What Remains of the Day

Thursday 31 August 2023

This week, we are publishing the last in our series of materials on Kazuo Ishiguro's novel, The Remains of the Day. From the outset, it was our intention to publish 'more than you will ever need' for studying the novel. In a sense, we are unlikely to meet this ambitious goal. However, we have now published 17 separate pages, including 89 pages of pdf teaching materials which have been developed with a close eye on the course assessment, the IB core, and  the attributes of the IB learner profile.

Deliberately, in choosing The Remains of the Day, we have strayed from the usual suspects of works that are commonly used in Paper 2 examinations. We chose an accessible work of unquestionable literary value that has been tried and tested in the classroom. We also considered cultural contexts, and hope that the work can be taught in many, if not all contexts, contexts.

This week's material is available here to subscribers.

Perhaps a novel like The Remains of the Day is not what you would prefer to teach, nor is it what you think your students would like to read. We hope, however, that the materials can inform your own teaching; many of the activities are easily 'borrowed'. 

It is our intention to continue to develop materials for more literary works, although this is a significant undertaking if it is to be done well. Perhaps you have suggestions for materials you would like to see us publish. Comment is free...

David and Tim