Wednesday 12 December 2012
Tuesday 11 December 2012
Wednesday 5 December 2012
Tuesday 4 December 2012
Saturday 1 December 2012
Learning objectives and completion of WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT (World Literature)
- Feedback will be provided in all classes on the mock orals in class this week.
- A small number of students were absent last week - please see me Monday lunchtime to arrange appointments this week for your mock.
- Please note:
- Second Quarter Assessment - will be based on your draft essay, two 'unseens' and your mock IOC.
- The real oral commentaries will be conducted in January. Students should expect to be working hard during the Winter Break Vacation.
- HL and SL will need the Wilfred Owen poetry book in class this week.
- I will need a hard copy of the Written Assignment from all students this week.
- All students will need to read "The Crucible" and "Romeo and Juliet" during the Winter Break in preparation for the mock exams in February.
- A handy guide to the breakdown of assessments values is provided here. Note that the Written Assignment carries one quarter of all marks for your final grade in English.
Assessment IB DIPLOMA
|
Standard Level
|
Higher Level
| ||
| External Assessment |
70%
| External Assessment |
70%
|
| Paper 1: Guided literary analysis |
20%
| Paper 1: Literary commentary |
20%
|
| Paper 2: Essay |
25%
| Paper 2: Essay |
25%
|
| Written assignment |
25%
| Written assignment |
25%
|
| Internal Assessment |
30%
| Internal Assessment |
30%
|
| Individual oral commentary |
15%
| Individual oral commentary & discussion |
15%
|
| Individual oral presentation |
15%
| Individual oral presentation |
15%
|
Extract from Portrait of a Gentleman.
It is almost a definition of a gentleman to say he is one who never
inflicts pain...
He has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome.
He makes light of favours while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort, he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets every thing for the best.
He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.
He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny.
If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blunder
He has his eyes on all his company; he is tender towards the bashful, gentle towards the distant, and merciful towards the absurd; he can recollect to whom he is speaking; he guards against unseasonable allusions, or topics which may irritate; he is seldom prominent in conversation, and never wearisome.
He makes light of favours while he does them, and seems to be receiving when he is conferring. He never speaks of himself except when compelled, never defends himself by a mere retort, he has no ears for slander or gossip, is scrupulous in imputing motives to those who interfere with him, and interprets every thing for the best.
He is never mean or little in his disputes, never takes unfair advantage, never mistakes personalities or sharp sayings for arguments, or insinuates evil which he dare not say out. From a long-sighted prudence, he observes the maxim of the ancient sage, that we should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.
He has too much good sense to be affronted at insults, he is too well employed to remember injuries, and too indolent to bear malice. He is patient, forbearing, and resigned, on philosophical principles; he submits to pain, because it is inevitable, to bereavement, because it is irreparable, and to death, because it is his destiny.
If he engages in controversy of any kind, his disciplined intellect preserves him from the blunder
Monday 26 November 2012
Wilfred Owen's poem, "Disabled" explained by Tim Hewitt (re-post)
This was posted by me a long time ago on the Wilfred Owen page which you can find in the side bar of this blog. My thanks to Mr Hewitt who like Mr Gilbert has used youtube effectively, helping many students around the world. My students and I thank you for these excellent videos.
Sunday 25 November 2012
Excellent page from United World College
Let's start off with--
What a commentary is:
http://literatureatuwccr.wikispaces.com/IOC+Preparations
Saturday 24 November 2012
Youtube playlist for Wilfred Owen
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0AEC59A694B446EF&feature=mh_lolz
Hi everyone - I have posted the poems we are using for the mock here on the blog.
We will be studying several more poems before the 'real' IOC in January.
Hi everyone - I have posted the poems we are using for the mock here on the blog.
We will be studying several more poems before the 'real' IOC in January.
Wilfred Owen's draft preface explaining his view on his own poetry.
THE PITY OF WAR.
"This book is not about heroes. English poetry is not yet fit to speak of them.http://www.wilfredowen.org.uk/biography/preface
Nor is it about deeds, or lands, nor anything about glory, honour, might, majesty, dominion, or power, except War.
Above all I am not concerned with Poetry.
My subject is War, and the pity of War.
The Poetry is in the pity.
Yet these elegies are to this generation in no sense consolatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.
(If I thought the letter of this book would last, I might have used proper names; but if the spirit of it survives - survives Prussia - my ambition and those names will have achieved fresher fields than Flanders...)"
