Every Wednesday, during PIE, the Grade 10 students gather in MP1 in order to touch base with teachers, and with each other, about their MYP Personal Projects. This is a time to collaborate, to get advice, to document progress and just to get on with their projects.
In this Buffalo Voices Podcast, on AISM Radio, seven of them chat with Sam Sherratt about what they're doing for their MYP Personal Projects and how it's going so far. Enjoy listening to Elisa, Hayden, Helen, Sydney, Tyra, Misa and Daniel talk about each of their very diverse projects!
Please feel free to watch the video or read the text, the content is identical.
Tomorrow, you will receive your child or children’s MAP Growth Student progress Reports. Before you do that, however, I’d like to share a number of very important messages with you.
Some facts about MAP Growth testing at our school this year
In the last few weeks, AISM faculty have been looking at the MAP Growth data in various forms, exploring what it might be showing us and what some of the implications might be for teaching and learning at AISM. The general levels of performance in many areas of the tests was very high and teachers have been extremely encouraged by what the data is showing them. When there is so much being said in the media in many countries about "lost learning" during the pandemic, we feel very proud of the learning that has continued to happen - either online or on campus - at AISM since the outbreak of COVID19… and very proud of our students.
The areas in which students have struggled, tend to be areas of the curriculum they have not learned yet, as we did our testing at the start of the year. Every year, the tests are based on the learning outcomes for that grade level and so, if students have not yet learned particular areas of the curriculum, that will come through in the data.
For the first time ever, the average scores for each test in every grade level are all higher than the US norms… in some cases, significantly higher. Of course, we understand that many students in the US have not had access to the ongoing quality education that AISM students have had during the pandemic, but this is still a very encouraging trend.
Many students have a RIT score that is slightly lower than the one they got in tests we did in March/April last academic year. This is not a cause for concern as the students are taking tests based on a whole new grade level’s learning outcomes and so are engaging with more challenging content. It’s also very common for students to perform a little lower at the start of the year after having a nice, long holiday!
This is going to be the first time that we will administer the MAP Growth tests two times in one academic year - once at the start of the year (click) and then the second time towards the end of the year (click). This means that we can finally start maximizing the potential of the test, which is actually designed to measure growth within an academic year. Until this year, because of the pandemic, we have only been doing the tests once every year and therefore only getting data from one year to the next.
Some thoughts with you about reactions to MAP Growth scores
Getting test scores can be a time of emotional extremes for families. If your child seems to have done incredibly well, for example, you might see it as a time to celebrate, but you may be disappointed if your child doesn’t do so well next time - which does happen. If your child seems to have done badly, you might become angry, maybe even angry with your child… and this won’t help them with their learning at all. Or, you may even look for someone else to blame - the school, or a teacher - and this damages relationships and, again, doesn’t help the student with their learning.
I urge you to avoid any extreme emotional reactions to your children’s test scores, no matter how they did. At AISM, we believe in the value of assessment for continuous learning and growth. These MAP results are just one part of that and we should all, of course, be curious about them, what they might be showing us, what they might not be showing us, how they might reveal areas the students need to work on and what they need help with, from all of us, in order to continue to grow as learners.
The data is showing us that some of the students do appear to have done way better in these tests than we were expecting them to, based on all of the other assessments we do with them. This could be because they:
are really familiar with, and good at, doing standardized tests like these
just had a really good day and outperformed themselves
The data is also showing us that some students have done worse than we were expecting them to, based on all of the other assessments we do with them. This could be because they:
are doing standardized tests like these for the very first time, like the whole of Grade 3 and many others new to the school and coming from schools where MAP is not done.
struggled with the complexity of the English in the tests if they are new or still fairly new to the English language.
just had a bad day - there might have been some conflict in their lives that day, they might have been very nervous, they might have lacked motivation, they might have been unwell, they might have felt anxious because of the pandemic.
could have had technical problems with their computer or with the internet that disrupted their experience of doing the tests.
The data is also showing us that some students have performed as we were expecting them to, based on all of the other assessments we do with them. This could be because they:
are comfortable and familiar enough with the test, or similar tests.
were feeling good that day.
had a smooth testing session and there were no technical difficulties.
Information about MAP and assessment in general
While their MAP scores are, of course, interesting, it is absolutely crucial that we all know that they do not represent the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about how those students are doing in each of the subject areas. The purpose of these tests, like all good assessment, is to reveal useful information that can inform growth - it is not to judge, to rank, to compartmentalize the child or to form any permanent conclusions about them, how they learn or how they are taught.
