IB Language and Literature HL Year 1 & 2

Grade Levels: 11th and 12th

Credit: 2 English Credits (11), 2 English Credits (12)

2-year, 5-day per week course

IB Lang/Lit HL Year 1 is the first year of a two-year course, with prescribed syllabus topics spread across the four semesters. ThecourseisdesignedtohelpstudentsbesuccessfulontheIBLanguageandLiteratureexamattheend of the second year. In year one, students will read and discuss fictional and nonfictional texts from a variety of genres. Students will consider how language affects our perception of gender and race, engage in critical literary analysis of novels and a drama, and conduct rhetorical analysis. They will recognize how meaning is generated by the particular context of a text’s production and reception. At the conclusion of the junior year, students will complete their Internal Assessment- an Oral for which they are required to plan, research, present and discuss an analysis of the relationship between an international issue of the students’ choice. If a student does not complete the oral at the end of their Junior Year, they will not be eligible to register for the IB Exam or an IB Diploma.

In year two students no matter what class they end up in, students will select topics for, and research and write essays that explore how authors create meaning in literary or non-literary texts, and discuss the effects of author’s choices. Some but not all of these courses will be on offer each year.

Comedy and Satire

Laughter can expose our flaws, bring us together, or spark a revolution. Laughter can unveil truths, remind us of our humanity, or cast us down in shame. How writers and creators induce laughter, and how they use laughter to achieve their aims, is the central question of this course. Students will explore the role of comedy in a variety of text types including plays, novels, how-to guide, satirical new articles, cartoons, movies, blogs and more. We will use these texts to unpack what makes us laugh and how humor can serve both to uphold social norms and to undermine authority.

Possible Texts Include: Family Guy, Black Nerd Problems, Hamilton, Tartuffe, Get Out, Parasite, Sorry to Bother You, Lefty Cartoons, The Onion, Reductress, Very Smart Brothas, How To Be Black

Dystopia, Apocalypse, and Disasters

How do authors depict the apocalypse? Have we lived through the apocalypse before? Why are authors so obsessed with exploring terrible futures? In this course we will explore apocalyptic visions of the future and present reality. We will think about how fantasy, science fiction and more, interact with identity to pose apocalyptic realities and futures and reveal the faults of our present reality.

Possible Texts Include: The Handmaid’s Tale, Kindred, Parable of the Sower, The Memory Police, Urgur Gallenkus, 1984, Wall-E, The Matrix, News Coverage of War, V For Vendetta, Maus, Watchmen, Persepolis, Roboapocalypse, Salvage the Bones

Fear, Haunting, and the Supernatural

Why are we so obsessed with what haunts us? In what ways do our fantasies reveal in our realities? In this course, we will explore the magical world of speculative fiction, where anything goes! We will consider how horror, magical realism, fantasy, and more illustrates the greater truths about society and human nature.

Possible Texts Include: Macbeth, The Haunting of Hill House, Mexican Gothic, The House of the Spirits, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wuthering Heights, Dracula, A Christmas Carol, Kindred, Beloved, Get Out, Pan’s Labyrinth, Volver, Angels in America, Utagawa Kuniyoshi art, Spirited Away, Phoebe Bridgers, Supernatural Music

Murder Most Foul

Death is a part of life- but what happens when a life is cut short via murder? Why are we so interested in murder? This course will explore texts where murders have happened, and in some way are important to the text. Murder is more than true crime and detective stories- we will look at murder in various contexts.

Possible Texts Include: The Lost Honor of Katherina Blum, Othello, My Sister the Serial Killer, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, In Cold Blood, Death on the Nile, Law & Order, Lovely Bones, The Far Side, Sweeny Todd, News Coverage of Murder in Newspapers, Vietnam War News Coverage