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Some ideas of the Arts Guide change that could impact my schools arts department (by Kris Jeffrey)

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What connections do you see and what would be your next logical steps to make these connections stronger?

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My connections to the MYP delivery in my class will be definitely stronger in terms of developing  meaningful questions, running more debates, implementing real inquiry-based teaching, and focusing on ATL skills 

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My connections to the MYP delivery in my class will be definitely stronger in terms of developing  meaningful questions, running more debates, implementing real inquiry-based teaching, and focusing on ATL skills 

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Hello, I am very similar to another delegate who has posted the same predicament that I have only one year of experience teaching MYP and my school is going through the final stages of accreditation.  I also have not completed Cat 1 training but nonetheless I am looking forward to the immersive workshops.

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Many thanks for the clarity :) I have already found a wealth of resources here which have been super helpful to me.

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I have only been teaching MYP Visual Arts for 1 year without ever doing the Cat. 1 training as my school needed me to jump in immediately. I do feel lost sometimes (often actually). I wanted to do Cat 1. training but my MYP Coordinator suggested I do Cat.2 - What are my chances of successfully completing this Cat.2 without ever doing Cat.1 ?

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Can we use the partially completed unit planners as a starting point to create our own units?

Yes. Teachers can access partially completed unit planners from previous examination sessions and can use this as a basis for planning their own units.

In my school, we teach MYP integrated performing arts. Can we create an interdisciplinary unit integrating dance and music?

Interdisciplinary units are intended as a place where disciplines can be integrated in a way that is not normally possible with how individual disciplines are taught in a school. If you deliver integrated arts units that draw from multiple disciplines (media arts and visual arts or a combination of dance, music and theatre), then you should not create an interdisciplinary unit within the subject group because students already experience a similar integration. If, however, you deliver arts in modular units (with one discipline being studied at a time), an interdisciplinary unit would allow a new experience for students.

As it is possible to integrate disciplines from one subject group, I could plan and deliver an interdisciplinary unit by myself as I teach the students both disciplines. Is this allowed?

Interdisciplinary units must be collaboratively planned and implemented by at least two teachers.

I know that the statement of inquiry represents a transferable idea, but how transferable does this have to be?

The statement of inquiry should be a meaningful statement that helps students generate inquiry questions and allows them to investigate, discuss and understand the big ideas of the unit. A statement of inquiry does not have to be a statement that transfers to all subjects, situations and topics, as this is not possible. However, it should be broad enough that it can be explored through the different arts disciplines, in different contexts, between some other subjects and related to life outside of the classroom. To learn more about the statement of inquiry, please read the “Statement of inquiry” section of the “Inquiry: Establishing the purpose of the unit” section in MYP: From principles into practice (May 2014, updated April 2021).

In objective A there is a focus on investigating work within a movement(s) or genre(s), but this is not reflected in the assessment criterion. Why is this?

In criterion A, where you see the word “information”, this is about information related to the movement(s) or genre(s), as well as other information that helps the students understand and investigate the statement of inquiry.

In criterion C, there is a focus on “creation”, but the act of creating something is also part of the development. Shouldn’t it be included in criterion B?

In criterion C, the focus is on the final creation, not the act of creating. Criterion C is about the students’ final artwork, for example, their final performance. Criterion B is more about the creative process that leads to their final artwork.

With criterion C, there is flexibility and freedom for teachers andschools to decide on a suitable skill progression for their students—but where do we start?

Teachers should plan their skill progression in the way that is most useful to their context. This might take into consideration backward planning from the post-16 or Diploma Programme (DP) skills they want students to have, or local and national standards.

In my school, we would like students to explore a particular artist, artwork or art form, not a whole movement or genre. Would this be acceptable for criterion A (investigating)?

Exploring an artist, artwork or art form within criterion A is fine, as those individual elements still connect to movements and genres. It might make sense for MYP 1/Novice students to focus on a smaller exploration, for example, looking at a single artist, whereas by MYP 5/Competent, they could be making a broader exploration of a movement(s) or genre(s).

Do we always have to start with criterion A, then move on to criterion B, then C, then end with D?

Often, it will make sense to move from criterion A through to criterion D, and this is reflected in the arts eAssessment tasks. However, teachers are not limited to planning their units in this way. An example could be that, in a unit, a student explores a genre (criterion A), documents the development of skills inspired by this genre (criterion B), learns about another genre (criterion A), develops more skills (criterion B), then creates a final artwork using skills and ideas from both genres (criterion C) followed by a reflection (criterion D).

Can we pick different stages for different tasks?

No. Students should progress from novice to intermediate, then to competent. However, teachers can plan when this happens. For example, they might move from novice to intermediate between MYP 1 and 2, between MYP 2 and 3, or even halfway through a year. Once students have moved up a stage, they should not regress.

Should students within the same class be working at the same stage?

The stages are designed to allow for easier use of mixed-year-level classes. Ideally, within a class, the students would be working at the same stage. This makes planning easier for teachers and makes expectations clearer to students. It will also help teachers with planning the skill progression for criterion C. However, in some cases, giving different stages might make sense, to allow for differentiation or to reflect how long a student has been in the class (for example, for band or choir classes made up of MYP 1–5 students).

I have a large choir class, with students from all MYP years. Should they be using the same objectives?

In cases where schools have large, combined classes, with students in MYP 1–5 (for example, for band or choir classes), teachers might choose to use different stages for different students. Here, the stages would relate to the students’ experience of that class. For example, if a student is in their first year of choir/band, they could be graded with the novice level, whereas a student in their fifth year might be graded at a competent level.

I have a student joining with a lot of arts experience in MYP 1, should I use the competent stage for this student?

The stages are related more to the school’s planned progression than a student’s individual journey. This means that if you have a student with a lot of arts experience joining the school in MYP 1, they would still be joining a novice class. Equally, if you have a student with only some basic arts experience joining the school in MYP 5, they would likely still join a competent class, as the classes are planned around the school’s progression routes, not individual student ability. This method of using stages will allow for greater equity between students when it comes to grading.

How do students move between the stages?

As a team, arts teachers should decide on how they want students to progress between stages. Schools should consider their context and the students’ exposure to the arts within their school. An example might be in a school where students do half a year of music, then half a year of theatre (in one year), with students progressing from novice to intermediate as they start MYP 3. Another school might have students having a full year of music and a full year of theatre (in one year), so here it might make the most sense to have students progress from novice to intermediate at the start of MYP 2. Where schools give students choice between the subjects, they might decide that students must do a certain number of terms/semesters of one discipline before they can move up a stage. Stages should be more a reflection of the course progression than of individual student ability.

Why is eAssessment only at competent stage level?

All students wanting to achieve the MYP certificate should be working at a competent level within their arts subject in MYP 5. Students should have 70 hours of that arts subject in MYP 4 and 5, and ideally have had exposure to that discipline in MYP 1–3. Students should then have had enough exposure to be working at a competent level.

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Hi, the structure of the workshop addresses the written, taught, and assessed curriculum in the arts. Effective learning and teaching strategies and assessment tasks, we will work through the planner and will explore the inquiry cycle, we have some sessions in which we explore the concepts, contexts, and statements of inquiry.
If a participant has 1 year of experience teaching arts in an IB school, is able to lead the workshop without big difficulties.