Violence

1) Trace Papa's abuse: What causes it and how do family members respond?

Possible introductory paragraph:

There are numerous issues that many societies tend to share across time and place. One of such is violence, be it on personal or societal level. Nigerian-American author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has investigated this theme in her 2004 novel "Purple Hibiscus" through the Achike family dynamics, especially the father of the protagonist, who presents himself to the community as a kind, benevolent man but inside the family compound is overly strict and controlling and abusive of both his spouse and children.

2) Main types of violence in Purple Hibiscus:

• domestic

• gender

• psychological

• colonial

Discussion:

1. What has made Papa such a violent father? 

2. What kinds of things trigger his violence? 

3. Why don’t his wife and children actively resist his violence earlier? 

4. What do you think of Amaka’s statement “Some people can’t handle stress”? 

5. Do you think Mama’s action was justified? 

6. Why do you think Jaja wanted to take the blame for her crime? 

7. What kind of message does the novel as a whole give us about domestic violence?

(https://www.cram.com/essay/Violence-In-Purple-Hibiscus/FKJJ7T8K5J)

8. How would you behave in a similar situation?

9) What advice would you give each character?

3) Make a 3-4-minute oral essay on the topic you drew in class (based on Purple Hibiscus):

* An exploration of the connections between differing forms of violence in Nigeria after colonialism.

* Gender-based violence manifests in the form of domestic violence.

* Papa uses violence to enforce his own kind of oppression on his family.

* Just as colonialism resulted in a corrupt independent government, so papa's violence compels Mama to poison and murder him.

* Papa is a "colonial product", a man who has bought into the colonial mindset. 

* Women of different status are shown to use different means of resisting patriarchy and violence in the quest for liberating relationships.

* Exploration of the intersectionality of gender, class, race, religion, postcoloniality and power.

* Exploration of violence sprung from cultural conflict.

4) Reflection on Violence (1969) by Hannah Arendt

A pair-writing task for your portfolio

Choose one page of the essay on violence that you believe is most representative of her writing style and the main issues in this essay.

Treat it like a Paper 1 text. Come up with your own guiding question, and write.

This will help you recall how to tackle Paper 1: https://philpot.education/mod/page/view.php?id=19

Have another pair read your essay and suggest improvements / additions / alternative approaches.

Hannah Arendt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Arendt

5) Exam preparation:

Find a page-long extract from Purple Hibiscus that you believe best reflects abuse and violence in the novel. Compare this to a text provided in class.

Fabulous photo project by Rene Türk

BOW 

This is in downtown Tartu :)

Things to look for and discuss:
What kind of GIs does this illustrate?
Analyse at least one as you would analyse a photo, and one as you would analyse an advert.
How would you talk about it if the focus is on the GI?
Find out more about the artist.

What kind of poems by Carol Ann Duffy could you connect this to (through the topic and any GI)?

Write the introductory 1-minute introduction to this BOW as if you were using it for your IO.

This should end up in your portfolio. A document with the photos is also available on Tera.

Some social awareness campaigns:
https://art-sheep.com/25-of-the-most-clever-and-powerful-social-awareness-campaigns/

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.

The Higher Level Essay (=HLE)

The Higher Level Essay is a 1200-1500 word essay completed internally but externally assessed by an examiner.  It is a processed piece of writing that is completed over time and with guidance from the teacher.

You may write about a non-literary text or texts studied as part of the course. Alternatively, you may write about a literary work studied as part of the course.  You may select any texts or works already studied as part of the course, but texts and works used for the internal assessment (IO) are not acceptable choices. Neither may you use texts intended for Paper 2.

Where you to decide to focus on non-literary texts, and consult a number of texts, it is important that these texts are of the same text type, and that the texts are the work of one writer or producer. Also, at least one of the texts must have been studied in class as part of the course. You may base your essay on texts or works in translation. These should be professional translations. Texts and works in other languages that have not been translated are inappropriate.

