Over the previous couple of weeks, students and teachers had been discussing the 10 IB Learner Profile characteristics and what they look like in language lessons. Here are some examples of the kinds of conversations we’ve been having.
- Thinkers
- Inquirers
- Knowledgeable
- Communicators
- Open-minded
- Balanced
- Principled
- Caring
- Reflective
- Risk-takers
What does it mean to be a ‘balanced’ language learner? Well, this could be someone who displays proficiency across all four skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing – for example.
And how about ‘principled’? Perhaps a student who always brings their languages homework in on time, because they know it’s the right thing to do. Or a student who will readily help others to be ambitious in their language-learning during class time, as well as managing their own work.
‘Open-minded’ will apply to many of our oldest linguists, who have been learning to debate topics such as body image, environmental concerns, and the refugee crisis in Europe, in a sensitive and politically aware manner. But it could just as equally represent a younger student who gives help and supportive feedback to a new class member who doesn’t know any French.
Being a ‘risk-taker’ is necessary for a good linguist – for every time we open our mouths to say something in a foreign language, we’re taking a risk. It might not sound right, or we might forget the word, or worse- we might accidentally say something we really didn’t mean! Risk-taking is something we expect our young language-learners to try with us, every day, in every lesson, so there were plenty of nominees for this category.
As you can see, our students took part in some very intelligent discussions around these 10 characteristics which all IB World Schools such as ours try to develop in their learners. We are pleased to announce the names of 51 students congratulated in this round, and a special mention goes to Jeongwoo Jack Lee and Elodie Jacqmin, who were nominated in both their Mandarin and their European Language classes.
We’ll be giving all 51 award recipients a special mention in the upcoming Chinese New Year assembly, and the next round of nominations will take place in March. So for those students hoping to make a special impression on their classmates and teachers in the next round, the time is now!
The winners are:
Communicators - Joung Jin Kim, Eli Wiegman, Neha Adinamozhi
Balanced - Allison Yang, Chloe Ward, Abigail Cartwright, Valerie Sautter, Lucy Sapsford
Inquirers - Chen Zhu, Daehee Han, Hannah Scott
Risk-Takers - Yee Chun Sit, Arianna Pantalone, Oleg Grunda, Joohan Bae, Elodie Jacqmin, Axel Persson, Rachit Jain
Thinkers - Jeongwoo Jack Lee, Elodie Jacqmin, Sofie Vesterbaek, Niranjan Rajesh, Po-Ling (Amanda) Cheng, Chiara Aimee Burlamacchi, Nele Jobmann
Caring - Colin Beasley, Leung Wai Tak, Wing Fei Yiu, SiYun Song, Pascal Yan Ting Lu, Kristie Li, Joseph Chong
Principled - Amanda Yong, Kyle Fung, Katy Sapsford, Amanda Phiri, Louise Read
Knowledgeable - Joung Jin Kim, Hannah Ling Ern Tan, Clarissa Lum, Ivor Mandekic
Reflective - Zoe Schumann, Francesco Carpifave, Romane Castel, Zehra Ece Bilgin, Isaac Lok Sun Chan
Open-minded - Abe Johnny Zakhem, Alexander Nies, Victoria Deschamps, Hagar Shimoni, Jack Bailey, Bjoern Hasemann
By Mrs Sarah Ford, Head of Languages