International Baccalaureate
 

The Middle Years Programme (MYP)

Content        
 
Integrated English/Humanities - Grade 6-8

(English Component)

The Middle School English curriculum is comprehensive, systematic, and developmental. The intent of the program is to provide students with the skills necessary for effective speaking, listening, reading, writing and viewing to enable them to gather, process and communicate information precisely. The curriculum is so designed as to articulate with the High School English program.

Grades 6 - 8 are reading / writing based and fully integrated with a three year world - related humanities program. As far as is possible, literature is chosen to deepen understanding of, and provide insights into, the humanities curriculum. By the same token, humanities work underpins and enhances the understanding of the material covered in English. Integration is often achieved by theme or by literature chosen especially to relate to the humanities topics.

Students respond to literature through interrelated instruction in the processes of listening, speaking, viewing, reading, and writing. These five processes are integrated in a total learning program that emphasizes higher order thinking skills. Students learn to read and view with understanding, listen with purpose, write in their own style and to a number of formats, speak with fluency, and handle the conventions of standard English - all through the medium of an integrated curriculum.

Literature and Writing—Grades 9-12

Program Summary: The goal of the English program is to engage students in reading, writing and speaking experiences that will enlarge their lives, through both aesthetic and academic appreciation. The program aims to encourage a passion for books, to celebrate a variety of literary traditions and to prepare students well for the rigorous two-year International Baccalaureate course required of all 11th and 12th graders.

English - Grade 9

The OIS Grade 9 English course integrates short stories, poems, plays and novels to encourage a more critical consideration of language and literature. Many of the works are thematically related to growing up and/or the movement from innocence to experience. Students will write informal reading responses to the literature frequently, and compose formal multi-draft pieces for every major unit of work. They will learn to follow a helpful drafting and revising process. Students will also receive instruction in critical thinking, group discussion, vocabulary and grammar throughout the year. Through occasional presentations, they will be able to sharpen their public speaking skills.

English - Grade 10

OIS 10th graders should end the year ready for the rigors of IB Language A, which means they will have honed the skills taught in year 9: the ability to read closely both poetry and prose, and to articulate inferences clearly with the spoken and written word. The writing assignments, both analytical and creative, will increase in number and depth; the oral work, both spontaneous and rehearsed, will be more demanding and sophisticated. The mythological texts provide the allusions with which we expect the educated to be familiar and the quest pattern that encourages students to search for their ‘selves.’ Assigned texts alternate the modern with the classic, so that Holden Caulfield will look quite comfortable alongside Odysseus, Janie Crawford next to the Christ. The course will continue to strengthen our students’ vocabulary and grammar.