DP2 November 2023 – January 2024 Overview

Homeroom Teacher:

Kelvin Tian

Nathan Kim

In our homeroom, we encourage dialogues centred around the challenges students encounter in their second year of the Diploma Programme (DP). These discussions delve into global competencies, effective revision strategies, the cultivation of robust decision-making skills, and the importance of maintaining a healthy mind and body to thrive in the DP. Furthermore, we underscore the significance of meeting deadlines and recognizing the core elements of the DP, including the Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay (EE), and the Creativity, Activity, and Service (CAS) program.

Help your child by:

Initiating a thoughtful conversation that addresses their overall well-being, effective time management, and the importance of TOK, EE, and CAS in their DP journey. Additionally, consider incorporating discussions about their university application process, emphasizing the significance of building a well-rounded profile through extracurricular activities and maintaining a strong academic record. Help them explore potential career paths and understand the importance of aligning their academic and personal achievements with their future goals.

Group 1: Language A:

English Language & Literature

Teachers:

UnitTitle:

Concepts:

ATL Skills:

Help Your Child By:

Group 1:

Chinese A: Language and Literature

Teacher:

Unit Title: Times and lives

Concepts:  Represent, Culture, Identity

ATL skills:

Thinking: By critical thinking, one is capable of analyzing insightfully, concentrating on the right target, thereby making a wise decision.

Self-management: Emphasizing the development of self-management skills among students is crucial for ensuring the consistent and effective submission of assessments within deadlines.

Help your child by:

• Parents can provide access to a wide range of books, magazines, and online materials, representing various genres, cultures, and time periods. Discussing these texts with their children can stimulate their interest and broaden their understanding.
• Engage in conversations about the texts your child reads or views. Encourage them to think critically, ask questions, and express their opinions. This helps in developing interpretation, analysis, and evaluation skills.
• Create a quiet and comfortable space for your child to read and study. Limit distractions during study time to help them concentrate better on their learning goals.

Group 1: Language A:

Korean Language & Literature

Teacher:

Mr. Keon Yang

Unit 2: Perspective and culture

Key concept: Perspective

AOE: Readers, writers and texts, Time and space, Intertextualities

ATL skills:

Research skills

Help your child by: You can help them by encouraging to have good a sleep and use time wisely until final exams.

Group 3: Business Management

Teacher: Mona Meng

Unit Title: Operations Management/ Review

Concepts: Ethics/Sustainability/Creativity/Change

ATL skills:

Self-management: Time management

Help your child by:

• Help your child remain good study habits and provide emotional support. This includes setting a dedicated study space, managing time effectively, and avoiding procrastination.
• Discuss real-world examples and share your own experience to help your child explore different Business Management functions, such as HR, Finance and accounting, Marketing and Operations.

Group 3: Economics

Teacher: Eva Liu

Unit Title: Unit 4 – Global Economy

The global economy focuses on areas of global interaction and consequences of globalisation and aims to foster international mindedness within students where sustainable economical, social and environmental development should be the shared common goal of humanity. Conceptual understanding includes:

• The increased interdependence of economies has benefits and costs.
• Increased economic integration may result in efficiency, welfare gains and improvements in economic well-being but the benefits may not result in equity.
• Perceptions of the meanings of development and equity change over time and vary across cultures.
• Governments and other economic agents may intervene in an attempt to promote economic wellbeing and equity in societies.
• The pursuit of sustainability is subject to various constraints.
• Effective strategies should take account of the relevant social, economic, and political context.

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

ATL skills:

Thinking

• formulate a reasoned argument to support their opinion or conclusion
• tasks which required higher-order thinking skills (such as analysis or evaluation)
• take an unfamiliar viewpoint into account when formulating arguments

Communication

• give presentation without reading from their notes
• assess or give feedback on speaking or writing concisely
• ask students to monitor and check the quality of their writing
• encourage or require students to plan a response before they begin

Research

• give students advice on (or provide an opportunity for students to practise) narrowing the scope of a task to make it more manageable

Help your child by:

• Encourage your child to discuss what they’ve learned in class and real world events and changes in the overall economic environment domestically and abroad
• Seek opportunities to discuss possible consequences on global trade due to economic changes
• Encourage your child to take a step back to observe changes holistically, I.e. how some changes may influence more than just one group of people, but rather the society as a whole

Group 4: Biology

Teachers: Shameek Ghosh

Group 4: Chemistry

Teachers: Kelvin Tian

Unit title: Redox processes

Essential idea: Redox (reduction–oxidation) reactions play a key role in many chemical and biochemical processes

ATL skills:

Thinking-

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

give students time to think through their answers before asking them for a response

Research-

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

require students to record their search for sources in steps (types of search engines, search terms, and so on)

discuss or model the importance of academic honesty and clear acknowledgment of sources

Help your child by:

Emphasize the importance of a healthy balance between academics and well-being. Make sure your child gets enough sleep, eats well, and engages in physical activity. A balanced lifestyle contributes to better academic performance.

Help your child develop good time management skills. Encourage them to create a review schedule for their exams.

