There will be major assessments following each unit; these include in-class essays, out of class papers, projects, and creative presentations. Minor assessments will be varied, but they will be designed to see that you’re prepared for class…so, be prepared! 😂

I try to use rubrics similar to the ones the IB uses for the four formal IB assessments. Here’s the Conversion Chart to equate the raw rubric points to a 100-point scale.

We will discuss the formal IB assessments in detail in class, but here’s a brief overview of the ones that will be given this year:

Individual Oral (“IA”).  You’ll choose two works we have studied in the course so far (excluding the work on which you wrote your HL Essay): one written in English, the other translated from another language. Then, you will choose an extract from each work (around 40 lines of text), and you will verbally compare and contrast how these extracts relate to the larger works, in terms of a “global issue” (see below). You can bring notes to the recorded session with bulleted points to guide you in the recorded discussion, which will be followed by discussion with the teacher. This assessment is worth 20% of your total IB English score.

Remember, the global issue is a unifying principle. Your Oral should be about the works primarily, not the global issue. Identify it, explain it, and then start discussing the extracts in the contexts of the works as a whole. You can make some concluding statements on the global issue if you like, showing how the texts bring awareness to it.

The IB provides some broad categories for the global issues, as follows:

Culture / Identity / Community
Beliefs / Values / Education
Politics / Power / Justice
Art / Creativity / Imagination
Science / Technology / The Environment

A better source for these might be the UN Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015 and targeted for completion by 2030.

We’ll schedule the Orals for December, prior to Winter Break.

The May Exams:

Paper 1 Exam: Guided Literary Analysis. This assessment tests the skills you have learned over the two year course.  You get two texts you haven’t seen before–one poetry, one prose.  You get two hours to write a commentary (close reading) on each of these texts.  No problem!  35%.

Paper 2 Exam: Comparative Essay. In early May, you have 1 hour and 45 minutes to write an essay based on at least two of the works we have studied in the course in response to one of several prompts (excluding the works you chose for your HL Paper and Individual Oral.) You won’t have the books with you, so you have to know your stuff; it’s 20% of your IB grade.