The scores that we get from doing MAP tests are just one data point that is gathered along with many other pieces of data and information that are gathered about each child, what they’re learning and how they’re learning each academic year. This big picture of assessment is the full story of each student as a learner, and MAP scores are a small piece of that story. As we get into the regular routine of testing twice a year, as the students get more familiar with the testing, as our teaching and learning becomes more and more connected with the learning outcomes that were introduced two years ago and as the data from the MAP tests becomes more reliable, MAP scores will become a bigger part of the story. At present, though, they remain a small part.
So, tomorrow you will receive instructions about how to access and understand your child’s MAP Growth Student Progress Report. Many thanks for your time and attention to these important messages about MAP Growth testing at AISM.
In Individuals & Societies, Grade 7 students are learning about exploration and the increasingly inter-connected world that resulted from these explorations. They did a case study of Marco Polo and used his journals to as a primary source of information about his experiences.
In this creative project, they traveled back in time and put themselves in Marcom Polo's shoes as he encountered some of the wild animals, advanced systems and the use of resources that were present in China in the 13th Century.
They used the costume room in the Auditorium in order to look as convincing as possible, the used the green screen and a digital camera to take the photos they needed for each situation, they found appropriate background images, they cropped the original photos using editing software and then layered the cropped images on top of the background image. Finally, they used Instapainting to convert the image into something that looks like a painting or drawing because, of course, cameras didn't exist in the 13th Century!
Here is their work in the form of a digital book! Please click the link to take a look.
Please feel free to watch the video or read the text - the content is exactly the same!
Hello!
I hope you’re all doing very well!
Just a quick update on the MAP growth tests scores. Teachers have started to look at the data from the tests and become familiar with it. Now that they have had the chance to do that, I have created each of your children’s individual reports and am uploading them into their Managebac portfolios. Putting them into Managebac makes them easy to access by parents, teachers or students so they can be referred to quickly and easily. You are able to download them as PDF documents from there.
I will get this done as quickly as I can and then send you a message to let you know they are ready and to give detailed instructions about how to access them as well as how to read them.
I should be able to have this ready by Wednesday next week. Many apologies for the further delay in getting this information out to you.
Feel free to watch the video or read the text - they are identical. You are also able to translate the page into many languages using the "Translate this page" option to the left of your screen.
I hope you’re all doing well and that you’re getting ready to have a good break - I know that the students and staff are definitely ready for some rest and I’m sure you are too!
Here’s a quick update on our MAP growth testing as it stands today.
Testing in Grades 3-5 is pretty much complete, with just a few tests to make up after the break if students missed them due to being absent or having technical difficulties. Testing in Grades 6 to 10 is taking a little longer and about 15% of the tests still need to be completed when we get back from the break.
Once all the tests are complete, we will start generating the whole school data so that staff can start looking into the patterns and trends that are revealed. Once they have had a chance to engage with the data, we will generate the individual student reports and start to share with families through Managebac. You can expect to receive your child’s MAP report in the first week of November, along with detailed instructions about how to read and understand the information.
I hope you all have a well-deserved rest as we all continue to navigate this strange and uncertain time in our lives.
Please feel free to read the text below or to watch the video - the content is exactly the same. You can also translate the text on this page into many languages by clicking the "Translate this page" option on the left of your screen.
The testing so far
We have just come to end of a week in which students in Grades 3 to 10 have been doing MAP Growth testing. It has gone pretty smoothly so far this year. Of course - as it is an online test - we have had some predictable technical issues! But, in general, the devices have all worked well, the backup devices have helped some of the students out, the Internet has been pretty stable and we have been able to do them all on campus. Hopefully all of these things will remain true next week, and for the week or two after the October break as we complete all of the tests.
One thing that is very noticeable is that the students who have been at AISM since last year (or longer) are becoming very accustomed to the format of the tests and therefore starting to feel more comfortable with how the tests work, the various tools that are available in the tests, how the questions are asked, and how they are expected to respond to them. Of course, this isn't true for Grade 3 students because this is the first time they have experienced the tests!
Testing two times this year
This will be the first academic year since the introduction of MAP Growth testing at AISM in which we will be able to administer the tests twice - once at the start of the year and then again towards the end of the year. This means that we will be able to start gathering the data about learning growth within an academic year that makes these tests powerful.
