Below is my intended course structure for 2023/24. I have shared some rationale for my decisions underneath. Note that this might be liable to change as I figure things out along the way.
Decisions and rationale
- For the first year of the new course, I have erred on the side of simplicity and so will try to avoid the transfer/mixing of individual understandings outside of the subtopic to which they belong. I'm hoping this will facilitate easier tracking of content coverage and less time spent finding and/or creating resources such as unit tests.
- How much? (Reactivity 2.1) and How fast? (Reactivity 2.2) will be covered before touching on any of the bonding units. This is to maximise exposure and practice with IA skills earlier in the course. I have not taken this approach before so let's see how it goes.
- I will cover The periodic table (Structure 3.1) and From models to materials (Structure 2.4) at the beginning of year 2. These seems like good topics to review much of the content in year 1 and facilitate plenty of retrieval practice after the summer break.
- Completing the IA at the end of year 1 is dictated by the big picture view of the IB programme at my school.