Group 5: Environmental Systems and Societies

Teachers:  Sunny Si

Unit Title:  Atmospheric systems and society

Concepts:  Relationship

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
• require students to take an unfamiliar viewpoint into account when formulating arguments

Research

• require students to formulate/construct a focused research question
• provide opportunities for students to reflect on how they determine the quality of a source, or analyze contradictory sources
• discuss or model the importance of academic honesty and clear acknowledgment of sources

Help your child by:

Remind them to review regularly.

Encourage the students to enhance self-management skill by finishing all the assignments on time and read news or articles about the environmental issues.

Group 5: Physics

Teacher: C Rothwell

Unit Title: Atomic, Nuclear and Particle Physics

Concepts: In this unit, the origin of the Line Spectra of elements is considered. Also Fission and Fusion are explained in terms of nuclear binding energy. The structure of the nucleus is explored in terms of quarks, leptons, weak and strong forces.

ATL skills: Thinking skills are emphasized.

Help your child by: Encouraging them to work on their Internal Assessment.

Group 5: Mathematical Applications and Interpretation

Teacher:  C. Rothwell

Unit Title: Probability and Statistics

Concepts: Recently we have studied: Binomial and Normal distributions; also statistical tests such as Chi-Squared tests for Independence and Goodness of Fit, t-tests and Spearman’s rank correlation.

ATL skills:  Higher-order thinking skills such as analysis or evaluation

Help your child by Encouraging them to work on their Internal Assessment

Group 5: Mathematical Analysis and Approaches (SL)

Teachers:

Tanapat Treyanurak

Unit Title: Calculus in Trigonometry

Concepts:

Form, relationships, logic

ATL skills:

• ask students to formulate a reasoned argument to support their opinion or conclusion
• assess or give feedback on speaking or writing concisely
• discuss or model the importance of academic honesty and clear acknowledgment of sources

Help your child by:

Asking them to explain their Internal Assessment to you. Doing so will help them practice explaining the mathematics they are doing and thus improve their writing.

Group 5: Mathematical Analysis and Approaches (HL)

Teachers:

Sky Du

Unit Title:  Vectors

Concepts: Forms, representations

ATL skills:

• ask students to formulate a reasoned argument to support their opinion or conclusion
• build on a specific prior task
• encourage or require students to plan a response before they begin

Help your child by:

Check their Internal Assessment current status. Doing so will help them practice explaining the mathematics they are doing and thus improve their writing.

Group 6: Visual Arts

Teacher: Leena Nothoo

Unit Title:  Process Portfolio

Concepts: The Process Portfolio is a collection of evidence that showcases a student’s creative and artistic journey over time. It includes a variety of developmental and reflective pieces, demonstrating the student’s creative process, skills, and growth in visual arts. This portfolio is a critical component of the IB DP assessment, allowing students to explore and document their artistic exploration and development throughout the course.

• ATL skills:

Thinking

• In this unit, we will
• ask open questions
• set students a task which required higher-order thinking skills (such as analysis or evaluation)
• build on a specific prior task
• help students to make their thinking more visible (for example, by using a strategy such as a thinking routine)
• require students to take an unfamiliar viewpoint into account when formulating arguments
• include a reflection activity

Self-management

• In this unit, we will
• set deadlines for students to meet
• require students to revise and improve on work previously submitted
• ask students to set their own learning goals
• ask students to break down a larger task into specific steps
• ask students to look for personal relevance in the subject matter
• practise or discuss strategies to increase concentration
• give students feedback on their approach to a task
• model positive skills and behaviours such as being well organized and punctual
• help students to learn from failures or mistakes
• create an atmosphere where students do not think they have to get everything right first time

Help your child by:
– Ensuring they read lesson plans before attending class so that they come prepared

– Be proactive

English Theory of Knowledge

Teacher:

Unit Title: TOK Essay and AOK for Art

The arts invites students to think about the different forms of art, such as painting, film, literature, dance, and music, and analyze the meaning it contains from both the point of view of the artist, and the audience. One way of exploring this area of knowledge is via the knowledge framework, which looks at the nature and scope of the arts, how the arts relate to perspectives, methods and tools used to create artistic knowledge, and the relationship between the arts and ethics.

Concepts: Interpretation

ATL skills: Critical thinking skills

Help your child by: Reading and develop the ability to apply critical thinking skills autonomously, including the evaluation of evidence, recognition of biases, and the formation of well-reasoned counterarguments, enabling them to engage critically with information and make informed judgments in everyday life.

-And through the TOK subject report help your child formulate a clear TOK essay thesis statement. Then based on the template form teacher to finish the detailed outline and first draft

Chinese Theory of Knowledge

Teacher: Sophia Suo

Unit Title: TOK Essay

Concepts: Interpretation

ATL skills:  Critical thinking skills

Help your child by:

• providing templates or guided exercise to help formulate clear thesis statements.
• discussing scaffolded outline templates that includes sections for knowledge claims, counterarguments, and examples from knowledge areas.
• During rough drafts, providing a checklist of key components (e.g., claims, counterclaims, justification) for reviewing in their work.