August Updates
By Joe O'Callaghan
As those of us in the Northern Hemisphere kick off a new academic year, and those in the South gear up for the November exams, we thought we would share with you some of the changes to the site and suggestions for how you might approach the start of the English B course.
The Themes section has been organised by sub-topic, as proposed by the subject guide. You can find whole lessons and units here that include activities to build skills for all assessment components. Some of these are also student-facing, meaning you can assign them to your classes using student access.
The Paper 1 section has been streamlined and is now organised into Understanding Paper 1, Developing Writing Skills, and Assessments. You can still find the popular Text Type Expectations page here, as well as an approach to teaching writing that focuses on communicative purposes, and a range of assessment tasks for HL and SL.
In the Literature section, you will now find nine short stories, complete with a wealth of activities that are ready to be taught right off the shelf. With the subject guide stating 6-9 stories constitute one literary work, there is enough available for you to cover a huge part of your course. And there are even more stories on the way! You could even (as I am this year) deliver a whole unit on short stories and supplement it with materials from the Themes section.
Our goal is to continue tidying up the site so you and your students can find what you need, whenever you need it. We are also working on some exciting new pages. For instance, you can expect to see a structured approach to teaching academic vocabulary and fully-developed unit on the memoir Born a Crime by Trevor Noah which we are sure will be a hit with the many teachers who choose this as a literary work! Watch this space!
As always, we are available to answer your queries. Just comment on any page and we’ll get back to you pronto! All the best for the coming year in the Northern Hemisphere and best of luck to those in the South as you head towards the November exam sessions.