A change
One change that was made this year - and that you may have heard your child talking about - is that students no longer see their "score" at the end of each test. Last year, many students, teachers and parents shared stories of students being overly competitive about the scores, pressuring their peers to share their scores and even mocking students who did not appear to do very well. This led to all sorts of anxiety for many students and is really not the spirit of these tests, for the following reasons:
The purpose of MAP Growth testing is to gather valuable data about each individual student that can inform teaching, it is not to compare them with each other or rank them against each other.
The tests adapt in order to pose questions that are just on the edge of each students' comfort zone - the area in which the questions are just easy for them to be successful and just hard enough to be a challenge. So, each student's score, known as the RIT Score, is unique to them.
Finally, students must not be defined by their MAP scores - not by teachers, parents or their peers. This is just one test, on one day... a day that could be a great day for them, or it could be a terrible day. All sorts of factors can and do influence each student's frame of mind and emotional state on the day of a test, and these inevitably affect how they do in the test. The data that comes from MAP growth tests is just part of the bigger picture of all the assessment data that is gathered throughout the course of the year in each subject area.
Getting the results
Families can expect to receive these in early November. This allows time for all of the testing to be completed and for teachers to have a chance to study the patterns and trends in the data beforehand so they can effectively respond to any questions that may arise.
Please feel free to get in touch with Sam Sherratt, our Director of Learning, with any questions that you might have about the MAP Growth tests in general - sam.sherratt@aism-moz.com.
During their English lessons, students in Grade 8 did a whole unit on Film. Either in groups or on their own, either in campus or in other parts of the world, the students developed concepts, wrote scripts, selected music and sound-effects, chose locations, filmed and edited eight amazing - and very different - short films.
You can watch all of the films in the Grade 8 Virtual Film Festival below:
To conclude their inquiry into ancient civilizations, geography key themes, map making skills and settlements, Grade 6 students carried out a research and decision-making activity, to produce a list of their own Seven Modern Wonders of the World, following their inquiry into the original ancient modern wonders of the world, created by the ancient Greeks. Each presentation of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World had to have their own set of criteria, by which the students who created them, considered them to be a 'Wonder'. In turn, the class collaboratively devised a set of criteria by which to judge each others' presentations of their Seven Modern Wonders of the World. Special mention goes to Belva and Cala, and Laia, whose two presentations were deemed to be the joint winning presentations by their class of peers.
The question is, which presentation of the Seven Wonders of the World do you consider to be the most wonderful?
Grade 8 Students at AISM explored how scientists use evidence to study the process of evolution. They took part in an academic research process and wrote about what they discovered. This magazine is the result of their efforts. It is 100% researched, written, edited, laid out, and published by students. Take a look and see what they were curious about when exploring evolution. The results will blow you away.
Please click on the image or on this link to see the magazine.
Grade 6 students have been combining story-telling and the creation of rhythms using everyday objects. It started out as a fairly simple musical project, but the students' imaginations, creativity and desire to explore and experiment with costumes and props turned it into something bigger and better than the original plan!
Here's the Grade 6 Virtual Theatre showing, for one week only... "A Little Bit of Stomp"!
For their final summative assignment in Individuals & Societies, the Grade 8 students were asked to produce a formal research essay using criteria adapted from the Grade 12 Extended Essay rubric to explore and evaluate a chosen human rights topics of interest. They were asked to use peer-reviewed academic journals to inform their research as they followed guidelines adapted from AISM's Big 6 Research Planner.
Here are some examples of the work they have produced (click on the images below to go to their work):
This year, five Grade 12 students did Visual Art for their IB Diploma. Fortunately, they were able to invite their parents on to the campus to come and see their exhibition in real life, and most other grade levels in the school also came to see it. However, because of the current restrictions, the whole school community were not able to come. Now, through the virtual gallery, you are4 also able to explore the students' art work and learn more about the Artists, their methods and their artistic intentions.
Grade 11 students Beamlak, Rylan and Isabelle, have been developing their Creativity, Activity and Service project in the form of a podcast. Through the Buffalo Trail Podcast, they are aiming to inspire curiosity, listen to and share different perspectives and increase the communication between different grade levels in the school.
You can listen to their podcast on Spotify:
You can listen to their podcast on iTunes:
... and we are also hosting the podcasts on the AISM Radio Soundcloud account!
Grade 11 students did an amazing job with their Personal Projects, with a very wide variety of topics being explored through this milestone experience.
Please get comfortable and spend a bit of time exploring the Virtual Exhibition so you can get a sense of what the students did, read some of their reports and see some of the products of their projects.
