DP1 August – October 2022 Overview

Homeroom
Teacher: Kelvin Tian, Kate Yu

Unit Title:
Get Ready with Diploma Program Concept: Understanding DP

ATL Skills: Thinking, Self-management

Introduce ATL skills students need to do well in DP and in their future endeavours. Make connections with university applications and personal development. Do exercises in different contexts.

Help Your Child By: Discuss the skills that your students are good at and the skills they need to improve. Encourage him/her to see the teacher.

Group 1: Language A:

Teachers:
Mr. Jesse Ridolfo

Unit Title:

Introduction to DP Language & Literature BOW: Jon Ronson
Work in Translation: Persepolis

Concepts:

Communication, Culture, Perspective, Transformation

ATL skills:

Communication—Communication

Self-Management—Organization Thinking—Critical Thinking

Help your child by:

Ensure they are reading and suggest that they read from a variety of genres (fiction) and sources (non-fiction). GoodReads.com is a great resource to find literary texts that they might be interested in. As they’re reading they should reflect on how they feel and contemplate how the author made them feel that way.

Group 1:
Chinese A: Language and Literature Teacher: Sophia Suo

Unit Title:

The embodiment of war trauma in the text

Concepts:

KC: Identity, representation RC: writers, readers and texts ATL skills:
Research skills:

Search for information, filter it, organize it, present it, as well as cite and credit it

Thinking skills:

Analytical thinking, innovative thinking and critical thinking are important skills to develop in learning, which are guided step by step through a series of inquiry questions.

Help your child by reading and analyzing the language and writing techniques in the texts, exploring the author’s writing purpose and the deep meaning of the texts, and improving thinking and researching skills.

Group 1: Korean Language and Literature Teacher: Keon Yang

Unit Title: Communication through text

Concepts:
KC: Communication RC: Purpose, Structure

ATL skills:
Communication skills, Thinking skills

Help your child by:

Encouraging them to explore the text using concepts about literature and text

Group 2: Language B:

English B
Teacher: Cathy Qiang

Unit Title: Identities – Fit for Life

Theme: Identity
Key Concepts: communication and culture

Related Concepts: audience, purpose, and context

ATL skills:

Thinking skills – ask open questions and reflect on learning experiences

Communication skills – contribute to discussion; Social skills – peer assess performance or process

Help your child by:

Remind your kids to check ManageBac and emails everyday to manage and plan their learning accordingly in order to finish and complete work on time.

Group 3: Business Management Teacher: Na Meng

Unit Title: Introduction to Business Management

Concepts: Change/Sustainability/ Creativity/Ethics

ATL skills:

• Thinking: students will be asked open questions and have link with TOK study. They will get time to think through their answers before response
• Social: students will work in small groups, get feedback on how they worked as a group and have discussion of their understanding of a text or idea among themselves and come up with a shared understanding
• Self-management: students need to follow the deadlinesHelp your child by:

• Check their notebook regular to make they take notes and write down unfamiliar words.
• Discuss the real world business examples with them to enhance their understanding of the business knowledge and practices.

Group 3: Economics Teacher: Eva Liu

Unit Title:
Unit 1 – Introduction to Economics Unit 2 – Microeconomics

Concepts: Change, choice, economic well-being, efficiency, equity, interdependence, intervention, scarcity, sustainability

ATL skills:

Thinking – Critically assess decision making processes by using decision making mechanisms and considering market forces

Research – Primary research on elasticity of demand for a select product within school community

Social – Working collaboratively to inquiry about real world situations and assessment expectations

Help your child by:

Ask them to consciously discuss their thinking process when making decisions during every-day life. Discuss decisions you make during work and the implications of those decisions made. Keep an up-to-date knowledge about your child’s performances through ManageBac.

Group 4: Biology Teachers: Shameek Ghosh

Unit Title: Cell biology

Concepts: Organization in the living world, paradigm shifts in science and nature of science in experimentation and evidence.

ATL skills: research skills in finding more on stem cells, evidence for falsification of theories

Communication-drawing as a medium of communication in biology.

Help your child by: encouraging them to keep to the reading of the content covered in the class, occasionally asking them about the reading on Kognity. This is to work on their self- management skills.

Teachers: Kelvin Tian

Group 4: Chemistry Unit Title: Topic 1:Stoichiometric relationships

Concepts:

The particulate nature of matter The mole concept
Reacting masses and volumes

ATL skills:

Thinking

• give students time to think through their answers before asking them for a response
• set students a task which required higher- order thinking skills (such as analysis or evaluation)
• make a link to TOK Communication

• ask students to explain their understanding of a text or idea to each other
• encourage all students to contribute to discussionsResearch

• require students to formulate/construct a focused research question (either in class or in a homework assignment)

Help your child by: Encourage the students to take more responsibility for their own learning, practice their self-management skills and meet all the deadlines.