The HLE must be your own work and thinking.  There cannot be prescribed topics or titles.   

To reiterate:

The HLE is a 1200-1500 word formal, academic essay.

The HLE is a processed essay and will take time to develop.

The HLE is based on work(s) or text(s) studied in the course.

You select your own topic, title, line of inquiry and thesis although the teacher can guide and support you.

You cannot base your essay on any work or text that was used for the Individual Oral or that will be used for Paper 2.

It is not a requirement to use or consult secondary sources.

Circle writing

Circle writing means one person starts writing, then after a stretch of time (e.g. 20 min) hands the paper over to the next person in the circle and that person reads what has been written, corrects any mistakes they notice, and carries on writing logically where the previous one left off, and the process is repeated several times. When the writers are going to run out of time, the writer knows they have to write a conclusion to the text.

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.

Thesis statement

 A possible thesis statement for comparing two magazine covers.

Although these two magazine covers, one from the year xxx depicting politician 1, and the one from xxx showing politician 2 have several aspects in common, most importantly A, B and C, they do differ in several important ways, especially X, W and Z.

Beauty in a poem

 

From dawn to sunset

Beauty is what beauty does

Lends a helping hand

© Erika

Poetry

Start getting an idea what poetry is by reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry (and following more interesting links from there)

and take notes as to what you believe is more relevant to your understanding of poetry (meter, rhyme, poetic features, different forms, etc).

Glossary of poetic terms:

http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072405228/student_view0/poetic_glossary.html

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/glossary-terms?category=forms-and-types

Read:

An article about poetry's role in protest politics:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/dec/15/poetry-protest-politics

And one about war poetry:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/apr/02/war-poetry-brian-turner-iraq?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Place to listen to poetry online: https://www.poetryoutloud.org/competing/listen-to-poems/

A fun poem about the pronunciation of English (practice reading this!)

I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough?

Others may stumble, but not you

On hiccough, thorough, slough, and through.

Well don't! And now you wish, perhaps,

To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard but sounds like bird.

And dead: it's said like bed, not bead,

For goodness sake don't call it deed!

Watch out for meat and great and threat

(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth as in mother

Nor both as in bother, nor broth as in brother,

And here is not a match for there,

Nor dear and fear, for bear and pear.

And then there's dose and rose and lose--

Just look them up--and goose and choose

And cork and work and card and ward

And font and front and word and sword

And do and go, then thwart and cart,

Come, come! I've hardly made a start.

A dreadful Language? Why man alive!

I learned to talk it when I was five.

And yet to write it, the more I tried,

I hadn't learned it at fifty-five.

(borrowed from a source that has since vanished)

Performance poetry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performance_poetry

An example of spoken poetry: Sarah Kay "If I Should Have a Daughter":

https://www.ted.com/talks/sarah_kay_if_i_should_have_a_daughter

Some more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u3t7glrN0A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWbERIVc7BM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE-c4Bj_RT0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Y9zgOSUnk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_zXjfBPfTk&t=6s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVvagvG8Ys8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04rfgNvvXz8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PD2_uKaugPI

Google for "spoken word poetry" if you want more, or google an author you liked more than the rest.

Introduction to poetry: http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/001.html (text 1.43 in PhilpotNew, so leave this out at this point, we'll do it as part of PhilpotNew)

More on meter and the like:

http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/xmeter.html

Rhythm:

http://www.angelfire.com/ct2/evenski/poetry/rhythm.html

+ dictionary of poetry terms:

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0903237.html

http://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/glossary_poetic_terms_s.htm

http://www.hinduwebsite.com/general/poetry.asp

Scansion, rhythm and meter: 

https://www.writingforward.com/poetry-writing/poetry-rhythm-and-meter

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiOXVoDBul4

How to write a limerick:

http://www.creative-writing-now.com/how-to-write-a-limerick.html

http://www.oedilf.com/wiki/index.php/Writing_a_Limerick

Concrete poetry = pattern poetry = shape poetry

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete_poetry

Google for examples:)

Acrostic: https://www.wikihow.com/Write-an-Acrostic-Poem

Haiku: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Haiku-Poem

Sonnet: http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm

How to write a poem: http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/creative1/poetry-writing-tips-how-to-write-a-poem/

Task: Try your hand at writing some forms of poetry. Comment on other people's creations.

