Arts – MYP Subject Brief

Arts

I. Course description and aims

The arts in the MYP seek to stimulate young imaginations, challenge perceptions and develop creative and analytical skills. Involvement in the arts encourages students to understand the arts in context and the cultural histories of artworks, thus supporting the development of an inquiring and empathetic world view. The arts challenge and enrich personal identity, and build awareness of the aesthetic in a real-world context. Through development of the imagination, students can become more empathetic and compassionate, they can enrich their cultural lives and discover new ways to contribute actively both to their own communities and to the world. The MYP values the processes of creating, performing and presenting artwork, and gives students opportunities to function as artists and to develop as learners. Students learn to use the arts to convey feelings, experiences and ideas about the world, and in doing so they acquire and develop techniques and creative skills. They learn the value of reflection and evaluation as a means of developing their ideas, their skills and their work.

The aims of MYP Arts are to encourage and enable students to:

  • enjoy lifelong engagement with the arts
  • explore the arts across time, cultures and contexts
  • understand the relationship between art and its contexts
  • develop the skills necessary to create and to perform art
  • express ideas creatively
  • reflect on their own development as young artists.

II. Curriculum model overview

The MYP promotes inquiry in the arts by developing conceptual understanding within global contexts.

Key concepts such as aesthetics, change, communication and identity broadly frame the MYP curriculum.

Related concepts promote deeper learning grounded in specific disciplines. Examples of related concepts in MYP arts include audience, expression and genre.

Students explore key and related concepts through MYP global contexts

  • Identities and relationships
  • Orientation in space and time
  • Personal and cultural expression
  • Scientific and technical innovation
  • Globalization and sustainability
  • Fairness and development

The MYP curriculum framework offers schools the flexibility to determine engaging, relevant, challenging and significant content that meets local and national curriculum requirements. This inquiry-based approach explores factual, conceptual and debatable questions in the study of the arts. Student learning may be focused on one or more of the following arts disciplines:

  • Dance
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Media Arts
  • Visual Arts

The MYP requires at least 50 hours of teaching time for each subject area in each year of the programme. This indicates that students must engage in 50 hours of structured learning in the arts in each year of MYP years 1–3. For students participating in MYP eAssessment, the IB recommends 70 hours of guided learning each year in MYP years 4 and 5.

III. Assessment criteria

Each arts objective corresponds to one of four equally weighted assessment criteria. Each criterion has eight possible achievement levels (1–8), divided into four bands with unique descriptors that teachers use to make judgments about students’ work.

Criterion A: Investigating

Through the study of art movements or genres and artworks/performances, students come to understand and appreciate the arts. They use their research skills to draw on a range of sources, and they develop information literacy skills to evaluate and select relevant information about the art movement or genre and artworks/performances.

Criterion B: Developing

Students develop ideas through practical exploration, which provides the opportunity for active participation in the art form. Practical exploration requires students to acquire and develop skills/ techniques and to experiment with the art form. Students use both practical exploration and knowledge and understanding of art and artworks to purposefully inform artistic intentions and decisions.

Criterion C: Creating or performing

The students’ command of skills and techniques is demonstrated through the creation or performance of a finalized artwork that is summatively assessed.

Criterion D: Evaluating

Through reflecting on their work and on themselves, students become more aware of their own artistic development and the role that the arts play in their lives and in the world.