IB English 12
IB Exam Overview
IB English 12: Exam Schedule
Two components:
1) Oral Presentation junior year
2) Oral Commentary & Discussion Feb.-Mar. 2016
Combined, they form 30% of IB grade
IB English 12: Exam Schedule
First week in May 2016
20% of IB grade
IB English 12: Exam Schedule
Second week in May 2016
25% of IB grade
IB English 12: Exam Schedule
Junior year
25% of IB grade
IB English 12: Exam Schedule
Results posted online
July 2016
IA: Oral Commentary & Discussion
January-March 2016
IA: Oral Commentary & Discussion
IA: Oral Commentary & Discussion
TWO PARTS
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.
Unit 3 (right before IA)
The Poetry of Robert Frost
• 25 poems spanning Frost’s
most productive years: 19131949
• Thematic foci ranging from
humanity’s relationship to
nature, interpersonal
relationships, & spiritual
ruminations
IA: Oral Commentary & Discussion
TWO 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 1
Selected 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 2
Toni 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 & Discussion
Last year’s scores
47
104
Paper One: Written Commentary
First week in May 2015
Paper One: Written Commentary
• 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
First week in May 2015
Paper One: Written Commentary
Last Year’s Scores
1
7
39
36
46
22
Paper Two: Comparison/Contrast Essay
Second week in May 2015
Paper Two: Comparison/Contrast Essay
Inglemoor’s genre: drama
Paper Two: Comparison/Contrast Essay
Inglemoor’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.
Unit 4
Introduction 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 5
Arthur 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 5
Arthur 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 6
Wole 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 7
Samuel 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 Essay
Last Year’s Scores
2
14
35
37
39
24
Final Subject Grades posted online July 2016
Last Year’s Scores
49
77
34
1
Unit 8
The 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