HL Crit.B1 'make use' - advice
Criterion B1 - HL Individual oral marking
The 2025 subject report states that: “Criterion B1 assesses how well the student engages with the literary extract in the presentation, and how relevant the ideas are to the selected extract. At this level, students are generally able to present their ideas and opinions in a clear and coherent way, but it should be remembered that the presentation must focus on the extract and not on the overall literary work from which the extract has been taken.” In other words, stay in the extract!
HL presentation: key issue
Following the first exam session in May 2020,the Standardization team agrees that, for marking Criterion B1, the most significant basic indicator is how often the presentation refers directly to the extract (i.e., with quotes). Thus, the top mark band is reserved for people who effectively do some kind of 'read-through' of the extract, explaining the meaning.
As a consequence, presentations which consist mainly of general comments about the literary work OR make vague references to the extract (without specific quotes / clear detailed indications) can only expect the 3-4 mark band (if competently organised), or the 1-2 band (if rambling / disorganised).
It is therefore essential to train students to focus on the extract and explain its meaning methodically.
The key phrase of HL Criterion B1 is the term 'make use'. The 1-2 markband states "makes superficial use"; the 3-4 markband states "makes competent use"; and the 5-6 markband states "makes effective use". How do students 'make use'?
- Stay in the extract - avoid discussing the author's life and times or other irrelevant background information. This can all be memorized before the oral and won't demonstrate the use of the extract.
- Quote the extract! Students should quote the extract. For example, “in line 5, when the main character says that she is tired, this shows the reader how she really doesn't want to be around the other character”.
- Be organized! Students should organize their 20-minute preparation time to determine what they want to say about the plot, characters, themes of the literary work, or even themes of English B, events, messages, etc. They can even comment on why this extract is significant for the literary work.
- Give opinions! Students should share their views about the literary extract and express their thoughts. What is their interpretation of this extract? Remember, this is to assess their language, not their literary analysis skills.
The analysis on this page is provided in two ways: a detailed commentary intended for teachers, and, secondly, a summary of ideas relevant to students, presented in a PowerPoint to be shown in Presentation Mode.
- The section 'Advice to students', at the end of this page, provides a PowerPoint presentation with a concise explanation of suggestions made in the analysis - a checklist of ideas for students to absorb and use.
Literary Criticism and Part 2 Questions
Literary criticism is reserved for Language A. Students in Language B are not expected to explore literary theory or analysis of figurative language. The Teacher Support Material states, “Literary criticism is not one of the objectives of the language B course”.
Some possible questions teachers ask students for part 2 can include:
– Why did this character do [refer to a character’s action from the literary extract] in this situation?
– Why did that character respond in such a way?
– How else could he/she have reacted?
– What brought about this situation?
– What happens next?
– Why is this scene a key scene in the story?
– What point is the author trying to make?
– How did you react to this scene?
– What shocked you about this scene?
– If you could change anything in the scene, what would it be? What effect would your change have?
– What does this scene indicate about the culture of the character(s)?
– Would this scene be possible in your culture?
– What learner profile attributes did this character display?
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