English B

for the IB Diploma

Teacher’s Resource

Anne Farrell and Brad Philpot

Cambridge University Press’s mission is to advance learning, knowledge and research worldwide.

Our IB Diploma resources aim to:

encourage learners to explore concepts, ideas and topics that have local and global signiﬁcance

help students develop a positive attitude to learning in preparation for higher education

assist students in approaching complex questions, applying critical-thinking skills and forming reasoned answers.

Introduction to the IB English B Teacher’s Book

The aim of this Teacher’s Book is to support busy teachers in delivering their IB English course and in their use of the coursebook. Your particular school context, the language level of the students in your class and your own experience with the IB programme are just a few of the factors which will affect your course plan. The hope is that the Teacher’s Book will save you time in your planning and help you incorporate all facets of the IB curriculum into your English language acquisition classes.

The Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma is a complete course for SL and HL students studying English in Group Two. It is fully in line with the IB curriculum, incorporating the new syllabus and assessments for first teaching in 2018, first examinations in 2020.

As an IB teacher you have access to the IB webpage, ‘My IB’. You get your login information from your school’s IB co-ordinator and can open the DP Programme Resource Centre. There you can find the Diploma Programme Language B Guide and the Teacher Support Material, which give detailed information about syllabus and assessment. If you look at the Introduction to English B for the IB Diploma you will find a summary and simple explanation intended for students.

Key features that you will find in the Teacher’s Book

Schemes of work for the thematic units in the coursebook. These include the guiding questions and learning objectives for the unit. They also indicate where the coursebook contains links to the IB diploma core: Extended Essay (EE), Theory of Knowledge (TOK) and Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS). The IB encourages teachers to make connections for their students to these parts of an IB education, encouraging them to see beyond the classroom and extend their learning. The Teacher Resource suggests ways of integrating the core into your classes and also includes references to the Learner Profile, Approaches to Learning and, especially, Approaches to Teaching.

Proposals for how you might group the activities in a unit into a number of lessons. These are intended to indicate how the various texts and activities are connected so that you can form them into coherent lessons and homework assignments. They also suggest additional resources for use in class and further reading for teachers.

Teaching notes for each activity in a unit. The instructions in the coursebook are directed at students. The notes in the Teacher Resource give more detail; they provide support for each activity, clarify links to IB assessment components and point out connections between activities in the unit. In addition, you will find suggestions for differentiating tasks to meet the needs of less fluent students, and alternative ideas for video activities where access to online video may not be available.

Full answers to activities are provided, where appropriate, with indicative responses for more open tasks.

The teaching notes reference the IB document: Approaches to Teaching, which can be found online (‘My IB’) in the DP Programme Resource Centre. It presents six pedagogical principles that form the foundation for an IB education. The expectation is that teaching in all subject areas is:

based on inquiry

focused on conceptual understanding

developed in local and global contexts

focused on effective team work and collaboration

differentiated to meet the needs of all learners

informed by assessment (formative and summative)

The activities in the coursebook model how these principles can be applied to the work in language acquisition classes.

Transcripts of audio tracks from the Listening section in each unit as well as the mock Paper 2: Receptive skills – listening at SL and HL (Chapter 8).

A glossary of all the key terms in the word bank features at the start of each unit, including a full definition and page reference for every term.

Using online video content for language development

Each unit in Chapters 1–5 has a ‘Watch and listen’ section with skill development activities relating to online videos and audio recordings. Although there was some discussion during the IB curriculum review of using video clips for Paper 2: receptive skills – listening, it was decided that audio recordings would be sufficient. Therefore, including video in your English B course is an option rather than a requirement. Of course there are advantages to using short video clips with language learners. They engage the students, plus the visual component provides context and supporting images which help listening comprehension. The videos selected for each unit in the coursebook present viewpoints on the specific topic. The activities are designed to develop vocabulary and invite students to compare their own opinions with those expressed in the videos. The overall goal is to stimulate ideas and create an authentic reason for students to practise interactive skills.

However, in some situations it might be difficult to access online videos and, over time, resources available on the internet may change. For these reasons the teacher’s notes suggest ways to adapt the activities in the ‘Watch and listen’ sections in each unit. Keep in mind your objective of helping students explore a topic and develop the language they will need in order to talk about their own opinions and those of others.

In addition, it’s worth exploring other ways of obtaining video resources for your classroom. Here are a few suggestions:

Other academic departments in your school may have DVDs which link to the prescribed IB themes. Perhaps your school library has a collection of documentary films. If they aren’t in English you might be able to turn on subtitles in English so your students can watch a short clip without sound.

You could contact other English teachers in your area and find out what video resources they use in their language acquisition classrooms. If you have regional meetings for IB teachers you could bring up the idea of sharing resources.

Popular movies in English and films of literary texts might be easier to obtain. Look at the way the activities in the coursebook use the techniques of pre-teaching vocabulary, predicting content and expressing opinions prior to watching a short section of film. You could design the same kind of exercises and substitute your own video clip for that proposed in the coursebook.

Perhaps you could persuade English-speaking friends or colleagues to video record themselves talking about the topic in a unit you are studying. The advantage of a recording over a live chat is that your students can replay as needed to catch the meaning.

Finally, it’s worth remembering the IB emphasis on students taking responsibility for their own learning. Both the Learner Profile and the document Approaches to Learning draw attention to characteristics of collaboration and initiative. Involving students in the search for appropriate videos, the choosing of short sections for study and the designing of activities can be a very successful way to deal with challenges of access to the specific online videos used in the Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma.

Language Acquisition in the IB diploma programme

The English B course is focused very much on communication skills – receptive, productive and interactive. In order to develop these competencies the syllabus is comprised of four aspects: themes, texts, concepts and language. Each of these aspects is fully integrated into the Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma as you can see in the following overview:

IB syllabus content

Themes for Language B

Here is how the Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma coursebook conforms to the five IB prescribed themes:

The five IB prescribed themes for Language B
The topics in the Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma coursebook

Chapter 1
Identities
Unit 1: Citizens of the world

Unit 2: Belief and identity

Unit 3: Beauty and health

Chapter 2
Experiences
Unit 1: Pilgrimage

Unit 2: Extreme sports

Unit 3: Migration

Chapter 3
Human ingenuity
Unit 1: Future humans

Unit 2: Technology and human interaction

Unit 3: Redefining art

Chapter 4
Social organisations
Unit 1: Minorities and education

Unit 2: Partners for life

Unit 3: The future of jobs

Chapter 5
Sharing the planet
Unit 1: Ending poverty

Unit 2: Climate change

Unit 3: Power to the people

The coursebook also contains four chapters dedicated to exam preparation:

Chapter 6 | Exploring text types.
Chapter 7 | Paper 1
Chapter 8 | Paper 2
Chapter 9 | The individual oral

Text types

IB defines a text as “anything from which information can be extracted, including oral, written and visual materials” (Language B Guide). The texts in the coursebook are authentic and from a variety of cultures where English is spoken. They conform to the personal, professional and mass media categories stipulated in the Language B Guide. All are linked to activities designed to help students explore how meaning is conveyed. Experience with the written texts develops skills needed for success in Paper 2: Receptive skills – reading. The video and audio tracks (referred to by IB as ‘oral texts’) build competence for the listening section of Paper 2. These receptive skills require students to consider the five concepts and reflect on differences between the way texts are constructed in their first language and English.

In addition, Chapter 6 examines nine specific types of text in greater detail, with models, lists of key features and activities designed to draw attention to the conventions of the genres in English. Using the models as support, students can practise writing their own texts in preparation for the important assessment in Paper 1: Productive skills – writing.

At higher level students study two literary works, not from the perspective of literary analysis but rather as a way of going deeper into aspects of the culture and discovering the attitudes and experiences of people in English-speaking countries. Accordingly, the coursebook contains extracts from several literary texts with activities which function as skill-building exercises that can be applied to complete literary works which you will select for your course.

Concepts

One of the major changes to come out of the curriculum review completed in 2017 was the addition of conceptual understanding to the Language B Guide. The five concepts – Audience, Context, Purpose, Meaning and Variation – are described as fundamental to successful communication. You’ll find that the coursebook refers frequently to these syllabus concepts both in receptive and productive activities. As you use the Teacher Resource you’ll notice that it includes additional notes clarifying how activities in the coursebook relate to these five essential conceptual understandings.

Language

Students who take the English B course will already have some experience in using the language. The degree to which they can communicate will vary with the individual and the context in which you are teaching. In terms of study of the mechanics of the language, English B focuses on development of interactive skills and learning how to adapt language to fit context and audience, rather than introduction of grammatical forms for their own sake. The Teacher Support Material states that grammar should be taught in context with the purpose of enhancing communication, not as an end in itself. Of course, you will likely need to set aside time for teaching of problem structures and correcting errors, as needed by your particular students. In the coursebook, each unit contains a ‘Form and meaning’ section which highlights a specific structure in one of the written texts. Practice exercises are included so that students can extend their language skills.

Structuring your English B course while using the coursebook

The Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma coursebook follows the IB Principles of course design and Best practices in language acquisition instruction (Teacher Support Material). The essential principles to bear in mind when designing an IB language acquisition course are variety of activities, integration of skills and transparency of assessment. The coursebook demonstrates ways in which this can be achieved. The units within a chapter follow the same structure of communication skills so they are easier to navigate. Each unit can stand alone as three or four weeks of classwork, depending on such factors as how many students you have, how much homework you assign or how much time you allocate for discussions. The way you use the coursebook might vary with the stage of the two-year course.

You might choose to use a complete chapter, exploring each of the three units sequentially. In this way you complete one IB prescribed theme and practise all of the receptive and productive skills.

Alternatively you could take a cyclical approach, selecting a thematic chapter, working with one unit and then moving to another theme. Later in your course you could return to the earlier theme and study a different unit in that chapter.

You are encouraged to adapt the units and include your own materials on a topic that engages your students in deeper exploration and research.

You can even select a single text and the associated activities and use them without studying the complete unit. For instance, if you are preparing a second-year class for Paper 2: Receptive skills – listening, you could use the audio tracks and listening activities from units in the coursebook which you have not studied with the class. The materials are authentic and specifically designed to develop skills which will be assessed in Paper 2.

How does the coursebook prepare students for the IB assessments?

There are three assessment components at both SL and HL. Two are externally assessed during the final examination session (May for the northern hemisphere or November for schools in the southern hemisphere). These are titled: Paper 1: Productive skills – writing and Paper 2: Receptive skills, with separate sections for listening and reading. Candidates around the world take the same exam papers on the same day, which is set by the IB Curriculum and Assessment Centre (IBCA). Examination scripts are sent to IB examiners who will use the same set of assessment criteria as you will use in your classes.

The third component is the individual oral assessment, which is marked by you, the classroom teacher. Explanation about how this is to be handled can be found below.

The design of the English B for the IB Diploma coursebook carefully creates practice for the assessment components in every chapter. As you can see in the following table, each unit in Chapters 1 to 5 is divided into sections which correspond to the skill development needed for success in the assessment tasks.

Each unit in the coursebook opens with a statement of learning objectives and guiding questions so that students clearly understand the goals that you are setting for them. The Teacher Resource contains a summary of the same information in the notes for each unit

Each unit is divided into the following sections:
The communication skills addressed in each section:
The link to the IB assessment:

Getting started
Vocabulary development through a word bank.

Questions and activities to stimulate curiosity and activate prior knowledge.

All assessments – productive and receptive

Watch and listen
Receptive skills: listening using video and audio recordings. The transcripts for the audio tracks are provided in the Teacher Resource.
Paper 2: Listening

Exploring texts
Receptive skills: text-handling of authentic texts.
Paper 2: Reading

Form and meaning
Language development: focused on phrases and sentences in the authentic texts.
All assessments

Discussion
Interactive skills: presentations, debates, collaborative activities.
Individual oral: SL and HL

Writing
Productive skills: practice in creating texts in the specified categories of personal, professional and mass media.
Paper 1: Writing

Higher level extension
Receptive and productive skills: further texts and activities.

IB recommends that HL students receive 240 hours of instruction, whereas SL students should have 150 hours of class over the two-year course.

All assessments at a more advanced level than SL

Literature
Receptive and productive skills. The coursebook provides extracts from literary works. The activities develop the students’ ability to analyse and discuss the content of the passages.

Study of complete literary works is not part of the syllabus for SL students so it is not part of the assessment.

Oral exam: HL only, a 3–4 minute presentation

The teacher’s role in internal assessment

Your role as a DP English B teacher includes conducting and assessing the individual oral exam – hence the term ‘internal assessment’. It can be somewhat intimidating to be responsible for 25% of a student’s final IB grade. For this reason, the instructions in the Language B Guide explain the process in great detail. If you’re new to IB you also need to know that the system of moderation of teachers’ marks is not intended to further intimidate you; it is simply a system designed to produce parity and correct any deviation from the IB standard. In addition to the Guide you should look at the Teacher Support Material (online at ‘My IB’) which has recordings of sample exams with comments and marks from an IB moderator.

If you are an experienced IB teacher you probably know that the IB curriculum review led to a number of changes in the system of assessing a student’s oral skills The Language B Guide (first examinations 2020) sets out the new protocols. In summary:

You have the freedom to decide when you will schedule the IB oral exams. However, they should happen in the second year of the course and must be completed before the IB deadline for submission of marks, generally mid-March for the northern hemisphere exam session and mid-September for the southern hemisphere exam session.

For SL oral exams you select photographs related to the topics which you have studied in your class and label each with the IB prescribed theme. The coursebook contains a range of photographs associated with the IB themes which you can use for practice exercises.

For HL oral exams you choose several extracts (each should be about 300 words) from the literary works studied in class. You’ll find that each unit of English B for the IB Diploma has a Literature section containing extracts and activities which help students understand how to talk about a literary passage in an IB English B exam.

On the day of the oral exam students are given a choice of two stimuli. They select one and prepare a short presentation. After the preparation time (15 minutes for SL and 20 for HL), the first part of the exam is the presentation which should last 3–4 minutes.

Parts two and three of the exam, for a total of approximately 10 minutes, are intended to be interactive with the student and the teacher engaged first in a follow-up discussion after the presentation, then in a conversation about a topic that was studied in class. The way you should handle the discussion is explained in the Language B Guide.

Marking the oral exams and the moderation process

If you incorporate regular oral activities into your course throughout the two years, your students will be less intimidated by the final oral exam. The Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma coursebook has practice exercises in each unit. As time for the final oral assessment approaches, you can use Chapter 9 which is dedicated to preparation for the individual oral exam. Unit 9.1 focuses on standard level and Unit 9.2 on higher level.

Another advantage of practising the oral exams is that you’ll become familiar with the assessment criteria (new for first exams in 2020) and skilled at the system of ‘best-fit’ when awarding marks. When teachers are consistent with the way they apply marks in the oral exams any adjustments can be easily made during the moderation process. You make an audio recording of each oral exam then enter your marks on the secure webpage, IBIS. Once this is completed, your IB co-ordinator will be able to access information about which recordings (with the images/literary extracts) you will upload on IBIS as a sample of your marking. These sample recordings are marked a second time by a moderator. If necessary, marks for all of your students are adjusted up or down. You will get some feedback on your marking a few weeks after the IB exam session is completed so that you’ll know if you were too generous or strict in your application of the assessment criteria.

The assessment criteria are in the Language B Guide and in the English B for the IB Diploma coursebook. It’s important that students also become familiar with the criteria. In fact, transparency about all assessments is central to the IB philosophy. The units in each of the thematic chapters (1 to 5) in the coursebook include activities which set students to mark their own oral exercises, as well as those of peers. In addition, as you prepare your classes for the final IB oral exam, you can refer to Chapter 9: The individual oral. It contains audio tracks of mock oral exams (SL and HL) with activities in Units 9.1 and 9.2 which guide students through the process so that they can apply what they learn to their own oral exam.

One thing to notice about the oral assessment criteria B2 and C (first exams in 2020) is that they are identical at SL and HL.

Criterion A: Language
Descriptors differ at SL and HL

Criterion B1: Message

SL – stimulus photograph

HL – literary extract

Descriptors differ at SL and HL

Criterion B2:

Message – conversation

The same at SL and HL

Criterion C:

Interactive skills – communication

The same at SL and HL

It’s also interesting to note that in Criterion A: Language, the descriptors in mark band 10–12 at SL (the highest mark band) are almost the same as those in mark band 7–9 at HL, which gives an indication of the extent to which HL students are expected to be more fluent than those at SL. The difference in the recommended number of teaching hours – 240 for HL and 150 for SL – means that students may have similar language competencies at the start of the diploma course but HL candidates will develop greater fluency over the two years.

Literary works for higher level students in your English B course

The study of at least two literary works originally written in English is a requirement of English B higher level. Students are expected to understand the basic elements of the literary works studied, such as themes, plot and characters. However, remember that literary criticism is not the objective. In their DP Group One course, students study literary conventions and explore the stylistic choices of a number of writers. In language B classes your aim is for students to understand and enjoy a literary work in English. You also want them to discover more about the people who speak the language and their cultures. Your purpose is to stimulate students to express ideas and opinions, to generate language. The assessment of this part of the course is in the individual oral exam when students present their ideas about a short extract (referred to by IB as a ‘literary text’) and have a discussion with you about the same passage.

There is no requirement that the literary works come from a prescribed list of authors (as is the case with Group One courses). You have the freedom to choose works which you think your students will enjoy. Here are a few considerations:

Are the topics in the literary works likely to meet the interests of your students and be appropriate for the context of your particular school?

Are the works written at a language level that is accessible to your students? Literature which contains passages of dialect and regional variations of English can be suitable as long as they are not a barrier to the students’ comprehension.

Are the works related to an English-speaking culture? In the spirit of international-mindedness you could choose literary works from countries where English is an official language, such as India, South Africa or Singapore.

How do the works connect to the IB prescribed themes? One of the objectives of literary study in English B is to broaden vocabulary for discussion about these themes and create opportunities for students to continue exploring ideas and expressing opinions about the topics.

The literary works must be originally written in English and they must not be adapted or simplified versions.

Graphic novels are appropriate as long as there are enough literary characteristics (plot and character development, thematic complexity) for the HL oral examination.

Short stories do not have to be by the same author. Depending on length, 7 to 10 short stories can be considered as one literary work.

Poems do not have to be by the same poet. A number of short poems, adding up to about 600 lines, is preferable to a long poem which might be too challenging for a language acquisition class.

Non-fiction works can also be chosen. For instance, the extract from the memoir Wild by Cheryl Strayed is explored in Unit 2.1 in the chapter on the IB theme, Experiences.

Given these parameters you might find that a literary work you have used in your classes no longer fits in an IB course. For example, The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (2005) and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas – John Boyne (2006), both popular in English language learning courses, do not meet the requirement that the work be set in an English-speaking culture. The language acquisition discussion forum on ‘My IB’ often has a thread about literary works which have worked well in English B classrooms. You can find this collaborative forum by going to ‘My IB’ and choosing the Programme Communities button.

The Literature sections in English B for the IB Diploma

Each unit in Chapters 1 to 5 contains extracts from literary works which can be related to one or more of the prescribed IB themes. When you select literary works for your course it is beneficial for the language development of your students if there is an overlap in theme and, perhaps, topic. As well as giving an overall sense of coherence to your course, it creates further opportunities for the students to explore a topic, acquire a broader vocabulary for discussing it and gain insights into the perspectives of people from another culture. Here are the literary works which appear in the thematic chapters of the Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma coursebook, followed by a few suggestions of literary texts which have worked well in English acquisition classrooms.

