Nikita K Posted April 16, 2013 Report Share Posted April 16, 2013 Hi, so I'm really worried, because I've taken English HL, and we NEVER do anything in class. The teacher just comes in and just stares at us. Her lessons (if you could even call them that) are so confusing, because we just seem to be "discussing" random topics that change every class. All of the students in my class are really worried, so we've decided to be proactive about it. What do you guys do in your IB English HL classes? What type of practice/homework do you usually get? It would be really awesome if you could help out! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cricketcrazynerd Posted April 16, 2013 Report Share Posted April 16, 2013 That's unfortunate because English is one of my most productive classes...(we never get any breaks )We normally do 1 literary text (a novel or a set of poems) every month and we spend each lesson either annotating/ examining a new theme or concept in the novel or studying a new poem. Since my final IOP is coming up in 7 weeks, we are getting to know the Part 4 option texts really well...Additionally, we are always preparing for Paper 1 (the unseen commentary). Around every 4-5 weeks, we have a practise one and so we are always getting tips or reviewing literary devices. Yes, literary devices, according to my teacher, they are the utmost necessary tool one can have in literature! Homework is usually revision or annotating poems/ prose piece or making a powerpoint showing different aspects of the text or reading the text.Good Luck! Even though I do SL Lit, our classes are together and we only split into SL or HL in July, so I hope you find this mini pointers helpful Simran Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 16, 2013 Report Share Posted April 16, 2013 This happens in my classes to. The teacher does nothing.Solution:Study by yourself if you find the teacher to be unsatisfactory.Learn analysing techniques from plenty of online resources.Analyse a few literary works.Compare with already analysed works.Write and get peers to edit and give feed back.Ask other english teachers.And other stuff. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flinquinnster Posted April 20, 2013 Report Share Posted April 20, 2013 Well, if you're teacher doesn't cover much in class, I would firstly suggest that you pursue someone 'higher up' who might be able to do something about it. Aside from that, I would emphasise not only practising for your Paper 1, your unseen commentary, but for your formal assessments as well. I think there are 3 assessments aside from the Paper 1 + Paper 2 exams that you do - that is, if you're English A Literature HL (I'm not sure about Language and Literature). - IOP (based on Part 4: Options) - make sure you find out what texts you're studying for IOP, and find at least one text you're interested in/analysed well by yourself. This will form the core of your oral presentation. - IOC (based on Part 2: Detailed Study) - make sure you find out the authors you're doing, and analyse them in immense detail yourself. Then practice doing IOCs on every conceivable text, and make sure you have a structure prepared so you can breeze through your actual IOC - Written Assignment (based on Part 1: Works in Translation): once again, find out the texts you are studying and find at least 1 text you enjoy so you can write 1500 words on it. Aside from that, I don't do much English homework, apart from some occasional Paper 1 practices. The key is to do it in a timed environment, similar to in exam conditions - maybe try doing it as a practice task at first, but as exam time comes closer you need to do it in 2 hours with handwriting, otherwise the exam might be quite confronting (which happened to me). I suppose when we start Part 3 genre study, then I will need to prepare for our final Paper 2 comparative essay.So to be honest, I'm not really sure what exactly we can do to prepare for English, but certainly developing literary analysis skills for both your class texts and for unseen extracts is certainly the logical thing to do 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ze-kun001 Posted April 20, 2013 Report Share Posted April 20, 2013 For homework (when we get it),we normally have to analysis themes, motifs, and characters in the text we're working on in class. I think that's one of the best things you can do for yourself, learning literary elements (memorize them, they've become my best friends) and analysing texts/poems.If you know the books you will be studying (they gave us a list of the ones we are coming this year and next) read them now and try to anaylse them for its meaning.. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arrowhead Posted April 21, 2013 Report Share Posted April 21, 2013 Read all the stickies.Ask questions if anything is unclear. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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