IB SL ENGLISH FIRST TEXTS

We will start studying both units in September - Works in Translation and Genre. They will both run in  parallel through the year until the Works in Translation coursework deadline, which I think will be in February - I'll confirm this in September. We'll begin with the poetry of Akhmatova - focusing on the initial list posted elsewhere on this blog. And we'll start with A Streetcar Named Desire as the genre text. It's absolutely essential that these texts are read - or selectively but widely read in the case Akhmatova - before the course begins.

In terms of A Streetcar Named Desire the focus of our discussion will be on stage craft. That means I want you to be able to discuss such things as: setting, props, dialogue, monologue, sound effects, lighting, costume and register. We'll also explore other features such as structure and conflict. Consider how these different features of the play contribute to the plot. Lessons will focus on these issues rather than plot lead lessons. I will expect you to have read and studied the play and be able to refer to a variety of episodes from the play. You'll need to read the play several times.

For Texts in Translation I instruct you to fall in love with Anna Akhmatova as I am doing. Here are some ways to help you fall in love. Read selectively and widely from the recommended edition of the selected poems - the translation will help enormously here. But also do a little research on her life - her upbringing, her marriages, her son, her friendship / artistic groups. Consider the political forces that formed the back drop and at times dominated her life. These include such things as: pre-revolutionary, revolutionary and post-revolutionary Russia, Bolshevism, World War One, Stalinist Russia, World War Two, the Cold War, European and Asian influences. Consider also the place of her poetry and the response to it from the literary, cultural, international and political establishment. Examine her work in relation to the poetry of the nineteenth century including Pushkin and the work of the Symbolists.

Feel free to read relevant pages in Wikipedia - click here for a link - but I'll expect Wikipedia to be a starting point only. This unit of the course will require each student to take part in an interactive discussion on Akhmatova - this will include mini-presentations from each of you. You will also produce a piece of timed supervised writing.

I expect that we'll spend the first half term studying her poetry and you will be doing short presentations on the poems.

I intend to begin Levi's If This Is A Man before Christmas and preparation work for this will need to be well under way before September - the autobiography should be read and annotated during the summer.

IB ENGLISH SL - AKHMATOVA POEMS - INITIAL, GENERAL AND BACKGROUND READING LISTS

Below is an initial list of Akhmatova poems we'll probably begin studying in September. I've chosen these because of their accessibility.  

The more I read Akhmatova's poetry the more I realise how closely linked her work is to her life and the broader contexts of the twentieth century. I suggest that as you read and become familiar with her poetry you should refer the dates of authorship / publication and read up on relevant biographical issues and wider contextual issues including pre revolutionary, revolutionary and post revolutionary Russia, World War 1 and World War 2 as well as Starlin. Read these in conjuction with her writing.

You thought I was that type' *page 99

'Terror, rummaging through things in the dark' page 100

from Wind of War 'Birds of death' page 150

from Wind of War 6 - 7 In Memory of a Lenningrad boy, my neighbour Valya Smirnov' page 151

Slander page 101

Our Own Land page 225

'Everyone went away' page 178

Here is a broader general list of poems by Akhmatova. We'll be studying most of these poems during the course. I'll be adding to this list over the next few weeks.

from Wind of War

Wind of War page 149 - 154

The Moon in the Zenith page 157 - 162

When the moon lies on the windowsill' page 162

Tashkent Breaks into Bloom page 163

from Longer Poems

Requiem: Poems 1935 - 1940 page 281 - 288




*All page references refer specifically to the recommended book Selected Poems Anna Akhmatova published by Bloodaxe Books. Click here for a link. You may find cheaper copies of this edition elsewhere on the internet.

AS A2 LL - READING POETRY - SOME KEY QUESTIONS

Reading Poetry
Some Key Questions

Below are some key questions and prompt statements to help you reflect and analyse each poem we study.

·         Comment on the poetic voice of the poem.

 There maybe more than one voice – different voices may offer different perspectives on the themes raised. For example the voice maybe male, female, young, old, subjective, objective, detached, engaged. Is the voice angry, sad, joyful etc

·         What is the main subject of the poem?

The title of the poem may give you a clue to the poem’s subject. Make a note of the subject and consider how the subject is being presented. Be prepared for the presentation of the subject to change and develop through the poem. The subject maybe a character, an object, a location, etc

·         What happens in the poem?

Sometimes poems tell stories, they are narrative poems. And sometimes there are developments and time shifts that occur. Often poets include autobiography in their poetry and write about the past – sometimes using the present tense. Action, movement and stasis are important to consider.

·         What are the main themes or issues raised in the poem?

Although the subject of a poem maybe physical and material a poem will also engage with broader and more abstract set of concepts. Themes may occur explicitly or implicitly. Issues are usually clearly defined where the poet presents a conscious position on a subject.