Chapter 1: Identities

Unit 1: Citizens of the world

Black Boy – Richard Wright (1945)

Unit 2: Belief and identity

A River Runs Through It – Norman Maclean (1976)

Unit 3: Beauty and health

The Diet – Carol Ann Duffy

Suggestions for other literary works related to the theme of identities:

“Master Harold” … and the Boys – Athol Fugard (1982)

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – Sherman Alexie (2007)

Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2006)

How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent – Julia Alvarez (1991)

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk Kidd (2003)

The Namesake – Jhumpa Lahiri (2004)

Immigrant Picnic – Gregory Djanikian (and other poems)

Chapter 2: Experiences

Unit 1: Pilgrimage

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed (2012)

Unit 2: Extreme sports

Karoo Boy – Troy Blacklaws (2004)

Unit 3: Migration

House of Sand and Fog – Andre Dubus III (1999)

Suggestions for other literary works related to the theme of experiences:

A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain – Olen Butler (1992 short stories)

Self Help for Fellow Refugees – Li-Young Lee (2012 poem)

The House on Mango Street – Sandra Cisneros (1984)

Room – Emma Donoghue (2010) see Text 6.4 in coursebook

The Secret Side of Empty – Maria Andreu (2015)

A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson (1998)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky (2012)

Chapter 3: Human ingenuity

Unit 1: Future humans

Ender’s Game – Orson Scott Card (1985)

Unit 2: Technology and human interaction

Us and Them – David Sedaris (2004)

Unit 3: Redefining art

Introduction to Poetry – Billy Collins

Suggestions for other literary works related to the theme of human ingenuity:

Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury (1953)

The Road – Cormac McCarthy (2006) see Text 6.5 in coursebook

The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins (2008)

The Giver – Lois Lowry (1993)

Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood (2003)

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro (2005)

Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterly (2016)

Chapter 4: Social organisation

Unit 1: Minorities and education

Studies in the Park – Anita Desai (1978)

Unit 2: Partners for life

Defining Moments – Isobel Harwood (2012)

Unit 3: The future of jobs

The Metamorphosis – Franz Kafka (1915) (translated text)

Suggestions for other literary works related to the theme of social organisation:

Follow the Rabbit-proof Fence – Doris Pilkington (1996)

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time – Mark Haddon (2003)

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou (1969)

The Help – Kathryn Stockett (2011)

The Fault in our Stars – John Greene (2012)

Mr Pip – Lloyd Jones (2006)

Chapter 5: Sharing the planet

Unit 1: Ending poverty

Untouchable – Mulk Raj Anand (1935)

Unit 2: Climate change

The Lake – Roger McGough

Unit 3: Power to the people

Blowin’ in the Wind – Bob Dylan

Suggestions for other literary works related to the theme of sharing the planet:

The Carbon Diaries 2015 – Saci Llyod (2011)

Girl in Translation – Jean Kwok (2011)

The Book of Unknown Americans – Christina Enriquez (2015)

The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears – Dinaw Mengestu (2008)

All Summer in a Day – Ray Bradbury

In conclusion, the IB English B course is not a rigid set of requirements; rather it invites teachers and students to engage in genuine communication about topics that are relevant and thought-provoking. The way you use the Cambridge English B for the IB Diploma, the order in which you approach the prescribed themes and the additional materials you create, will be unique to your own classroom. However, as an IB teacher you are not isolated; you become part of an international community of educators meeting face-to-face at national and regional conferences, at IB workshops and online in the discussion forums. We hope the Cambridge materials support and inspire you in your work as you prepare your students for the diploma programme assessments.

1 Identities

‘Identities’, as a prescribed topic for Language B, provides students with an opportunity to discover their interests, values, beliefs and culture. While the coursebook is largely organised around classroom engagement and group activities, students should be encouraged to feel ownership of their learning. This chapter on identities can help create a ‘student-centred’ approach to learning English. The idea being that their motivation to learn the language increases as they have the chance to talk about who they are and who they want to become.

The IB’s ‘guiding principle’ for this prescribed topic is “to explore the nature of the self and what it is to be human”. The ‘optional recommended topics’ from the subject guide have been translated into three meaningful units for students in this chapter.

Identities

Optional recommended topics (IB)
Chapter 1 units in coursebook

lifestyles

health and wellbeing

beliefs and values

subcultures

language and identity

1.1 Citizens of the world

1.2 Belief and identity

1.3 Beauty and health

As you can see, the units in the coursebook are loosely related to the IB’s recommended topics. As your students’ teacher, you are encouraged to create your own units on ‘identities’ within the scope of the IB’s recommendations. You can take inspiration from the coursebook, your colleagues, students or anything in your everyday life. For each unit on ‘identities’, it is important to give it an angle or perspective. Concrete, real-life situations and current texts are essential in making any unit meaningful.

Furthermore, in the spirit of inquiry-based learning, students should be trying to answer guiding questions. While they should think of their own guiding questions, the IB and this coursebook have provided you and your students with a few questions to steer learning in a certain direction. As you can see from both the IB’s and the coursebook’s questions below, students are encouraged to develop international-mindedness as they explore the topic of ‘identities’.

Identities

Possible questions (IB)
Guiding questions by unit

What constitutes an identity?

How do we express our identity?

What ideas and images do we associate with a healthy lifestyle?

How do language and culture contribute to form our identity?

1.1 Where are you from? Where do you fit into a globalised world?

1.2 To what extent is your identity defined by what you believe? What do you believe? Where do your beliefs come from?

1.3 To what extent is your definition of beauty influenced by mass media?

Scheme of work for Chapter 1

Unit 1.1
Citizens of the world

Unit 1.1: Identities: Citizens of the world

In this unit students will explore how individual identities are shaped by the diverse cultures in which we are raised.

Learning objectives

Develop an understanding of international-mindedness.

To use language effectively to explore the topic of globalisation.

To develop appropriate language skills to discuss and express your identity.

Language focus

Form and meaning: present tenses

Guiding questions

What does it mean to be a ‘citizen of the world’?

How do you develop your sense of identity in a globalised world?

What kinds of experiences have contributed to your sense of identity?

Resources referred to in the activities

Taiye Selasi: don’t ask me where I’m from; ask where I’m a local. (TED.com video)

Audio track 1: speech on ‘Identity in a globalised world’

Transcript of Audio track 1

Additional resources

Yanko Tsvetkov, “Alphadesigner” – maps of stereotypes

The Gods must be Crazy (film) 1980 comedy about culture shock

Nike just came out with its first ever athletic hijab Huffpost. 5th Dec 2017

Further reading

The Culture Map by Erin Meyer

Beyond Culture Edward T. Hall

Geert Hofstede’s work on cultural dimensions

Learner English Michael Swan and Bernard Smith (eds)

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons.

Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework.

Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Stereotypes and identity. Activities 1.1 to 1.4 discovery and discussion.

Watch a Ted Talk video by Taiye Selasi. Activities 1.5 and 1.6.

Complete the lesson with Activity 1.7.

Lesson 2

Audio track 1. Globalisation. Activities 1.8 to 1.11.

Lesson 3

Text 1.1 Living abroad. Activities 1.12 to 1.16.

Form and meaning. Activities 1.17 and 1.19.

Lesson 4

Text 1.2. A blog post. Review of grammar focus from previous lesson by analysing verbs in the text. Activity 1.20.

Discussion of student reactions to statements made by the author of the text. Activity 1.21.

Discussion comparing two cultures using Hall’s iceberg theory. Activity 1.22.

Lesson 5

Activity 1.23. Same photograph, different captions. Discussion.

Writing choosing from Activity 1.24 (a letter to the editor) or 1.25 (a blog post).

Lesson 6 (higher level extension)

Discussion linking the topic to the IB mission statement. Activities 1.26 and 1.27. in preparation for reading Text 1.3. Activities 1.28 and 1.29.

Concluding the lesson by talking about personal experience. Activity 1.30.

Lesson 7 (literature)

Text 1.4 Preparation for reading an extract from Black Boy. Activities 1.31 and 1.32. The Learner Profile applied to the main character. Activity 1.33.

The context of the novel (1920s American South).

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 1.1

This is a variation on an information gap activity, perfect for ‘breaking the ice’ at the start of the year. Make sure the students don’t write their names on the papers they hand to you. If the students already know each other you might want to skip questions a–b. Write the countries from the papers they give you in an alphabetical list on the worksheet.

Activities 1.2 and 1.3

The objective of these two activities is to let students discover the associations – and stereotypes – they hold about different countries. The simplest way to organise things is by getting students to write down the first thing that comes to their mind as you read each country from the worksheet. Then, depending on the number of students, they add their association to the table on the whiteboard. It would look like this:

| Student 1 | Student 2 | Student 3 …
Country 1 | association | association | association
Country 2 | association | association | association

Teaching idea

With a larger group of students you could create a gallery walk, in which large sheets of paper are attached to the classroom walls and labelled with the names of countries from your list. Students circulate, adding their associations to the poster. It’s likely to create some surprise and hilarity as they see what their peers have added, which perfectly sets up the discussion on stereotypes.

If you start with the map in the EXTRA box, the discussion would begin by trying to identify which countries are labelled with the stereotypes. If these same countries came up in Activity 1.1, then a comparison with the class associations would be interesting. Question c gets to the essence of the topic: How do stereotypes originate? Encourage students to go deeper than simply ‘the media’. For instance, do they mean ads or TV shows or movies? Can they give specific examples?

ATT

One of the pedagogical principles of the IB approach to teaching and learning is that of Inquiry. In fact, it is the first characteristic of the Learner Profile. Designing lessons around questions such as the ones proposed in the coursebook will lead to students generating their own questions and, through that, a genuine need for language development.

Activity 1.4

This exercise asks students to create a mind map around the word ‘identity’. You could draw one mind map on the board as students propose aspects they feel are important to identity. Alternatively, it would work as a quick, small group exercise with one student adding the identifying characteristics suggested by the group to a large sheet of paper. It could look like this:

Comparison with the mind maps of other groups gives further insight into how individuals see various aspects as important to their identity.

The coursebook has quotations from four famous people (Barak Obama, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein and Nelson Mandela). Students should notice which aspects of their mind map the quotations emphasise. Additionally, they should consider in what ways the speakers have identified with the countries they are from.

Teaching idea

If you are working with students who are less fluent in English, a simple homework exercise could be to ask them to prepare a few statements about themselves, similar to the quotations from the famous people. If posted anonymously on the classroom noticeboard, peers could try to identify the writer. Students should find it interesting to see how their peers identify themselves.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 1.5

This vocabulary exercise is designed to help with comprehension so it’s best done before watching the video of Taiye Selasi speaking at TED. If they don’t know the answers to all of the questions, you can ask them to leave it unfinished, watch the recording and see if hearing the words in context helps them to complete the exercise.

take away from = remove

to belie = to not quite work

it hit me = the penny finally dropped

fixed point in place and time = a constant

using a short hand = it’s quicker to say

overlap = layers that merge together

at home = familiar

to pass as = to look like

environment = milieu

Activity 1.6

These questions ask the students if they have understood the video and also for their own personal response. There are no ‘correct’ answers to the latter but here are some possible responses to the comprehension questions:

For Selasi, the question, ‘where are you from?’ is very difficult to answer because she has lived in different countries and doesn’t identify with any nation states. ‘Where are you a local?’ is a more relevant question for her, because she feels that different places have shaped her identity.

Selasi describes rituals as the daily activities that one does, such as making coffee or harvesting crops.

Selasi describes relationships that define her identity, and describes the places in which these relationships take place

Selasi describes the restrictions that limit her relationships, travel and experiences such as visas, borders and even racism.

Activity 1.7

This interview activity builds on the ideas about identity that have been explored in the Selasi video. Using a copy of the table, students learn more about each other by focusing on ‘rituals’, ‘relationships’ and ‘restrictions’. There is a logical connection to the TOK feature on this page which asks students if their personal experiences in a local context have shaped who they are.

Teaching idea

If you can’t access the video of Selasi’s TED talk you can still use her thought-provoking comments on identity. Write the title of her TED talk on the board as the theme of your lesson: Don’t ask me where I’m from, ask where I’m a local. You could begin by asking if the statement resonates with anyone in the class. This sets the focus for your students to consider the questions in Activity 1.6. Each question contains a summary of Selasi’s own views which guide the students’ reflection to a deeper level. The link to Theory of Knowledge in the side bar will also stimulate thought about how experience and identity are inter-connected. Your students will then be ready for Activity 1.7. Filling out the table prepares them to articulate how their own life experiences influence how they see themselves and also how others might see them.

Listen

Activity 1.8

This activity asks a few questions to prime students for Audio track 1. These questions are related to globalisation, which is a theme that runs throughout the coursebook. Here are some ideas for use with the five questions:

It will prove valuable to collectively define globalisation, write the definition on a large sheet of paper, posting it in your classroom for future activities.

Furthermore, the activity asks students to think of three main problems in the world. These might include: poverty, social injustices, natural disasters, global warming, disease or any other problems that one single country cannot solve.

The question of giving up one’s national identity in a globalised world is very relevant. Ask students why teenagers all around the world wear jeans and trainers from the same brands. Is this an example of giving up one’s identity?

Customs and values are different. Customs, like rituals, are activities that people do and have done for years, as tradition. These customs may reflect their values, i.e. the intangible ideas that they hold dear.

Activity 1.9

adapt

commence

privilege

adopt

boundaries

aspiration

possess

sacrifice

esteemed

Activity 1.10

eager

identity

third-culture kid

worldly

global warming, terrorism and unemployment

accept

traditions

United Nations, European Union

identity

Activity 1.11

This activity asks students to make one, long meaningful sentence using as many words as possible from Activity 1.10. Students can show creativity in this activity. There are no right or wrong answers, but they should use the words in the right context.

Depending on the sentences they produce, you might take the opportunity to point out the basic sentence structures (simple, compound, complex, compound-complex) and do a review of punctuation. This may also be a good moment to ask if they agree or disagree with the ideas of Audio track 1.

Exploring texts

Activity 1.12

This is a pre-reading activity inviting students to speculate about how they would change if they left their home country and lived abroad. This method of preparing students to investigate a new text is helpful to language learners because it sets a context for their reading and creates curiosity to see if their own ideas are mentioned in the text.

Note: Activity 1.16 asks students to look back at their notes from this exercise

Activity 1.13

In Activity 1.13 make sure that your students study the seven paragraph headings before they begin reading the text. The headings function as a form of summary, giving the students a way into a long text. Depending on the level of your students, you might put them in pairs to support each other.

Answers

The life of a new immigrant – 2

We’re all just human – 6

Adventures in fitting in – 3

The inevitable pep talk – 7

Questions of belonging – 4

10 years of living abroad: How moving to Australia changed my life – 1

Finding myself – 5

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Placing sub-headings in the correct place in a text is a common task on Paper 2: Receptive skills – reading. It requires that students synthesize the content of a section of a text to find the main topic and then choose a heading which summarises it. Point out the Reading Strategy box in the coursebook. The strategies and tips boxes are intended not only to help students handle the work within the unit but also to help them build a set of skills for the final assessments. Chapter 8 provides further insights into Paper 2.

Activity 1.14

Having completed the previous activity, students have an overall comprehension of Text 1.1. This activity asks for close reading with the objective of adding to students’ vocabulary as they search for synonyms.

insincere – superficial

detached – distant

well-mannered – polite

adorn – embellish

timid – shy

slang – jargon

extremists – bigots

obliviousness – ignorance

compassionate – empathetic

excitement – thrill

evidently – apparently

worry about – dwell on

bravery – courage

Activity 1.15

While students may make their own interpretation of the following phrases, they should come up with phrases that are similar to the ones below.

to mind your Ps and Qs.

all the ups and downs

to roll your eyes

to be put into a box

it’s not all rainbows and unicorns

good things never came out of comfort zones

Activity 1.16

This section of Unit 1.1 concludes with a discussion topic intended to provide an opportunity for students to practise some of the vocabulary as they compare the comments made by the writer of Text 1.1 with the ideas they expressed in Activity 1.12.

Form and meaning

Activities 1.17–1.18

Asking students to change roles and become the ‘grammar expert’ can work well if it’s a structure they are familiar with. In the first exercise they have five example sentences from Text 1.2 for each tense and must come up with rules for use of present continuous and present simple verb tenses, Activity 1.18 follows on from this task. By the end of both activities they should have a table that looks like this:

Present simple
Present continuous

a  general statement

d  a state of being

f  something permanent

b  something temporary

c  something happening right now.

e  something annoying

g  something that happens again and again

Activity 1.19

The correct tenses are as follows:

suffer

I’m living

grants

speak

are living

are running

is constantly making

am suffering

find

Teaching idea

Students bring different attitudes to the study of grammar. Some might find it intimidating because of a past association with quizzes and tests; others might enjoy the sense of order and logic in a study of ‘rules’. A new way of approaching grammar in the IB classroom could change attitudes and foster a positive curiosity about the grammar of English. Since students are ‘natural experts’ in the grammar of their first language they can be asked to consider how that language expresses the concepts in the table (Activity 1.18). Does their first language have two present tense forms? The book Learner English by Swan and Smith (eds) is a fascinating resource for information about the ways in which other languages differ from English. It contains analysis of 22 different languages in accessible and easily understood English. You might want to have a copy in your classroom so that students can refer to it when you ask them to become ‘comparative linguists’.

Activity 1.20

Having focused on the importance of tenses in communicating, among other aspects, the speaker’s indication of a situation as either temporary or permanent, this short exercise asks students to apply their understanding to the blog in Text 1.2. The penultimate paragraph in the blog is a good section of the text in which to find the answers. Possible answers could be:

She is not certain how long she will stay in Beijing because she is not sure what the future will bring. For the moment there are definite advantages in living there.

She does not feel at ‘home’ in China, in fact she refers to ‘back home’ implying the United States is home.

ATL

Before moving on from Text 1.2, you may want to go through the five characteristics emphasised in the IB Approaches to Learning (ATLs) with students, to find evidence of them in Guo’s story. Where does she show these skills?

thinking skills

communication skills

social skills

self-management skills

research skills

Discussion

Activity 1.21

Discussion questions that ask students to agree or disagree, as in Activity 1.21, can be fun and engaging. If you think that asking students to stand and move around would energise the group you could have two sides of the room labelled ‘agree’ and ‘disagree’. Students move to the appropriate side of the room as you read each question. Then they can collaborate in preparing a statement with their like-minded classmates, before sharing it with the students on the opposite side of the room.

Activity 1.22

The iceberg model of culture, developed by Edward T. Hall is the starting point for discussion. The labels on the diagram should help students compare and contrast two cultures. In their presentation of these cultures, it is important that they do not stereotype – or at least, they describe how stereotypes of these cultures have come about. The two sources that are mentioned in the EXTRA box are highly recommended for teachers: Geert Hofstede’s research on ‘cultural dimensions’ and Erin Meyer’s book titled: The Culture Map.

Activity 1.23

The image of the women playing volleyball at the 2016 Olympic Games should create interesting discussion, especially in combination with the five different captions. It is worth showing the students how one image can have such different captions and interpretations. It is recommended that they take notes during their discussion, as they can use them as a springboard for Activity 1.24. Write key phrases and words that come up during the discussion on the board.

