IB Highlights: Thanksgiving Cards & Assessments

CAS experiences for all of our Upper School Students reported this week included learning new piano songs, helping with the Santa Express, participating in FTC Robotics, and writing military Thanksgiving cards.  (See a Photo Gallery of students writing Thanksgiving cards for the service members at Fairchild AFB.)

 

IB Alumni Highlight:  

On Wednesday, January 5, several SGS alumni from the Class of 2020 and the Class of 2021 will be here to talk to the students in grades 6-12 about the IB and their experiences at college.  There will be a special schedule that day for Middle and Upper School students that will allow for a Q&A time with the IB Alumni panel: 

Students grades 6-12:  2:05-3:05pm (Theater)

Parents:  3:15-4:00pm (Theater)

 

IB Question of the Week:   

In each IB class, what are the Internal Assessments and the External Assessments? 

 

The IB uses both external and internal assessments in the Diploma Program (DP) to assess student learning. 

• The external assessments (EA) include the exams in May of a student’s senior year. These EAs count for 70 - 80% of the score in an IB course. The EAs are sent in to the IB for grading by IB examiners. If a student takes IB Visual Arts, their EA is an exhibition. In addition, if a student takes a Language A HL course (Chinese A Literature HL or English A Literature HL), they also produce a written assignment. These assessments are called “external” because teachers outside of SGS assess and decide what grade they earn. IB examiners and assessors are all over the globe but trained by the IB to ensure uniformity.

• The internal assessments (IA) include the many investigations and projects that students undertake here at SGS during the two-year program. 20 - 30% of the student’s score is derived from the IA. SGS students complete an IA in each course. The grade for the IA is assessed by the SGS teacher but it is externally moderated by the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization), meaning they are reviewed for grading accuracy. 

 

External assessment: Examinations form the basis of the assessment for most courses. This is because of their high levels of objectivity and reliability.

They include:

• essays

• structured problems

• short-response questions

• data-response questions

• text-response questions

• case-study questions

• multiple-choice questions

 

Internal assessment: Teacher assessment is also used for all courses. This includes:

• written work in languages

• oral work in languages

• laboratory work in the sciences

• investigations in mathematics

• artistic performances

 

Please email Elizabeth.tender@sgs.org with any IB questions you may have, otherwise she will pick one to answer.  For more information about the DP grading and assessment please follow this link: http://www.ibo.org/en/programmes/diploma-programme/assessment-and-exams/understanding-ib-assessment/