IB Middle Years Programme

Service as Action/Community Service

Action and service have always been shared values of the IB community. Students take action when they apply what they are learning in the classroom and beyond IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate a commitment to service—making a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment. Service as action is an integral part of the programme, especially in the MYP community project.

With appropriate guidance and support, MYP students should, through their engagement with service as action:

• become more aware of their own strengths and areas for growth
• undertake challenges that develop new skills
• discuss, evaluate, and plan student-initiated activities
• persevere in action
• work collaboratively with others
• develop international-mindedness through global engagement, multilingualism, and
• intercultural understanding
• consider the ethical implications of their actions

All of these learning outcomes are closely associated with IB learner profile attributes and Approaches to Learning skills.

MYP: From Principles to Practice

Guidelines for Community Service

Complete 30 total hours, with a minimum of 10 hours completed each year of the program. (Up to 6 hours may be banked for the following year, except in 8th grade, when all community service must be completed by the end of the second semester.)

What Counts?

• Volunteering for non-profit service organizations
• Service Projects through Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, Campfire and 4H.
• Other suggestions: ushering, teaching a children’s class, walk-a-thons, reading to the blind or elderly at a nursing home, campus clean-up, serving and/or cleaning up at soup kitchens, sorting food at community food banks, make greeting cards for shut-ins or nursing home residents, organize and run an event for preschool children.

For community service, do both of the following…

1. complete the Service as Action Reflection form online for EACH TIME you volunteer.
2. turn in this Service as Action Log page once you have completed 10 or more hours of service.

According to IB academic honesty must be seen as a set of values and skills that promote personal integrity and good practice in teaching, learning and assessment. It is influenced and shaped by a variety of factors including peer pressure, culture, parental expectations, role modeling, and taught skills (IBO, Academic Honesty, 2009).

George Washington Carver Middle School is committed to the preservation and promotion of the highest standards of academic integrity and expects students to strive to develop the attributes of The IB Learner Profile that are embedded throughout the curriculum and in the school’s daily life.

Therefore, the IB Learner Profile is the foundation of the school’s Academic Honesty Policy. 

Carver Middle School encourages all learners to be:

• Inquirers – who acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research
• Knowledgeable – who explore concepts, ideas and issues
• Principled – who act with integrity and honesty, take responsibility for their own actions
• Open-minded – who are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view
• Risk takers – who are brave and articulate in defending their beliefs.

These qualities, when applied to learning and student work, will establish skills and behavior which support good practices in the classroom and homework, and shall be maintained in examinations. These core values will provide students with a framework for future success. These practices are expected to be introduced, modeled, and used throughout the school.

Forms and Definitions of Academic Dishonesty

Cheating ​is defined as using unauthorized answers or sources to receive credit for schoolwork; unauthorized collaboration on homework assignments, class work, or exams; multiple submissions of the same work, fabricating information, helping or allowing another student to cheat, or altering or destroying the work of others, fraudulently altering an assignment or grade. Some examples are looking at someone else’s paper, copying from your notebook when you are supposed to use only your memory (e.g., on quizzes and tests), or copying someone else’s homework because you did not complete yours, or allowing another person to copy your work. 

Plagiarism ​is defined as a form of cheating when you present another person’s words or ideas as your own without giving the originator credit for the information. Some common examples of plagiarism are copying information from a book without using quotation marks and without including a bibliography at the end of the assignment listing the sources used, or copying information from the internet without citing the source. All information in academic assignments that is not common knowledge must be cited and documented.

Violations ​may result in the following disciplinary actions:

• Student may receive a failing grade on the assignment or test in question, without the opportunity to resubmit the assignment or retake the test.
• At the discretion of the teacher, the student may be required to complete the assignment (or an equivalent) for reduced credit.
• Depending on the severity and frequency of a student’s violation(s), students may also be assigned to further consequences as outlined in the Tulsa Public Schools Behavior Response Plan.

Tulsa Public Schools Assessment Protocol for Formative and Summative Assessment

It is the goal of Tulsa Public Schools that all tests, teacher-made, or district-facilitated, are aligned with the state standards: Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS) and Oklahoma Academic Standards (OAS). Teachers play a critical role for students in mastering these standards. Checklists, portfolios, teacher observations of student progress, and teacher-made tests are the primary assessment tools for each classroom. Aligned classroom assessments enable educators to make diagnostic instructional decisions on a continuing basis. In the standards-based system, the development of curriculum and instruction occurs after reviewing and developing the assessment instrument. Classroom assessments are aligned with content standards and district level assessments for accountability.

