IB Highlights: Caperucita en Manhattan
An SGS senior has used the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme to explore the meaning of characters created by a major Spanish author.
EE Highlight: Senior Cambrie Rickard is writing her Extended Essay on the book Caperucita en Manhattan (Little Red Riding Hood in Manhattan) by Carmen Martín Gaite, one of the most important and influential Spanish authors of the 20th Century. Cambrie is writing about the representations of freedom (libertad) and solitude (soledad) in the novel as portrayed by some of the characters, especially Miss Lunatic.
CAS Project Highlight: Reagan Ivey and Adelaide Lennemann will be starting a clothing drive to donate clothes to the Teen and Kid Closet. They will promote the drive with posters and other means and will deliver the donations to the closet. The drive will run for 2-3 weeks. Details will be coming out soon.
CAS Experience Highlights: CAS experiences for all of our Upper School students (in the US and in China) include the lifetime fitness class, learning to sew, skiing on Mt. Spokane, learning about human trafficking and making care packages w/ Spokane Girl Up Club, OUR, and International Network of Hearts, restarting the writing center, skiing, setting up Christmas lights, building a snowman, playing ping pong, doing Among Us drawings, painting a picture, and creating a game server.
IB Question of the Week: What is the IB doing about exams during the pandemic?
The IB continues to release updated guidance for schools regarding assessment since the pandemic started. Their documents aim to supplement the subject guides and existing teacher support material (TSM) for DP subjects and to share guidance and advice on how teachers can support students working remotely to undertake this work.
Last year, the IB established a non-exam route as a result of the pandemic and came up with a course grade for students using their Internal Assessments (IAs), predicted grades from teachers, and past predicted grade reliability.
Schools who tested in November 2020 were given the guidance that they could opt in or out of exams. If they opted into exams, a student’s course grades would be based on their exams, IAs, predicted scores and past predicted grade reliability. If schools opted out, course grades would be based on IAs, predicted grades and past predicted grade reliability, like in May 2020.
The IB has not yet sent official and final guidance for the May 2021 cohort. They have told schools to look at the guidance given to November 2020 schools for what to expect. Schools have been told by the IB to expect an official guidance to be released in late January/early February. So far, for the May 2021 cohort, it is official that all IAs will be sent to the IB examiners, and not just a sampling as in a normal year. We are waiting to hear about the exam and non-exam choices and routes.
IB Overview: The Diploma Programme (DP) curriculum for grades 11-12 is made up of six subject groups and the DP core, comprising Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) and the Extended Essay (EE). Please refer to our IB webpage and to the IB Resources page in PowerSchool Learning for detailed IB information.