Introduction

AREAS OF EXPLORATION

The study of language & literature and the development of the relevant skills, is divided into three areas of exploration—the exploration of the nature of the interactions between readers, writers and texts; the exploration of how texts interact with time and space and the exploration of intertextuality and how texts connect with each other. 

1: Readers, writers and texts:

This investigation involves close attention to the details of texts in a variety of types and literary forms so that students learn about the choices made by creators and the ways in which meaning is communicated through words, image, and sound. At the same time, study will focus on the role receivers play in generating meaning as students move from personal response to understanding and interpretation influenced by the classroom community. Students will learn to understand the creativity of language, the relationship between language and thought and the aesthetic nature of literature. Students will see that texts are powerful means to express individual thoughts and feelings, and that their own perspectives as experienced users of language are integral to the effect and success of a communicative act.

• Students should become confident in recognising key rhetorical features and how they create or affect meaning.

• A variety of Non-literary and literary texts will be covered to offer a broad sense of stylistic, rhetorical and literary elements.

1. Guiding questions to consider in this area of exploration are:

2. Why and how do we study language and literature?

3. How are we affected by texts in various ways?

4. In what ways is meaning constructed, negotiated, expressed and interpreted?

5. How does language use vary amongst text types and amongst literary forms?

6. How does the structure or style of a text affect meaning?

7. How do texts offer insights and challenges?

2: Time and Space:

This area explores the variety of cultural contexts in which texts are produced and read across time and space as well as the ways texts themselves reflect or refract the world at large. Students will examine how cultural conditions can affect language and how these conditions are a product of language. Students will also consider the ways culture and identity influence reception.

The background of an author and the make-up of an audience are not necessarily clear or easily described. Texts are situated in specific contexts and deal with or represent social, political and cultural concerns particular to a given time and place. For example, a text written to address the concerns of an author in contemporary society can be set in ancient times.

This area should allow students to explore texts and issues from a variety of places, cultures and/or times. 

Time and space aims to broaden student understanding of the open, cosmopolitan nature of texts ranging from advertisements to poems by considering the following guiding conceptual questions:

1. How important is cultural or historical context to the production and reception of a text?

2. How do we approach texts from different times and cultures to our own?

3. To what extent do texts offer insight into another culture?

4. How does the meaning and impact of a text change over time?

5. How do texts reflect, represent or form a part of cultural practices?

6. How does language represent social distinctions and identities? 

3: Intertextuality:

This area explores the connections between and among media, text and audience involving diverse traditions and ideas. It focuses on the comparative study of texts so that students may gain deeper appreciation of both unique characteristics of individual texts and complex systems of connection. Students will be able to see similarities and differences among diverse texts. Students will gain an awareness of how texts can provide critical lenses to reading other texts and of how they can support a text's interpretation by expanding on it.

This area gives students a sense of the ways in which texts exist in a system of relationships with other communicative acts past and present. 

1. How do texts adhere to and deviate from conventions associated with literary forms or text types?

2. How do conventions and systems of reference evolve over time?

3. In what ways can diverse texts share points of similarity?

4. How valid is the notion of a classic text?

5. How can texts offer multiple perspectives of a single issue, topic or theme?

6. In what ways can comparison and interpretation be transformative? 

Standard Level and Higher Level Distinctions

The course is very similar for both levels. The primary differences are quantitative and qualitative (amount of work and depth of analysis).

• SL students cover 4 literary works

• HL students cover 6 literary works

• Paper 1 - SL analyse 1 text out of 2. HL analyse 2 texts out of 2.

• Paper 2 - SL compare 2 texts -1 question. HL Compare 2/3 texts -1 question.

• Internal Oral Commentary (IOC) - Same for both SL/HL - 15 Minutes

• HL have 4th Assessment - The HL Essay. 1200/1500 word essay (coursework)

Works 

A work in this subject is defined by the IB as 1 single text. For example, a novel, autobiography, biography, 2 short literary texts or 'novellas', 5-6 short stories, 5-8 essays, 10-15 letters, 15-20 shorter poems - they must be by the same author.

Standard Level must cover 4 works

• SL 1 written in original language (English) on the PRL list  - HL 2

• 1 translated work on the PRL list - HL 2

• 2 free choice works - HL 2

• At SL these works must cover:

• 2 literary forms - Drama/Poetry/Prose-fiction/Prose-non fiction

• 2 periods (Centuries the author lived)

• 2 places (continents an author was from)

Example 1: F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (Free Choice,. Language-English, Country-USA, Prose-Fiction, Period- 20th Century)

Example 2: Alfred Lord Tennyson: Poetry (Free Choice,. Language-English, Country-UK, Poetry, Period- 19th Century)

Example 3: Bernard Schlink: The Reader (PRL,. Language-Translated, Country-Germany, Prose-Fiction, Period- 21st Century)

Example 4: Arthur Miller: The Crucible (PRL. Language-English, Country-USA, Drama, Period- 20th Century)

Higher Level 6 works to cover

• HL 2 written in original language (English) on the PRL list 

• 2 translated work on the PRL list

• 2 free choice works

• At HL these works must cover:

• 3 literary forms - Drama/Poetry/Prose-fiction/Prose-non fiction

• 3 periods (Centuries the author lived)

• 3 places (at least 2 continents an author was from)

Example 1: The Great Gatsby: F Scott Fitzgerald (Free Choice,. Language-English, Country-USA, Prose-Fiction, Period- 20th Century)

Example 2: Alfred Lord Tennyson: Poetry (Free Choice,. Language-English, Country-UK, Poetry, Period- 19th Century)

Example 3: Bernard Schlink: The Reader (PRL,. Language-Translated, Country-Germany, Prose-Fiction, Period- 21st Century)

Example 4: Arthur Miller: The Crucible (PRL. Language-English, Country-USA, Drama, Period- 20th Century)

Example 5: Margaret Atwood: The Handmaidens Tale (PRL. Language-English, Country-Canada, Prose-Fiction, Period- 20th Century)

Example 6: Primo Levi :Survival In Auschwitz (PRL, Language: Translated, Country-Italy, Prose-Non Fiction, Period 20th Century)

Non_literary Texts

Consist of Adverts, Parody, Appeal, Film/TV, Biography, Guidebook, Photo, Blog, Infographic, Radio, Brochure, Interview, Report, Cartoon, Letter, Screenplay, Speech, Memoir and Magazine.