Here are some guideline comments on the intentions of the writers of the headlines:

This heading by the Daily Mail aims to divide the West and the Islamic world by using the words ‘cover-ups’ and ‘cover-nots’ in combination with ‘massive cultural divide’.

This heading by Global News in Canada seems to celebrate the women’s differences by stating that they exemplify the ‘beauty of diversity’.

The Sun also presents a very divisive interpretation of the image by using the words ‘shock’ (in capital letters) and ‘colossal cultural divide’.

Report UK focuses on the women’s common ground by using the phrase ‘coming together’.

Ben Machell’s tweet raises an interesting point that the women share more values (i.e. hard work, fitness of body and mind, perseverance, competitiveness) than they have differences.

This question asks students to express their own opinion on the headlines. Be careful to keep the conversation critical and constructive. While captions B, D and E are more aligned with the IB value of international-mindedness, students may be able to provide good reasons why they agree with captions A and C.

The phrases ‘cultural divide’ and ‘culture clash’ are more divisive than ‘culture contrast’ since they suggest a problem that cannot be overcome. ‘Contrast’ on the other hand, simply suggests that the two opposite women highlight their differences.

Students may or may not agree with Ben Machell’s point but it is worth discussing which character traits and values these women share.

The final discussion question is an invitation to comment on the cultural values of Germany and Egypt, as expressed by the clothing they have given their women athletes to wear in this competition. Students may use words such as ‘sexy’, ‘exposed’ and ‘athletic’ to describe the German woman’s bikini. They may use words such as ‘covered up’, ‘modest’ or ‘conservative’ to describe the Egyptian athlete’s outfit. It becomes quite challenging linguistically if you steer students away from simple value judgements such as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and encourage them to give reasons why the women may be dressed so differently.

Teaching idea

It would be interesting to extend the topic by looking at articles about Nike’s creation of an athletic hijab in late 2017. An online search will produce a number of articles. For example, the article from the Huffington Post (December 2017) Nike just came out with its first ever athletic hijab

Writing

Activities 1.24 and 1.25

You may want to give students a choice of doing Activity 1.24 (a letter to the editor) or 1.25 (a blog entry). The Language B Subject Guide categorises the former as a mass media text and the latter as a personal text. More detail about the way texts are included in the IB syllabus can be found in the IB Programme Resource Centre (PRC).

If you have already introduced these text types you may feel that your students are ready to approach the task as practice for the Paper 1 examination. In this case, make sure they are familiar with the assessment criteria for Paper 1 before they write. These can be found in Chapter 7 of the coursebook (Paper 1) so that students can easily access them.

For Activity 1.24 students should be able to find the original articles that went with these headlines (A-E) through an online search, using the headlines as search terms. As they read one of the articles, they should highlight the main points that they agree or disagree with. Generally speaking, disagreement tends to lend itself well to writing a letter to the editor. There are sample letters in Unit 6.1 (formal letter); since students don’t often write letters in their everyday lives, it’s helpful to give them a model text. These letters do not have to be long, as many letters of complaint are only 200–300 words. Encourage students to include phrases and vocabulary from this unit and Activity 1.23 so that new words are introduced into their active vocabulary.

Activity 1.25

This writing stimulus asks students to write in the style of Text 1.1 and 1.2, both blog entries from people living abroad, sharing the value of their experiences. This activity may appeal to students who have lived abroad. If they have not had such experiences, they may wish to do Activity 1.24 only. Unit 6.3 provides students with a model for blog writing.

EXTENDED ESSAY

The three categories of extended essays for Language B are described. Even if you are using this chapter early in the two-year course, it is important to introduce students to the possibilities of writing an extended essay for English B. If a topic you have studied in class really interests them they might want to go more deeply into it as their EE topic. Some schools require students to select their EE subject area in the first year so that students can write drafts and complete their essay before the busy second year of diploma work begins.

Higher level extension

Activity 1.26

When teachers in different academic departments refer to the IB Mission Statement or the Learner Profile in their classes it imparts a sense of shared understanding and purpose to the academic programme. This short research exercise begins by emphasising the last sentence of the mission statement, which usually intrigues young people.

Students may do basic searches online to find out more about these famous individuals. In this exercise sources such as Wikipedia are appropriate. You may also wish to put students into groups and assign each group a different person to make the activity more engaging and interactive. Be sure that students write notes, as they listen to other group representatives speak about their findings.

Activity 1.27

This discussion invites students to think about different cultural practices that they have seen when travelling or living abroad. Again, the underlying idea of this discussion should be that ‘different’ can be ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ or simply ‘different’ (neither ‘right’ nor ‘wrong’). It is important to focus on actual cultural practices rather than vague stereotypes. The discussion need not be a long one since it is intended to prepare students for reading Text 1.3.

CONCEPTS

Comprehension of a text can depend upon how well the reader understands the purpose for which it was written. In mother-tongue this is more easily managed than when reading in one’s additional languages. One of the five conceptual understandings which IB emphasises in the Subject Guide is ‘Purpose’. Mark Manson’s story (Text 1.3) is a good text on which to practise this skill. In light of the title of his book, his story is probably used to illustrate the importance of honesty in life. The Concept feature for ‘Purpose’ suggests ways of drawing student attention to the concept of ‘purpose’ using Texts 1.1–1.3 in Unit 1.1.

Activity 1.28

funny

rubs

niceties

mundane

outspokenness

sense

ulterior

repercussion

blunt

self-development

re-examine

apology

abundance

superficiality

deception

reconfigure

Activity 1.29

The Russian people are direct and blunt. They say honesty what they think.

People in the West hide their true feelings behind smiles and polite expressions, whereas Russians are absolutely honest about their feelings.

Westerners tend to feel insulted by the Russian bluntness, while the Russians think the Westerners are fake and full of pretence.

Under communism, Russians had to trust each other and this could only be achieved if everyone was absolutely direct and blunt. By contrast, in the West ‘appearances and salesmanship’ became more important if one were to succeed in the capitalist economy.

Activity 1.30

This question asks students to discuss how ‘others with their differences’ (see the IB mission statement) have helped shape their identity. They might choose to talk about family relatives, experiences meeting people abroad or strangers who have become friends.

Literature

Activity 1.31

These questions aim to encourage students to make a connection between race and identity before reading Text 1.4 (Black Boy). Racism, in this sense, is a way of robbing someone of their identity by not providing people of different races the same opportunities. Through discussion, students can reflect on how this form of racism is relevant to the place in which they live.

LEARNER PROFILE

If you are looking for a good way to integrate the Learner Profile into your curriculum, you can always ask how characters from the literary works that you’re reading exemplify one or more of the qualities of the learner profile. Richard, the main character in Text 1.4, could be considered reflective, as he writes his memoir. He could be considered a risk-taker for standing up to injustice. He could be considered principled for not letting anyone beat him.

Activity 1.32

The sentences refer to the following words from Text 1.4:

circulated

paternal

nuisance

stoutly

brooded

kin

naively

tardiness

trivial

Activity 1.33

The notion that recognising the context of a literary work is essential to its meaning is explored in depth in IB Group One courses. Therefore, students may already be familiar with discussion of the context of production and the context of reception.

In this activity the focus is more on comparing attitudes presented in the literary extract with attitudes in their own communities or nation. However, they might be able to explain how their own experience influences the way they react to the text.

REFLECT

Each unit ends with a reflection activity or set of questions, encouraging students to look back on what they have learned in the unit. The three questions at the end of this unit ask students to return to the title, ‘Citizens of the world’, to consider its meaning in their own lives. You may want to reiterate and discuss the importance of the IB mission to them, with respect to the last line: “others, with their differences, can be right”.

Unit 1.2
Belief and identity

Unit 1.2. Belief and identity

In this unit students will explore the question of whether one’s sense of identity is shaped by one’s beliefs.

Learning objectives

Become more aware of different beliefs and more conscious of how they shape identity.

Develop a command of language that enables you to discuss religion and faith appropriately.

Language focus

Form and meaning adverbs and adjectives

Guiding questions

To what extent is your identity defined by what you believe?

How have you come to believe what you believe?

How do people express their beliefs through language?

Resources referred to in the activities

Video: Rainn Wilson’s Spiritual Journey. Published by Big Think. Activity 2.5

Audio track 2: Interview on the link between spirituality and happiness.

Transcript of Audio track 2.

Additional resources

TedTalk India: East vs West: the myths that mystify. Devdut Pattanaik 2009

Further Reading

Making Thinking Visible – Karin Morrison, Mark Church and Ron Ritchhart

Passive Vocabulary by Richard Nordquist: The Thoughtco Website

Action Research. Geoffrey E. Mills

Teaching and Researching Reading – William Grabe and Fredericka Stoller

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons.

Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework.

Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Word bank: Activity 2.1.

Belief and religions. Activity 2.2.

Extending the concept of belief. Activity 2.3.

Lesson 2

Watch the video about a personal experience with faith. Activities 2.4 to 2.6.

Set the Extra activity for homework.

Lesson 3

Listen to Audio Track 2. Activities 2.7 to 2.9.

Prepare for the study of Text 1.5 (next lesson) by discussing the definitions in the Text and Content box on p 27.

Lesson 4

Text 1.5: Activities 2.10 to 2.11.

Form and meaning: Activities 2.13 to 2.15.

Lesson 5

Discussion. Belief and TOK. Activities 2.16 and 2.17.

Lesson 6

Writing. A personal letter (based on Text 1.5): Activity 2.18 or an opinion piece (based on Audio Track 2): Activity 2.19.

Homework: Activities 2.20 and 2.21 (preparation for a short presentation).

Lesson 7 (higher level extension)

Short presentations related to brand loyalty. Activities 2.20 and 2.21.

Text 1.6. Activities 2.22 and 2.23.

Further consideration of brands and belief. Activity 2.24.

Lesson 8 (literature)

Text 1.7 Literary style and authorial choices. Activities 2.25 to 2.27.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 2.1

This fill-in-the-blank exercise focuses attention on words found in the word bank and is followed by a short discussion in which these lexical items will be needed. The suggested topic here is something that students might not have considered: Why do religions need religious leaders?

Answers

cult

sceptical

secular

hymn

intuition

convert

principles

atheist

dogmas

evangelism

devout

grace

Teaching idea

The ATL box is intended to get students to think about their own responsibility for learning. You could explain to students the difference between a passive vocabulary (words someone might recognise and understand when they see them in a text) and active vocabulary (words that come easily to mind when speaking or writing). Ask them if they have noticed this when they are communicating in their first language. What strategies do they use to remember new words? Will these strategies add words to passive or active vocabulary?

If you’re interested in reading more about passive versus active vocabulary the Thoughtco website has a good article by Richard Nordquist entitled Passive Vocabulary.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

In their responses to Activity 2.2, you might ask students to begin with an adverb, for example:

Surprisingly, the class is split equally on this topic.

Interestingly, only one person …

Unfortunately, there’s nothing to discuss here as the whole class disagrees with the statement.

Activity 2.2

The six declarative statements can be used in different ways depending upon the time you have available. Here, the suggestion is for a class poll rather than an in-depth discussion. You could use the technique in which students create simple posters for each statement and post them around the room. If necessary, they begin by clarifying their statement for the class. After everyone has circulated and entered a tick in the appropriate agree or disagree column, the creators of the poster make a statement summarising the data in one or two sentences.

Activity 2.3

Students de-code images and try to use them to expand the concept of belief.

No particular answers are expected but if you use the example response to Image A as a template you can keep the class on track with the topic of beliefs.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Perhaps list similar expressions on the white board for students to use for support:

I think it’s true that …

People believe that …

I think it’s obvious that …

I don’t think there’s any proof that …

In my view / from my point of view …

Is there any evidence that…

Image A – the stock market; capitalism.

Image B – political belief; belief in democracy.

Image C – meditation; mindfulness.

Image D – consumerism; technology; multi-national corporations.

Watch and listen fig fig

EXTRA

The feature following Activity 2.3 has the same purpose of removing the topic from the controversies of which organised religion is the ‘right one’ by imagining a true ‘outsider’ – an alien from another planet.

Teaching idea

Activities 2.4 and 2.5 are primarily intended to introduce vocabulary necessary for discussion about the topic of this unit: Belief and identity. If you can’t access the video, Rainn Wilson’s Spiritual Journey, you can still use the exercises as a way of extending student vocabulary so that they can express ideas which they may never have discussed in English. Set up Activity 2.5 to function as definitions for the lexical items listed in Activity 2.4. When you move on to Activity 2.6 allow time for students to plan their statements so that they use the vocabulary you have just studied.

Activity 2.4

We often give students a text with words missing and ask them to fill in the blanks from context. Here, you do the opposite: give students a list of words from a text (here, a video: Rainn Wilson’s Spiritual Journey) and ask them to predict the topic. In addition to preparing students to understand the video, they will need these words in order to complete the next exercise. It might be useful to remind them of any discussion you had about ways to remember new vocabulary when you did Activity 2.1.

EXTRA

Depending upon the specific situation in which you are teaching, the focus in this extension exercise about Baha’i is on a religion with which students may be less familiar and may therefore find easier to explore objectively.

Activity 2.5

The following words from Activity 2.4, and used in the Rainn Wilson video, correspond to sentences a–m.

faith

progressive

cauldron

abandon

suffering

perpetrate

journey

fervour

crossroads

unease

devout

transcend

temple

Activity 2.6

This discussion functions as a concluding exercise for the topic raised in the Rainn Wilson video. Questions a and c encourage students to articulate their own experience after listening to Rainn Wilson talk about his own faith. Alternatively, question b is less personal.

LEARNER PROFILE

One aspect of the Learner Profile is open-minded. The IB document describes it as including the willingness to “critically appreciate our own … personal histories”. The implication is that one can’t be ‘open-minded’ about the views of others unless one has reflected on how one’s own beliefs have been created.

Activity 2.7

This activity proposes three questions to prime students for listening to Audio track 2, about the effect of spirituality on happiness. If you have a class of enthusiastic talkers you might want to set a time limit so you can get to the listening exercises. With a weaker group perhaps one question (question b?) will be enough to set the focus of listening. Whatever you decide, as you plan, notice that the concluding Activity 2.9 links back to these questions.

Activity 2.8

If students have access to Audio track 2 on their own devices, they can listen and re-play at their own pace. You could also set this as homework. As the ‘Tip’ feature advises students, the words they need for e, f and g come too quickly for them to write them all down. Therefore, if you use the audio as a whole-class exercise you need to consider how you will help them succeed in answering those questions.

Answers

money, wealth and the economy

300 spiritual people across the economic spectrum and 300 self-acclaimed atheists; 600 in total

atheists and spiritual people do not spend more or less than the other

reduces corruption and increases respect for law, which acts as an overall economic boost

gracious

flourish

savour

cheap gadgets, gym memberships

their values

Activity 2.9

Now that some vocabulary has been clarified, the second listening exercise asks the student to listen to Audio track 2 again and identify answers to the same questions used in Activity 2.7. How you set up the activity will depend on the group you are teaching and the degree of support they will need. Assigning just one question to different groups of students is one way of making sure that students can succeed and build confidence in their ability to listen to an authentic text.

Exploring texts

Activity 2.10

Although it is possible to match the words without studying their context in Text 1.5, encourage students to check the way they are used in the article. They are underlined to make it easier to find them. You could remind students of the conversation about ways of retaining vocabulary in Activity 2.1

reveal – show

extent – degree

dear – precious

component – part

scenario – situation

unavoidable – obvious

extrovert – outgoing

innate – instinctive

capacity – ability

fulfillment – contentment

tantrum – frenzy

predisposition – tendency

bigotry – intolerance

bemused – confused

revelation – surprise

secular – irreligious

fervour – passion

Activity 2.11

Before they begin reading Text 1.5, draw attention to the Text and Context box.

Note: this text is also used as a writing stimulus in Activity 2.18.

False – Justification: “I am frequently asked by journalists to recall the most surprising finding of our twin studies. The study of religion and belief in God is the one that always comes to mind.” The researcher studies twins predominantly, not religion.

True – Justification: “For example, in the latest surveys in the U.S., when asked, 61 percent of white Americans say they firmly (i.e. without any doubt) believe in God, compared with only 17 percent of firm believers in similar populations in the U.K. greater than a threefold difference.”

True – justification: “However in one study of adopted twins, the researchers looked at religious belief in a number of adopted twins raised apart.”

False – Justification: “They defined this as “the capacity to reach out beyond oneself and discover or make meaning of experience through broadened perspectives and behaviour.” ‘Making meaning of experience’ and ‘having meaningful experiences’ are two different things.

False – Justification: “They estimated the heritability of spirituality to be around 40 to 50 percent, which is quite high considering how tricky it is to measure.” This means that people have a 40–50 percent chance of inheriting their spirituality genes from their parents, not that they only get half of their parents’ genes.

True – Justification: “Studies show that for twins living at home, there is no clear genetic influence or difference from their parents in their practice. However, genes start to play a role, once the twins leave the nest.”

True – Justification: “At primary school, they both became interested in Christianity and much to their father’s surprise and displeasure they were baptised and prayed regularly. Their parents split up soon after and their father left home.”

False – Justification: “Elizabeth began discussions with an Islamic group, initially arguing against religion, read the Quran to dismiss it and then found herself being drawn to and then converted to Islam.”

True – Justification: “they have much more in common genetically with each other’s children than other aunts and share the same proportion of genes with them.”

True – Justification: “Annie’s genetic predisposition for faith, likely suppressed by her secular surroundings and her dominant atheist husband, may have been the crucial factor that influenced her daughters’ uncompromising beliefs.”

False – Justification: “Other twin studies have shown that after leaving home, children with the right predisposition can often switch religions, and that which form they then choose is not down to the genes but to life events or some mysterious unknown force.”

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The true/false with justification exercise comes up quite often on the reading section of Paper 2. The Tip feature next to Activity 2.11 clarifies the task. Students copy short phrases from the text as justification; they should not use their own words. The IB examiners try to avoid a “good guess” justification by specifically requiring a phrase not a complete sentence. If you want to use this activity to build exam skills you could do the same. In any case, it might take a while for less-fluent students to complete the whole exercise; if time or variations in student level are problems, then putting students in pairs could be an efficient way to get through the exercise.

Activity 2.12

Teaching idea

The image of the sports crowd sets the tone for the exercise. Since talking about a photograph is part of the standard level oral exam, you can use the images in the coursebook to build skills of description. Here you could ask students to speculate about the setting, describe the kinesics (linguistic term for body language and facial expressions), clothing.

Filling in the table is best done in small groups or as a whole class so that students can brainstorm ideas. Their notes will serve to answer the question in the caption beside the photograph.

ATT

A key focus of the IB approach to teaching is on creating opportunities for student teamwork and collaboration. In the language learning classroom, from the students’ point of view, this can be both a support and an extra layer of challenge in trying to understand a peer’s English and negotiate a shared answer.

Observing your students, noticing how the separate pairs deal with the task, is an interesting piece of Action Research. Does it work better to pair a less fluent student with one who is more confident in the language or create pairs of equivalent fluency? If you’d like to read more about the topic, Geoffrey E. Mills has written several texts on the subject of Action Research, both theoretical and practical.

Form and meaning

Activity 2.13

Students might be able to use these parts of speech but can they explain the rules? You might tell them the expression in English: “You never really understand something until you try to teach someone else.” Is there a similar expression in their languages?

