IB-Middle Years Programme

Pelham Middle School is an International Baccalaureate World School offering the IB Middle Years Programme to all of its students. The International Baccalaureate (or “IB”) works with schools to help develop well-rounded students who respond to challenges with optimism and an open mind, are confident in their own identities, make ethical decisions, join with others in celebrating our common humanity, and are prepared to apply what they learn in real-world, complex, and unpredictable situations.

The Middle Years Programme (or “MYP”) provides a framework of learning that encourages students to become creative, critical, and reflective thinkers. By emphasizing intellectual challenge and encouraging students to make connections between their studies in traditional subjects and the real world, the MYP fosters the development of skills for communication, intercultural understanding, and global engagement: essential qualities for young people who will one day become global leaders.

Our teachers have participated in extensive professional development through which they learned how to plan curriculum using the Middle Years Programme framework, worked on aligning the curriculum across grade levels and subjects, explored strategies in the areas of formative assessment and differentiated instruction, planned inquiry-based lessons and authentic, project-based assessments, and created rubrics to more accurately assess student progress and communicate with students and parents about learning outcomes.

Teachers will continue planning units that engage students as inquirers and thinkers and foster a stimulating learning environment based on understanding and respect. We will also continue to expand our use of the MYP Assessment Criteria to assess student work in order to provide a feedback process that is more standardized, precise, transparent, and holistic: one that not only reports on student learning but encourages it. In addition, we will strive to further incorporate the Approaches to Learning Skills (helping students “learn how to learn”) and Service as Action (through which the curriculum inspires students to take principled action in their local and global communities).

For more information about IB, visit www.ibo.org. If you have any additional questions, please contact Dr. Maria Thompson, Assistant Principal and IB Coordinator, at mthompson@pelhamschools.org or call (914) 738-8190.