eBook
Diction and Syntax (1)
A writer's choice of vocabulary is the core mechanism through which meaning in any kind of written text is constructed. Getting to grips with words is therefore perhaps the most essential component of...
eBook
Poetic metre
If a poem, or any piece of literary writing was looked at through a telescope, what do you think would the smallest, most essential component about which you could offer meaningful comment? Many people...
Teaching and Learning resources
Critical thinking through painting
Whether you are talking about music, literature, theatre, painting or indeed any kind of art, it is important to practise different ways of thinking - both in terms of the so called 'lower' levels as...
Teaching and Learning resources
Classroom resources
Whilst the IB asks us to think about teaching and learning in relation to specific elements of the course, there are many activities and approaches that can be applied to the literature classroom that...
The Literature course
Core Skills
An introduction to core skills and objectives The Language A: Literature course asks students to demonstrate a range of skills and aptitudes that test their ability to respond to literary works in various...
Teaching and Learning resources
Cloze and sequence exercises
One of the difficulties that students encounter, particularly in relation to Paper 1, has to do with the notion of trying to 'second guess' the author's meaning - what the author intended. This is a rather...
Teaching and Learning resources
The 12 step approach to any poem
"You can’t write a poem out of emotion only, there must be insight." As well as sage advice for aspiring poets, Philip Larkin's statement can also be adapted and adopted by students of Literature in terms...
Teaching and Learning resources
The Language Criterion
Interpreting the descriptors for the Language criterion A question posted on this website asked for some guidance on the distinction between the level 4 and 5 descriptors for Language, picking out the...
Teaching and Learning resources
Sentence - Phrase - Word
Sentence - Phrase - Word is a thinking routine taken from the book Making Thinking Visible by Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church and Karin Morrison, and it is a strategy that works very well in the IB Literature...
Teaching and Learning resources
Language for analysis
Getting students to choose their words wisely. For many students, the challenge of the Literature course does not lie in reading, understanding or engaging with texts, but rather in articulating their...