Question about Interactive Oral and Reflective Statements

[ilovepotato]

Hi, so we have been doing our collaborative interactive orals (not sure if they're the same as IOP) for some time now, and I have already written several reflective statements. The problem is, I'm not sure if I'm doing them right. We have to answer the question:

How was your understanding of cultural and contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral?

I'm not entirely sure what that means. What I have been doing this whole time is summarize what each interactive oral talked about (i.e. different underlying themes in the text, symbols, etc.). Is this what you are supposed to do to? Because I don't believe I talked about CULTURAL relevance.

Also, how exactly do you present this interactive oral? I know you have to deepen the "cultural understanding" of the text, but I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean. Can I just go ahead and talk about different interpretations of an allegorical text for the entire time (since we're working on Kafka)? Or maybe talk about themes/symbols like some other groups have already done? Or am I missing something?

Thanks!

[epaps7]

In my class we discussed the cultural aspects of the setting in which our novels took place in and how they impacted on our understanding of the novel.

For example, we studied Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold and in this there were many ideas brought up regarding the latin honour system, social expectations and gender roles, etc.

So in your reflective statement, try and link the discussion to cultural aspects of the texts and how understanding them through the interactive oral led to your greater understanding of the novel

[ilovepotato]

So for my IO, do I talk about when my text was written, where, and how that might have impacted the plot? because for my particular text (In the Penal Colony by Kafka), it was written in 1914, and that time period might have affected the tone of the story and given a reason to why Kafka wrote it. Is this just what I talk about?

and then can I still consider the different interpretations or themes to the text? because just talking about historical/cultural context won't drag me through the entire 45 minutes.

My teacher was quite vague on this so I'm confused about how to approach it, as you can see

[twilight]

Yes, you can talk about the cultural context of the period at which the text was written in.

And yes, you can talk about the different interpretations and various themes. It doesn't really matter if you talk about other things because the reflective statement is only 300 words (if I remember correctly) so you have to exercise your judgement on what to include and what not to include in the reflective statement.

From what I do in my school, the main thing is to ensure that in the reflective statement, you write about how the interactive oral has enhanced your understanding about the text.

Edited March 11, 2013 by twilight

[Imogen Smith]

Hey, my understanding was (from the IBs overview) that the interactive oral is ALL about the context of the book, rather than detailed analysis the book's content (that isn't related to context). I know the two are intertwined, but symbols, for example, aren't something you'd go into a lot in the IOP. We presented a few days ago, on the religious perspectives of the time the book is set, and the time it was written- and society today. We did the research about the time, and the links to the text (at least on a deeper level) is what should emerge in the class discussion- you want to get everyone talking remember. SORRY ONLY REALLY GET TO THE POINT HERE: So in your reflection, talk about the what the benefits you found discussing were, and the new relationships you saw between text and context- so not the content of the speeches, but what emerged from the class discussion.

Edited June 9, 2013 by Imogen Smith

[IBfreakingout!]

I haven't yet done an interactive oral in stage 1 IB, (we're about to in a week or so) but I did last year in Pre-IB English so I am sure what im going to say will be relevant.

Well in the Interactive Oral we did not just answer questions about themes and ideas and techniques etc, but we were given about 4 questions out of which the technique was mentioned in only the last question. These were the questions:

1) In what ways do time and place matter to this work? (So where the play or text was set in, how the era affects as well as when the book was written etc.

2)What was easy to understand and what was difficuclt in relation to social and cultural context? (So here it is personal and the different aspects, styles of writing or themes will be brought up but in terms of what you can relate to today and what was very different.

3)What connections did you find between issues in the work and your own culture(s) and experience? (This overlaps with Q-2 but is very cultural based, I remember that coming from Indian background, I could relate to something in the Dolls House..I have forgotten what it was now...and not many others could...majority of others coming from European backgrounds)

4)What aspect of technique are interesting in the work? (So basically the techniques used... )

You can see that these questions break it up further and might be helpful in understanding how to get across the 'Cultural' aspect across. So this is how to present the Interactive Oral... I am not sure how relevant this may be for the Reflective Statement.

[Duck Sized Horse]

Basically the reflective statement is supposed to be the outcome of the interactive oral.

After having studied and read the novel profusely with your class (as I'm sure we all do ) you hold an Interactive Oral and a Supervised Writing.

The interactive oral is a class effort where people ask each other questions and answer them concerning anything that may have caught your interest during the novel (e.g., a passage, a recurring theme or motif etc...). After the interactive oral, the IB assumes that since everybody develops a different understand of a book, yours will be enhanced. This is why they ask you to write a relfective statement.

In the reflective statement they want you to express how your "knowledge and understanding" have developed. This means you state what you though when you first read the book. Then how some discussions in your class developed that (save some stuff for the end though). Then you talk about how your 2nd time reading the book (even if you didn't) improved your understanding and thoughts about it. Then you explain how the Interactive Oral with your peers gathered information and thoughts of your entire class over one year. These thoughts should also delve into the cultural aspect of the novel (e.g., I did Marquez's Love in the time of Cholera and I talked about how at first I thought it was just a love story and then I noticed the references to European influence etc ...)

The reflective statement is pretty vague but there are some structure aspects to it. This is the best I have on understanding it. Good luck! Hope this helped!