·         Comment on the setting and context[s] of the poem.

An important element in poetry can be the poem’s setting. The immediate setting is the physical landscape that frames the subject of the poem. Poets use setting to develop the themes, subject and meaning of a poem. Contexts are broader and more abstract and may link to political, cultural, social and historical concerns. Contexts often involve the poet and the personal and societal

·         Comment on the structure and form of the poem.

Poems are usually highly organized texts. A poet will have worked and reworked their material to suit their purposes and to engage the reader.  The physical shape of the poem and the way it is presented on the page will help convey the poem’s meaning.

·         Response to the poem.

To consider all the above questions carefully and reflectively will help you develop an informed, sensitive, thoughtful, imaginative, analytical response to these poems. In turn this will help you enormously to write a good 1000 word essay.

What key language and literary features can you identify and what effect do these features have on a reader?

• What genre does the poem draw from? Consider whether the poem is largely descriptive, narrative, monologue, dialogue, abstract, physical, etc

• Generally poets use two different techniques to communicate to their readers. One is imagery – where poets appeal to the imaginations of their readers. For example; metaphor, simile, symbolism and personification. The other technique is phonology – where a poet uses sound to appeal to their readers. For example; alliteration, assonance, rhyme, onomatopoeia and repetition etc. Another unique feature of poetry is the use of form. At its most basic consider the shape of the poem on the page. Is there any specific pattern to them poem? Is the poem a ballad, a sonnet or lyric poem? Is it written in free verse? Consider such things as line length – iambic pentameters and tetrameters are two line structures. But also consider stanzas.

·         You should also consider such features as – grammar – the structures that exist within a sentence. For example identifying verbs, nouns and adjectives. Lexis – or vocabulary. Consider such things as simple or complex, emotive or neutral words. Also the denotations and connotations of words. Syntax – sentence structure. Consider such things as simple, compound or complex sentences. As well as declarative, interrogative, instructional and exclamatory sentences.  Rhetorical devices – are techniques designed to persuade a reader to a specific point of view. These techniques include repetition, comparative and contrasting pairs, lists and lists of three and direct address, etc. Register – is the relationship the poetic voice adopts towards the reader. This is established through using either formal or informal lexis.

 

• Identifying features in a poem will not enable you to get good grades in your assessments. It is vital that you link the features of a poem to the effects on you and a generalised reader. You may also be required to link the work you are studying to specific contextual references – these may be biographical or cultural. You may also be expected to refer to theoretical perspectives such as Marxism or Feminism.

 

One  2500 word essay comparing two poets on a comparative theme

AS A2 ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE - SOME SUMMER ACTIVITIES

If you are intending to continue into the second year of A Level English Language and Literature you might consider the following activities

Over the summer read and annotate the poems given out already, using the questions in the handout. If you don't have the anthology here are some links to relevant poems you may be studying next year.

Click here for a link to Daddy by Sylvia Plath
Click here for a link to London by William Blake
Click here for a link to Digging by Seamus Heaney
Click here for a link to Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth
Click here for a link to Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
Click here for a link to Because I could not stop for death by Emily Dickinson

And click here for a list of key questions to use when exploring poems.

Over the summer you should read regularly and widely a range of non fiction texts such as good quality weekend broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. You should concentrate on the supplements and commentaries / columnists rather than the news sections.

Consider texts that are autobiographical, biographical, travel writing, eye witness, opinion and social / political commentaries.

As you read these newspaper sections consider how the writer addresses audience, purpose and genre - these are key concepts in the second year. Why not find out what they mean and how they are used in non fiction texts. Try and identify the conventions - another key concept in the second year of the course - used to present these different types of writing. And finally identify different language techniques and the effect of these on an audience.

Most importantly - have a great summer and enjoy your reading!

IB SL ENGLISH COMMENTARY - LAST MINUTE

Below is a list of last minute points I hope will help you improve your performance next week.

• Use your time thoughtfully between now and the commentary by
• Reading over the checklist handout given out last week. There is an updated version of this already posted on this blog.
• Continue reading and re-reading extracts from the novel and the play. Use the checklist to identify relevant points.

• It's really important to base your entire commentary on the extract you have been given.
• After your introduction analyse the key language features and their effects - this is the most important priority. Then selectively make connections between the quotation you've been discussing and broader issues in the checklist.
• Analysing the extract will lead naturally onto broader discussion of issues such as themes etc.

The old world - this is a reference to Europe. society determined by class and birth. The discovery of America in the 1492 brought about new possiblities for weath creation and exploitation of native people and the land.  the Dutch in the 16th century.

Click here for a link to the Gatsby commentary we looked at on Monday. Listen to it carefully with the mark scheme open and consider for yourself what grade is appropriate. I may have been too enthusiastic about the mark awarded to this commentary.