Activity 2.14

Adverbs
Adjectives

b

d

e

f

a

c

Activity 2.15

pointedly

terribly

personal

shortly

initially, fierce

uncomfortable

likely, uncompromising

Discussion

Activity 2.16

TOK

Although most of the topics in this coursebook can be linked to the TOK syllabus, this activity does so overtly. The TOK feature alongside this activity might help if you are unfamiliar with the TOK syllabus. If English is the medium of instruction in your school, then this kind of activity helps English B students develop the linguistic skills to participate in the TOK classes.

Who teaches TOK in your school? How are subject teachers involved in the TOK programme? Could you invite a TOK teacher to be a surprise guest in your classroom to lead this short introductory discussion on belief?

Activity 2.17

ATT

Differentiation

If you are using this unit in the second year of the English B course students should be able to handle this activity. The captions (the topics of the short presentations) are quite sophisticated but similar to the type of topic they would use as their formal TOK presentation. If you need to, adapt the captions to suit the linguistic level of your students.

ATT

If you need to generate a mark from the presentation in Activity 2.17, it’s a good idea to use at least part of the IB Assessment Criteria. Transparency is an important aspect of the IB approach to assessment and is one of the six considerations stated in the Approaches to Teaching document (you can find this on the PRC). Student learning should be informed by formative assessment using the same criteria that will be used in summative assessment. For this reason, the individual oral exam criteria are provided in the coursebook, for students’ reference.

Writing

Activity 2.18

When asking students to write on topics which could be very personal, it’s worth remembering that the objective is language development. Therefore, setting up the task so that the individual’s personal beliefs are not the focus, is less threatening. Here, students choose the role of one of the twins in Text 1.5. If you previously used Activities 2.10 and 2.11 with your class then they will already be familiar with the vocabulary.

The structure of letters in English and a model that students could refer to, can be found in Unit 6.1 (formal letter).

Activity 2.19

The stimulus for this writing exercise is Audio track 2, already used in Activities 2.7 and 2.8. The suggested text type is an opinion piece for a newspaper. The instructions for this activity remind students about the word bank.

EXTENDED ESSAY

The EE box on this page of the coursebook is a reminder to students that a topic that has been explored in English class could become the inspiration for their Extended Essay. Here the link is made to a Languages B Category One topic. Remember that a Group Two EE must use texts originally written in the target language so that the student researcher can go deeper into a culture in which the language is used. This can be tricky since English is also spoken as a global lingua franca. Use the guideline of limiting to a country where English is an official language.

Higher level extension

Activities 2.20 and 2.21

This part of the unit extends the concept of belief to the choices one makes in consuming products. English has idioms such as ‘brand loyalty’ and a ‘trusted brand’; do these idioms exist in the other languages spoken by students in your class?

Teaching idea

The activity of collecting logos and making a collage is not only a break from using ‘words’ but requires the reflection and self-awareness that will provide a good basis for the following activities. The task could be done over the weekend so that the next lesson begins with a ‘show and tell’ approach: students posting their collages on the board and blending answers to the three questions in Activity 2.21 into a brief presentation.

It’s important that every student completes their own collage even if there’s no time for everyone to present. Their work will be needed for Activity 2.24

Activity 2.22

This fill-the-gaps activity using Text 1.6, revisits the form and meaning work on adjectives and adverbs (Activities 2.13–2.15).

Answers

entire

coincidentally

easily

possibly

deliberately

emotionally

firm

considerable

modest

valuable

uniquely

oral

particularly

vibrant

unambiguously

fast

Teaching idea

When it comes to giving the answers, you could generate more language use by putting students in small groups. If they disagree and cannot decide which answer is correct, they write their varying answers on a card and pass it to another table for ‘advice’. The answer is written on the card and returned. Time limits on the whole activity make this a race-against-the-clock game and will keep up the energy in the class.

Activity 2.23

Students should refer to Text 1.6.

The author starts with the story of Mark in order to illustrate the level of dedication held by fans of certain brands like Apple.

Martin Lindstrom studied the brain activity of brand fans and religious people by using MRI scans. He also interviewed 14 religious leaders.

In Lindstrom’s study, brands such as BP and KFC did not stimulate as much brain activity as brands such as Apple and Harley.

Lego lets their fan base do all of the marketing for them through word of mouth.

Hymns and church windows tell stories. Successful brands also tell their stories to build holistic identities.

The author makes the argument that the size of the place of worship, or its ‘grandeur’ is important to its success. This is why both cathedrals and stores must be big.

According to the author, holding an iPod is like holding a page from the Bible, because one can quickly recognise it without much context or a logo.

Pushing a lime into a bottle of Corona is a ritual, and rituals help build brands.

Activity 2.24

This reflective activity should be approached with sensitivity to the specific context in which you are working. If you feel it would be considered disrespectful for students to compare the religion of the community to something commercial, then perhaps they could focus on a religion from another culture.

Literature

Activity 2.25

As befits a higher level class, these questions are challenging because they require abstract terms. If your group is capable of discussing without your involvement then you could listen and write words they are struggling to find on the board.

Within the section of the coursebook, this activity is intended as a preparation for reading the literary extract. However, as with all discussions it helps if you decide on the importance of the task to the other parts of your lesson plan so that you can set a time limit. Will you choose to use this activity as a relatively short ‘warm-up’ or, knowing your students, will they want to go deeper and, therefore, you allocate more time?

Activity 2.26

Text 1.7 A River Runs Through It

Make a large table on the white board with the three columns labelled as shown in the coursebook. As students complete their individual reading of Text 1.7 they can write responses on the board so the whole group can see the variety of comments.

Activity 2.27

Students should refer to Text 1.7.

There’s reason to believe that the author is old enough to read and young enough to be told what to read (The Westminster Shorter Catechism) by his father. He receives ‘hours of instruction’ from his father on how to fly fish. One might think he and his brother Paul are between 8 and 15 years old. One of the final lines of the passage also describes the boy’s impression of ‘man falling from grace’ as a man falling out of a tree. This understanding is very child-like.

Even though the narrator must study the Catechism every Sunday, his father is not very intent on hearing him and his brother recite long passages. The boys only have to say: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” The text further states: “This always seemed to satisfy him, as indeed such a beautiful answer should have, and besides he was anxious to be on the hills.”

They did not go fishing on Sundays. The boys went to Sunday school and then to ‘morning services’ at the church where they would hear their father preach. After church, the boys were made to study the Catechism for an hour. Then they would go for a walk on the hills, where the boys had to listen to their father prepare for his evening sermon.

The second to last paragraph reads: “After my brother and I became good fishermen, we realised that our father was not a great fly caster, but he was accurate and stylish.” This gives some indication that he was ‘good’ but not ‘great’. Earlier in the passage, it is mentioned that he is a fly fishing instructor.

The narrator’s father believed that by “picking up God’s rhythms, [people] were able to regain power and beauty.” Furthermore, he was a unique Presbyterian, because he used the world ‘beautiful’. He seemed to take pride in his stylish way of casting, and it allowed him to get closer to God.

Activity 2.28

This exercise encourages students to apply skills of literary analysis to a text in English. Since students are most likely taking an IB Group One course and studying literary texts in their mother tongue, they’re aware of the way that a writer’s choices affect the reader. However, reading in a language that one is still learning differs from reading in mother tongue. For instance, students may understand the denotational meaning of words but the connotational meaning, the emotional impact, of the diction is not as immediately obvious. The work by William Grabe and Fredericka Stoller provides interesting insights into the process of reading in L2 and how it differs to the process in L1.

CONCEPTS

One of the five conceptual understandings in the syllabus section of the Language B Subject Guide is Purpose: “language should be appropriate to achieve a desired intention, goal or result.” The study of a literary text invites the question of what the author’s purpose, in a particular passage could be. What effect on the reader is the writer aiming for?

REFLECT

It’s worth taking as long as a complete class period for quiet review of all the ideas that have been explored in Unit 1.2 and the language that has been acquired in the process of reading, listening and talking. The five questions guide students through the process.

It’s also an opportunity for students to look again at written work that has been marked and self-evaluate their progress.

Unit 1.3
Beauty and health

Unit 1.3: Beauty and health

In this unit students will study how the media and the advertising industry shape people’s definition of beauty and impact their self-esteem.

Learning objectives

Become more aware of the adverse effects of the beauty industry on people’s physical and mental health, as caused by an unrealistic depiction and the narrow definition of ‘beauty’ in the media.

Be able to articulate ideas about the beauty industry and the pressures on individuals to conform to idealised images presented in the media.

Language focus

Form and meaning: parallelism. Correlative comparative.

Guiding questions

To what extent is your definition of ‘beauty’ shaped by the media, including print advertisements, movies and TV commercials?

What are the effects of the media’s narrow definition of ‘beauty’ on people’s mental and physical health?

Resources referred to in the activities

Dove Real Beauty Sketches (3-minute videos)

Dove Evolution (video)

Additional resources

Killing Us Softly 4 by Jean Kilbourne (film)

Miss Representation by Jennifer Siebel (film)

Adbusters website.

Buyology by Martin Lindstrom

Further reading

Learner English Michael Swan and Bernard Smith (eds)

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

‘Getting started’ and the word bank. Activity 3.1 and 3.2.

Watch video clips Dove Real Beauty Sketches. Activities 3.3.and 3.4.

Lesson 2

Listen to Audio Track 3. Activities 3.5 and 3.6.

Assessing images: Activity 3.7.

Lesson 3

Text 1.8: self-esteem and body image. Activities 3.8 and 3.9.

How are men targeted by the beauty industry? Activity 3.10.

Lesson 4

Text 1.9 Pre-reading: Activity 3.11. Comprehension questions: Activity 3.12.

Assessing the reliability of a source: Activity 3.13.

Lesson 5

Form and meaning. Activities 3.14 and 3.15.

Discussions on key issues in this unit. Activities 3.16 and 3.17.

Lesson 6

Oral exercises. Analysing a cartoon. Activity 3.18.

Mini-debates. Activity 3.19.

Proposing captions. Activity 3.20.

Lesson 7 (or a homework assignment)

Writing. A formal letter. Activity 3.21.

Lesson 8 (higher level extension)

Analysis of an ad picturing an anorexic model. Activity 3.22.

Text 1.10: pre-reading: Activity 3.23.

Comprehension exercise. Activity 3.24.

Vocabulary extension. Activities 3.25 and 3.26.

Summative discussion of topics within this unit. Activity 3.27.

Lesson 9 (literature)

Text 1.11. The Diet by Carol Ann Duffy. Focus on figurative language. Activities 3.28 and 3.29.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 3.1

Students might have come across the term ‘fashion industry’ but they may be surprised that the terms ‘beauty industry’ and ‘health industry’ are common in English. You could ask them to brainstorm the professions that go along with ‘industry’ steering them towards post-production such as marketing, advertising, copy writing, graphic design. This will serve as a launching point into the activities which focus on the media and its influence on beauty and health.

Suggested answers for guidance:

Insecure. It suggests that the reader has something to hide.

There is a list of bad facial features that the reader must address.

Can make your skin shine evenly or perfectly.

Buy this product. It makes the reader believe that it has been scientifically tested.

That she is beautiful and confident as a result of using the product.

Insecurity / guilt / envy in the reader.

Activity 3.2

This short exercise is intended to draw attention to the word bank and to generate curiosity by giving an indication of the topics that students will be invited to explore in the unit.

Answers

media

beauty

diet

expectations

self-esteem

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 3.3

The video ‘Dove Real Beauty Sketches’ is short so it can be played more than once to enable students to write down the adjectives that precede the nouns in the list. You could ask students to jot down the sound of adjectives they can’t catch – guessing at spelling – rather than leaving a blank.

Answers

forensic artist

drafting board

big jaw

prominent feature

fat, rounder face

pretty big forehead

general questions

nice thin chin

blue eyes

cute nose

natural beauty

Activity 3.4

This is proposed as a whole class discussion so that you can facilitate and steer it into an objective, analytical direction.

Guidance for discussion:

Students are free to give their first impressions. You may want to ask what they literally ‘see’ in this video in order to initiate discussion. They may want to comment on the nature of the experiment and the extent to which women are aware of their experiment conditions.

Generally speaking, the women use negative words to describe their own features and nice words to describe other women’s features.

It could be said that the main message of this video is that women are overly critical of their own appearance. Whether or not this is true is subjective, but it is worth noting.

d  and e For these discussion points, be sure that students feel comfortable speaking about their own self-image with classmates. If they cannot trust each other, then you may want to skip points d and e.

Teaching idea

The video Dove Real Beauty Sketches was selected for inclusion in this unit on Identities to stimulate discussion on self-image. The language in the video is not too difficult, which makes it a good choice as a listening exercise if you have students who are less fluent. However, if you can’t access the video you should be able to find a number of magazine articles written in reaction to it. It was controversial because it was produced by a company which makes beauty products and has characteristics of an advertisement for the company.

One way of altering the lesson from that laid out in the coursebook is to ask your students to work in pairs or small groups to find print advertisements or television commercials and make short presentations to the class about the unrealistic images of women that are portrayed. Their ideas don’t have to be particularly unique; the purpose of the activity is to practise making statements about the issue with reference to visual examples.

This work will provide a background for the listening activity based on Audio track 3.

Activity 3.5

The focus on specific lexical items is preparation for the listening activity which follows. Asking students to predict the topic of Audio track 3 is a more dynamic way to focus on meaning of new words.

Note that there is a follow-up to this predicting exercise in the next activity.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

The words in Activity 3.5 lend themselves to a quick session on pronunciation – why don’t you hear the ‘p’ in the word ‘psychology’ (or pneumonia) or the ‘b’ in ‘subtle’ (or debt, numb, climb)?

If you have students whose first language is syllable-timed or a tonal language, then differences in intonation patterns can become a hindrance in communication. In these multi-syllabic words, where does the stress fall?

If you’d like to know more about the differences in intonation between students’ L1 and English, the book Learner English edited by Michael Swan and Bernard Smith is very accessible.

Activity 3.6

Answers

Popular Science

an age-old problem

depressed

products

more

mechanism

fortify

EXAM-RELATED TIP

As the Tip feature in the coursebook explains, Paper 2 assesses listening skills, so developing strategies for this assessment is an important part of the course. It’s a good idea to use the questions in the exam paper to help predict the topic and focus of the audio track. This skill is practised as the first step in this activity.

Teaching idea

Listening to audio without visual clues can be daunting for language learners. One technique you might try when listening to interviews is to begin by focusing just on the questions that are asked. Stop and replay after each question, getting the class as a whole to repeat in a chorus. This is a noisy start to a quiet activity which also gives the students a chance to ask if they don’t understand the interviewer.

Activity 3.7

Students are asked to rank images A–C from ‘subtle’ to ‘blatant’. They met these words in Activity 3.5 and heard them used in Audio track 3. Now they need to start using them to convey their own opinions. They may have reasons for ranking the images the way they have. Generally speaking, image B is rather subtle, image A is slightly more focused on the model’s figure, and image C blatantly focuses on the body of the model.

CONCEPTS

One of the five concepts that IB indicates as essential to successful communication is recognising variation within a language. Introducing the idea of variation through images makes the concept clear to students and prepares them for the same kind of analysis of spoken and written communication.

Exploring texts

Activity 3.8

Text 1.8

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The task of inserting headings into a text sometimes appears in Paper Two and students tend to find it time-consuming. This exercise uses the questions by the interviewer as the ‘headings’. The activity models a possible strategy: arrange the questions in the most logical order before trying to fit them into the text. Students should make their list on a piece of paper, then read the text and see if their preliminary ordering was appropriate. They then complete the table.

Space in the text | Question
1 | g
2 | c
3 | a
4 | f
5 | d
6 | h
7 | e
8 | b

CONCEPTS

The questions in the Reading Strategy focus attention on Audience, Context and Purpose, three of the conceptual understandings fundamental to successful communication. These considerations are also important to written communication; students should ask themselves the same questions before they start writing their own texts.

Activity 3.9

c

h

g

a

f

d

e

b

Activity 3.10

The focus of the unit shifts to examine how men are also targeted by the beauty industry. Here are some possible responses to the stimulus questions:

This ad targets men, as it appeals to a male desire to be tough. However, it could also target women to purchase the product for the men in the family (it is, after all, a kind of soap).

Students may say that the man in the ad looks ‘tough’. In several American sports, such as baseball and American football, it is common to use ‘eye black’. While it is technically used to reduce glare from sun and stadium lights, it also acts as a kind of ‘war paint’.

Students may have many associations with these words:

charcoal = fossil fuel, dirty, black

hydra energetic X = modern, unclassified, water, mysterious, technical

fight = tough, rough, strong

magnetic effect = scientific, physical attraction

black = dark, strong, bold

expert = knowledgeable, experience, smart.

‘Expert is being a man.’ The slogan implies that men are expected to be experts. They should be knowledgeable, even about skin care products.

It suggests that if you buy this product you will turn into the person described. Another answer might be that it’s not just women who need specific beauty products.

One could argue that this ad is not too dissimilar from those that target women. Like previous images in this chapter, this one focuses on appearance. If they focus on femininity, this one focuses on masculinity.

This question asks students to consider how men’s self-esteem is or is not affected by the media. This is an opportunity for a meaningful discussion on identity, gender and the media.

Activity 3.11

This activity prepares students for studying Text 1.9 on skin-lightening creams. The definitions for specific words from the text that the students may not have come across are highlighted in this exercise. They should check the definitions as they read the text.

dermatologist

domain

reaction

blister

bleach

rash

texture

pigmentation

deteriorating

Activity 3.12

Answers

“Dermatologist Dr Amit Vij, says, ‘Face whitening creams are harmful for all – be it man or woman. They might be in great demand for the fair look they promise but the only ones who’ve been regular in using it would know the harm that the creams have caused to their skin. That’s not to say that the person didn’t achieve his goal – of looking fair, but at what cost?’” This suggests that the creams actually work.

The following quotation from Dr Amit Vij suggests that creams are equally bad for men and women. “Like I said, these fairness creams are bad for men and women alike. And as for men, their skin is only slightly rough on the beard area, the rest is as sensitive and prone to reactions.”

Bleach makes fairness creams harmful. “Dr Amit Vij continues, ‘The main ingredient of these fairness lotions is bleach, so you can understand how people turn fair. And it is just that, that causes all the harm.’”

The text elaborates on the effects of fairness creams: Dr Vij says, “The obvious side-effect is thinning of the skin. Daily use of these creams leads to the skin losing its tightness and becoming thinner in return. Growth of acne is another harm that these creams cause to the skin.”

“Elaborating further, he says, “Also, most fairness cream consumers are unaware of the photosensitive reaction which these creams cause. Due to this the more exposed one is to the sun, [the] worse one’s skin condition becomes. This would mean anything from getting pink and red rashes – the degree of which would vary from person to person – to sun burns, blisters, itchiness to burning sensations, each time the person steps out in the sun.”

“Such a skin, that has become photosensitive, could also lead to one having problems if he went in for any kind of packs or massage treatments, for those oils or packs could further react on the skin.”

The last two paragraphs from the previous question are relevant for this answer as well:

“Due to this the more exposed one is to the sun, [the] worse one’s skin condition becomes. This would mean anything from getting pink and red rashes – the degree of which would vary from person to person – to sun burns, blisters, itchiness to burning sensations, each time the person steps out in the sun.”

“Such a skin, that has become photosensitive, could also lead to one having problems if he went in for any kind of packs or massage treatments, for those oils or packs could further react on the skin.”

Men are tempted to use fairness creams because they think that they will permanently treat skin pigmentation. “The best way to acquire fair skin is ‘by doing away with the pigmentation,’ advises Dr Vij. ‘Fairness creams only hide them, but that’s definitely not a permanent treatment and that’s the reason why people are tempted to use them regularly.’”