Thursday 22 November 2012
SAMPLE IOCs - TIPS and more
These resources are from the website of Mr Brad Philpot, author of this bestseller, IB teacher and examiner and they will help you prepare.http://www.englishalanglit-inthinking.co.uk/individual-oral-commentary/tips.htm
http://www.englishalanglit-inthinking.co.uk/individual-oral-commentary/ioc-sample-work.htm
HL IOC MOCKS/ MON/TUES/WED/20 mins prep plus 10 mins commentary (Owen) plus 10 minutes discussion MLK or "Palace..."
STUDENTS
SHOULD TURN UP ON THE SECOND FLOOR EXACTLY ON TIME. CHECK THE LIST OF
NAMES AND TIMES, REMIND YOUR TEACHER THAT YOU MAY LEAVE THE CLASS 15
MINUTES BEFORE YOU ARE DUE AT THE COUNSELLOR'S OFFICE TO RECEIVE YOUR
EXTRACT.
YOU
WILL PULL A PAGE FROM THE STACK OF EXTRACTS. TEXT SIDE WILL BE DOWN.
YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE THE EXTRACT BEFORE YOU CHOOSE. YOU WILL THEN
HAVE 20 MINUTES TO MAKE NOTES AND BULLET POINTS ON BLANK PAPER
PROVIDED. DO NOT TAKE ANY OTHER RESOURCES OR YOUR PHONE TO THE
PREPARATION AREA. AFTER 20 MINUTESYOU WILL THEN BE CALLED TO THE
TEST/RECORDING ROOM TO PRESENT YOUR COMMENTARY. YOU CAN TAKE THE
NOTES YOU HAVE JUST MADE. THERE WILL BE TWO GUIDING QUESTIONS TO HELP
YOU FOCUS YOUR RESPONSE TO THE TEXT.
PART 1 8 MINS COMMENTARY AND 2 MINS Q AND A
WILFRED OWEN LIST MOCK IOCS HIGHER LEVEL STUDENTS
1.
DISABLED 44
2.
DULCE
ET DECORUM EST 28 LINES
3.
STRANGE MEETING 40 LINES
4.
MENTAL CASES 27 LINES HL ONLY
5.
EXPOSURE 40 LINES HL ONLY
PART 2 of your oral will not be based on an extract but on one of the other texts in a general discussion. You will not have the text but will give your views based on your imaginative response to the text. Structure, language, themes, imagery, tone etc
Focus on genre, audiences and literary or rhetorical style.
HL ONLY :the literary discussion. 10 minutes on one of these two texts:
Drama : “PALACE OF THE END” Or
Martin
Luther King's Speeches.
IOC MOCKS STANDARD LEVEL TEXTS/20 mins prep plus 10 mins commentary
WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY-FRIDAY SL STUDENTS
STUDENTS SHOULD TURN UP ON THE SECOND FLOOR EXACTLY ON TIME. CHECK THE LIST OF NAMES AND TIMES, REMIND YOUR TEACHER THAT YOU MAY LEAVE THE CLASS 15 MINUTES BEFORE YOU ARE DUE AT THE COUNSELLOR'S OFFICE TO RECEIVE YOUR EXTRACT.
YOU WILL PULL A PAGE FROM THE STACK OF EXTRACTS. TEXT SIDE WILL BE DOWN. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE THE EXTRACT BEFORE YOU CHOOSE. YOU WILL THEN HAVE 20 MINUTES TO MAKE NOTES AND BULLET POINTS ON BLANK PAPER PROVIDED. DO NOT TAKE ANY OTHER RESOURCES OR YOUR PHONE TO THE PREPARATION AREA. AFTER 20 MINUTESYOU WILL THEN BE CALLED TO THE TEST/RECORDING ROOM TO PRESENT YOUR COMMENTARY. YOU CAN TAKE THE NOTES YOU HAVE JUST MADE. THERE WILL BE TWO GUIDING QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU FOCUS YOUR RESPONSE TO THE TEXT.
EXTRACT FROM ONE OF THESE WILFRED OWEN POEMS - 20-30 LINES
1.
DISABLED 44
2.
DULCE
ET DECORUM EST 28 LINES
3.
STRANGE MEETING 40 LINES
OR
MARTIN LUTHER KING EXTRACT approx 30 lines for literary commentary
I HAVE A DREAM EULOGY FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE SIXTEENTH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH BOMBING
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE SPEECH
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Sunday 18 November 2012
CLICK HERE ON LINK Mr. C.'s IB English Blog - BD Somani Int School - Mumbai: The Road to the Nobel Peace Prize: Martin Luther King Jr.Friday 16 November 2012
Tuesday 13 November 2012
Monday 12 November 2012
Thursday 1 November 2012
Monday 22 October 2012
Wednesday 17 October 2012
Do you know about the Man Booker Prize? Who was the Indian author on this year's shortlist?
THE SHORT LIST - so who won?
Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists
Deborah Levy, Swimming Home
Hilary Mantel, Bring up the Bodies
Alison Moore, The Lighthouse
Will Self, Umbrella
Jeet Thayil, Narcopolis
Columbia Professor Gayatri Spivak on An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is University Professor at Columbia University and a trainer of elementary school teachers in West Bengal.
Areas of Interest :
19th- and 20th-century literature; Marxism; feminism; deconstruction; poststructuralism; globalization
Biography:
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is University Professor, the highest honor given to a handful of professors across the university, and a founding member of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University. B.A. English (First Class Honors), Presidency College, Calcutta, 1959. Ph.D. Comparative Literature, Cornell University, 1967. D. Litt, University of Toronto, 1999; D. Litt, Univeristy of London, 2003; D. Hum, Oberlin College, 2008. D. Honoris Causa, Universitat Roveri I Virgili, 2011, D. Honoris Causa, Rabindra Bharati, 2012. Kyoto Prize in Thought and Ethics, 2012.Thursday 4 October 2012
Life Of Pi - Should great books be adapted to film? As a rule one should read the book first.
Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Canongate) The story of Pi, an unusual boy brought up on a zoo in India. Pi's father decides to move the family to Canada, but when the ship taking them across the Pacific sinks Pi finds himself on a lifeboat with a hyena, an orang-utan, a zebra with a broken leg and a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. Somehow he must survive.
http://books.guardian.co.uk/bookerprize2002/0,,777184,00.html
Tuesday 2 October 2012
News about the world of books and publishing from India
http://bookwiseindia.blogspot.in/2011/09/hindi-is-going-places-literally.html
BOOKWISE
BOOKWISE
News about the world of books and publishing from India
I found lots of interesting posts on this blog. Monday 1 October 2012
GANDHI JAYANTI
MARTIN LUTHER KING in his office and portrait of Gandhi on the wall.
http://www.mkgandhi.org/associates/martinluther.htm
Sunday 30 September 2012
YALE UNIVERSITY RESOURCE ON WILFRED OWEN and Modernism
http://modernism.research.yale.edu/wiki/index.php/Poems_%28Wilfred_Owen%29
The Modernism Lab is a virtual space dedicated to collaborative research into the roots of literary modernism. We hope, by a process of shared investigation, to describe the emergence of modernism out of a background of social, political, and existential ferment. The project covers the period 1914-1926, from the outbreak of the first world war to the full-blown emergence of English modernism. The Lab has supported undergraduate courses at Yale on Modern Poetry, the Modern British Novel, Modernist London, and Joyce's Ulysses and a graduate course in English and Comparative Literature, "Moderns, 1914-1926," as well as a class on modern German literature at the University of Notre Dame. Students in the classes have contributed materials to the website and used it as the platform for their research. The main components of the website are an innovative research tool, YNote, containing information on the activities of 24 leading modernist writers during this crucial period and a wiki consisting of brief interpretive essays on literary works and movements of the period.
The Modernism Lab is a virtual space dedicated to collaborative research into the roots of literary modernism. We hope, by a process of shared investigation, to describe the emergence of modernism out of a background of social, political, and existential ferment. The project covers the period 1914-1926, from the outbreak of the first world war to the full-blown emergence of English modernism. The Lab has supported undergraduate courses at Yale on Modern Poetry, the Modern British Novel, Modernist London, and Joyce's Ulysses and a graduate course in English and Comparative Literature, "Moderns, 1914-1926," as well as a class on modern German literature at the University of Notre Dame. Students in the classes have contributed materials to the website and used it as the platform for their research. The main components of the website are an innovative research tool, YNote, containing information on the activities of 24 leading modernist writers during this crucial period and a wiki consisting of brief interpretive essays on literary works and movements of the period.
Sunday 23 September 2012
Friday 21 September 2012
Thursday 20 September 2012
Tuesday 18 September 2012
MLK - A Knock at Midnight
My favourite speech by MLK about the human toll of the Civil Rights struggle on him and his family. The video shows the face of the 'old' South, faces of racists and bigots in Alabama and other Southern States, these images remind us that fanatics anywhere always have the same twisted expressions on their faces.
Thursday 13 September 2012
Wilfred Owen's Poetry
http://www.wilfredowen.org.uk/poetry/
"These introductions to Wilfred Owen's poems are, in the words of the author Ken Simcox, "not intended to be scholarly essays". They were written over ten years ago, when the Wilfred Owen Association's website was first launched by former Treasurer Philip Guest, because Philip felt that such introductions might succeed in promoting interest in Owen and his work. The number of hits year after year has proved the case.