Click here for a link to an Othello commentary. This one is highly analytical and probably a higher level commentary. Note how much this commentary is dominated by close detail on the extract. There are no quick references to context or broader thematic references.

Stick to analysing the extract.

IB COMMENTARY CHECK LIST

IB ENGLISH SL
IOC – COMMENTARY ASSESSMENT
CLOSE READING - APPROACHES / DEFINTIONS / TERMS - A CHECK LIST

Below is a table containg a list of approaches that you can take when giving your commentary. Only a selection of these will be relevant and appropriate to discuss in your commentary. Identifying the relevant and appropriate approaches to take for the extract you've been given will be really useful.

APPROACHES	DEFINITION	SOME KEY TERMS
Character	Characters are established in texts by what they say, how they behave, their clothes, places and objects associated with them. Characters are also established by their actions, body language, what other characters say and do in relation to a character.
Conflict	Look for two or more characters, forces, settings, activities that are incompatible or clash or are in opposition with each other.	Contrast, juxtaposition,
Context	The circumstances that form the setting for an event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully understood.   The parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning.	Historical, cultural, social, religious, biographical   Consider such things as gender, marriage, class, race, social status in Shakespeare’s time, the present time and the time the play was set – 1570’s
Elemental	Lexis associated with the four elements – earth, air, fire and water	Earth – path, rock, mountain, lawn Air – wind Fire – burn, smoulder, singe Water – flow, drip, puddle
Emotive lexis	Words and phrases that trigger an emotional response in the reader. You might also consider a readers sympathetic / antipathetic responses  to character or situation
Grammar	The study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed.	Adjectives – pre-modifying / post-modifying, comparative, supplative. Nouns – abstract, concrete, proper. Verbs -
Imagery	Lexis that stimulates mental or imaginary pictures	Metaphor, personification, simile, symbolism, pathetic fallacy
Lexis	Words – vocabulary	High frequency / low frequency, denotation / connotation, semantic  fields, emotive / neutral / rational, polysyllabic / monosyllabic
Mood	a temporary state of mind or feeling. This can be associated with particular places and characters
Narrator	The voice of the text – consider such things as accent, lexical choices, mood, attitude	`First person – personal pronoun, third person
Register	the style of language, grammar, and words used for particular situations	Formal, informal
Rhetoric	Language used to persuade	Direct address, comparative / contrasting pairs, listing, lists of three
Sensuous language	Lexis associated with the five senses	Sight – bright / dark / dim Sound – whisper / roar / hum Touch – warm / cold / rough / smooth Taste – bitter / sweet Smell -
Setting	the place or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place	Adverbials, place names, times – of day / night / week, season, interiors / exteriors, rural – wilderness / farmland / urban – industrial, residential, commercial, derelict /
Sound patterns	Word sounds that create cacophony – unpleasant sounds or euphony – sounds that create pleasant sensations	Alliteration, assonance, rhyme, rhythm,  onomatopoeia
Structure		Thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis, rising action, climax, falling action, dénouement
Style	Consider different kinds of writing styles	For example descriptive, reflective, action, dialogue, argument
Syntax	Consider sentence structures and or sentence functions	Short, compound, complex sentences / declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamation
Theme	an idea that recurs in or pervades a work of art or literature

 

AS - A2 LL - CATCH UP AND CLASS PREP

Collect the anthology of poems in my tray in 1D11

• Read the questions at the back of the anthology
• Read and annotate Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
• Read and annotate Daddy by Sylvia Plath
• And bring a poem you like and enjoy. Be prepared to share this with the class.

Please bring your anthology and poem to the class for next week.

A2 LL - RECAST FORMATS - DIARY

Diary

Definition: a book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences.

Synonyms: journal, memoir, chronicle, log, logbook, weblog, blog, vlog

Example 1

Tuesday 20 October 1942

Dearest Kitty,

My hands still shaking, though it’s been two hours since we had the scare. I should explain that there are five extinguishers in the building. The office staff stupidly forgot to warn us that the carpenter, or whatever he’s called, was coming to fill the extinguishers. As a result, we didn’t bother to be quiet until I heard the sound of hammering on the landing (across from the bookcase). I immediately assumed it was the carpenter and went to warn Bep, who was eating lunch, that she couldn’t go back downstairs. Father and I stationed ourselves at the door so we could hear when the man had left. After working for about fifteen minutes, he laid his hammer and some other tools on our bookcase (or so we thought!) and banged on our door. We turned white with fear. Had he heard something after all and did he now want to check out this mysterious looking bookcase?

It seemed so, since he kept knocking, pulling, pushing and jerking on it.

