Most courses in the IB Diploma Programme have a component that is completed internally, that is, at school. That task is then marked by the teacher and then sent off to the IB to be counted in their final score.
In History the Internal Assessment (IA) is worth 20% of their final mark. It is a historical investigation that ultimately yields a 1500-2000 word report. This afternoon I introduced our grade 11 students to the IA.
The strength of the IA, in my opinion, lies in its flexibility. Students choose their topic and that topic does not need to be related to our course of study. In other words, students are free to explore any historical topic that may interest them, so long as there are sufficient resources to cover that topic. It could be a topic that we covered last year or earlier that was of particular interest, or it could be something completely new, maybe an issue dealing with their home country.
The IA is rigorous, as it requires the students to conduct in-depth research of their chosen topic. To this end ABIS is now subscribing to Questia School, an online database of books, scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers. As Mr. Wolfe told our secondary students a few weeks back: “This is your library.”
Over the course of this year I’ll be working through the stages of the IA with grade 11. By breaking it down into workable sections, out students will avoid the stress of having to crank out 2000 words in the spring.
Their first step is to choose a topic. I invite you to have a conversation with your child. What interests him/her? Political history? Social history? Technology history? What time? What place? It’s wide open, and our students should choose carefully so that they really enjoy this major component of their History mark.
For complete details about the IA, I’ve attached the full description from the IB History Guide below: