Willard's IB Newsletter

Approaches to Learning Skills (ATL) are skills needed to be lifelong learners across all disciplines. The ATL skills, in combination with the IB Learner Profile attributes, enhance learning and support the development of the whole child. Teachers plan for opportunities and learning experiences for students to develop ATL skills within their IB Units and across all disciplines.

Approaches to Learning Skills:

1. Thinking Skills - Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, and Ethical Thinking

2. Social Skills - Forming and Maintaining Positive Relationships, Listening Skills, and Conflict Resolution

3. Self-Management Skills - Organizational Skills, Time Management, Managing Emotions, and Fine and Gross Motor Skills

4. Research Skills - Formulating Questions, Collecting and Organizing Data, Comparing, Contrasting, and Validating Data, and Presenting Research Findings

5. Communication Skills - Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing, and Non-Verbal Commucation

Our teaching staff worked together to create an Approaches to Learning Skills progression chart that shows what students are expected to learn at each grade level in four key areas: thinking, communication, self-management, and research. During this current unit, teachers are focusing on developing students' research skills. Check out this document to see the skills your child will be developing and mastering along the way!

Students who are communicators understand and express their ideas and information confidently and creatively using various modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others. IB students regularly deliver high-quality and stimulating presentations.

IBO.org

Ways Parents Can Help Develop Students to Be Communicators at Home:

• Take turns speaking and listening to one another about daily events.

• Explore other forms of communication, including symbols, signs, and sounds.

• Read various texts and find connections between the books and your child's life.

• Describe the TV programs and videos you watch together.

• Make books, magazines, and other reading material readily available.

• Listen to your child when he/she talks to you by turning off technology and providing undivided attention.

• Ask questions about what they are saying or reading and ask for explanations.

• Act out stories, plays, and poems, and use language in fun, creative ways.

• Sing together.

• Support other forms of communication through art, dance, music, etc.
  
  

"IB Learner Profile: Communicator.” Smore, 22 Nov. 2021, https://www.smore.com/he5vj-ib-learner-profile-communicator.

Students are doing their first group research project for their How the World Works (Producers and Consumers) unit of inquiry. They are researching how a product is made, what materials it uses, and how it impacts the environment. They will be creating a poster, Google slides, or other forms of published work.

During a science lesson students built paper models of an amusement park ride that stores energy in rubber bands and spins around when the energy is released. Students used critical thinking skills to compare the speeds of the spins when using thin versus thick rubber bands.

The students in Ms. Degroof and Dr. Nhem's classes demonstrated exceptional thinking, social, and communication skills as they collaborated on building and sharing their communities for their Where We are in Place and Time (Communities) inquiry unit.

Ms. Van Der Heide's students were using their social and mathematical thinking skills to work in pairs to build structures and determine the volume of the different parts of the structure.

Approaches to Learning Skills (ATL) and the Learner Profile attibrutes are assessed on your child's report card. Each grade level team will decide on which ATL skills and Learner Profile attributes will be assessed each trimester.

The Approaches to Learning Skills will be graded on progress towards standards scale.

(ES) - Exceeds Standards - Demonstrating the skill beyond what is expected

(MS) - Meets Standards - Demonstrating the skill as expected

(PS) - Progressing Towards Standards - Making progress towards demonstrating the skill

(BS) - Below Standards - Not meeting the expectation for demonstrating the skill

(NA) - Not Yet Assessed - The teacher has not assessed this skill during the current trimester

The Learner Profile Attributes will be graded as (S) - Strength or (D) Developing. A mark of an (S) indicates a profile attribute that your child consistently demonstrates. A mark of a (D) indicates the profile attribute is an area in which your child is still developing.

Click on the "Approaches to Learning" and "Learner Profile" checklist links below to understand the criteria that is used to assess these skills and attributes.

Children are natural inquirers. Through inquiry-based learning, we encourage curiosity and independent thinking. Students learn to ask questions, make observations, and seek answers. Teachers support students throughout the inquiry process and also encourage them to challenge, test, and refine their ideas. Inquiry-based learning allows students to be active participants in their learning.

“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world.”

-Nelson Mandela