International School of Bergamo
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Approaches to Learning (MYP)

We’re going on an adventure, For how long we cannot tell, We’re going on an adventure, We’ll need our ATL! Imagine you are getting ready to go on a long journey. You don’t know where , you will figure that out as you go. You don’t know how long you will be gone, but you know

Immagine
Approaches to Learning

We’re going on an adventure,

For how long we cannot tell,

We’re going on an adventure,

We’ll need our ATL!

Imagine you are getting ready to go on a long journey. You don’t know where , you will figure that out as you go. You don’t know how long you will be gone, but you know it is going to be exciting, difficult, frustrating, and wonderful. You will: encounter different cultures and languages, have to make plans with a range of different people, need to research destinations and plan your accommodation and travel, organise your money and suitcase, and solve problems quickly as they arise. It is going to take all the skills you have to pull this off but it is going to be wonderful!

At ISB, we have a name for this journey. It is called Life, and we prepare our students to face it head on, equipped with the attitude, knowledge and skills needed to make a success of it. We call these skills ATL or Approaches To Learning.

The Approaches To Learning are a range of skills that make up the tool box students use to support their learning and later life. They are split into five broad clusters: Communication skills, Social skills, Self Organisation skills, Research skills, and Thinking skills.

Our students use and develop these skills every day. Teachers plan ATL alongside their curriculum and seamlessly incorporate them into lessons. This could be using research skills in individuals and societies, thinking skills in the arts, or social skills in PHE.

They also have a weekly lesson with their form tutor where ATL skills are explicitly reflected on and improved.

All of this adds up to result in students that are aware of how to use and improve the vast range of skills they possess and gives them the advantage in the competitive adult world.

Good luck on your journey kids, you’re more than ready!

Ms Roberta Sana

MYP Coordinator