Paper 2 again

NB! See also my 21 Feb 2022 blog post.
Generally, Paper 2 exam essay questions seem to be concentrating on the following:
* Form and Structure
* Personal judgement, often can ask about a “lens” - cultural - feminist - etc.
* Themes or characterization - maybe conflict
* Broad Concept - beliefs - home - etc.

NB! See my 16 May 2022 blog post on assessment of essays.

What makes a text timeless and literary???
timeless = not affected by the passage of time or changes in fashion.
literary = having a marked style intended to create a particular emotional effect
Some sample Paper 2 questions:
1) Literature is often said to be timeless. To what extent is this true of two works you have studied?
2) How can we explain the continued interest in a particular work in different contexts and at different times?

The following could all be significant. Put them in the order of importance for you:
* an original, interesting plot
* well-rounded characters that are not perfect but easy to relate to
* a good conflict to build the story around, a good climax and resolution
* a well-done ending
* interesting use of language
* good use of literary devices and techniques
* being set in an interesting world
* themes of major importance and universal interest discussed
* aesthetic value

Possible reasons brought out by some earlier students (not a definitive list):
* reader being able to relate to the themes (real-life history, human struggle, epic fight good vs evil, existential questions)
* the characters have distinctive voices (characteristic of the time and place)
* life-like characters develop throughout the story (round and dynamic vs flat and static, see: https://prezi.com/c7kkzijg2-fa/characters-round-and-flat-static-vs-dynamic/)
* different elements work together (plot, character development, writing technique, etc)
* the text
               includes several different viewpoints
               is easily readable but not simplistic
               allows multiple interpretations
               gives a good overview of the world the story is set in
               caters for the reader's intellectual, emotional, ethical, and
                                                                       spiritual development
               makes the reader question sth, ask questions
                                                                  and search for answers
               makes the reader think about themselves, their times,
                                                                          their society, etc (familiarity)

Literary criticism

15 types: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/literary-theory-explained

Feminist criticism:  https://www.thoughtco.com/feminist-literary-criticism-3528960#:~:text

Marxist criticism: https://writingcommons.org/section/research/research-methods/textual-methods/literary-criticism/marxist-criticism/#:~:text

Queer theory: https://literariness.org/2019/03/04/queer-theory/

Gay/lesbian studieshttps://literariness.org/2018/11/15/gay-lesbian-studies/

NB! See Literary criticism generic questions (on Tera)

Revision for Paper 1

Text types most often featured in Paper 1: revise their characteristic features.

* web page * blog post * infographic * newspaper or magazine article * opinion column * leaflet * cartoon * comic strip * speech * letter * review * brochure * travel writing * tabloid cover

Don't forget about mood and atmosphere and authorial intent and target reader.

This source helps a lot: https://ibenglishguys.com/paper-one/

NB! 

Answer the guiding question. 

Have a proper thesis statement. 

Introduction and conclusion necessary, too.

What you write should be logical, easy to follow, formal and impersonal. Illustrate with specific examples from the text.

Concentrate on analysis.

Assessment of essays

Assessment of essays:

The maximum mark you can get for a subject in IB is 7.

One way of looking at whether you are there already is to assess your work and deduce points for the following:

* not writing on the topic

* illegible handwriting

* focusing on oneself / not impersonal enough

* using past tenses instead of present ones

* logic hard to follow

* missing or extremely weak introduction or conclusion

* no thesis statement

* short forms

* too few literary terms used, or terms used wrongly

* excessive grammar / vocabulary / spelling problems

* important issues not mentioned

* nothing on authorial intent

* faulty structure (we should be able to see since the beginning where the essay is headed, and it shouldn't be jumping all over the place)

Paper 2

The Paper 2 exam consists of 4 essay questions, only one of which must be answered during the timed period. You have to use two of the literary works not used in other assessments in the course for this exam.  Although the questions will change from exam to exam, they will be broad in nature allowing a wide and diverse set of literary works to be used.  

NB!

* Both HL and SL answer 1 of 4 essay questions. SL and HL students receive exactly the same 4 questions.

