IB English 12IB Exam Overview

IB English 12: Exam Schedule

Two components:1) Oral Presentation junior year

2) Oral Commentary & Discussion Feb.-Mar. 2016Combined, they form 30% of IB grade

IB English 12: Exam Schedule

First week in May 201620% of IB grade

IB English 12: Exam Schedule

Second week in May 201625% of IB grade

IB English 12: Exam Schedule

Junior year25% of IB grade

IB English 12: Exam Schedule

Results posted onlineJuly 2016

IA: Oral Commentary & DiscussionJanuary-March 2016

IA: Oral Commentary & Discussion

1) Oral Commentary on 20-30 lines of poetry by Robert Frost• candidate selects passage at random.• Passage may be an entire poem or 20-30+ lines of a longer

poem.• Two guiding questions are provided: one content; one form.• 20 minutes to annotate & outline presentation.• Evaluator must ask at least 2 follow-up questions• Oral commentary (including my follow-up) should be about

10 minutes long.

IA: Oral Commentary & DiscussionTWO PARTS

Unit 3 (right before IA)The Poetry of Robert Frost

• 25 poems spanning Frost’s most productive years: 1913-1949

• Thematic foci ranging from humanity’s relationship to nature, interpersonal relationships, & spiritual ruminations

IA: Oral Commentary & DiscussionTWO PARTS

2) Open-ended discussion on either the essays of Virginia Woolf or Toni Morrison’s Beloved• Choice is random: neither of us will know which one you

select.• Discussion is about 10 minutes long.

Thus, entire Oral Commentary & Discussion is no more than 20 minutes long.This is recorded & sent to IB for moderation.Score for senior year IB Oral Commentary & Discussion is averaged with your junior year Oral Presentation for a total score out of 30.

Unit 1Selected essays of Virginia Woolf

• Fulfills IB component for prose non-fiction

• Primarily autobiographical pieces, with some critical analyses

• Themes range from interpersonal relationships, self-analysis, dealing with death of a family member

Unit 2Toni Morrison’s Beloved

• 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction• Centers on former slave family

after American Civil War• Thematic foci ranging from

racism, psychological impact of slavery, & interpersonal relationships

IA: Oral Commentary & DiscussionLast year’s scores

47104

Paper One: Written CommentaryFirst week in May 2015

• Candidates choose from either a poem or a prose extract.• Passages & authors will ideally be unfamiliar to candidates.• Candidates have 2 hours to write their Commentaries.

1) Read through both passages.2) Skim through again to determine which one provides more

opportunities to showcase your skills.3) Annotate your chosen passage for content (ideas) & form

(techniques).4) Brainstorm key words creating a dominant effect.5) Determine how you wish to approach explaining the dominant

effect: tracing the unfolding logic of the passage; or by content & form.

6) Draft your DE & outline your line of reasoning.7) Draft your Commentary.8) Tweak, edit, & proofread your Commentary.

Paper One: Written Commentary

Paper One: Written CommentaryFirst week in May 2015

1739364622

Paper One: Written CommentaryLast Year’s Scores

Paper Two: Comparison/Contrast EssaySecond week in May 2015

Paper Two: Comparison/Contrast EssayInglemoor’s genre: drama

• Candidates will compare/contrast any two or three of the plays we study second semester:1) William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (c. 1606 British)2) Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949 American)3) Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel (1959 Nigerian)4) Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1953 French/Irish)

• Candidates will have three Drama questions from which to choose ONE.

• Candidates will not have access to the scripts or notes.

Paper Two: Comparison/Contrast EssayInglemoor’s genre: drama

Unit 4Introduction to Classical Tragedy & Innovations: Shakespeare’s

Macbeth

• Shakespeare’s shortest drama!

• Fictionalizes historical Macbeth as

villian who murdered wise, old King

Duncan secretly

• (Actually young, ineffectual King

Duncan was killed in battle by Banquo

—ancestor of new British monarch

James I—and Macbeth, who ruled

peacefully for 17 years.)

Unit 5Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman

• 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama & Tony Award for Best Play

• Details the struggles of the Loman family as the father’s career & mental health decline

• Thematic foci ranging from consumerism, the American Dream, & family relationships

Unit 5Arthur Miller’s The Death of a Salesman

• Writing skills: Thoughtbook entries, Practice Paper 2 comparative essay

• Literary Language focus: Stage design, blocking, intentions & tactics, effect of music & lighting

Unit 6Wole Soyinka’s The Lion & the Jewel

• 1959 comedy set in remote Yoruba village in Nigeria

• Socially progressive schoolteacher Lakunle wants to marry village beauty Sidi but refuses to pay the traditional bride price; however, traditionalist chieftain Baroka also wants Sidi for himself.

• Thematic foci ranging from colonialism, modernization vs. maintaining traditional folkways, romantic relationships

Unit 7Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot

• Writing skills: Thoughtbook entries, practice comparison essay, and written commentary

• Literary Language focus: elements of comedy, existentialism, & the Theater of the Absurd

Paper 2: Comparison/Contrast EssayLast Year’s Scores

21435373924

Final Subject Grades posted online July 2016Last Year’s Scores

4977341

Unit 8The Labyrinthine fictions of

Jorge Luis Borges

• Writing skills: Reading Journals

• Literary Language focus: Aspects of Literature of the Fantastic

• Culminating Project: imitation—the sincerest form of flattery—a pastiche of one of the writers in three years of IB