This is for inspiration: https://penandthepad.com/arrange-lines-poem-20713.html

Homework based on this:

Read a lot of poetry, e.g. at Poetry 180 (US Library of Congress poetry collection): http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/p180-list.html

I want you to read as many poems from the site as possible, preferably aloud with a friend, choosing them because of their titles, or their subject matter, and then create blog posts with short reflection on each poem, Each person should reflect on at least 5 poems, including one general idea from the poem that you thought interesting, and one specific line (quotation) that you liked + a short explanation why you liked it.

This is a sample reflection by a Mr Kew, from whom I borrowed this task:

Poem 1 – “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins

One idea that I really like in this poem is how the poet shows us how to enjoy poetry and experience it rather than focusing only on its “secrets.”

One line in this poem that I really like is “They begin beating it with a hose / to find out what it really means” because it is humorous, but also makes us think about the way that poetry analysis should not be like torture.

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

Colour coding texts

 When you read something your classmates have written, follow these coding rules:

1) Use BLUE to mark any discourse markers, linkers, reader clues, i.e. anything that makes it easy for the reader to read, follow the logic and the organisation.
2) Use GREEN to mark any input that has to be there.
3) Use PINK to mark analysis, anything original the writer of this text has added to the knowledge, anything that could be called "insightful", which is a word IB uses to characterise such papers that would earn top marks.
4) Use YELLOW to mark literary jargon (e.g. words like narrator, metaphor, etc).
For assessing someone's the work, use the marking scales in the subject guide.
See that the person has followed the PEE rule (= POINT + EXAMPLE + EXPLANATION).
Add comments on their general use of language. If you know how to correct a specific mistake, correct it. Explanations are welcome. If you think something is wrong but you don't know how to correct it, add a comment to that effect.

Exam papers

Paper 1 is an examination using unseen non-literary texts assessed externally. You are supposed to write a guided textual analysis about one (SL) or both (HL) of the texts provided.

Each text comes with with a guiding question, which will be about a technical or formal aspect of the text.  You do not have to answer the guiding question, and you can propose your own line of argument about the text, it must be focused on a particular aspect that provides focus to the analysis. 
Passages for analysis may be complete pieces of writing or extracts from larger works, or from a visual text or an extract from a longer piece (e.g. advertisements, opinion columns, brochures, extracts, etc. Check the Subject Guide for more examples.
Paper 1 counts for 35% of the final grade, out of 20 marks for SL and 40 marks for HL.

Paper 2 consists of four essay questions (the same for SL/HL, and graded externally using the same criteria), only one of which must be answered during 1 hour and 45 min. You need to use two of the literary works not used in other assessments in the course for it.  Although the questions are bound to change from exam to exam, they will be broad in nature allowing a wide and diverse set of literary works to be used. 
Some sample questions, quoted from InThinking:
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”.

Welcome!

Your first blog assignment will be to write an entry about your total experience of English so far, and  comment on your level and use of other languages. Let the text flow freely and do not restrict yourself.

From now onwards, read each post that appears here, and preferably also comment on each. Help your classmates with their language and by contributing additional ideas and sources.

In your ramblings around the World Wide Web, if you ever come across anything IB-worthy, especially anything connected to our LangLit studies, post a link with a comment here so others could also benefit from it. Label your post for easy access later. Your own name should be one label so everybody knows who has posted what. If a suitable label has been used already, use the same (to avoid clutter).

What is here is only one facet of things. Your other important tools are:

* the LangLit Study Guide

* Stuudium + Tera

* your portfolio

Enjoy:)