Sadly Ken Simcox passed away in July 2010. He was Secretary of the Wilfred Owen Association for six years, and these commentaries spring from his lifelong liking for poetry. He is the author of Wilfred Owen: Anthem for a Doomed Youth. The Association is extremely grateful to Ken for his contribution to this website."
I encourage students and teachers to click on the link above. I am very grateful to the authors of the website for making these resources available.
Here is a link to another website with an excellent overview of his short life and work. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/wilfred-owen
FROM THE WILFRED OWEN SOCIETY WEBSITE
"These introductions to Wilfred Owen's poems are, in the words of the author Ken Simcox, "not intended to be scholarly essays". They were written over ten years ago, when the Wilfred Owen Association's website was first launched by former Treasurer Philip Guest, because Philip felt that such introductions might succeed in promoting interest in Owen and his work. The number of hits year after year has proved the case.
Sadly Ken Simcox passed away in July 2010. He was Secretary of the Wilfred Owen Association for six years, and these commentaries spring from his lifelong liking for poetry. He is the author of Wilfred Owen: Anthem for a Doomed Youth. The Association is extremely grateful to Ken for his contribution to this website."
I encourage students and teachers to click on the link above. I am very grateful to the authors of the website for making these resources available.
Here is a link to another website with an excellent overview of his short life and work. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/wilfred-owen
Tuesday 11 September 2012
Martin Luther King I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH ANALYSED
Thank you Prianka for thinking of other students and sending me this for the blog. Please do share your resources as learning is a collaborative effort. There is no "I' in TEAM. Well done Prianka and Aashna and Nina who have emailed me and recently posted on the blog also.
Thursday 6 September 2012
Monday 3 September 2012
Friday 31 August 2012
FILM 'ANONYMOUS' is really PREPOSTEROUS!
Looney's conspiracy theory revived by new film "Anonymous".
Given the power of popular culture to communicate narratives, one is always nervous when 'biographical films' emerge in this age of 'infotainment'. Readers of this blog and my TOK blog, will be aware of my posts concerning our fascination with conspiracy theories and my caution that critical thinking be applied to any and all of these conspiracies.The idea that a secret has been unlocked can be quite appealing even when the 'evidence' does not stand up to scrutiny.
I have resisted posting on this film but a surprising number of students and colleagues have watched it and a few were seemingly seduced by its slick production values and generally good acting.
So I have watched it and was at times entertained by the acting but disappointed by liberties taken with known facts accepted by the overwhelming majority of academics and scholars.
Although the plot will prove confusing to those not already familiar with real life characters transposed into this grotesque fantasy. Was it necessary to portray Shakespeare as a semi-literate fraud? Was it necessary to have the usually wonderful Derek Jacobi sneer at the 'son of a glove maker'?
William Shakespeare's plays were written by William Shakespeare, a well-documented historical figure who lived between 1564 and 1616.
In 1920, a schoolmaster with the apt name of John Thomas Looney invented a conspiracy theory suggesting that Shakespeare's plays were written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
One of troubling sub-texts of the recent film is that only a nobleman could have possessed the genius to be the 'real' author of the works of Shakespeare. This is snobbery dressed up as revelation.
Given the power of popular culture to communicate narratives, one is always nervous when 'biographical films' emerge in this age of 'infotainment'. Readers of this blog and my TOK blog, will be aware of my posts concerning our fascination with conspiracy theories and my caution that critical thinking be applied to any and all of these conspiracies.The idea that a secret has been unlocked can be quite appealing even when the 'evidence' does not stand up to scrutiny.
I have resisted posting on this film but a surprising number of students and colleagues have watched it and a few were seemingly seduced by its slick production values and generally good acting.
So I have watched it and was at times entertained by the acting but disappointed by liberties taken with known facts accepted by the overwhelming majority of academics and scholars.
Although the plot will prove confusing to those not already familiar with real life characters transposed into this grotesque fantasy. Was it necessary to portray Shakespeare as a semi-literate fraud? Was it necessary to have the usually wonderful Derek Jacobi sneer at the 'son of a glove maker'?
William Shakespeare's plays were written by William Shakespeare, a well-documented historical figure who lived between 1564 and 1616.
In 1920, a schoolmaster with the apt name of John Thomas Looney invented a conspiracy theory suggesting that Shakespeare's plays were written by Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford.
One of troubling sub-texts of the recent film is that only a nobleman could have possessed the genius to be the 'real' author of the works of Shakespeare. This is snobbery dressed up as revelation.
"Anonymous" tragedy or farce?
The
outrageous liberties taken with history in this film about who really
wrote Shakespeare's plays would be easier to swallow if it were witty
and intelligent – forsooth it is not.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON THE GUARDIAN WEBSITE HERE.
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