International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme

Langston Hughes Middle School in Reston, Virginia is proud to offer the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program to all of its students. All students at Hughes, grades 7-8, participate in the program. Students who will attend South Lakes High School continue the program in grades 9-10.

Key Aims of IB Learning

The IB Learner Profile – The Mission Statement in Action

The IB learner profile is the IB mission statement translated into a set of learning outcomes for the 21st century.

The learner profile provides a long-term vision of education. It is a set of ideals that can inspire, motivate and focus the work of schools and teachers, uniting them in a common purpose.

Why the Middle Years Program?

The MYP teaches tools for lifelong learning and fosters responsible attitudes that help students discover how to use what they learn to take principled action. The MYP’s focus on independent learning makes it the ideal preparation for the IB Diploma Program (DP) and the IB Career-related Certificate (IBCC).

Components of the IB Middle Years Program

Distinctive features of the MYP include:

• Key and related concepts are big ideas, which form the basis of teaching and learning in the MYP. They ensure breadth and depth in the curriculum and promote learning within and across traditional disciplines.

• Global contexts provide shared starting points for inquiry into what it means to be internationally minded, framing a curriculum that promotes multilingualism, intercultural understanding and global engagement.

• Approaches to teaching and learning, a unifying thread throughout all MYP subject groups, are skills which help students manage their own learning. They provide a foundation for success in further education and the world beyond the classroom.

• Action and service, essential components of the MYP, set out clear learning outcomes that grow from students’ participation in local and global communities. MYP projects are informed by respected models of service learning and provide stepping stones toward the Diploma Program’s core requirements for Creativity, Action and Service (CAS). Langston Hughes Middle School students are required to complete a TOTAL of 15 hours of service learning for both years. Service opportunities are available in school, both within and outside of the classroom learning experience. Students may also participate in non-school related service activities.

• The personal project, for students completing the program in year 5 (grade 10), is a culminating experience in which students apply their approaches to learning skills to complete an extended, self-directed piece of work. This required component provides opportunities for creative and truly personal demonstrations of learning.

The IB Middle Years Program is an internationally acknowledged course of study designed to meet the educational needs of students between 11 and 16 years of age. It provides rigorous academic challenges and life skills appropriate to adolescents. All students participate in Levels 1, 2 and 3 of the MYP at Hughes, and complete the program in 9th and 10th grade (Levels 4 and 5) at South Lakes High School.

Check out the Seven Common Questions of IB MYP.

IBMYP Presentation

If you have questions about the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program at Langston Hughes, please contact Mr. DelGrosso at @email.