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 programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.
These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.
PYP |
MYP |
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What is the IB? (IB website)
What is an IB education? (IB Publication)
What is the MYP? (IB website)
MYP Curriculum (IB website)
Frequently Asked Questions about IB (PYP & MYP)
The IB continuum of international education covers students’ education from ages 3 to 19. It is a rigorous, personalized education that focuses on creating individuals that are inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. These are the traits of the IB learner’s profile. The IB requires all programmes to focus on the whole student, use effective teaching methods for teachers and teach students effective approaches to learning, use global contexts to explore how learning relates to the world, and offer a curriculum based on conceptual understanding that is comprehensive yet balanced.
The PYP curriculum is grounded in learning all subjects through 6 transdisciplinary themes that are taught through Units of Inquiry. This structure allows students and teachers to learn about the world holistically and conceptually.
The Transdisciplinary Themes are:
Dr. Maya Angelou French Immersion is currently an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) Candidate School. We are one of three Middle Schools in Prince George’s County that offer access to International Baccalaureate educational methods. Maya Angelou was granted Candidacy status with the IB in February 2020. Which means we may seek to be authorized as an International Baccalaureate World School. The MYP bridges the methodologies of the Primary Years Programme and the Diploma Programme, continuing the focus on student-lead, inquiry based curriculum that allows students to become active change agents with a global vision. It is created specifically for the needs of students ages 11-16, integrating the academic rigor of an enriched curriculum with skills for social/emotional well-being, cultural awareness and conceptual understanding across content.
The Middle Years Programme (MYP) model is designed specifically to meet the needs of students 11-16 years of age. It builds on the methods and focus of the PYP, and prepares students for the more challenging and rigorous content of High School. It encourages students to make connections between the traditionally separate subjects taught in Middle School and also connections to the real world. It encourages students to develop skills as communicators, collaborators and leaders through intercultural understanding and global engagement. The MYP is flexible enough to use Prince George’s County Curriculum while ensuring a balanced education through study in eight subject groups.
Additionally, students are encouraged to participate in service learning through class assignments and the Community Project in the 8th grade.
The MYP created a programme that wraps around the District curriculum to allow students to explore these questions and builds on the PYP.
The Transdisciplinary Themes of the PYP graduate to Global Contexts in the MYP. These are used to explore the county curriculum through subject specific and interdisciplinary units of inquiry.
Transdisciplinary Theme (PYP) |
Global Context (MYP) |
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Who we are. |
Identities and Relationships |
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Where we are in place and time. |
Orientation in Space & Time |
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How we express ourselves. |
Personal and Cultural Expression |
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How the world works. |
Scientific & Technical Innovation |
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How we organize ourselves. |
Fairness and Development |
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Sharing the planet. |
Globalization and Sustainability |
These contexts allow students to explore what it means to be who they are in relationship to issues and challenges facing all of humanity. The Global Contexts are used as a vehicle to explore concepts that are key to understanding each discipline, yet connected across subjects. Concepts studied in the MYP include: Aesthetics, Change, Communication, Communities, Connections, Creativity, Culture, Development, Form, Global Interaction, Identity, Logic, Perspective, Relationships, Systems and the linked concepts of Time, PLace and Space.
Students learn how to learn through lessons that target skills and attitudes needed to learn. These skills and attitudes are taught and applied across the curriculum which provides the foundation for lifelong learning in real world situations. The Approaches to Learning categories of skills taught in IB are:
In IB, learning how to identify a need, do research and plan to help others is part of a well-rounded curriculum. Each year students are taught how to engage in taking action in different communities that they are a part of. At MAFI, we focus on the United Nations 17 Sustainable Goals as a jumping off point for action across the curriculum. At the end of both the PYP and the MYP, students are supported in taking their own action with a group of their peers through implementation of the Exhibition in 5th grade and The Community Project in the 8th grade. These projects encourage the students to be agents of change and serve the communities they are a part of.
The French Immersion model requires that students are learning content through the French Language. In the French classrooms, students are required to speak, read and write in French exclusively and their teacher’s use French for instruction. Both English and French serve as primary languages of instruction at MAFI. The IB requires that students continue to acquire language in the middle years, so students begin Italian in the 6th grade. The richness of language experiences greatly enhances our students' intercultural understanding and shapes their identity formation as a global citizen.
PYP |
Essential elements |
MYP |
MYP essential elements |
IB Mission Statement: 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.
This statement expresses the goal of all IB programmes. The MYP builds on the knowledge, skills and attitudes established in the PYP and prepares the student for the IB Diploma Programme or the IB Career-Related Programme. The following elements are required for all IB MYP schools, and have been thoughtfully developed through the years to ensure that the mission and vision of the IB are fully implemented in each IB program.
At the center of the MYP Programme Model is the Learner’s Profile. This is an articulation of the outcome the program hopes to achieve. The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world.
Surrounding the IB Learner’s Profile in the MYP model are the Approaches to Teaching, Global Context, Concepts and Approaches to Learning. These elements support the qualities of person captured in the Learner’s Profile.
Inquiry Based instruction: Inquiry based instruction in the classroom can be realized in a number of different ways. To begin with the teacher may use a method of inquiry that is highly structured, with a known result at the end of the inquiry. This guides the students to learn the methods and skills needed to do independent inquiry. A teacher may also provide the inquiry questions, and guide the process, but not have a known result. As students gain confidence they begin generating their own questions and procedures on a given topic. Finally, at the most independent level of inquiry, students generate the entire inquiry cycle, including topics, questions, procedures and results and the teacher operates as a facilitator or coach.
Conceptual Learning: A KEY CONCEPT is a big idea or principle that is enduring and transcends particular aspects such as origins, subject matter or place in time (Wiggins and McTighe 1998). The IB supports deep disciplinary learning through such concepts which then supports trans-disciplinary transfer of ideas. Each subject group teaches the specific important concepts of that discipline through integrating Related Concepts specific to the subject being learned. This is done through careful construction of the Units of learning, which are focused around Key and Related Concepts that are transferable to other subjects and other learning. In this way, students are learning both the factual knowledge they need related to the traditional discipline of the subject they are studying AND their learning transfers to other subjects. The 16 Key Concepts used in the MYP are:
Global Contexts—Each unit of study is also thoughtfully situated in a real-world context in which the application of the concepts can be explored. In the MYP there are six global contexts that can be related to interdisciplinary disciplinary teaching. These Contexts build directly from the PYP Units of Inquiry. They are:
Approaches to Learning (ATL): These are the skills that help student learn. Before students are able to learn, they must develop an awareness of themselves as learners. Here are some of the ATL skills the IB MYP specifically integrates into teaching:
The MYP curriculum consists of 8 subject Groups resulting in broad and balanced learning. Each subject group is required to have at least 50 hours of instruction per year. The subject groups are:
Prince George’s County Public Schools
Prince George’s County Public Schools
International Baccalaureate (IB) Assessment Policy Guide
Prince George’s County Public Schools
International Baccalaureate (IB) Language Policy
Prince George’s County Public Schools