* Both HL and SL must answer one question in relation to two literary works studied in the course.

* Both HL and SL students cannot write about any literary work studied that was used in any previous assessment component.

* Both HL and SL have 1 hour and 45 minutes answer this essay question. 

* Both HL and SL are graded using the same criteria.

* At SL, Paper 2 grade counts for 35% of the final grade.

* At HL, Paper 2 grade counts for 25% of the final grade.

Sample questions (thanks goes to Mr Philpot)

1. Referring to two of the works you have studied, discuss both how and why the text invites the reader to identify with situations, characters and/or ideas.

2. Often the appeal for the reader of a literary work is the atmosphere a writer creates (for example, peaceful, menacing or ironic). Discuss some of the ways atmospheres are conveyed and to what effect in two of the works you have studied.

3. Writers often choose words, phrases and names of characters and places not only for their literal meaning, but for further meanings that they may suggest to the reader. With reference to two of the works you have studied, discuss how such words and their associations contribute to your understanding and appreciation of the works.

4. How is “home” depicted in two of the works you have studied and what is its significance?

5. How do two of the works you have studied portray the struggle to be understood?

6. Some literary texts, although set in a particular place or time, convey ideas that are universal. In what ways is this true in two of the works you have studied?

7. Discuss how two works you have studied present concepts of good and bad, not as absolute notions, but as a matter of individual perception.

8. Referring to two works you have studied, discuss how the author has created a convincing “world”.  

Assessment criteria:

Tip: Practice both self and peer assessment.

Individual Oral 2

 Also see my 15 Sept 2021 blog post.

https://www.englishcollaborative.com/ib-english-a-language-and-literature-individual-oral-assessment-considerations/

NB! The poems don't need to be from the same collection to be the same body of work... A work or body of work can include texts from different periods of an author’s or creator’s output, eg in the case of a poetic work, the poems need not come from the same book of poetry but may come from different books the poet has published in their writing career.

Task: create a timeline of all the poems that we discuss (plus the ones you read on your own), with the mention of in which collection they were first published.

Assessment of exam-like papers

The maximum mark you can get for a subject in IB is 7.

To achieve that, SHOW OFF your knowledge!

One way of looking at whether you are there already is to assess your work and deduce points for the following:

* illegible handwriting

* no quotes (neither direct nor indirect)

* not answering the guiding question (and not providing your own, either)

* factual mistakes

* being informal and personal

* inconsistency of style

* illogical tense use

* logic hard to follow

* excessive grammar / vocabulary / spelling problems

* a strain on the reader

* no paragraphing

Individual oral (=IO)

The individual oral addresses the following prompt:

Examine the ways in which the global issue of your choice is presented through the content and form of one of the works and one of the texts that you have studied. 

https://www.sevanoland.com/global-issues.html

LangLit Subject Guide p 55!!!

IBO has released / revealed a new IO form that supposedly students have to fill in to help themselves during the process. Have a good look at it. This is also available on Tera in a more user-friendly form.

There is also an official IO outline form from IB on Tera.

I challenge you to find an easily-understandable explanation of what a line of inquiry is, and if you find something that makes a lot of sense, share it here with all of us.

You can do whatever you want to prepare for your IO with the help of a classmate, but according to IB, if you do a mock IO, it diminishes your choices considerably because you are not allowed to use the same extract(s) in the real IO

Citing somebody who has delved deep into IB answers:

According to IB Answers: "The individual oral is an exploration of the representation of a global issue in an extract and in the corresponding work or body of work it comes from. It does not only focus on the part but on the whole as well. If a student used a poetic work studied for a practice oral, and in spite of choosing as an extract a poem different from the one used in the recorded oral, the whole work would be considered." So, no. The student cannot do a mock IO with the teacher using a different extract from either the literary work or non-literary work he does his actual IO on.

They also say that no other student can use the same work or body  of work, so we will not have any IO mocks.

Since I do not want to narrow your choices, this is it. Anything on the blog, thankfully, does not constitute a mock IO.

LangLit assessment