Resources
Comparative Commentaries to Go: Video Games
In 2003, James Paul Gee writes What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Because he is a well-respected Professor of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the book exploded...
Resources
2016 Paper 1 (SL) "Aggressiveness and Readiness Gestures"
In 2015 I started teaching a class of 17 students. Like all classes I have ever taught, the students were of mixed ability, and their personalities and motivations were varied. Within a few months, however,...
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Faction
At the time of writing, the InThinking Language and Literature website has published a number of pages focusing on fake news and so-called ‘alternative facts’ (here and here, for example). We hope these...
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Comparative Commentaries to Go: At the Hofbräuhaus
If you are a teacher of English Language and Literature, you will have read a lot. And then some. So, it may be challenging for you to identify a favourite book; a book that is, in your informed estimation,...
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Rewriting
A creative way to encourage students to become interested in the choices writers make is to ask them to rewrite a text or text extract. This could be done by substituting one genre for another. However,...
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WT1 HL S6 (The Black Cat)
Written Task 1 is a bit like the Wild West: wide open, extremely exciting and well, potentially very dangerous. Students have an almost unlimited number of options and possibilities available to them. ...
Blog
The Walls That Divide Us Free
I have many memories of walls. My earliest of these memories is in the garden of our recently built terraced house. The terrace parallels another terrace, which parallels another. And so on. This is the...
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Controversy: Adele versus Beyonce
At the 59th Annual Grammy Awards on February 12th, 2017, Adele swept all five categories in which she was nominated. Most controversial was her win in album of the year over Beyonce's "Lemonade." In...
Resources
2016 Paper 1 (HL) Chevrolet Cars
The November 2016 HL Paper 1 exam included a surprise. Instead of two different text types, united through a shared theme or concern, one of the pairings presented two (different) advertisements, both...
Resources
2016 Paper 1 (SL) "Diary: Listening to the Heart"
This commentary comes from the May 2016 Standard Level Paper 1 exam. It analyzes the text "Diary: Listening to the Heart” by Gavin Francis in the London Review of Books. You can find a link to the passage...