I was so scared I nearly fainted at the thought of this total stranger managing to discover our wonderful hiding place…

Extract from Anne Frank's diary

Example 2

28 May 1911

"A typical day starts at 8 for breakfast at 8.30 – tho’ some are always late…

For breakfast we have porridge, tea and coffee, bread and butter and some dish such as fried seal and bacon or scrambled ‘Tru-egg’. The porridge is excellent but as all 25 of us like it there is never quite enough.

Afterwards I start work immediately, which consists of cutting sections, learning German, using the microscope, writing the diary or reading books. When fine I go for a walk, but walks in the dark are most uninteresting. The others fill in their mornings in various ways. Sunny Jim and Charles are always busy with their meteorological gadgets, setting them up, repairing or taking them down. The ponies are regularly exercised when the weather permits.

Cherry puts in the day typing copy for the South Polar Times or building a stone-hut in which to flense sealskins. Bill is always sketching or painting and Teddy Evans has plenty of work with chart making and working up the summer’s surveying data. Ponting is regulalrly engaged in taking prints form negatives he made in the summer, or in taking flashlights.

Lunch is at 1.30 and consists of bread (or biscuit) and butter with potted meat, jam and cheese on alternate days, also tea and cocoa. Dinner is at 6.30 and is always a 3 course meal – soup, meat and pudding. After each of the meals a good many sit at the table smoking and talking for a long time. The table breaks up into 2 or 3 groups each with its own subject and there is a general buzz of conversation."

A diary page from Frank Debenham, an Australian on the British Antarctic Expedition 1910 to 1913

Diary writing conventions – tips

• Write a greeting / salutation – ‘Dear Diary’
• Use relevant date, a refer to place of writing
• Selectively use an informal register – ellipsis, elision, contractions, note form, colloquial lexis
• However be selective and make sure you refer to a number of these features in your commentary to show you understand the conventions of diary writing
• Address your future self - ‘Don’t ever forget that feeling of being part of a team.’  Include action / follow up points – ‘Tomorrow I’m going to take plenty of water with me.’
• You can also write more than one entry to the diary. But be very careful how you do this. Don't write more than 3 entries and be careful not to repeat the same information.

SOME FOLLOW UP WORK

DIARY - Read the example DIARY EXTRACTS above and identify conventions, key features, identify how the text addresses audience and purpose, uses genre conventions and creates specific effects from an audience.

KEY FEATURES - DIARY – private audience – future self / next day or years. Sometimes diary writer’s consider the possibility of their diary being published at some point in the future.
For the purpose of the exam – write a greeting salutation and a completing salutation to end. Use a selective informal register. Use selectively – ellipsis, elision, contractions, colloquial lexis, bullet points or note form – listing sentences. If you use informal register you MUST make sure you refer to this in your commentary with a variety of quotations / examples.  Refer to your future self and refer to follow up or action points. Rember the content of the source article is the primary information to be addressed.

 

CONVENTIONS – a way in which something is usually done –such as structure, layout, address heading[s] – see above.

COMMENT – on function[s] of the convention within the context of the diary

TEXT - Link to the private audience, purpose, genre, wider context, attitudes to topic[s]and topic[s]themselves
EFFECT – identify the intended effect of the CONVENTION on an audience / reader

LANGUAGE FEATURES – identify language and literary features common to DIARIES. Find a good quotation - short and contains strong language features - comment on these and show effects on readers.

FOLLOW UP

READ and become familiar with DIARY EXTRACTS. You will find many examples online. They are usually relatively short, accessible and on interesting topics.
Identify a 300 - 400 extract and identify conventions, language features, good quotations, make brief comments about function of the language feature and on effects on readers.

IB ENGLISH STANDARD LEVEL - COMMENTARY DETAILS

IB ENGLISH STANDARD LEVEL
ORAL COMMENTARY 2015
DETAILS

The commentary will take place on Thursday 25 June. Preparation time will be 20 minutes followed by the exam of 10 minutes. You should plan to speak for a minimum of 8 minutes on the extract provided and be prepared to answer questions for a further 2 minutes from the examiner – me if necessary.

 

Morning session

DETAILS				STUDENT NAME
Prep	Room	Exam	Room
9.10	1A15	9.30	1A11	Marina Toranzo
9.40	1A15	10.00	1A11	Max Muehler
10.10	1A15	10.30	1A11	Nicolo Motano Parolini
10.40	1A15	11.00	1A11	Mathieu Haskins
11.10	1A15	11.30	1A11	Natasha Haider
11.40	1A15	12.00	1A11	Lorenz Frehe

 
Afternoon session

DETAILS				STUDENT NAME
Prep	Room	Exam	Room
1.40	1A15	2.00	1A11	Sophie Elburn
2.10	1A15	2.30	1A11	Janira De Lorenzi
2.40	1A15	3.00	1A11	Martin Chevreau
3.10	1A15	3.30	1A11	Tristan Boss
3.40	1A15	4.00	1A11	Diana Adamczyk