This was the essay that I wrote for my Individual Oral Presentation (IOP) in IB English HL (might also be called Interactive Oral Presentation?). It was for the short story “Exiled” by Shizuye Takashima. It is approximately 2000 words. I read this in about 12-13 minutes, which left me a couple of minutes to answer questions [...Read more...]
Good luck to May 2012 IB students! Just a quick post: I came across a wonderful English teacher’s website that has many resources and sample papers for IB English Paper 1 and Paper 2, for both HL and SL. If you click on Paper 1 or Paper 2 on the left side of his website, you [...Read more...]
Paper 2 is a comparative essay where IB candidates illustrate and elaborate on similarities and differences between two plays (for schools that have picked drama as their “focus” in IB English). This is generally a very difficult exam because of the candidate has to choose one prompt from a huge list of prompts, and write [...Read more...]
Billy is currently authoring a series on “The Study of English Literature”. Part 1 of the series, called “Finding a meaning”, can be found here. Part 2 of the series, titled “Positives and Negatives”, can be accessed on this page. If you were marking passage commentaries, which of the following would you think was the [...Read more...]
A commentary is an essay in which you discuss the effects an author has created in a poem or prose passage. The keys to writing good commentaries are clear organization, understanding of literary techniques, and the ability to explain how the author uses these techniques to affect the reader. There is no such thing as [...Read more...]
TPCASTT is an acronym for stages of a poetry analysis. Title – Ponder the title before reading the poem. Paraphrase – Translate the poem into your own words. Connotation – Explore how the poem creates meaning that goes beyond the literal. Attitude – Observe both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitudes. Shifts – Note shifts [...Read more...]
My Letters! is a classic sonnet written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This timeless sonnet was studied in IB English, and my group created a presentation detailing our thoughts and analysis about it to help our fellow students revise for their IB English exams. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the analysis and interpretation; this will [...Read more...]