Group 4: Environmental Systems and Societies Teachers: Ms. Sunny Si

Unit Title:

Foundations of environmental systems and society

Concepts:
KC: Systems
RC: Models and transformation

ATL skills:

Communication

− Exchanging thoughts, messages and information effectively through interaction

• Use intercultural understanding to interpret communication
• Negotiate ideas and knowledge with peers and teachers.
• Use and interpret a range of discipline- specific terms and symbols.Research

− Information literacy skills
Finding interpreting, judging and creating

information

• Collect, record and verify data
• Present information in a variety of formatsand platforms

− Media literacy skills

Interacting with media to use and create ideas and information

• Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize and ethically use information form a variety of source and media

Help your child by:

• Check their homework and online learning platform “Kognity” regularly to help them increase their self-management skills.
• Discuss some environmental issues with them to enhance their understanding of environmental system and society.

Group 4: Physics Teacher: Chris Rothwell

Unit Title: Measurement and Uncertainty

Concepts:

Conversion of units. Derivation of units. Propagation of uncertainties.

ATL skills:

1. Thinking:

The students will have the conversion of quantities activity.

The students will have graph analysis for uncertainties.

The students will have problem solving to determine scalars and vectors.

2. Social, Communication,Self Management:

The students will perform laboratory investigation and will discuss the result of the processed data investigation in the class.

Help your child by: Encouraging them to finish assignments and homework on time.

Group 5: Mathematical Analysis and Approaches (SL)

Teacher: Mr. Tanapat (Ice) Treyanurak

Unit Title: Representing Relationships: Introducing Functions

Concepts: Relationships, representation

ATL skills:
Creative thinking – connect ideas

Help your child by:

Encouraging and, where possible, modelling a healthy lifestyle. No amount of studying, even mathematics, should get in the way of a full night’s sleep.

Group 5: Mathematical Applications and Interpretation (SL)

Teachers: Chris Rothwell

Unit Title: Functions Concepts:

Representation, relationships, space, modelling, change.

ATL skills:

Communication

Thinking- should logically interpret mathematical questions.

Communication- should be able to understand some key mathematical terms.

Help your child by: Encouraging them to finish assignments and homework on time.

Group 5: Mathematical Analysis and Approaches (HL)

Teachers: Sky Du

Unit Title: Number and Algebra

Concepts:
KC: Patterns and Generalization RC: Forms

ATL skills:

• Thinking
o In this unit, we will

▪ ask students to formulate a reasoned argument to support their opinion or conclusion

• Social
o In this unit, we will

▪ have students work in small groups

• Communication
o In this unit, we will

▪ ask students to formulate arguments clearly and coherently

• Self-management
o In this unit, we will

▪ ask students to break down a larger task into specific steps

• Research
o In this unit, we will

▪ require students to formulate/construct a focused research question (either in class or in a homework assignment)

Help your child by:

Make sure they finish all the task and reading before coming to the class. HL is rigorous academic learning and students need lot of support and help from parents as well.

Group 6: Visual Arts Teachers: Scott Ramon

Unit 1 Title: The Process Portfolio (Visual Diaries & Journals)
Concepts:

Connection

KC: Systems
RC: Expression, Visual culture

ATL skills:
Research, Thinking, Self-Management

____________________________

Unit 2 Title: Themes and Threads

Concepts:
Curation
KC: Connection
RC: Curation, Form, Mood

ATL skills:
Research, Thinking, Self-Management

Help your child by:

Support your student by encouraging them to practice in their sketchbook everyday. PRACTICE and make notes, sketches, take random pictures with mobile device, document the everyday in some way, capture imagery, find images that are inspiring. Practice the “art” of seeing with your student. Talk about THEMES. Also support your student by talking with them about what they find visually meaningful around them. Talk about important things you both see on television, in the movies, magazines, at the store, and the world around you both. Help them go over and create a time-management plan to make sure they have enough time to meet all upcoming deadlines without become overly stressed. Talk to them about and ask them to show you the artworks they are creating for this class.

Theory of Knowledge:

Teacher: Jesse Ridolfo Sophia Suo

Unit Title:

Introduction to TOK—exploring the Core Theme, Optional Themes, and Areas of Knowledge

Knowledge & The Knower

Concepts:

Certainty, Culture, Evidence, Explanation, Interpretation, Justification, Objectivity, Perspective, Power, Responsibility, Truth, Values

ATL skills:

Critical Thinking Creative Thinking Communication

Help your child by:

Talk to them about the course, explore the challenging Knowledge Questions with them.

Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) Teacher: Kevin McGarry

Introduction to CAS:

• What CAS involves
• How to make the experiences meaningful
• Opportunities for CAS at school and home
• Reflection for critical thinkingATL Skills:

  Communication: Use appropriate forms of writing for different purposes and audiences

• Social: Exercise leadership and take on a variety of roles within groupsResearch: Seek a range of perspectives from multiple and varied

  Disciplines (MISO)

  Self-Management: Plan short- and long-term assignments; meet deadlines

  Thinking (creative): Create novel solutions to authentic problems

  Help Your Child By:

  Asking how you can support their CAS experiences e.g. exercising with them, driving them to service activities, investing in materials for creative experiences.

  Find out what worthwhile/meaningful activities they feel they can do at home.