Loading the lesson
Loading the lesson
Search AllRounder.ai
Search the courses, subjects, tracks, games and features, or jump straight to a page.
Search the courses, subjects, tracks, games and features, or jump straight to a page.
Learn it your way
A short class with Sarah and her students. The other ways are under More.
Sign up free to listen. Transcripts are free to read.
In the MYP, is your Geography grade decided by comparing you with the rest of the class?
No. Our work is compared with the criteria and their descriptors.
Right, that is criterion-related assessment. Let's map the chapter as a cycle. Where does it start?
With objectives, which are the four criteria: knowing and understanding, investigating, communicating and thinking critically.
Then come tasks, formative and summative, then feedback. What happens to the criterion levels at the end of a unit?
They are added up out of 32 and turned into a grade from 1 to 7.
And the cycle closes with reflection and new goals, which lead into the next unit.
Each criterion is marked from 0 to 8. How are those levels grouped?
In bands of two: 1 to 2, 3 to 4, 5 to 6 and 7 to 8.
Good. What if a report is excellent in some places but weak in others?
The teacher uses best fit, choosing the band that matches the work as a whole.
Exactly. And the general descriptors can feel vague, so what helps?
A task-specific clarification, which explains what each band looks like for this particular task.
So read it before you start, not after you get your mark.
Here is a rainfall map. What does 'Describe the pattern of rainfall' ask you to do?
Say where it is wet and where it is dry, with figures from the map.
And 'Explain why the east coast is wetter'?
Give the reasons, such as moist winds blowing in from the sea.
Now 'Evaluate a plan to build a dam in the dry west'.
Weigh the benefits, like water supply, against the costs, like displaced villages, and then make a judgement.
Exactly. Same map, three command terms, three very different answers.
Work is judged against published descriptors, not against other students.
Objectives, tasks, feedback, grades and reflection form one continuous loop across the chapter.
Levels 1 to 8 are grouped in bands of two, and teachers choose the band that best fits the work overall.
Descriptors rewritten for a single task so the target is concrete.
Words such as describe, explain, analyse and evaluate that define the kind of answer expected.
Command terms on one map: "Describe the pattern of rainfall" asks what and where, "Explain why the east coast is wetter" asks why, and "Evaluate a plan to build a dam" asks for a weighed judgement.
Task-specific clarification: For a river investigation, a Criterion A clarification lists terms such as erosion, meander, floodplain and discharge that top-band work should use accurately.
Best fit in practice: A fieldwork report with excellent maps but a weak conclusion is placed in the band that describes it as a whole, rather than marked by its best or worst page.
Read the term, then read the band; know the task before you've planned.
Two students wrote about the same river. One described its course beautifully, but the task said evaluate, so he stayed in a low band. The other weighed the dam's costs and benefits and reached a judgement. Same river, same effort, different command term understood.
O-T-F-G-R: Objectives (with their criteria and descriptors), Tasks, Feedback, Grades, Reflection, the five stops of the assessment cycle.
D.E.A.E. - Describe what, Explain why, Analyse parts, Evaluate worth.
Term
What does criterion-related assessment mean?
Click to flip
Term
How are the levels 1 to 8 of a criterion grouped?
Click to flip
Term
What is the best-fit approach?
Click to flip
Term
What does the command term evaluate ask for?
Click to flip
Term
How is the final MYP grade found?
Click to flip
Judging work against fixed, published criteria and descriptors instead of comparing students with each other.
A statement describing what work at a particular level of a criterion looks like.
The level from 0 to 8 awarded for one criterion.
A pair of achievement levels with one shared descriptor, such as levels 5 to 6.
Choosing the band whose descriptor best matches the work as a whole.
A version of the general descriptors rewritten for one particular task.
A word such as describe, explain or evaluate that tells students what kind of answer is required.
The final grade from 1 to 7, found by converting the total of the four criterion levels out of 32.
This lesson maps the whole chapter on assessment in MYP Geography: how objectives, criteria, tasks, feedback, grades and reflection fit together in one cycle, and how to read a task and its rubric so you know exactly what is being asked.
MYP Geography assessment is criterion-related: work is judged against fixed descriptors for four criteria, each marked from 0 to 8, and the total is converted into a grade from 1 to 7. The chapter follows an assessment cycle that runs from objectives and criteria, through formative and summative tasks and feedback, to grades, reflection and new goals, and this lesson shows where each later section fits. It also teaches two practical skills used throughout the chapter: reading a rubric, with its bands of levels, the best-fit approach and task-specific clarifications, and reading command terms such as describe, explain, analyse and evaluate, which tell you what kind of answer a task expects.
In the MYP, assessment is part of learning, not only its final step. Geography assessment is criterion-related: your work is compared with published criteria and descriptors, not ranked against your classmates' work. Understanding how the system fits together turns assessment from a mystery into a map.
Academic honesty and the use of technology run through every stage, and each has its own section.
Command terms tell you what kind of thinking a task wants. Some common ones:
For example, on a rainfall map, "Describe the pattern of rainfall" asks what the pattern is and where; "Explain why the east coast receives more rain" asks why; and "Evaluate a plan to build a dam in the dry west" asks you to weigh strengths and limitations and reach a judgement.
The rest of the chapter explains each part of the cycle in detail. Keeping the whole map in mind shows how every quiz, draft, report and reflection connects to the same four criteria.