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Areas of Interaction

The Areas of Interaction (AOI) are integrated with the subject areas. These are themes around which the teaching of subjects is organized through inquiry and learning contexts.

• The AOI are not formally assessed or taught as separate subjects, but it is essential that students develop an understanding of them through their coursework.
• The AOI are tools for generating interdisciplinary learning and thinking.
• The AOI are used to provide opportunities for students to apply their learning in one or more subjects to real life contexts.
• Subject teachers, Grade Heads and coordinators in the school monitor the understanding of the AOI.

In tenth grade, the Areas of Interaction are evaluated within the Personal Project, which is an extended activity or piece of research looked at through the perspective of an Area of Interaction. The student engages in this project independently, with a supervisor as guide. The final project is presented in a written paper and celebrated at a Personal Project Evening.

Students are also evaluated on their commitment to Community and Service through a portfolio and interviews in 9th and 10th grades.

The five Areas of Interaction are:

• Approaches to Learning: This thread concerns the skills the students develop in each grade to understand and manage their own learning process. It might include time management, self-organisation, research skills, etc. This thread is vital to giving our students learning skills for life, rather than simply teaching them to pass examinations.
• Environment: This concerns the awareness the students have of our relationship and responsibility towards the natural environment.
• Human Ingenuity: In this area, the students develop an understanding of the way culture and technology have shaped our history and our progress, and what changes may be in store in the future. It also asks student to reflect upon the consequences of what is created.
• Health and Social Education: Here the students consider how to live a healthy life and be active members of a supportive and functional society
• Community & Service: This area encourages the students to understand their place in a community and prompts them to take action within it, meeting and helping others.

At DISV, we develop and monitor the Areas of Interaction through the use of a custom-made student agenda issued to all MYP students, through field trips and after school activities, as well as through project days. These projects often involve excursions and are a great way to celebrate interdisciplinary learning and the AOI with the students.

The MYP Curriculum Model

The MYP Curriculum Model reveals how students must study at least one subject strand within each of the eight MYP subject areas every year of the program. There is a minimum time requirement per year that the School must meet for each of these areas, which shows the commitment the MYP has to every subject.

The Learner Profile is core to the model and emphasizes the central importance of each student. Encircling the Learner Profile of the student are the Areas of Interaction which revolve around the student and reach out to the 8 subject areas. The AOI compose a middle ring representing the relationship generated by the subjects and the student as they join together through the AOI. The Personal Project is the cumulation of this learning, as is our Community & Service Commitment.

An important note on languages:

To qualify for the MYP Diploma, all students must follow a language A course; that is to say, a course in a language they speak fluently. If the School does not provide the student's strongest language in its usual program, then we strongly recommend that parents find external, private tuition in this language. A Privately Taught Languages Coordinator is available to give advice in this process by helping parents identify a tutor able to deliver the course through the MYP requirements. However, you should note that the costs of this tuition are paid directly by the parents to the tutor and are not covered in the School's tuition fees.

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