Parent and Student Handbook - Ada Merritt K-8 Center - Miami ...

- 34 -student service provider will help to answer your questions. Additional information may also befound at http://ese.dadeschools.net/.BILINGUAL SCHOOL ORGANIZATION (BISO)Designated as a Bilingual School Organization, Ada Merritt will offer students the opportunity topursue a dual language education in English/Portuguese or English/Spanish. Ada Merritt K-8Center will implement a two-way bilingual language model.Unique Features:• 60 percent of instruction imparted in English, 40 percent in the other language;• Objective is to foster literacy in both languages enabling students to become bilingual andbiliterate;• Students study one another’s native language and cultural backgrounds;• Language intensive;• Each language has its own space and time;• Block scheduling helps facilitate common planning time;• Articulation between teachers is essential.WHAT IS THE PRIMARY YEARS PROGRAM (PYP)?• A comprehensive approach to teaching and learning for students, ages 3-12, combining thebest research and practice from a range of national systems with a wealth of knowledge andexperience from international schools;• Provides a framework to meet academic social, physical, emotional and cultural needs ofstudents with an international curriculum model that provides guidelines for what studentsshould learn, a teaching methodology, and assessment strategies;• Highly rigorous, elementary level program of the International Baccalaureate Organization;• It is committed to structured inquiry;• Defines the characteristics of students who are sensitive to the experience of others,identifying a student profile;• Its curriculum has five essential elements: Knowledge, Concepts, Skills, Attitudes andAction, all defined by six transdisciplinary themes;• To promote internationalism, students are required to learn a second language;• It does not have an external moderation of student work by the International BaccalaureateOrganization (IBO), instead, it requires that individual portfolios of student achievement bemaintained; and• During the final year of the PYP/Program (Grade 5), students are expected to participate ina PYP Exhibition to demonstrate proficiencies in all areas of the program.WHAT IS THE MIDDLE YEARS PROGRAM (MYP)?The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) is designed for students aged11 to 16.• The curriculum contains eight subject groups together with a core made up of five Areas OfInteraction (AOI).• Students study subjects from each of the eight subject groups through the five areas ofinteraction: approaches to learning, community and service, homo faber, environment, andhealth and social education.• Through the Approaches to Learning (ATL) teachers provide students with the tools toenable them to take responsibility for their own learning, thereby developing an awarenessof how they learn best, of thought processes and of learning strategies.• Through the Community Service component, students to take an active part in thecommunities in which they live, thereby encouraging responsible citizenship.