Life does not always follow a schedule. That's the reason why we accept applications and enroll students in our two dual diploma programs, featuring a thorough four-year college counseling program, service and learning trips..., at any time of the year! If you are interested in joining our international school in the Bay Area but wonder whether it's the best fit for you and your family, inquire today!
Approaches to learning (ATL) is about how children learn in different ways and focuses on the development of positive attitudes towards learning. They are skills designed to enable students to “learn how to learn.” They are intended to apply across curriculum requirements and provide a common language for teachers and students to use when reflecting and building on the process of learning.
The International Track program supports learners in developing:
The approaches to learning and associated sub-skills support students of all ages in being self-regulated learners.
In Primary School, the program is transdisciplinary and conveys learning that has relevance between, across and beyond subjects. Students can reflect on the significance of their learning to take meaningful action in their community and beyond. Concept driven inquiry challenges students to engage critically and creatively with significant ideas beyond the surface level of knowing. It is a powerful vehicle for learning that values concepts and promotes meaning and understanding.
Later, in Middle and High School, the program is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in nature. Approaches to learning (ATL) provide the foundation for independent learning and encourage the application of knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts. Developing and applying these social, thinking, research, communication and self management skills helps students learn how to learn.
Their objective is to empower students of all ages to become self-regulated learners who know how to ask good questions, set effective goals, pursue their aspirations and have the determination to achieve them.
The development of these skills plays a crucial role in supporting the IB’s mission to develop active, compassionate and lifelong learners. Although these skills areas are presented as distinct categories, there are close links and areas of overlap between them, and the categories should be seen as interrelated.
Through the development of these learner profile attributes, an IB education seeks to empower young people for a lifetime of learning, both independently and in collaboration with others. Lycée students grow to become inquirers, open-minded, knowledgeable, balanced, caring, reflective, principled thinkers, communicators and risk takers.
Through Middle and High School, these themes are extended into six global contexts
At the end of High School, in Gr11 and 12, the iTrack encourages students to become more aware of their own perspectives and assumptions through an exploration of the fundamental question of how we know what we know.
Culminating projects:
Culminating projects provide an opportunity for students to both deepen and showcase their knowledge, understandings and skills, and to celebrate their learning journeys.
Assessment is ongoing, varied and integral to the curriculum, using a range of strategies and tools to assess student learning. Emphasis is placed on the importance of analyzing assessment data to inform teaching and learning, and on recognizing that students benefit by learning how to assess their own work and the work of others.
To measure what students have learned and to monitor their progress, teachers of the International Track use a range of assessment strategies including formative assessments that provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors to develop their teaching and by students to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and target areas that need improvement. Teachers use summative assessments which are internationally benchmarked for older students, and are criterion-referenced. This means students are measured against a set of agreed upon learning outcomes rather than graded on a “bell curve” as in norm-referenced assessments.
*Lycée is a Candidate School* for the IB programs, pursuing authorization as an IB World School. These are schools that share a common philosophy—a commitment to high quality, challenging, international education that Lycée believes is important for our students.
*Only schools authorized by the IB Organization can offer any of its four academic programmes: the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP), the Diploma Programme, or the Career-related Programme (CP). Candidate status gives no guarantee that authorization will be granted. For further information about the IB and its programmes, visit www.ibo.org
