MYP4 February – April 2023 Overview

Unit Title: Creating Character

Concepts:

KC: Creativity

RC: Character, Point of View, Structure

ATL skills: Thinking, Self-management, Communication

Help your child by: Discuss with your child what they are learning in class. Encourage them to read English books and to watch English documentaries.

English Language Acquisition:

Teachers:

Phase 3 & 4

Ms. Cathy Qiang

Phase 5 & 6

Mr. Welch

Phase 3 & 4 and 5 & 6

Unit Title: Why does film matter?
Concepts:

KC: Culture

RC: Conventions, Point of View, Purpose, Word choice

ATL skills:

Communication skills (summarize, describe, and evaluate a film in both oral and written form)

Thinking skills (consider multiple perspectives, and apply existing knowledge to create product)

Help your child by:

• Practice conversations about film
• Encourage to read movie review
• Watch English film and practice to discuss about it

Individuals & Societies

Teachers: Mr. Dwyer and Ms. Na

Unit Title: Human Impacts on the Natural Environment

Concepts:

KC: Time, place, and space

RC: Sustainability

ATL skills: Communication (media, summary notes, and depicting information logically)

Research (intellectual property rights and connection between sources)

Thinking (formulate questions)

Self-Management (create plans to complete summative assessments)

Help your child by: Providing opportunities to read non-fiction texts.

Science

Teachers:  Sunny Si

Unit Title:
Electricity: Making Recommendations for Power Generation

Concepts:

KC: Change

RC: Consequences and energy

ATL skills:

Thinking ( Critical thinking skills, Creative thinking skills, Transfer skills )

Help your child by:

Discuss about how the electricity has been applied around our daily life.

Remind them to review the notebook regularly.

Encourage them to do more research when get confused and to read more science books and watch more science documentaries.

Mathematics

Teachers:

Sky Du

Unit Title:  Geometry and Measurement

Concepts:

KC: Form

RC: Models and Space

ATL skills:

Communication skills

• Reading, writing and using language to gather and communicate information
  • Understand and use mathematical notation

Creative thinking skills

• Generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives
  • Create novel solutions to authentic problems
  • Apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes

Help your child by:

Frequent check-up on their math understanding and homework. Communicating mathematics helps to cement the understanding they develop in class and using a different language than the language of learning helps students see mathematics from multiple perspectives.

Chinese Language Acquisition:

Teacher: Carrie Quan (Phase 12)

Phase: 1-2

Unit Title: Scientific Innovations (Human and New Technology)

Concepts:

KC: Creativity

RC: Function, Purpose

ATL skills: Thinking skills, transfer skills, communication skills and self-management skills

Help your child by:

1. Use the learnt topics in this Unit more to real-life situations
2. Practice speaking and writing more to further enhance the corresponding  language abilities

Chinese Language Acquisition:

Teacher: Jasmin Sun (Phase 4)

Unit Title: Teenager life- Cool and Confused

Concepts:

Key concept: Communication

Related concepts: Message, Word Choice

ATL skills: Social skills, Research skills

Help your child by:

1. Check regularly if student is working on his plan of writing Chinese characters. (this is a daily work)
2. Chat with student about the stress they are suffering from as a teenager and how they relief themselves.
3. Check if student submit homework or assessments on time.

Chinese Language and Literature

Teacher: Sophia Suo

Mathew Lu

Unit Title: How does literature school define itself?

Concepts

KC: Identity

RC: Audience Imperatives, Style

ATL skills: Research Skills

Help your child by:

1. Learning the knowledge of Songci
2. Understanding how the authors express their identities from the works
3. Learning How the readers or audience have impacts on Songci, how Songsi infleunce people in different space and time?
4. Learning a range of methods on literature analysis.

Music

Teachers: Nathan Kim

Unit Title: Art and the World

Concepts:

KC: Change

RC: Presentation

ATL skills: Create plans to prepare for summative assessments (examinations and performances)

Help your child by: Encouraging the development of skills that they will need to create music through practice and/or through meaningful feedback to their progress

Design

Teachers: Hae young Chung

Concepts:

KC: Systems

RC: Ergonomics, Form and Function, Sustainability

ATL skills: Collaboration, Organization, Information literacy

Help your child by:

Talk about how to work with others effectively and how to give and receive meaningful feedback. Visit a furniture mall or exhibition and  discuss topics on design, ergonomics, and sustainability.

Visual Arts

Teachers:  Tracy Shi

Unit Title:
The Body Electric (Using the Human Figure in Our Art)

Concepts:

KC: Identity

RC: Expression, Representation, Other: Form

ATL skills: Self Management, Reflection

Help your child by:

Ask your student, “What is art and what can art be?” Engage in conversations about what you SEE everyday. It could be architecture, graphics on television, newspaper layout with text and image, car designs, colors that are used that affect our behaviors in advertisements, forms we  encounter, and of course art that we experience online or in a book. Also take your student to museums and galleries. Please have them practice their drawing skills in a sketchbook as much as possible. Have them take photographs with their phones. Get them to keep a diary or personal journal for ideas and feelings.

Physical and Health Education

Teacher: Kevin McGarry

Unit Title: Health and Fitness Management

Concepts:

KC: Change

RC: Balance, Systems

ATL skills: Critical thinking

• recognise unstated assumptions and biases
• Identify obstacles and challenges

Help your child by:

Perform a workout at home with your child or ask them to be your personal trainer for the day. This will help them build confidence when coaching their training partner.

Korean LL

Teachers: Keon Yang

Unit Title: Storytelling

Concepts:

KC: Culture

RC: Context, theme

ATL skills: Self-management skills_ organization

Help your child by:

• Encourage your kids to think of their favorite stories and compare them with stories in movies or drama.