Literature

Prerequisites: Honors English 9 & 10

Language A1 (English Junior year) does in depth studying of Part I and Part IV works. Part IV works are chosen by the teacher and include one world literature piece. During Part IV poetry and nonfiction genres are studied. The students study Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Martin Luther King, Jr. The world lit piece is __Night__ by Elie Wiesel. The students do a research paper to meet the Kansas State Standards on research and an oral presentation for IB, poetry commentaries, journal entries and vocabulary work. Part I is the world lit section where all works must be of the same genre and translated. Those works are the plays Hedda Gabbler, Blood Wedding, and Medea. From these works the students do their first outside graded IB writing- their World Lit Paper 1. They also write journals.

The summer reading prior to the junior year revolves around researching the Harlem Renaissance. Fifty note cards will be due the first day of school in fall. Information will be given to the students before school is out in May.

Language A1 (English Senior year) focuses on Part II and Part III works

The method of assessment from IB for the Part II works is an oral commentary based on a random selection from Part II works that have already been studied. The student has 20 minutes to prepare the commentary and then must present the commentary to the teacher and a tape recorder!

The method of assessment from IB for the Part III works is the written exam Paper 2. Students will be given a set of prompts from which they will choose one. Their task will be to write a comparative literary analysis using at least two of the Part III works.

Additional IB assessments from the senior year are: the final copy of the world lit paper 1 (from the junior year), world lit paper 2, and written exam paper 1.

Everything done in the class polishes the skills the students need for commentary and literary analysis. There are traditional assignments and quizzes, but everything reinforces the skills necessary for a successful IB score.