys and girls in the pods.
For my Grade 8 class, I collected some big noteworthy news articles (about 20) from the summer and stuck them up around the room.
I introduced the MYP Global Contexts and then allocated each pair 1 of the Global Contexts to focus on. Students moved around the room in their elbow pairs deciding how their assigned global context could help explain why the story matters.
Students moved around in their elbow pairs and wrote down their top 3 ideas for which stories they might like to choose (about 15 minutes). After that, I asked the students to move their tables into pods. The 2 elbow pairs then came together and decided on 1 story. The pods then took the remainder of class to organize a brief presentation to the class about their global context and the chosen story.
The presentations were held in the following class and went very well. It was really interesting to see how different groups looked at each story from a completely different angle.
As a plenary activity, the students wrote down 3 kinds of things they would learn in subjects other than I&S under 3 different Global Contexts.