Activity 3.13

The coursebook links this activity on finding evidence for one’s beliefs to TOK.

It’s not necessary to digress from the focus of the English lesson but it is valuable to make these connections to other parts of the IB curriculum so that students can see the inter-connectedness of their academic work. Here the focus is on being a critical audience – for the written article and the visual advertisement.

Teaching idea

Each student writes their reasons on sticky notes and posts them on a table you’ve made on the white board, similar to the one on the opposite page. There’s likely to be a difference in the number of sticky notes in each box which makes a point about the difference in type of text.

| Reasons why you believe the claims made in the text | Reasons why you do not believe the claims made in this text
Text 3.2 |  |
Fairness creams ad |  |

Form and meaning

Teaching idea

A good way to introduce this section of grammar focus is to ask students to consider their mother tongues; is parallelism admired or avoided?

You could then emphasise the rhythm that is created through parallelism by getting students to read aloud the model sentences in the textbook. Where do the pauses come? It makes a fun choral activity because inevitably one or two students are going to take a breath at the ‘wrong’ moment. Since the models demonstrate both a declarative statement and a question, the intonation will also differ; this might be a further focus for a more advanced class.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

In English, parallel structures are regarded as rhythmically pleasing and even sophisticated. They appear in texts such as rousing speeches and irritated letters to the editor. This is not the same in other languages and is one reason students might make the error termed ‘faulty parallelism’. Spanish, for example, tends to use varying grammatical forms rather than parallel forms.

Activity 3.14

Here are some possible sentences using parallelisms. If you tried the reading aloud activity suggested above, students could do the same with their own sentences.

Completed in the coursebook as an example.

Men are not spared by the beauty industry, since they are targeted as much as women, exposing them to unrealistic body images and pairing financial success with the perfect body.

Adbusters spreads awareness about the beauty industry by creating spoof ads, organising events and writing articles in their magazine and on their website.

Dove has received criticism for their campaign, for airbrushing their full-figured models, including no large women, and for showing their models in their underwear

Teaching idea

The Adbusters website has many spoof ads which students will find entertaining and provocative.

Activity 3.15

As well as focusing on accuracy in grammar, this exercise aims to encourage students to add the structure to their own repertoire of sentence types.

Students may write correlative comparative sentences similar to the following:

Completed in the coursebook as an example.

The more popular beauty pageants become in West Africa, the worse the weight problems, such as anorexia, become in these countries.

The more advertisements are banned for sexual content, the greater the attention they receive.

The more Bollywood stars promote skin-whitening cream, the more Indians will suffer from the side-effects of these creams.

The more parents talk to their young children about the portrayal of ‘beauty’ in the media, the more likely they are to have a stronger self-esteem.

The more new innovations in beauty products, the more women are likely to feel they need to keep up with these trends to look beautiful.

The more awareness campaigns show anorexic people to shock viewers, the more this stimulates anorexic behaviour in patients with anorexia.

Teaching idea

In the last few minutes of the lesson, ask students to memorise one of their sentences, look at the group (not the paper) and say the sentence in a firm, persuasive tone. Because they rarely use this structure in conversation, the effect can be quite startling; their peers think that they ‘sound really different’.

Discussion

Activity 3.16

Encourage students to have a conversation that explores the effects of airbrushing in advertising. The conclusion may be that the use of airbrushing creates unrealistic expectations of ‘beauty’. A comparison clearly indicates that photographs of models are manipulated. What’s more, it seems that in the context of India, fairer skin is perceived as more desirable. Do an online search for Dove Evolution for a video that explores this theme further.

Activity 3.17

This conversation may point to the perceived hypocrisy of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. While their ads seem inclusive of wrinkled, freckled and more robust models, their images are also airbrushed. The fact is that they are a commercial enterprise that benefits from a broader definition of ‘beauty’. Students will, hopefully, come to this conclusion through a discussion on Text 1.8 and the image.

Activity 3.18

Students should carefully study the cartoon below the activity to answer these questions. The following give indicative responses:

The man seems to be in a position of power. The woman seems to be a mother. Together with her child she may have been waiting in a waiting room of an office building, where he is the manager.

The man may be referring to his company or firm with ‘we’.

The man’s arms behind his back seems defensive. The woman’s gestures suggest that she is attacking him with questions.

The cartoon is about the portrayal and degradation of women in magazine and advertisements. While the man understands that children should not be exposed to such images, the woman questions whether anyone of any age should be exposed to such images.

Hopefully students see the woman’s point, that the degradation of women in advertisements is not permissible in any context.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The Tip feature in the coursebook introduces students to the standard level oral examination. It’s a good idea to mention the various IB assessments at appropriate times in your course so that students recognise that even short exercises like 3.19 are developing skills for future IB exams.

Chapter 9 focuses on the individual oral exam if you would like further ideas for practice.

Activity 3.19

This is not intended to be a full debate but a series of short oral exercises. The focus is on expressing a stance (given in the caption which is assigned to the debate team) and responding to the arguments of an opposing team. Think of it as opening statements and a rebuttal. Organising the sequence will take some thought as it will depend on the number of students in your class; some may have to be in more than one team. The table in the coursebook shows a possible sequence.

EXTENDED ESSAY

A study of advertisements from an English-speaking country could make a good topic for an EE in Language B, as the feature in the coursebook suggests. The primary objective of the extended essay requirement is for students to learn how to write a formal research paper. It is hoped that they pursue a topic that has caught their interest in one of their DP courses and view the EE as an opportunity to go deeper and learn more. Mentioning ideas for an EE as you move through the topics in your class could help to inspire students.

Writing

Activity 3.20

This activity encourages students to write their own captions to a photograph, focussing on how choice of words and phrasing “steer the reader in opposite directions”.

Activity 3.21

Chapter 6 (Text types) in the coursebook analyses and models nine of the types of written text that the student may encounter in the course and in assessments. Unit 6.1 focuses on formal letters. Since students rarely write or receive letters these days, you might need to spend time on familiarising them with the conventions of structure and layout for a formal letter in English.

Higher level extension

Activity 3.22

The aim is to stimulate a conversation on eating disorders and their causes. The image Put some weight on seems to make light of a woman’s slim figure. Interestingly, research from Martin Lindstrom (Buyology) suggests that anorexic and bulimic women are triggered by such advertisements to engage in their eating disorders further. Encourage students to do online research to learn more about the percentage of women (and men!) who suffer from eating disorders in the country where they live.

Activity 3.23

This activity primes students for reading Text 1.10 about Isabelle Caro by asking them to generate interview questions, which actually become ‘reasons for reading’ questions. They can then approach the reading with the objective of finding out if their questions can be answered.

Students may come up with questions such as:

What caused her anorexic behaviour?

When and where did she die?

How can we be certain that anorexia killed her?

Who knew about her eating disorder?

Activity 3.24

Students may suggest the following words and phrases to complete the sentences, based on information from Text 1.10.

Isabelle Caro worked as a model.

When she posed for Nolita in 2007, she weighed about 60 pounds.

The Nolita campaign shocked many people because it showed Isabelle Caro in an emaciated condition.

Caro decided to participate in the campaign because she wanted to warn girls about the dangers of dieting and the influence of fashion.

Fabiola De Clercq felt that the Nolita campaign was too crude.

Isabelle Caro’s TV career included working as a reality show judge and as an actress.

Isabelle’s mother kept her out of school because she wanted to protect her from picking up an illness from other children.

During her self-imposed diets, Isabelle would lapse into a coma and become delirious.

After talking to a psychologist, Isabelle moved to Marseille to break away from her parents.

Activity 3.25

Nouns
Verbs

commandment

disservice

battle

pronounced

ban

exploit

exhibit

dominated

dwindle

Adjectives
Adverbs

ravaged

emaciated

provocative

crude

delirious

haunting

balefully

lest

Activity 3.26

ravaged/devastated

balefully/darkly

battle/fight

emaciated/thin

provocative/shocking

commandment/rule

disservice/harm

pronounce/say

crude/obscene

ban/forbid

exploit/take advantage of

dominate/control

lest/in case

delirious/confused

dwindle/decrease

exhibit/show

haunting/unforgettable

Activity 3.27

The emphasis on inferring context, audience and purpose, which was discussed in earlier activities, could be re-iterated in this activity. There are no right answers to this activity, but students may offer responses similar to the following:

This text might be part of an awareness campaign or a public service campaign, which aims to make people more aware of the adverse effects of ads for beauty products.

The target audience might be young people who are susceptible to ads for beauty products.

This might appear on a website or magazine that promotes public health (and not beauty products).

The white boxes on the blue background really stand out. They make one read the text carefully, in a particular order, encouraging thought and understanding.

The capital letters stress a point that everyone is beautiful or at least everyone has a part of him or her that is beautiful.

Students may agree or disagree with this campaign. It certainly instigates discussion.

Literature

Activity 3.28

If this exercise seems difficult for the language level of your students you could reserve the exercise for later in your course, perhaps when you start reviewing topics before school exams. However, remember that students will be familiar with stylistic devices from their work in IB Group One courses and in this exercise, the focus is on language comprehension rather than literary analysis per se.

Activity 3.29

It’s advisable to steer the students away from trying to understand or explain every line in the poem. The questions in this activity aim to keep the conversation within the topics they should be able to manage as second language learners. Your goal is to build students’ confidence in their ability to deal with a literary text in English.

REFLECT

This short reflection is designed to move the topic from the classroom to the students own experience. Through their work in this unit, students will have gained the vocabulary and expressions in English to express their thoughts and insights.

2 Experiences

‘Experiences’, as a prescribed topic for Language B, invites students to consider how events that take place impact an individual’s life. However, it’s important to remember that the theme is intended to be a framework for language acquisition, not an end in itself. Therefore, the coursebook presents many opportunities for communication practice while exploring social, cultural and religious events which students may or may not have experienced. As with all the chapters in this coursebook, Chapter 2 is designed to facilitate a ‘student-centred’ approach to learning English. The idea being that their motivation to learn the language increases as they have the chance to talk about relevant and sometimes controversial subjects.

The IB’s ‘guiding principle’ for this prescribed topic is “explore and tell the stories of the events, experiences and journeys that shape our lives” (subject Guide). The ‘optional recommended topics’ from the subject guide have been framed in this chapter into three engaging units for students:

Theme: Experiences

Optional recommended topics (IB)
Chapter 2 units in coursebook

Leisure activities

Holidays and travel

Life stories

Rites of passage

Customs and traditions

Migration

1.1 Pilgrimage

1.2 Extreme sports

1.3 Migration

As you can see, the units in the coursebook are loosely related to the IB’s recommended topics. However, the context in which you are teaching and the background of your particular students should inform your course design. You are encouraged to use the coursebook for ideas and inspiration to develop your own materials within the broad subject of ‘experiences’. It is hoped that the chapter will also lead to your students wanting to follow a line of research or add more resources to a topic. When students have a genuine desire to communicate ideas and opinions, then language development follows.

The IB philosophy is firmly based on inquiry-based learning, so students should be trying to answer guiding questions. While they should be encouraged to posit their own questions on the theme, the IB and this coursebook have provided a few questions to steer learning in a certain direction.

Theme: Experiences

Possible questions (IB)
Guiding questions by unit

How does travel broaden our horizons?

How does out past shape our present and our future?

How and why do different cultures mark important moments in life?

How would living in another culture impact our world view?

2.1 What does it mean to go on a journey of self-exploration?

2.2 Why do people risk serious or fatal injury by participating in extreme sports?

2.3 Why do people leave their birth country and move abroad?

Scheme of work for Chapter 2

Unit 2.1
Pilgrimage

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Vocabulary development to form the base for this topic. Word bank.

Using a mind map to brainstorm ideas. Using photographs to generate ideas and language for the topic. Connotational meaning. Activities 1.1 to 1.5.

Lesson 2

Audio track 4. Activities 1.6 to 1.8. Research Vietnam war.

Lesson 3

Video American veterans reflect on their return to Vietnam – CBS evening news.

Activities 1.9 to 1.11.

Lesson 4

Text 2.1. Activities 1.12 to 1.14.

Lesson 5

Text 2.2. Activities 1.15 to 1.16.

Form and meaning: parts of speech and starting sentences with gerunds.

Lesson 6

Discussion. Activities 1.20 to 1.22.

Possible homework assignment: Activities 1.23 or 1.25. Writing a travel blog.

Lesson 7

Writing. Activity 1.24: essay Activity 2.25 – Blog post.

Lesson 8 (higher level extension)

Text 2.4 Learning about the Hajj. Activities 1.24 to 1.30.

Lesson 9 (Literature)

Activities 1.31 to 1.35.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 1.1

The strategy of brainstorming using a mind map (sometimes called a spider diagram) is explained for students in the side bar ATL Thinking skills (p. 65). The IB document Approaches to Learning (found on the PRC) has an excellent discussion of how teachers can encourage the development of Thinking skills in their students.You might also be interested in reading more about mind maps and their uses. Tony Buzan is often credited as bringing them to the forefront in education and has written many books on the technique.

Activities 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4

The purpose of these three activities is to broaden student consideration of the act of ‘pilgrimage’ to include deliberately undertaken journeys with a specific spiritual or emotional goal. In essence, these journeys are important experiences in the lives of the ‘pilgrims’.

The images are illustrative of four of the items in Activity 1.4. If students don’t recognise how the images relate to a pilgrimage, you can suggest they work through the list in this activity, to arrive at the following answers:

Image A = d

Image B = e

Image C = b

Image D = i

The discussion about the purpose of these pilgrimages should utilise lexical items from the word bank.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Describing a photograph is a skill which standard level students will need at the beginning of the individual oral examination. Phrases for identifying parts of the image can be tricky because of prepositions and idioms so it is worth spending a few minutes practising them. Some suggestions are given below.

As you listen to your own students talk about images you might notice common errors that are the result of interference from the L1.

Suggested phrases for describing images, for example:

In the foreground / in the background

The setting is…

On the right / on the left-hand side of the picture

At the bottom / at the top

In the top right-hand corner…

LEARNER PROFILE

The Learner Profile feature talks about how the characteristic of Principled will be helpful. If you are able to display a poster of the Learner Profile (the IB poster or one you created), you can more easily draw student attention to the characteristics as you use them throughout the course.

Activity 1.5

This kind of exercise is an opportunity to engage students in a comparison between their mother tongue and English.

Teaching idea

They Have a Word for it is one of several texts which presents words which cannot be easily translated from one language to another. You should be able to find lexical items from your students’ first languages. Ask them to think about any examples they have encountered in their own experience of becoming bilingual. Sometimes they are aware of a limitation in English lexis compared to a word in their mother tongue. For example, Spanish speakers might mention the use of ‘love’ in English which can be used for everything from ‘I love my mother’ to ‘I love that movie’ and ‘I love ice cream’.

Once students have enjoyed the ‘untranslatable’ words then you can focus on how the connotations of a word that can be translated might differ between languages. An example could be ‘pretty’; we don’t usually apply the adjective to ‘old lady’ nor to ‘young man’.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 1.6

Fall of Saigon – this refers to the end of the US involvement in the war in Vietnam. The retreat took place on 25 April, 1975, when the last service men were airlifted off the roof of the American Embassy in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) by helicopter.

Military-industrial complex – this phrase describes the relationship between America’s weapons manufacturers and the government’s military spending.

Agent Orange – this refers to the chemical mix that was sprayed on the jungle during the Vietnam War between 1961 and 1971.

G.I. is a word used to describe US soldiers. The acronym stands for ‘Government Issue’ or ‘Galvanised Iron’, which army soldiers wore as helmets.

Teaching idea

Since the context of Audio track 4 is a historical event, students will need some preparation to understand the allusions. You could introduce the quick research task by explaining that allusions are references which a writer (or speaker) believes are shared knowledge with the audience – and therefore do not need explaining. They can be cultural, historical, religious or limited to a smaller community, such as members of a school community. You might demonstrate by making a few remarks to the students using IB acronyms or references to shared school culture: “DP Group 2 courses overlap with TOK and make a great choice for an EE.” You could also teach them the verb form ‘to allude to’.

CONCEPTS

The Languages B Subject Guide (for first exams in 2020, available on the PRC) lists five conceptual understandings that are integral to successful communication. Context is a broad term that can refer to the circumstances of a communicative event, the relationship of the people involved, or as in this case, to the cultural background. In order for students to fully comprehend how important the return to Vietnam is to an American veteran they need to know a little of the history.

Activity 1.7

Across
Down

abandoned

reflect

lag

reluctant

pepper

remnants

hangar

clerk

innocent

airlift

defects

due

bury

Activity 1.8

Some of these questions – for instance b and c – require that students infer, rather than search for explicit answers in the text. This is why it is presented as a ‘discussion activity’ not a straightforward comprehension exercise. Inferencing is a more difficult skill in a second language, especially when one is still a language learner. It’s worth taking time over this activity, replaying the audio track so that tone of voice and pauses can be noted. Some suggested responses have been provided below.

because it is the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon

he feels it is impossible to explain his wartime experiences to people who weren’t there

he seems apprehensive, emotional and reflective. He ‘needs a drink’ at the airport and informs the reader that he ‘buried the experience’ a long time ago

they hire a driver

they don’t seem to mind American veterans returning or that they had fought in the war

he worked as a clerk; he feels partly responsible for the countless Vietnamese children who were born with birth defects as a result of his unit having dropped Agent Orange in the country

Activity 1.9

The activity focuses student attention on the visual imagery rather than immediately on the verbal content. They predict what scenes or images they would expect to see in a video with this title and then, during the first viewing, check to see how accurate they were. It is akin to skimming a written text before reading for meaning.

The Learner Profile feature – Courageous – is another way of giving students a hint before viewing so that they are more easily able to catch the purpose of the video clip.

Activity 1.10

The completed sentences, with missing words highlighted, are given below.

But for many who fought there was no closure.

The toll that it took on the people of this country was pretty severe.

Being here helps him write an end to a searing chapter in his life.

Is there catharsis here for some of these men?

His job was trying to convince civilians to support the US.

A bomb destroyed his hut. He would have been killed.

The war prompted massive anti-war demonstrations.

And took a toll on a whole generation.

Teaching idea

The proposed video is from CBS Evening News. If you have difficulty finding it online you could decide to move on to the next section in the unit, ‘Exploring texts’, because you will already have focused on listening skills based on Audio track 4. Alternatively, you might find video resources in other academic departments in your school such as the History department. A short clip about the post-war experiences of an individual would serve to build on the theme of this unit. Even if you can’t find anything relevant in English you might be able to use English subtitles with the sound turned off. You could even experiment with showing students a few minutes of a video in their first language and then discussing it in English.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

The six words in the list for Activity 1.11 would be effective in a ‘word family’ exercise. What part of speech is each word? Can you turn the words into other parts of speech? How do you spell them? How are they pronounced?

Emphasise to the students that one technique for increasing their vocabulary is to make notes of word families whenever they come across a new word.

The ‘Form and meaning’ section in this unit (Activities 1.17 and 1.18) also focuses on word families.

Activity 1.11

This activity invites students to find other videos about the topic of veterans returning to Vietnam. Having selected their video, students are steered in the direction of identifying the central idea or ‘essence’ of the film, by applying one or more words from the list.

ATL

‘Self-management’ is one of the characteristics which IB identifies as essential to true learning. The development of self-motivation and personal initiative in one’s studies is a trait which can be fostered through guided research exercises such as Activity 1.11. The student is given a context and a simple yet meaningful way to assess the product of the research.

