At my school, to determine an HIDOE quarter grade, a teacher looks at the IB rubrics and student scores to apply the best fit approach. In addition to the summative scores above, a teacher also consults formative assessment data and patterns of achievement (improvement and consistency) and mitigating factors unique to student circumstance. Here are some best fit approach example scenarios and judgments: 

Student A is a student who consistently performed well in all criteria. She showed significant improvement in Criterion A throughout the term. After consulting the rubric, the teacher was satisfied that Level 7 was the best fit for describing Student A’s ability in that domain. 

Student B had a family emergency at the time of his Essay. A conscientious student, he submitted a paper that was below his normal standard. Formative assessments (work done in class) leading up to, and as part of the essay show that he has excellent knowledge and understanding. The teacher was satisfied that Student B’s emergency was a mitigating factor and the rubric described his overall ability in those domains. The teacher could easily justify that Student B was a level  7 student overall. 

Student C started the term well but her interest in school and the quality of work has been declining. By applying the best-fit approach, the teacher could not confidently justify the descriptions in the higher levels, and so lower levels were awarded in most cases. 

Student D was a new student to the MYP. Her earlier work was weak but she has shown significant improvement in all areas. The teacher was confident that Student D has learned the material and therefore chose to focus on descriptors that reflected Student D’s  more recent performance. 

Student E had a mix of good grades and weak ones. Her group project 1 and essay were of high quality but the test and presentation were of poor quality. Student E was asked some questions about her essay which she struggled to answer. The best-fit approach led the teacher to the conclusion that the scores on the test and presentation were more accurate descriptors of Student E’s abilities.

Role:  You are a playground architect specialist.

Audience: Your target audience is children up to the age of 8 years old and the school planning committee.

Situation:  The context that you find yourself in is that there is a pre-existing space and the current playground equipment is all very old.

Product:  As a class, you will plan a completely new playground space. Each student will then design the footprint of one piece of equipment that will fit in the space. The playground must reflect the culture of your local environment and must also include a special entrance that is defined by pattern. 

Standards for Success:  Your work will be judged byCriterion A & B & D in Math. You will also present your piece of equipment to the local school planning committee for review.  They will be checking for mathematical accuracy and mathematical/cultural use of pattern on the entrance to the playground.

Role: You are a social media specialist.

Audience: Your target audience is secondary students who live between Lafayette, LA and the Gulf of Mexico.

Situation: The situation you find yourself in is that you have been hired to entice people to adopt new behaviors regarding the Louisiana Wetlands. You only know the following: wetlands are losing 75 square kilometers annnually. This may have been a result of natural evolutionary processes, human activities such as dredging wetlands for canals, draining and filling for agriculture, grazing, and development may also share a large part of the responsibility for marsh habitat alteration and destruction.

Product: You will use social media to mount a 3-week campaign that both informs students about local environmental issues and encourages them to put their learning into action regarding  the Lousiana wetlands and the animals who live there.  
Standards for Success:Your work will be judged by:

- justify opinions and ideas, 

using examples, explanations and terminology

- use referencing and 

formatting tools to create 

a presentation style 

suitable to the context and

intention. 

- write and speak in a register and style that serve the context and intention 

- use correct grammar, syntax and punctuation 

•Concepts bring focus & depth to study & lead students to enduring understanding.

•“A concept serves as an integrating lens” and encourages the transfer of ideas within and across the disciplines “as students search for patterns and connections in the creation of new knowledge.”   (Erickson 2008)
•CHARACTERISTICS:

•Timeless, Universal, Abstract

•Represented by one or two words, or a short phrase

•Specific examples of the concept reflect common attributes
•SUBJECT-SPECIFIC EXAMPLES:

•Aesthetics, Change, Communication, Communities, Connections, Culture, Creativity, Development, Form, Perspective, Global Interactions, Identity, Logic, Relationships, Time/Space/Place, Systems
•CONCEPTS ARE:

•Not skills

•Not topics

As leaders of our schools, how can we ensure this environment will exist for our students?

•Years 4 & 5 of the programme may elect to have all students choose 6 of the 8 subject groups where they must take: Language and literature, Language acquisition, Individuals and societies, Sciences, Mathematics and one or more of the following: Arts, PHE, Design.

•A school is defined as any legal entity with a head of school

•Should a school choose to offer consecutive IB programmes, the programmes must be continuous, with students moving from one programme to the next without any gapyears.

•All subject groups mustmeet the minimum 50 hour subject group requirement over the course of the year, each year of the programme to maintain concurrency of learning requirements.

•Action and service stem from constructivist, inquiry-based learning in each year of the programme (no service hours “requirement”)

•learning in concurrent subject groups to ensure that students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to prepare them for the future

•understanding about how subject groups are linked to each other and to global challenges through concepts and contexts

•development of the whole person—affective, cognitive, creative and physical.