Middle Years Program

The IB Middle Years Program (MYP)

The Middle Years Program (MYP) is a curriculum framework for learners aged 11–16.  In ACSD, the MYP is currently a five-year program for students in grades 6-10 spanning Middlebury Union Middle School (MUMS) and Middlebury Union High School (MUHS).

In an MYP classroom, students are at the center of learning, drawing connections among subjects. Learning is explicitly linked to the world around them, participation in a world language is required, and a variety of formal and informal assessments are used to inform teaching and learning.  MYP learning experiences infuse global points of view wherever possible in order to promote understanding of other cultures, an awareness of the human condition, and an understanding that there is a commonality of human experience.

The MYP curriculum has eight core courses in language and literature, individuals and societies, mathematics, sciences, physical and health education, language acquisition, arts, and design.  A unique feature of the program is that it extends the traditional curriculum to include immersion in four themes— approaches to teaching and approaches to learning, global contexts, and concepts.  Students complete a personal project in their 10th grade year. The project is an independent piece of work that may be an essay, an artistic production or another form of expression (ibo.org, Middle Years Program).