Exploring texts

Activities 1.12 and 1.13

The topic of the next few activities is on the involvement of Australia and New Zealand in the First World War. The experiences of that generation are part of the cultural legacy for younger generations. The pilgrimage to Gallipoli is an important experience for many in honouring and remembering family members. Text 2.1 is an advertisement for a company which organises trips for “18 to 30 somethings” on the anniversary of Anzac Day.

The first activity, pairing adjectives with nouns, draws attention to five common collocations in English. Corpus linguistics has highlighted the frequency of collocations in both spoken and written communication. Speakers tend to use predictable groups of words rather than select each one separately.

Answers to Activity 1.12

Adjectives | Nouns
a  early | hours
b  unforgettable | pilgrimage
c  memorial | services
d  interested | onlookers
e  strong | emotions

Answers to Activity 1.13

Synonyms | Words from Text 2.1 ‘Anzac Trips’
a  bravery | courageous
b  well-known | legendary
c  remember | commemorate
d  makes you feel | provoke
e  authentic | genuine
f  most important | paramount

CONCEPTS

The concept of ‘purpose’ (Subject Guide) underpins all communication. The producer of language makes many choices – diction, register, structure etc. – with the specific purpose in mind. Equally, the listener or reader must look for clues in the language in order to understand the intention of the communication. The Concept feature in the coursebook alerts students to the importance of de-coding ‘purpose’ when studying Text 2.1 and also the poster ‘The Trumpet Calls’ on the following page. It is helpful to spend some time on this, asking students to identify both the language and the visual elements that they used to identify purpose.

Activity 1.14

True – “The courage shown by these men and equally courageous Turkish defenders is now legendary.”

False – “memorial services are held at Long Pine for Australian servicemen and Chunu Bair for New Zealanders.”

True – “Many have slept out under the stars only to waken to the haunting memory of the thousands of men arriving on the beaches at ANZAC Cove.”

True – This can be seen from the title of the webpage, the menu and links.

True – “Join Topdeck on an unforgettable pilgrimage.”

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Paper 2 is the final assessment of receptive skills, both listening and reading. It is weighted to be 50% of the candidate’s final grade in this course. In the reading part of the exam, students will be presented with three texts and a wide variety of question types. True/false with justification, as in this activity, is commonly seen on Paper 2. Make students aware that the evidence from the text is rarely more than a few words; a complete sentence is not sufficiently precise.

Activity 1.15

Answers

discomfort 7

revival 3

sheer 2

substantially 8

modest 6

coveted 1

secular 4

picturesque 5

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Text 2.2 This extract from a travel blog is a good model of a text type which students could be asked to produce on Paper 1, the writing exam.

Activity 1.16

The final question in this short comprehension exercise emphasises the importance of identifying ‘purpose’ by asking about the difference in Texts 2.1 and 2.2. This topic is the main focus of Activity 1.20 below.

Both “believers” and a “global clientele of active travellers with a largely secular agenda”.

The story teller is a “baptist” from “North America”. She does not “long to hike 750 kilometres,” nor carry a portion of her “worldly goods” on her back, nor “share communal nights in the free pilgrim dormitories”.

Other pilgrimages such as Lourdes, Fatima and Medjugorje have more visitors.

Text 2.2 is a piece of travel writing, where the author wishes to share her experiences with the reader. Text 2.1 is an advertisement for an organisation that sells trips to Turkey.

Form and meaning

Activity 1.17

The purpose of this activity is to give students a strategy for working out the meaning of more complex sentences. If they can identify the part of speech of key words in the sentence then they can find the subject and verb. Rather than just asking students to fill in the table, they are directed to find the ‘missing words’ in the text and then add them to the table.

You might also use this exercise to remind students that they should take the initiative to create ‘word families’ in their notebooks whenever they add new vocabulary. It’s an excellent way to extend vocabulary.

Noun | Adjective | Verb
belief | believable | to believe
challenge | challenging | to challenge
accomplishment | accomplished | to accomplish
commune | communal | to commune
acceptance | acceptable | to accept

Activity 1.18

Walking a section of the Camino de Santiago has been on the top of my list of things to do for a while.

Taking up bungee jumping has helped me become a better risk-taker.

Visiting my grandmother’s grave every year is a family tradition.

Fasting during Ramadan reminds me that others are less fortunate than me.

Introducing new sentence forms to students should occur throughout the course. In this activity students do not have to come up with their own ideas; they combine the two simple sentences using the gerund, as in the model. In this way they can focus on the on the pattern and rhythm of the structure.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The assessment criteria for Paper 1, the writing exam, contain descriptors for the range of sentence forms which a student uses in a written text. At standard level the descriptor in the highest mark band states: “A variety of basic and more complex grammatical structures is used effectively”, whereas at higher level it is: “structures used selectively in order to enhance communication”.

Discussion

Activity 1.19

ATT

Differentiation

With students who are less fluent this exercise should probably be ‘scaffolded’ so that they can focus first on the ideas and then on the language structures for comparison and contrast. If you put students in pairs they could search for similarities and differences, perhaps making two columns on paper. The next stage would be to create sentences of either comparison or contrast, out of the notes. If necessary, you could put model sentences on the board. Reading their sentences could be followed by your requiring them to memorize their sentences, look at the group and make a strong confident statement.

Activity 1.20

How culturally specific are these cartoons? For instance, do Asian cultures feel the same about the Mona Lisa as the representatives of western cultures do in cartoon b? Is there a piece of art which has the same ‘star-power’ in the students’ own culture(s)?

Cartoon a alludes to the question that children on road trips in the family car ask so often that it has become a cliché. Is it the same in other cultures and languages?

What does the viewer need to know about dogs as pets to understand the caption in cartoon c?

Be aware that there may be some sensitivities to dogs in some cultures, and to keeping them as pets.

CONCEPTS

This activity could be used to recycle the topics of allusions and inferencing which have been mentioned above in notes to activities 1.6 and 1.8. What cultural allusions are made in these cartoons? How much do we need to infer from the captions in order to ‘get the joke’?

Activity 1.21

This activity proposes three topics for short presentations. Students will need to do a quick search for basic information about religious sites that are destinations for pilgrimages and then spend some time preparing their arguments. Topic b is more challenging than topic a as it invites students to take a position and justify it. Topic c is more philosophical so is probably better suited to a more fluent group of students.

Writing

Activity 1.22 and Activity 1.23

These two activities ask students to create a post on a travel blog and to write an essay. Activity 1.22 uses the text on the ANZAC pilgrimage (Text 2.1) and provides sentence starters for scaffolded writing practice.

ATT

Differentiation

This type of scaffolding and ‘recycling’ of a text that has already been studied would be a good choice for less fluent students or for a quicker writing exercise (since the material is familiar).

Activity 1.24

This activity is based on a text (Text 2.3) about Graceland, Elvis Presley’s home. Similar to Text 2.1, it is an advertisement for a company which provides tours. Writing a blog post about a visit to Graceland requires studying the text first and possibly doing more research. It would likely be more challenging than the first option. It could be a homework assignment.

Ask students to state the type of essay, the intended audience and the purpose at the top of their work.

CONCEPTS

Since students have been analysing the purpose of the texts in this unit, you could consider applying the same focus to the genre of an essay. Who is the intended audience? What is the purpose of writing an essay? Students will be familiar with the academic essay but are they aware of the personal essay genre? How might this differ in structure to an academic essay?

Higher level extension

Activity 1.25

This activity is best done in pairs or small groups. Students are sked to create a Venn diagram showing the similarities and differences between the Muslim pilgrimage, the Hajj, and the pilgrimage of remembrance made to Gallipoli. The purpose is for students to brainstorm what they already know about religious pilgrimages and the Hajj in particular. Ultimately this activity, serves to spark curiosity to learn more when reading Text 2.4.

Activity 1.26

This is another way to prime students for reading the text. They are invited to speculate about what is happening in each of the photographs, then order them based on their knowledge of religious rites. There is sure to be some disagreement about the correct order which becomes an incentive for careful reading of the text.

Activity 1.27

This activity follows on from Activity 1.26 and asks which captions would be appropriate with each image.

Image a: Caption f

Image b: Caption b

Image c: Caption e

Image d: Caption c

Image e: Caption a

Image f: Caption d

Activity 1.28

True / false questions often require a higher order of thinking than a direct comprehension question. The given statement has to be assessed in the light of other statements in the text and subtle distinctions of meaning need to be identified and de-coded.

False – “White garments are symbolic of human equality and unity before God.”

True – “The tawaf is meant to awaken each Muslim’s consciousness that God is the center of their reality and the source of all meaning in life, and that each person’s higher self-identity derives from being part of the community of the Muslim Believers, known as the ummah.”

False – “Mulsims believe the rites of the Hajj were designed by God and taught through prophet Muhammad.”

False – “there have been thousands of prophets... and Muhammad was the final prophet of God.”

Activity 1.29

Yes – “Muslims from all over the world [...] enter a state of consecration (dedication).”

No – There’s nothing in the text to suggest ‘adventure’.

Yes – They wear “white garments which are symbolic of human equality”.

Yes – “The meat from the slaughtered sheep is distributed for consumption to family, friends and poor and needy people in the community.”

Yes – “The Hajj is in commemoration of the trials of Abraham” and his “willingness to sacrifice his son in response to God’s command” (first lines). Muslims also say: “Here I am at your service, O God, Here I am!”

No – There is no evidence from the text to suggest ‘discipline’.

Activity 1.30

Answers

consecration

paramount

earnest

attire

consciousness

supplication

dissuade

consumption

reenact

Activity 1.31

This is an engaging way to get the whole class interacting. The activity begins by asking students to be curious and thinking of questions they still have about the Hajj. They might be as straightforward as ‘where do all the pilgrims stay?’ or ‘how far is the s’ai and how long does it take?’ The important thing is for students to take initiative for their own learning, to become ‘inquirers’ (point out this characteristic on the poster of the Learner Profile in your classroom). The quote “we learn with enthusiasm” as a description of students who are ‘inquirers’ should intrigue some of your students.

Literature

Activity 1.32

The three questions are designed to elicit opinions and speculation about the context of Text 2.5. Culturally, the existence of long-distance hiking trails might be a novelty to some students. Note: after reading the text, students are referred back to the same three questions in Activity 1.34.

Teaching idea

Look online or on the DVD ‘extras’ for the trailer of the movie Wild.

You could use this clip after the short discussion of Activity 1.31 experimenting with showing it first without sound and then playing the sound but no video. Used in this way a short clip of video can be used to produce a range of language activities.

Activity 1.33

By clarifying some of the more unusual vocabulary that they will meet in the text, this exercise prepares students to catch the strong emotions of the narrator in this extract.

Answers

catapult – propel

topple – knock over

retrieve – recover

gasp – inhale

clutch – grasp

futile – useless

orphan – stray

mercy – forgiveness

lug – carry

stagger – sway

sorrow – grief

Activity 1.34

There are no right answers. The intention is for students to examine the way language is used in each of the sentences in the activity. As your students will be taking a Group One literature course they will be familiar with certain literary devices, able to identify them and probably describe the way they affect the reader. In these quotes from the text the sentence structures, use of repetition and sound effects such as alliteration are fairly obvious but it is describing the effect which will be challenging.

REFLECT

These concluding questions should be used to allow students to reflect on all the topics and ideas which have been explored in this unit. Reflection is identified as a characteristic of an IB student (Learner Profile) but could equally apply to teachers. You might choose to be a participant in this concluding discussion, expressing your own reactions to the texts and the whole notion of pilgrimages as life-changing experiences.

Activity 1.35

Now that students have experienced the extract from the text, and perhaps been able to imagine themselves in the same situation as the emotional narrator, do they react differently to the questions they had answered in Activity 1.31? The purpose of this is for students to recognise how a literary text leads one to experience something through imagination.

Activity 1.36

EXAM-RELATED TIP

At higher level the individual oral exam is based on a short extract from one of two literary texts that have been studied in class. The student makes a 3 to 4 minute presentation, first placing the extract in the context of the whole work, and then “on the events, ideas and messages in the extract itself”. Activities like this one in which the term ‘plot’ is analysed, give students more sophisticated ways of approaching the task than simply ‘telling the story’.

Unit 2.2
Extreme sports

Unit 2.2 Extreme sports

In this unit students will learn about extreme sports and the personal experiences of people who push themselves to the limits of safety.

Learning objectives

Expand your knowledge of extreme sports.

Be proficient in discussing the world of extreme sports.

Language focus

Improving variety in sentence structures.

Guiding questions

Why do people take unnecessary risks in extreme sports?

How does sport help shape identity?

Resources referred to in the activities:

‘This explorer has seen more of the world than anyone currently alive’

Audio track 5 – interview with an ‘extreme sports management’ researcher and lecturer

Transcript of Audio track 5

Additional resources

IOC adds five new sports to Tokyo games for 2020 CNN website

Further reading

Literature in the Language Classroom Joanne Collier and Stephen Slater (Cambridge)

English Collocations in Use Michael McCarthy and Felicity O’Dell (Cambridge)

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Introductory discussion using the images and word bank.

Activities 2.1 and 2.2.

Audio track 5. Activities 2.3 and 2.4.

Lesson 2

Review last lesson by listening again to Audio track 5, completing Activity 2.5 and then the oral exercise – explaining the new sport of springbocking.

Preparatory exercise (Activity 2.6) for watching the video about explorer Mike Horn.

Activities 2.7 and 2.8 continue with the vocabulary focus.

Activity 2.9 as a concluding and summarising exercise.

Lesson 3

Text 2.6 Top 10 Incredibly Dangerous Sports Activities 2.10 to 2.14.

Lesson 4

Text 2.7 Extreme Future of Olympic Sports Activities 2.15 to 2.18.

Lesson 5

Form and meaning. Activities 2.19 to 2.21. Structures to use in writing

Discussion. Activities 2.22 and 2.23.

Writing. A formal letter.

Lesson 6 (higher level extension)

Text 2.8 Fear Factor. Activities 2.26 to 2.29.

Lesson 7 (Literature)

Text 2.9 Activities 2.30 to 2.31.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

The word bank should spark some interest in your class as should the images that open this unit. Students should discuss the images using the focus vocabulary from the word bank.

Activity 2.1

As an extension of the previous discussion about the images, this activity requires that students think precisely about the shades of meaning in fairly common words.

Teaching idea

In addition to Hemingway’s quote, what other quotes about sports, especially dangerous sports, can you find? For example: ‘The only difference between an ordeal and an adventure is your state of mind.’ Ask students to find a quote about sport and display them on a poster.

Teaching idea

As a precursor to the ‘speed-dating’ Activity, 2.2, focus attention on the three images – wingsuit flying, street luging and cave diving. Ask the students to describe what they see but to organise their points so that they are making mini-presentations about the sport. What does one actually do in this sport? You could help them by putting hints on the white board: special clothing and safety gear; equipment; purpose of the sport; level of danger. After this warm-up the students should be ready to try Activity 2.2.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

In the standard level oral exam, creating a short presentation based on a photograph is an important skill. The Program Resource Centre (PRC) on ‘My IB’ contains not only the Language B Subject Guide but also the Teacher Support Material (TSM) for first examinations in 2020. It is well worth looking at these resources, as they include examples, supplied as mp3 files, of both SL and HL oral exams, graded by an IB examiner.

Activity 2.2

How you set up this energetic activity will depend on your particular context. A smaller group of fairly fluent students could follow the instructions in the course book. A larger group might need the structure of a tic tac toe chart.

Students each pull a card with one of the sports from the list written on it. They quickly research and fill in the information about their own designated sport on the chart. It might look like the one below.

Students circulate, filling in the table by exchanging information with peers. If you set a time limit and insist on one-to-one sharing the pace will be energetic!

Name of sport
How and where is it practised?
How did it start?
What equipment do you need to do this sport?
Why is it considered an extreme sport?

The exercise continues with reporting back in the form of answering the questions about ‘likelihood of injuries or a fatal accident’. Note: they will need this list of risk factors and criteria for assessing the danger of an extreme sport in Activity 2.10.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activities 2.3 and 2.4

Asking students to predict, and then listen specifically for those same points, is an effective way to help them cope with the challenge of comprehending an authentic listening text. Here they are asked to think about the context of the interview from the point of view of who is being interviewed: an expert on ‘sports management’ at a university. Given his profession, can they predict his answers to the questions? Once they have filled in the chart with their predictions they listen to Audio track 5 for his answers.

ATT

Differentiation

First year students, or those who are less skilled at listening in English, could enjoy working in pairs for Activities 2.3 and 2.4. If they can listen to the audio on their own device they can replay as often as needed to catch the answers which may have gone by too quickly. Encourage them to write down words they think might be important but that they don’t know how to spell. You can circulate and ‘de-code’ the words for them so that they have a good chance of succeeding at the task.

Answers to Activity 2.3

Mr. Weisman says that there is no official definition of ‘extreme sports’, but that there is most likely an element of danger.

Mountain biking / skateboarding / in-line skating / paintballing / alpine skiing.

Extreme sports, like kitesurfing, have become popular because technology has made them both possible and affordable for many people.

Students who study ‘extreme sports management’ learn about event organisation, safety regulations, marketing strategies and leadership skills.

The host finds it strange or ironic to do a degree in extreme sports management, because extreme sports are often considered unconventional or even illegal.

Mr. Weisman feels it is not strange to offer a degree in extreme sports management because people need to be prevented from hurting themselves when practising these sports.

Activity 2.5

Now that the main ideas of the interview have been noted, the listening task turns to a focus on idioms.

Answers

by all means

year on year

flocking to

danger

‘mainstream’

through the roof

limbs intact

go off the beaten path

paradoxes

You might choose to finish this listening focus by challenging students to explain the sport of springbocking, as shown in the image. They have listened to the audio track more than once so they have heard Weisman describe the sport and should have some of the necessary vocabulary. This is helps to develop the skills they used when describing photographs in Activity 2.2.

Teaching idea

With a second-year class it could be interesting to invent two or three scenarios which would require students to adapt their explanation of springbocking to different contexts and purposes. They will have been introduced to these concepts earlier in the course and should be aware of the way they affect language and style. For example:

a presentation in which they propose starting a springbocking club in their school

a statement from a concerned parent at a PTA meeting, explaining to other parents what springbocking is

Activity 2.6

Mike Horn, an extreme explorer, is introduced in this activity with a brief paragraph from his website. Horn is a contrast to the ‘thrill-seekers’ portrayed in the images of extreme sports enthusiasts in this unit.

Based on a short stimulus text, students are asked to predict which 10 of the 15 words in the box will appear in the video about Mike Horn. These are the 10 words that are actually used in the video.

ice
nuclear
oxygen
expedition
SUV

solution
patience
Amazon
rudder
knowledge

Activity 2.7

The 5 words that were not mentioned in the video are:

circle
ship
unfamiliar

unaccompanied
jeopardise

Teaching idea

Mike Horn, an extreme explorer, is first introduced in Activity 2.6 with a brief paragraph from his website. Horn is a contrast to the ‘thrill-seekers’ portrayed in the images of extreme sports enthusiasts in this unit. If you can’t access the video referred to in Activity 2.7 then you can create your own activities based on the website rather than the recommended short documentary. Another way of extending the topic and incorporating listening skills could be to set students the task of researching other solitary explorers. A few suggestions: Sarah Marquis who walked from Siberia to Australia; Levison Wood walking the length of the Nile; Lynne Cox swimming in the Arctic. As they present information to the class their classmates listen for the key points. You can vary the level of difficulty by setting more challenging questions such as those in Activity 2.9 about motivation and personal reasons for the exploit.