Tulsa Public Schools District Testing

Tulsa Public Schools curriculum is aligned to the Oklahoma Priority Academic Student Skills (PASS) and Oklahoma Academic Standards (OAS). Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students take Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) and Scholastic Math Inventory (SMI) tests at periodic checkpoints throughout the year to evaluate their progress in reading and math. If they have not shown growth, then the concepts, vocabulary, and/or skills are taught again, either in a class setting or tutorial session. These assessments measure students’ achievement and prepare students to be successful on the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Tests (OCCT’s) and help Tulsa Public Schools teachers plan, evaluate, and modify their instruction.

All students in the Tulsa Public School district take the state-mandated Oklahoma Core Curriculum Tests (OCCT’s). Sixth and seventh grade students take OCCT’s in math and reading toward the end of the school year. Toward the beginning of the school year eighth grade students take the ACT Aspire Test in math, reading, writing, and science; toward the end of the year, eight graders take OCCT’s in math, reading (with a writing component), and science.

Grading Systems

Letter grades (A, B, C, D, F, U) are used in the district to rate student progress. In addition to letter grades, symbols (INC, I, S, N) are also used to indicate progress by students. Letter grades and/or symbols will be communicated to parents/guardians through the use of a report card. The report card is only one form of communicating student progress to parents/guardians. Because of the limited scope of the report card, it is difficult to provide a comprehensive profile of the student’s capacity, individual needs, or growth. Therefore, the district requires that teachers hold teacher/parent conferences each semester to address any concerns with student progress. Grades are based on well-defined criteria (which are detailed in course syllabi) and teachers maintain records (grades, progress charts, etc.) containing sufficient documentation to
verify or justify the grades given.

Definitions and interpretation of letter grades and symbols:

A- Superior quality of work
B- Good quality of work
C- Satisfactory quality of work
D- Below quality of work
F- Unsatisfactory work
U- Unsatisfactory work (elementary reports)

Letter grades for required academic subjects (English, mathematics, science, social studies) will be checkmarked if the student is working below grade level for the course.

INC- Incomplete
I- Is Improving
S- Satisfactory progress (this symbol is most often used in non-graded programs)
N- Needs Improvement (this symbol is most often used in non-graded programs)

MYP Assessments

Teachers internally assess the work of the MYP students; there is no formal examination structure and no system of external assessment. Internal assessment of student work is carried out using a criterion-referenced approach. It plays a major role in students’ development and preparation for final assessment. Teachers have collaborated and created relevant, authentic assessments that align with MYP subject area criteria. Both formative and summative assessments are utilized. Rubrics are used to assess the products of MYP interdisciplinary units as well as single disciplinary units, and the scores are recorded in teachers’ electronic gradebooks.

A fundamental characteristic of being internationally minded is valuing diversity, and one way this is accomplished at Carver is by differentiating instruction and accommodating the different learning styles and needs of students.

Students with special educational needs are identified through a variety of testing processes, and Individualized Educational Plans (IEP’s) are developed and modified as needed to ensure that accommodations are being made for each individual student based on his or her own needs. A part- time special education teacher meets regularly with students, parents, and classroom teachers to ensure that every effort is made to provide an opportunity for educational success for each student.

We are committed to meeting the needs of all of our students. All students are provided the opportunity to complete the requirements of the MYP, regardless of what modifications must be made to meet their needs.

Carver Middle School encourages opportunities for students and faculty to discuss and reflect on language usage in various contexts. We understand that language is the foundation in developing the interpersonal communication skills needed to be part of a group. For students, language development and acquisition begins in the home and the language used in the home is part of a student’s cultural identity. Thus, students’ home language reflects their families and local communities, and as a school we embrace the linguistic diversity of our student body. Because we are a diverse school, we encourage and support multilingualism through our language acquisition courses. Additionally, in our language and literature courses, we recognize the need to develop the standard academic language used in school for instruction so that students’ language use will reflect that they are members of a school community and a national and global community as well. In summation, as an IBMYP school, we strive to validate and respect students’ home language, encourage students’ acquisition of foreign languages, and advance students’ proficiency in standard academic language.