IB
@ PMSS
EMPOWERING PMSS IB STUDENTS
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Studies in Language and Literature (English)
with TOK (Theory of Knowledge)
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English and TOK are a joint course that runs year-round in grade 11, unlike your other IB courses. Class time will alternate between the two subjects according to the pace of each course.
English
Grade 11
Semester One: Part IV Works
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1984 - George Orwell
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The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
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an assortment of short stories by Ernest Hemingway
Internal Assessment - 10 minute Oral Commentary
Semester Two: Part I Works
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Antigone - Sophocles
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A Doll's House - Henrik Ibsen
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Blood Wedding - Federico Garcia Lorca
Internal Assessment - 1200 word Written Assignment
Grade 12
Semester One: Part II Works
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King Lear - William Shakespeare
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The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
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and assortment of poems by Langston Hughes
Internal Assessment - 20 minute Oral Commentary
English 12 Provincial Exam in January
Semester Two: Part III Works
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The Road - Cormac McCarthy
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A Bird in the House - Margaret Laurence
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Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro
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Cathedral - Raymond Carver
External Assessment -
Paper One (Written commentary on one of two unseen
texts)
Paper Two (Essay on two Part III works)
TOK
What is TOK? --> Theory of Knowledge (Epistemology): What is knowledge? How do we acquire knowledge?
Grade 11
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Introduction to the Ways of Knowing (WOKs): Language, Perception, Reason, Emotion
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Introduction to the Areas of Knowledge (AOKs): Math, History, Art, Natural Science, Human Science, Ethics, Religion (introduced through group presentations)
Grade 12
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TOK Presentation (group or individual, 30 minutes): taking a real-life situation and investigating it in the context of a knowledge issue
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TOK Paper (1200-1600 words): response to a prompt
what do you do?
We read novels, plays, poetry and short stories on just about everything, and then we analyze them to death. This includes looking at literary devices used by the writer, why they use these devices, the effects of these devices on the work and on the audience, and the themes that arise in each of the works. So, basically, we read, write, and talk about life.
what's it like?
English is pretty much an extension of TOK. It’s a much more relaxed environment than most of the other IB courses (unless, of course, you’re being picked on to discuss the work or answer a question about it). In many ways, English is both the easiest and the hardest course in IB because while all you really have to do is read and write stuff, your critical thinking skills and communication skills are put to the test.
what do you do?
We study the WOKs and the AOKs. We examine their strengths, weaknesses and relationships with each other. We discuss and debate about how we know things through the WOKs and the AOKs and to what extent we truly know them.
what's it like?
TOK is probably the most convoluted, confusing, complicated, and contradictory class you will ever take, and it is also the most fun you will ever have. A whole course about how we don’t actually know anything: it can’t get much better than that! TOK will question your knowledge, your opinions, your paradigm, your ethics and the very fact that you even exist. Our best advice is get ready for your mind to equal blown.