Activity 2.8

The synonyms used in the video to describe these five words are:

circle = circumnavigate

unaccompanied = solo or unsupported

ship = vessel or boat

jeopardise = risk

unfamiliar = unknown

Activity 2.9

Asking students to write complete sentences in answer to the comprehension questions will produce small pieces of text. Allow students to check each other’s work, correcting errors and adding details as needed. Now students can form their sentences into the introduction to a radio or TV news interview. They can role play the news broadcaster who is reading the item on the air. They could begin like this: “Welcome to IB News. In sports news today …”

This exercise works as a summarising task, recycling the language learned from the topic. It also allows students to think about text type, audience and purpose of a sports news item.

Answers

He is literally standing on the bow of his yacht, the Pangaea. They have just crossed the 40th to 49th latitude (the roaring 40s), a section of sea between South Africa and the Antarctica. And they are entering the 50th latitude. They have just arrived at ice.

Before this expedition he has swum down the Amazon, circumnavigated the equator. He went to the North Pole in winter. He climbed some of the highest, 8,000 metre peaks without oxygen.

The journey will last two years and cover 40,000 kilometres.

Once he arrives in Antarctica, he intends to cross it at its widest point, by land, pulling his equipment on a sled.

He needs to cross Antarctica while it is summer there, in the few months before it freezes again.

One problem they encounter is that they cannot reach where they want to go because of the thick ice in their way. While trying to break through the ice the rudder of their boat broke. Their generator also broke.

He is motivated by the ‘unknown’ and overcoming the chance of failure, as he crosses into the ‘unknown’.

ATT

Part of an IB teacher’s role is helping students become aware of the process of learning itself. The opposite of a ‘spoon-fed’ student is one who is aware of how she learns and can take responsibility for her own development. Suggesting strategies for dealing with new material is one way of supporting student growth in this area. One such strategy could be the ‘bull’s eye diagram’ introduced in the side bar on Thinking Skills alongside Activities 2.15 and 2.16 in the coursebook.

Exploring texts

Activity 2.10

Text 2.6

Remind students of the notes they made in Activity 2.2 when discussing the likelihood of accident or death in extreme sports. They might want to apply those same criteria in this activity which requires them to order 10 sports in order of danger. Perhaps they considered the remoteness of the location and distance from emergency services, or the consequence of a single mistake being fatal or the importance of weather and natural forces.

Students do not need to understand every word or phrase to make their own ordered list. The focus on new words and phrases comes after this over-view activity in which it is enough to understand the gist of each section of the text.

Activities 2.11 and 2.12

These vocabulary exercises are important if students are to be able to appreciate the particular type of humour in Text 2.6. While the lexical items are not ‘funny’ in themselves, the context in which they are used in the text is often surprising. It can help to make students aware of the context and audience so that they can appreciate the purpose. Students could look at the Listverse website to see what other articles are published and to get an idea of the target audience.

After the vocabulary work they will be better prepared for Activity 2.14

Answers to Activity 2.11

f (devolved)

o (hurl)

b (deploy)

g (deceleration)

k (corpses)

d (queue up)

l (virgin)

e (itching)

c (faeces)

n (spinal)

a (hazards)

i (entice)

m (contusions)

j (obstacles)

h (submerged)

Answers to Activity 2.12

the arts of war

physical fitness

death wishes

attempted suicide

mortality rate

top dollar

untouched powder

open-for-business

bone marrow

lapse of concentration

injury-prone

uncharted territory

cramped quarters

field of play

frontal lobes

brute force

Activity 2.13

These straightforward comprehension questions encourage a further reading of Text 2.6, this time concentrating on factual information rather than vocabulary.

They risk getting slammed back into the object they jumped from.

Regular injury can be fatal because rescue helicopters simply cannot reach the injured.

Two dangerous aspects of heli-skiing include avalanches and the helicopter ride itself.

Yes, street lugers have to watch out for traffic. They present a visual profile to vehicles that is only slightly larger than a puddle.

Bull-running comes from the tradition of herding bulls from off-site corrals to the bullring (for bull fights).

Cheerleading is considered dangerous because there are thousands of injuries every year. It is like “diving on land, with easily distracted co-eds serving as water”.

Diving itself is already dangerous, but cave diving includes exploring uncharted territory, freezing temperatures, low-visibility conditions and cramped quarters. If you get stuck, you cannot just go up to breathe.

14 people have died from the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona since 1910.

Big-wave waves can be as big as 50 feet.

CONCEPTS

Humour in a foreign language, especially in a written text is often difficult to detect, especially in a text like Text 2.6 which is dealing with the apparently serious topic of fatal injury to sportsmen and women. You could decide to bring up the term ’black humour’ and see if the term translates into the students L1.

What sort of topic is the subject of black humour?

Why do the students think that people enjoy it?

What are the dangers of using black humour?

Are there differences between cultures or is black humour somehow universal?

Activity 2.14

This activity asks students to identify phrases or sentences in the text which seem to be intended humorously.

Activity 2.15

These six questions are designed as a warm-up, to create the mind-set for the shift in focus to Olympic sports.

The names of the sports in the images (a–e) are as follows:

Bouldering (rock climbing with no harnesses or ropes)

Parkour or free running

Bicycle motocross

Skateboarding

Obstacle course running

Activity 2.16

The objective of this activity is to prepare for reading Text 2.7, ‘The Extreme Future of Olympic Sports’. While it could certainly be handled as a quick ‘complete the sentences’ exercise, it would also be successful as a ‘poll’ so that each student’s opinion is heard and displayed.

Teaching idea

Create four posters, each with one of the incomplete sentences written across the top. Students write their own endings on sticky notes and post them on the appropriate poster. You could assign students to manage the process, giving instructions to the class and finally reading aloud the ‘sentence endings’ to the class.

Activity 2.17

Text 2.7 is an opinion column so once they have read and understood the main ideas, the students should be able to transfer the opinion/stance of the writer to the questions in this activity. It functions as a way to check comprehension of the text.

Activity 2.18

Answers

prestigious

adapt

adopt

poised

innovative

masses

be hard pressed

scrap

round off

incorporate

rebellious

goofy

blossom

flock

gravitate

brass

spring up

mimic

gawk

axe

Form and meaning

Activities 2.19 and 2.20

The objective of these exercises is to introduce students to ways of creating more variety in their writing. The focus is on the opening to sentences. First, Activity 2.19 requires students to notice the pattern in the text they have just studied. Then Activity 2.20 tests whether they have understood the meaning of each phrase and can use it appropriately to fill a gap in a sentence.

Answers to Activity 2.19

Recently

In addition

More importantly

With that said

Rather

Plus

Suddenly

Answers to Activity 2.20

Rather

In addition

With that said

Suddenly

Recently

More importantly

Plus

Activity 2.21

This structure avoids the use of a subject “Why don’t you ...” which could seem critical or too directive. Beginning with “Why not + verb” can make a suggestion seem diplomatic and helpful. You could put students in pairs for more oral practice of the form. They take it in turns to express a problem to their partner who responds with a ‘Why not’ suggestion. For example:

I’m having so much trouble with my chemistry homework. I’m really worried about it.

Why not ask the teacher to meet with you and give you some help?

Students may suggest the following for constructing sentences that make suggestions:

Why not host a skateboarding competition in the school’s car park?

Why not let me go rock climbing in an area where I can be reached by phone?

Why don’t we try mountain biking instead of road biking?

Discussion

Activity 2.22

Teaching idea

One way of managing the different stages of this oral exercise is to introduce an element of ‘surprise’ into it. Here’s a possible scenario:

Depending on the number of students in your class divide the students into small groups (4 to 6 in each would work well). Each group assigns a chairperson who will manage the discussion process so that you can observe progress and intervene with suggestions if needed.

Step one: each group creates a list of criteria as outlined in the coursebook. They should be written down so that everyone in the group can refer to them.

Step two: each group selects an extreme sport from Text 2.7 and writes the name on a card. The groups exchange cards.

Step three: now the groups discuss the proposal that the sport on the card they received become an Olympic sport. They discuss the pros and cons based on the criteria they created earlier. When time is up each group makes a ‘formal announcement’ as to whether the sport has been accepted or rejected.

Note: Five new sports have been added to the Olympic roster for the 2020 games in Tokyo: skateboarding, karate, surfing, sports climbing and baseball/softball.

Activity 2.23

There are no right answers to this activity; the point is for students to use the language that has been built throughout the unit to justify their decisions as to whether a caption will fit the image.

On completing the exercise you could explain to the class that these are the sorts of captions they might be attached to photographs in the standard level oral exam. The captions will not be questions; they will be statements that will lead to an interesting conversation between the student and teacher. More guidance on the SL individual oral exam, with exam practice, can be found in Chapter 9.

Writing

Activity 2.24

Students tend not to have much experience with the genre of letters. You could refer them to Unit 6.1 for models and explanation of the structure of such texts. However, the key to this writing exercise is the use of the sentence fragments. They form a template onto which the students can add their own ideas. The resulting complete letter will have the appropriate style and register which can become a model for future writing.

Higher level extension

Activity 2.25

Explain to the students that most native speakers of English could automatically add the second word in the phrase even if they did not see the words in the box. The reason is that words tend to be used in collocation, commonly paired words which save time and energy in communication. For language learners, being able to use a few collocations makes a big difference to fluency. For this reason, students should study the context of the phrases in the text so that they can see how they can be used.

mental make-up

serious injury

adrenaline rush

personality trait

fear factor

skill level

Activity 2.26

After reading the text, students select the best image from images a–d to illustrate the article. This is not as simple as it might seem; it requires that they can identify the central point in the text and use it as justification for their decision.

Not very appropriate. This image is too scientific.

Very appropriate. This image shows the someone enjoying an element of risk.

Not very appropriate. This image is too focused on the injuries of high-risk sports, whereas the article focuses on the ‘thrill’ of the sports.

Not very appropriate. It is difficult to see the context of the man’s celebration.

Activity 2.27

The questions in this activity are best answered in reported speech rather than by extracting sentences directly from the text. This is a good opportunity to focus attention on the grammatical structure and also to point out that news articles tend to use more (and longer) direct speech than an academic text would. Why is this the case?

They have a high tolerance and craving for risk.

They enjoy the challenge, and want to find out how far they can push themselves when faced with danger.

When the course is more dangerous, and he feels scared

They forget how scary it was, and go back to do it again.

Some people have a strong craving for adrenaline rushes.

She was doing practice jumps after recovering from surgery.

She means she has to reduce the level of risk.

They feel they are in control and can minimise the risk.

The higher the level of skill, the higher the level of risk that is needed to get in the ‘zone’.

Activity 2.28

This exercise requires students to deduce what questions were asked by the journalist. It is an effective way of checking student comprehension of the text. Answers will vary but there should be agreement about the topic and focus of the question.

ATT

Differentiation

With less fluent students you could turn Activity 2.28 into a pair activity, not only to provide support with the task of deducing the questions, but so that it can be a small role play activity. Students can practise reading aloud with one of them asking the question and the other reading the response from the article.

Literature

Activity 2.29

Most of the texts in this unit have been informational or opinion pieces. In contrast, this extract (Text 2.9) from a novel emphasises the range of emotions experienced by the protagonist. This short activity is intended to draw students’ attention to the different purpose of the literary text and to provoke thought about the TOK question in the marginal feature.

Teaching idea

The activity requires one-word answers. An interesting way of doing this is to give everyone three cards (one for each question); the word is written down rather than spoken. Students sit in a circle so they can see all the cards as they are raised. You can ask for clarification of any words that seem ambiguous but, in general, this activity would work best in a reflective silence.

Activity 2.30

You could certainly use these comprehension questions in the traditional question and answer format. If you would like to vary the approach here is a suggestion which will generate more interaction among the students.

Teaching idea

Groups are given an enlarged photocopy of the extract on a poster-sized paper which is attached to the wall. They discuss answers to the six questions, pointing to evidence in the text. As they agree on each response they annotate the paper, perhaps with arrows to the relevant lines. When time is up, each group moves to the next poster and reads the annotations. They may add comments or questions in a different coloured pen. The activity concludes with groups returning to their own poster to read the comments which have been added.

Douglas is anxious about going back to school because he does not want to be treated differently, now that his brother has died.

The coloured man seems to put their grief into perspective. Implicitly the text suggests that the man does not have a ‘big brick house and grass yard and blackmama maid’.

There are multiple places in which the reader understands that the narrator is grieving. The third paragraph reads, ‘I cry hard for Marsden dead and gone, and love gone too.’

In the line ‘It is as dead as a lizard spiked on the thorn by a butcher bird,’ ‘it’ stands for the love of Douglas’ father for Douglas’ mother.

Douglas does not think of Cape Town as the ‘real’ Africa.

It is possible that Douglas puts faith in the juju seeds, because his father gave them to him, and he misses his father.

REFLECT

The process of reflection at the end of a unit is valuable. It allows students to see how they have acquired the language to share more complex ideas and sophisticated opinions in English. The questions here are only suggestions.

Unit 2.3
Migration

Unit 2.3: Migration

In this unit students explore the topic of migration from several different perspectives. The experiences of migrants and also of citizens in the host countries are considered and discussed.

Learning objectives

Understand the reasons why people migrate.

Be able to explain why people migrate and how migration affects the world.

Language focus

Form and meaning: Present simple; past simple; present perfect.

Guiding questions

Why do people migrate?

How is migration changing the world?

Resources referred to in the activities:

Video: ‘This is why people migrate’ (AJ+)

Video: Most shocking Second a Day (Save the Children)

Audio track 6: interview with a fictitious young Syrian refugee living in Sweden

Transcript of Audio track 6

Additional resources

‘Look beyond borders: the 4 minute challenge’ (Polish Amnesty International)

Watch the YouTube video from Polish Amnesty Internnational.

House of Sand and Fog (2003 film)

‘As boy peers curiously over border wall, his artist asks “what is he thinking?”’

Watch this video on the NPR website.

Further reading

Learner English (2001) eds Michael Swan and Bernard Smith (Cambridge)

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Developing precise vocabulary for discussion of immigration as one aspect of the topic ‘migration’. Activities 3.1 to 3.6.

Lesson 2

Watch and listen. Video This is why people migrate. Activities 3.7 and 3.8.

Audio track 6. Activities 3.9 and 3.10.

Lesson 3

Exploring texts. Text 2.10. Activity 3.11 and 3.12.

Text 2.11. Activity 3.13 to 3.15.

Lesson 4

Form and meaning. Text 2.12. Activities 3.16 to 3.20.

Lesson 5

Discussion. A range of options. Activities 3.21 to 3.25.

Lesson 6

Writing. A blog post. A formal letter. Activities 3.26 and 3.27.

Lesson 7 (higher level extension)

Text 2.13. Activities 3.28 to 3.32.

Lesson 8 (Literature)

Text 2.14 House of Sand and Fog. Activities 3.33 to 3.35.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 3.1

The unit starts by asking students to think about the associations that come to mind with the word ‘immigrant’. Since the topic is so much in the news, they likely have plenty of ideas but may lack the vocabulary to express them in English. The word bank should help, but you might need to use a dictionary so they can complete their spider diagrams, which you may know as ‘mind-maps’. The objective is for students to freely brainstorm ideas without trying to categorise or prioritise them.

Based on the ideas in their spider diagrams, they then write a definition of ‘immigrant’.

Activity 3.2

In this activity the four words listed are used for a brief comparison and contrast exercise with the generic term ‘immigrant’. The purpose is for students to see the complexity in the globalised world of people living and working outside their country of birth. Seeing beyond stereotypes and assumptions is part of becoming “knowledgeable and caring young people” (IB mission statement).

Activities 3.3 and 3.4

In these two activities students are working with four photographs, first applying terms from the previous exercise and then creating captions which capture the main idea of each photograph. If they are first-year diploma students you might want to explain the process of the final oral exam so that they see the purpose of carefully examining the images and linking them to the topics being discussed in class.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The first part of the standard level oral exam is a 3–4 minute presentation in which the student describes the photograph, relates it to the theme studied in the course (aided by a caption added to the photo) and expresses an opinion on the ideas implied in the image. There are sample oral exams on the Teacher Support Material on the Program Resource Centre and in Chapter 9 of the coursebook.

Activity 3.5

This activity leads students into a reflective process as they create sentences from the options in the table. They’re presented with positive and negative scenarios and a range of verbs. Once they’ve written several sentences you could choose to finish with a fluency practice, inviting students to memorise a sentence, look at their classmates and say it with appropriate pausing. They could begin with a phrase such as “it seems to me that…” or “there is plenty of data that shows…”

Activity 3.6

This brainstorming activity could be set up for the full group to work together. If you have enough wall space the table could be posted for the duration of this unit and added to as suggested in the Extra feature.

The focus of the exercise is to acknowledge the diverse perspectives on immigration held by citizens of a host country. The table is labelled for ‘benefits’ and ‘problems’. During this activity students add ideas without proof or evidence – they are simply brainstorming and finding the English to express comments they have heard or read in their mother tongue. Eventually, it would be useful to post articles which provide research data for the points entered in each column.

Note: the completed table will be needed again if you choose to do Activity 3.19.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 3.7

Video

The aim of asking students to guess which numbers fit in the list of sentences is to give them a way into the video. This gives a reason for listening and a sense of achievement when they catch the number without pausing the video.

Here are the answers

232

3

1.1

14

66.6 (two-thirds)

11.7

6

90

83

Teaching idea

Activities 3.7 and 3.8 can still be used even if you can’t access this specific video about migration. You could turn the first activity into an interactive exercise by getting the class to guess which number fits into each sentence. Assign one or two students to handle the negotiations and list the agreed answers on the board. When you give them the answers (provided above) there might be some surprises which could lead to practice of common interactive expressions such as:

That’s not at all what I expected.

I’m surprised by that. I’d have thought that …

My goodness! I’d no idea that …

Really! I never knew that.

One way to adapt Activity 3.8 if the video isn’t available is to use the statements as a short fluency practice. Tell students they are auditioning to be news readers. First they will read the sentences as written in the coursebook with the more formal phrases as underlined. Let them practice to decide which words they will emphasise and check pronunciation if necessary. The next stage might be to substitute the more informal phrases for the underlined words (you have them in the answers to Activity 3.8). Students should try to adjust their tone and delivery in accordance with the more informal diction.

Activity 3.8

During a second playing of the video, students focus on expressions used by the presenter. Depending on the level of your students, you might need to pause and replay sections so they can catch the vocabulary and write down what they hear. It’s worth remembering that for language learners, listening, de-coding meaning and writing notes all at the same time may prove to be more than they can manage.

Answers

But get this

not so voluntarily

in unprecedented numbers

not going anywhere anytime soon.

pushed to the breaking point.

attracting folks.

here to stay

Activity 3.9

Students listen to Audio track 6, an interview with a fictitious Syrian refugee living in Sweden, about his experiences.

ATT

The Approaches to Teaching document (available in the PRC) states that Inquiry Learning should be the primary methodology in all diploma courses. An activity such as Activity 3.9, in which students list questions they would ask in a formal interview with a Syrian refugee, is in line with this approach. The listening exercise takes on quite a different aspect if students are listening for answers to their own questions.

