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International Baccalaureate Courses

College & Career Planning

COLLEGE PREPARATORY (CP) courses are designed to prepare students for the rigors of college courses. Students in college preparatory classes are open-minded and seek to develop the skills necessary to analyze and synthesize information. Students will be provided with scaffolded opportunities to solidify their time management, note-taking, and study skills. Courses are designed to build a solid foundation in a particular content area. Opportunities for enrichment will be available.

ADVANCED (A) courses are recommended for students who have demonstrated exceptional academic achievement through a combination of ability and motivation. The Advanced level assumes that students are independent learners who can work with limited teacher support. Students are advanced and enthusiastic readers who can make inferences, draw connections, and comprehend texts with sophisticated themes and vocabulary at a fairly fast pace. These courses contain considerable enrichment and acceleration. Instruction will assume that students are able to grasp concepts on initial presentation. There will be little practice or repetition within the classroom. Students are expected to be able to organize their time, to plan long-term assignments, and to seek help when necessary, all on their own initiative. Advanced course enrollment requires teacher recommendation.

INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE

It is essential for any pre-university education to equip students with the depth of discipline-specific knowledge and skills that they will need for their chosen academic and career paths. However, this must be balanced with the breadth needed to develop well-rounded students who can draw connections between different disciplines. As such, the philosophy of the IB Diploma Programme is that students should engage with a range of subjects while being able to explore specific areas of personal interest in greater depth.

• IB STANDARD LEVEL (SL) courses are rigorous core content based classes that focus on the “what” beyond concepts and theories.

• IB HIGHER LEVEL (HL) courses tend to delve deeper into the concepts that SL subjects cover focusing not only on the “what” but also the “how” and “why”. The core content is the same as the SL course in the same discipline, however, additional topics are covered.

• Credits: 1 (upper school), none (middle school)

Novice students will achieve a novice high level in reading, writing, speaking and listening proficiency (based on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages standard) in either two or three years. Students will be assessed on active participation as well as their daily preparation for class. As absolute beginners, students will learn basic vocabulary and memorize words and phrases for everyday conversation. They will simultaneously explore the cultures and traditions of the languages they are studying. Classroom instruction and directives are primarily in the target language. Second year or accelerated students will further their vocabulary and master their use of basic language structures in order to:

• Talk about themselves, their family, where they live, their likes and dislikes, and daily topics;

• Combine learned structures and vocabulary to write simple sentences on these daily topics;

• Learn about cultural differences and culturally appropriate behavior.

• Credits: 1

Students in this series will achieve an intermediate high level in reading, writing, speaking and listening proficiency (based on the ACTFL standard) in two to three years. Students will be assessed on active participation as well as their daily preparation for class. First year students will learn vocabulary and structures for addressing social and travel situations. Second year students will continue to expand their range of expression in these areas. Third year students will be able to:

• Converse on a wide variety of common topics in the major time frames (present, past and future);

• Write simple descriptions and narrations of paragraph length on everyday events and situations in present, past and future tenses.

These classes are conducted primarily in the target language.

• Levels: Advanced, IB Standard Level, IB Higher Level

• Length: two years (SL/HL), one-year (advanced)

• Credit: 1 per year

Ab Initio courses are accelerated IB courses developed for students who may not have reached intermediate proficiency before entering their junior year. Ab Initio classes are designed to help the absolute beginner reach intermediate proficiency. However, if juniors entering the IB Programme have already achieved novice proficiency, they will be placed in an intermediate course.

• Levels: Advanced, IB Standard Level, IB Higher Level

• Length: two years (SL/HL), one-year (advanced)

• Credits: 1

Students in this series will achieve an advanced low/mid level (for SL) or advanced mid/high level (for HL) in reading, writing, speaking and listening proficiency (based on the ACTFL proficiency standard). Students will be assessed on active participation as well as their daily preparation for class. These are accelerated courses in which students continue to build their proficiency and confidence in the target language while using authentic, unabridged materials, such as newspaper articles, opinion pieces, works of fiction and feature films. Discussions and writings are developed around the Core Topics and Options offered in the IB curriculum, and will include activities such as exploring current events and cultural trends, and preparing skits and presentations.

At the culmination of the Standard Level (SL) series, students will be able to:

• Converse clearly and fluidly on a variety of familiar topics with accuracy and precision;

• Compose multiple-paragraph texts that clearly and concisely communicate the intended message.

At the culmination of the Higher Level (HL) series, students will be able to:

• Contribute actively to live conversations, providing structured arguments and constructing hypotheses to support their opinions;

• Write extensively about topics that are familiar to them as well as show some ability to deal with abstract, global or interpersonal themes;

• Show good control of all of the major time frames in their speaking and writing.

At the Advanced Level, instruction is provided almost exclusively in the target language.