Grade 11 students just had a Core Retreat in which they were able to dedicate some time to the Core of the IB Diploma. This is made up of Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay and Creativity, Activity and Service.
In this podcast, Sam Sherratt finds out more about the retreat, what happened and what impact it had by chatting to Gabriel Di Mauro (IB Diploma Coordinator), Rui da Silva (Extended Essay Coordinator), Colleen Fletcher (CAS Coordinator) and two Grade 11 students, Rylan and Jana.
Grade 10 are currently presenting the work they've done during their inquiry into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the outcome of the inquiry being a sustainable, actionable solution to a local issue (which is also a world-wide issue related to SDGs).
The context for the unit of inquiry was to develop an understanding of the impact of the linear economy globally, and to consider how the UN SDGs can overcome global issues, within a local context, with students carrying out personalised inquiries and creating sustainable solutions and action. This inquiry ties in with the transition of Grade 10 to the IB Diploma and High School programme in two ways: to mirror an inquiry into the UN SDGs as per the Environmental Systems and Societies Internal Assessment and to engage students in Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) experiences, building a foundation for continued action in Grade 11 and Grade 12.
The unit of inquiry began with guest speakers from within the AISM community. Niall Tierney spoke about the history of the UN SDGs and his own involvement in developing them and implementing them. Florentine Bourdeaux spoke about the application of a circular economic model of industrial production in Maputo at the Beluluane Industrial Park, working on transforming the park into an eco-industrial park. Colleen Fletcher and Jasmine Howell spoke about the importance of sustainable action (economic, social, environmental), based on indigenous knowledge bearers, the Compass Model and spheres of influence.
Here are a few examples of the presentations the students have put together.
Ashutosh and Arvind's work focuses on sustainable, affordable water filtration systems for the local community in order to promote Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG6) and to counter the use of single-use plastic and climate change:
Margret's work focused on Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) and ensuring sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with a focus on Mozambique:
Madeleine's work focused on seeing if solar paint is a plausible innovation to develop Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7):
Olinda, in Grade 10, blew us all away with her powerful poetry during the MYP Personal Project Exhibition and during the Buffalo Talks Author's Night a few months ago. She even impressed author Mia Couto so much that he invited her to join him and other authors at the Fundacao Fernando Leite Couto right then and there during the event!
The next part of the Olinda's story as a Poet has just happened, with two of her poems being published in the Minfo Femme magazine.
Click on the image to visit the Extended Essay Exhibition
Grade 11 and 12 students go through the process of planning, writing and publishing the extended essay as part of the IB Diploma Programme. This is an independent, self-directed piece of research, finishing with a 4,000-word paper.
The extended essay provides:
practical preparation for undergraduate research
an opportunity for students to investigate a topic of personal interest to them, which relates to one of the student's six DP subjects, or takes the interdisciplinary approach of a World Studies extended essay.
Through the research process for the extended essay, students develop skills in:
formulating an appropriate research question
engaging in a personal exploration of the topic
communicating ideas
developing an argument.
This year, AISM students have written essays about topics ranging from the ideal diets for basketball players to the relationship between childhood experiences and criminal behaviour, from the discrimination and exploitation of minorities to Turtle nesting in Mozambique, from the effects of social isolation to Korean cuisine and social media! The diversity of topics is amazing, and something our school, and this cohort of students, can be very proud of.
Crucially, the extended essay is a powerful reminder of how important it is for students to be curious about the world, to develop strong interests and to develop the skills involved in personal inquiry.
For three days last week, our whole-school Librarian, Leah Ittner, Zoomed into the Grade 8 classes during PIE (Personalization, Intervention, Extension) time to introduce the learners to the library resources and databases that are available to them for their research. Reminding students that anyone can make a website, it is important to use the carefully curated databases to get reliable facts and information about topics. She also showed tools that can help learners cite their sources easily, translate texts into any language, and listen to articles in order to support with comprehension.
"The students responded really well to Leah’s openness and general disposition. Many are thinking about reaching out to her for support because they thought she was so nice! It was a great kick-off to our research process" said Peter Hennigar, Grade 8 Science Teacher and Advisor.
Here are the Slides that Leah used in order to share this information with Grade 8 students.
These mathematical inquiry projects give Grade 8 students the opportunity to transfer the mathematical concepts they have been learning this year into real-life situations.
The one about how much money will you cost your parents is proving to be a popular one!
Which one would you choose to do? Let Francois McCurdy know if you decide to do one of the inquiries yourself and share your findings with him!