Activity 3.10

The first stage of this activity is a memory exercise. Students have to decide if each statement is true or false based on what they heard in Audio track 6. You could assign a student to manage this activity, taking a poll for each statement and noting it on the board. When the class listens a second time they check their initial answers.

Answers

True. ‘Adad Ashkar, a Syrian refugee. Listeners may remember that I spoke to him last month, after he had emigrated to Sweden.’

False. Adad has not ‘directly’ experienced this.

False. Adad fears the country is ‘hardening’ as ‘there is a lot of talk on the TV now about taking in fewer refugees to Sweden.’

True. Adad says that ‘people going about their daily lives in European cities do not expect this level of violence.’

False. He says ‘no, not at all. Quite the opposite.’

False. He asks: ‘how do you talk to someone who refuses to listen?’

True. Adad says ‘my brother was angry at me for having the picture taken.’

False. Adad does not know if or when he will return to Syria. He says ‘I don’t see that the war is going to end anytime soon.’

Exploring texts

Activity 3.11

As preparation for a fill-in-the-blanks exercise, this activity gives a short story in which the words missing from Text 2.10 appear in italics. Seeing the words in context clarifies meaning and usage, although students may still want to look up the meaning of any words that they don’t fully understand.

Once they have read the short story, students decide how to match the words with the numbered gaps in the article from the London Metro.

Teaching idea

A way to encourage focus on the potentially new vocabulary items is to make the second part of the task into a pair-work activity. If students have studied the words in the story independently they compare their understanding with a class mate as they decide which word fills each space in the text. “I think the answer is X because in the story that word meant …”.

Answers (giving the number of the gap in Text 2.10 where each word belongs).

railing 2

campaign 10

curious 1

bothering 15

instead 12

unwillingness 18

engage 14

barely 5

dire 9

unsuspecting 8

overwhelmed 13

shift 19

scattered 7

hospitality 16

pledged 19

fleeing 4

recruit 12

struggles 6

life 3

Activity 3.12

Before beginning this comprehension exercise it would be a good idea to consider the concept of purpose as highlighted in the marginal feature. Can students clarify the purpose of the news article (Text 2.10) and give evidence for their views?

Answers

The main message that the refugees write on the cards is about their need to find peace. They want to have a brighter future.

The author’s purpose is to spread awareness about the nature of the refugee crisis. But more specifically, the numbers clearly show how countries that neighbour Syria, which are not wealthy or stable, are taking in large numbers of refugees, while many wealthy western countries are taking in relatively smaller numbers of refugees. It suggests that the distribution is not fair.

People are finding these secret messages hidden inside libraries, book stores, coffee shops, museums, tube stations and tied to lampposts and railings.

This Mercy Corps campaign is different from most other charity campaigns because it does not directly ask people for money. Rather, it asks them to help spread awareness about the refugee crisis through social media.

Amy Fairbairn believes her campaign will be effective because it will confront people more directly in their everyday lives, and put the refugees at the centre of the conversation.

Elizabeth Cooper is more likely to care about the refugee crisis in Syria because she travelled to Syria in 2005 for a conference, and the Syrians greeted her with warm hospitality. She has fond memories of Syria.

The author cites the fact that Americans voted for a president who wants to close the border to immigrants. She also points out that three-quarters of Britons want to impose strict restrictions on immigration.

Activities 3.13 and 3.14

Text 2.11

The way that coherence is created in a text depends on the conventions of the genre; for instance, a feature article will be quite different to an academic essay. Reading in a second language requires that one identify the language clues which indicate the structure of the text. This activity of ordering paragraphs draws attention to the skill which is automatic in a first language.

Answers to Activity 3.13

C

F

A

G

B

H

E

D

ATT

Differentiation

One way of introducing Activities 3.13 and 3.14 to a class of less-fluent students is to take the first few words of a paragraph and ask a question. For example, paragraph A: “ All these people…” Which people? Paragraph B “Most of us left…” Left where?

Activity 3.15

Students may come up with answers similar to those below.

The author’s classmates, neighbours and friends were refugees from South Africa.

The author left Zimbabwe because of the difficult economic situation, and because she did not agree with its policies.

In South Africa, the author experiences hostility, and also problems at work.

South Africans are jealous because Zimbabweans are prepared to work anywhere to better themselves.

The author cries because of the hostility she experiences of blacks against blacks.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Having explored the text in Activity 3.14, the comprehension questions should be easier. The exercise doesn’t require students to write full sentences because the final exam, Paper 2, doesn’t ask for this style of answer. The argument is that Paper 2 assesses receptive skills not productive skills. On the other hand, students are always asked to provide evidence from the text and this is usually in the form of direct quoting of a short phrase.

Form and meaning

Activities 3.16 and 3.17

Text 2.12

The text from a Canadian website exemplifies the use of the three tenses which are often problematic for learners of English. Completing the table by sorting the sentences into the appropriate column requires students to focus on the form of the tense and associate it with the meaning in the headings.

Teaching idea

Give students one or two sentences to translate into L1. What happened to the verb tenses? How does their first language communicate the concepts of time that are stated in the headings in the worksheet? The book Learner English edited by Swan and Smith is an excellent resource when you ask students to compare an aspect of English with the same aspect in their first language. Each chapter analyses the problems of interference that speakers of a specific language will face when they are learning English. In addition, the chapters end with a literal translation from the L1 into English, making for some entertaining passages of garbled English.

Answers for Activity 3.16

Category I
Category II
Category III

a

d

i

f

g

b

c

e

h

j

Activity 3.17

Answers

is

has become

has remained

claim, is

have pretended

began

increased

have adopted

pretend

has been

Activity 3.18

Answers

have always outnumbered

has continued

have emigrated

reads

patrol

arrived

have left

came

Activity 3.19

In Activity 3.6 students worked together to create a chart of the benefits and problems that immigration creates for a host country. Now they refer to the list of potential problems to see if they are mentioned in the article from the Immigration Watch Canada website.

Activity 3.20

This exercise reviews the earlier work discriminating between present perfect and present simple.

Answers

has been

has been

has had

has forced

has impoverished

has caused

ask

Discussion

Activity 3.21

This activity is the most advanced of the five ideas for class discussions suggested in this section. It will require some preparation time, so you might want to set the research for homework prior to the class discussion. The students are invited to focus on how one specific politician frames statements on immigration to win popularity. They should find one or two examples from speeches or written documents to support their analysis.

Teaching idea

As a alternative approach, you might set up a round-table discussion similar to those on some television news programmes. It could be facilitated by a student who would use expressions such as:

‘I’d like to hear what Professor Karina has to say …’

‘How would you respond to that comment Dr. Ryusei?’

‘Ms. Lyudmila, is that also your interpretation of the President’s speech?’

LEARNER PROFILE

One of the characteristics of an IB student is being reflective. As phrased in the learner profile: “We thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and experiences.” Blending reflective conversations into the themes of lessons provides a structured situation in which this skill can be fostered.

Activity 3.22

This discussion will not need research since students are speaking about their own experience. You might need to adapt the questions to suit the context of your school but the purpose is to give students a chance to reflect on their own lives, share family histories or perhaps those of people in their local communities. In this way, the topic of migration becomes less theoretical and more personal.

Activity 3.23

This activity uses a video as the basis for discussion. ‘Most Shocking Second a Day’ was produced by the charity Save the Children.

The activity would work well with students who are less fluent since the first task is to speak for one minute describing what they see in the image paused on the screen. Next, their discussion is directed towards opinion. You could ask them to consider the title and why the charity would choose such a strong word as ‘shocking’. Do they think it would encourage audiences to watch the video or put them off?

Activity 3.24

This apparently simple cartoon contains a lot of detail. The cross in the background might be making a reference to the illegal immigrants who have died trying to cross the border. Students should also note the relaxed posture of the two Mexican men, who look nothing like the dangerous criminals that the wall is intended to keep out, and the friendly tone of the American construction boss (the connotation of the word ‘fellas’ will need exploring).

See Additional Resources for links to images of the competition for the best design of border wall and also to images of an artist’s creation of a giant Mexican baby peeking over a section of the border wall which already exists.

Teaching idea

You could put students in pairs for a role play. One student plays the role of someone unfamiliar with the debate in the USA about building a wall along the border with Mexico. S/he might begin by saying: “I don’t get this cartoon. What’s the joke?” The partner might begin like this: “Well first you need to understand that …”

Activity 3.25

This discussion of the trends shown on the global map could be based on previous research, as suggested in the coursebook, or it could be speculative, used to set up interest in a homework research assignment. Students may already know something about these patterns of migration from other academic courses they are taking.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Speculating and suggesting reasons:

I think it could be because …

It’s probably because …

Maybe the reason is that …

Do you think it’s because …

May/might/could be …

Writing

Activity 3.26

Writing a serious blog post commenting on current events is a good exercise for consolidating new vocabulary and reacting to topics studied in the unit. Here, the students choose a specific immigration issue in an English-speaking country – UK, South Africa or Canada – and learn more about it before beginning their writing task.

The instructions for the activity are designed to lead students step-by-step through the process of planning and writing according to the conventions of a blog. Unit 6.3 has information about typical features of a blog.

Activity 3.27

This writing task requires research so that the formal letter to Immigration Watch Canada (the organisation which produced Text 2.12) can provide facts and evidence in response to the arguments made in the article. The Learner Profile feature (Inquirer) explains to students that if they do their own research – become inquirers – they will be able to judge the reliability of a text such as this article.

Higher level extension

Activity 3.28

Text 2.13 focuses on emigration rather than immigration. In preparation for reading the article about Ireland from The Guardian newspaper, students create a KWL (Know, Want, Learn) table. To help them get started you could tell them that Ireland has a history of emigration and point out the headline. Ask them next to make notes in the “What I already know” and the “What I want to find out” columns. After reading the text, they then complete the table, completing the “What I learned” column with points from the text.

Activity 3.29

Answers

c

b

a

d

Activity 3.30

Answers

True. “Eight of our best players have emigrated.”

True. “Relies on tourism for business and the downturn is evidently driving away those with young families.”

True “More Irish people will emigrate this year than in 1989, when emigration last peaked”

True. “Those who are making a permanent move to the country with their families.”

True. “Provided they work for three months in a rural area, can last for two years.”

False. “Migrants with certain types of skills, carpenters, electricians, nurses and other medical workers are the lucky ones. They can get permanent visas.”

False. “He will find something. But it’s almost sort of coming back to the days of the famine remittance when those who left sent money home.”

True. “What’s the point of going back to be with family and friends when you are on the dole?”

Activity 3.31

Captions direct the audience in their interpretation of an image. Here the suggested approach is to create the captions from ideas or information that were stated in the article. It will be interesting to note if students interpret the images in the same way or have alternative perspectives.

Activity 3.32

It may be helpful to start with a review of the future unreal conditional, before this short discussion activity. If you write a model sentence on the board, students can use it as a template for their own statements. For example:

If I were 25 and had a university degree, I would probably look for a job in Australia because I think the economy is better there.

Literature

Activity 3.33

This pre-reading conversation about experiences with discrimination or racism prepares the students to read Text 2.14, an extract from the novel House of Sand and Fog.

Teaching idea

You could find the trailer of the film of the novel and use that to get students to predict themes or conflicts which will be explored in the literary work.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The type of close reading and analysis in Activity 3.34 is a task which higher level students will do in the oral examination. However, in that situation they will be presenting a passage from a complete literary text they have studied in class.

Activity 3.34

The questions lend themselves to discussion as so many of the details and actions in the extract require students to infer meaning. As students point out details that seem significant their understanding and appreciation of Dubus’ style will develop.

Answers

He is doing this kind of work because it is the only kind of work that he can find as an immigrant.

Tran shakes his head in disappointment because the Panamanians have dropped their paper cups on the highway that they are trying to clean up.

Mendez laughs because Tran picked up his paper cup. He finds it funny that Tran actually cares about cleaning the road.

He wonders how Mendez received this scar and he is intrigued by its colour.

He calls them ‘goh’ or ‘shit of life’ because they are loud, obnoxious, rude and they smell of alcohol.

He states his entire name as a sense of pride in his identity.

Torez is making fun of the narrator’s fall from rank, referring to him as ‘general’, his former title, even though he is picking up garbage and can be bossed around by someone else.

The text comments on immigration in many ways, but most of all it shows how immigrants give up status, pride and identity when starting all over again in a new country.

REFLECT

The IB syllabus theme of Experiences was examined from three different angles in this chapter: pilgrimages, extreme sports and migration. Is it essential that one experience everything for oneself in order to learn, or can reading and hearing about the experiences of other people also be a form of learning? Using John Dewey’s statement in the coursebook as a starting point, students are asked to reflect on what they have learned from their studies in Chapter 2.

Activity 3.35

The intention of this activity is to steer students into looking back over the pages in this unit and through their notes and assignments. The questions ask them to identify with the topic of migration on a personal level and consider how their work in this unit has helped them develop more understanding of migration in all its forms.

3 Human ingenuity

Human ingenuity is one of the five prescribed themes in the Languages B syllabus. The theme is deliberately very wide, intended to give teachers freedom to choose specific topics which will interest their students and be relevant to the context in which they are teaching. The Languages B Subject Guide provides more guidance by offering “optional recommended topics” which become the base on which the three units in this chapter are built.

Human ingenuity

Optional recommended topics (IB)
Chapter 3 units in the coursebook

Entertainment

Artistic expression

Communication and media

Technology

Scientific innovation

Unit 3.1 Future humans

Unit 3.2 Technology and human interaction

Unit 3.3 Redefining art

The units in the chapter provide a balance in the sense that the first one is focused on human ingenuity in the sciences, the second on applications of technology and the third on ingenuity interpreted as creativity of expression in the arts. Rather than imposing a syllabus, the IB and this coursebook use ‘guiding questions’ to generate interest and curiosity in teachers and students. The chapter offers a framework for your chosen route of study for this IB syllabus theme; you are encouraged to shape the approach, adding your own materials and allowing student interest to influence the time spent on any one aspect. In this way, it becomes your course and tailored to the needs of your students.

This table shows the relationship between IB ‘possible questions’ and the guiding questions which open Chapter 3:

Human ingenuity

Possible questions (IB)
Guiding questions for units in chapter 3

How do developments in science and technology influence our lives?

How do the arts help us understand the world?

What can we learn about a culture through its artistic expression?

How do the media change the way we relate to each other?

3.1 How are advances in science and technology impacting human reproduction, health and food?

3.2 How does technology affect human interaction?

3.3 What is art? What is its purpose? How is art changing?

It might be interesting to do a survey of your students to discover what other courses they are taking as part of the IB diploma programme, or external to IB. Do you have a class of future scientists? Are students required to take a Group 6 course in your school context? What about the way your school organizes CAS; do your students participate in creative clubs such as theatre or film? Do some of your students volunteer to help with ‘tech’ in the school or in the local community?

Starting with the students’ own experiences and interests could give you a launch pad for this part of the course. Of course, the goal remains to develop greater accuracy and fluency in English by creating contexts in which students are stimulated to communicate and inspired to learn through reading and listening in the target language. Chapter 3 provides a wide range of interesting texts, videos and audio tracks, each with activities designed to develop language skills. You can certainly use them as discrete entities in your lessons; however, many of them are inter-connected so that language (vocabulary and grammar in context of the topic) is built. The following notes and guidance for teachers point out these connections, while offering alternative approaches when differentiation for student language level is needed.

Scheme of work for Chapter 3

Unit 3.1
Future humans

In this unit students will explore four topics: cloning, nanorobotics, genetically modified foods and gender selection.

Learning objectives

Become more aware of the effects of technology on social interaction.

Be able to discuss and debate matters that are associated with technology and social interaction.

Language focus

Form and meaning: expressing certainty and uncertainty. Modal verbs.

Guiding questions

How has technology affected the way people interact with each other?

How can people best engage in meaningful relationships without technology getting in the way?

Resources referred to in the activities

(Video) ‘Human Clones, through the Wormhole’ (Science Channel)

Audio track 7: a speaker discusses the topic of nanorobots

Transcript of Audio track 7

Suggestions for additional resources

Gattaca (film)

Brave New World (Chapter 1) Aldous Huxley

Genetic Literacy Project: Science not Ideology (website)

Further reading

The Lexical Approach Michael Lewis

Lesson planning

The unit in the coursebook is organised by language skill. The sequencing works well if you choose to use the unit chronologically. If you prefer to follow a thematic plan here are some suggested ways of grouping the activities in Unit 3.1.

Thematic focus: Cloning

Lesson 1

Introduction to the science and the word bank.

Arguments for and against cloning: Activity 1.1.

Study of a video from the Science Channel: Activities 1.6, 1.7 and 1.8.

Lesson 2

Study of a news article (Text 3.1). Activities 1.9, 1.10, 1.11 and 1.12.

Lesson 3

Class discussion. Activity 1.19.

Writing a news report Activity 1.23.

Thematic focus: Nanorobotics

Lesson 1

Listen to an Audio track 7. Activities 1.4 and 1.5.

Lesson 2

Short presentations based on a stimulus statement. Activity 1.20.

Lesson 3

Literature: Ender’s Game Text 3.4. Activities 1.31, 1.32 and 1.33.

Thematic focus: Genetically modified foods

Lesson 1

Introduction to the topic. Activities 1.2 and 1.13.

Study of an informational article from a website. Text 3.2. Activities 1.14 to 1.16.

Lesson 2

Form and meaning. Activities 1.17 and 1.18.

Lesson 3

Understanding the standard level oral exam. Activity 1.22.

Thematic focus: Gender selection

Lesson 1

Introduction to the topic and expressing opinions. Activities 1.23, 1.24 and 1.25.

Lesson 2

Study of a news article Text 3.3. Activities 1.26 and 1.27.

Lesson 3

Writing a transcribed interview. Activity 1.28.

Concluding the Unit

Lesson

Activity 1.29.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

The coursebook addresses students as active participants in their own language learning so spending some time with the image of the baby in the goggles, the box describing the focus of the chapter and the objectives for each unit sets the tone of exploration and discovery.

Activity 1.1

If discussing the opening page of the chapter generated some excitement you might want to keep the energy going and set up this first activity as a pair or group work. It makes a good lead into the IB Learner Profile characteristic ‘Principled’ because the statements are not so much about “will it be possible?” but rather “should it be allowed?”.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Depending on the level of your class Activity 1.2 might be a good opportunity to practise phrases which weigh two points of view:

While I agree that … it’s also true that …

On the one hand … but on the other hand …

It might be argued that … but if we think about …

Successful discussions depend upon phrases such as these, so you might choose to teach one or two expressions in short oral activities like this one, practising the ‘phrasal chunks’ so that students can articulate them with ease. Research in corpus linguistics has led to renewed interest in the Lexical Approach in language teaching. The work of Michael Lewis on this subject is worth exploring.

Activity 1.2

In this unit on ‘Future humans’, the students’ attention is drawn to the IB Learner Profile characteristic, ‘Principled’. This activity encourages students to consider the question of scientists “taking responsibility for actions and their consequences” (IB Learner Profile). Where does a scientist, specifically a genetic engineer, draw the line in altering the natural forms of our food?

Activity 1.3

The previous activity asked students to take a position and then come up with arguments to justify it. This activity reverses that by providing arguments for students to manipulate into a dialogue. The goal is to build vocabulary for communicating their ideas about this controversial topic.

Teaching idea

The activity could be a pair writing exercise. Students write their piece of the dialogue, passing the paper back and forth. This slows down the interaction so there is time to focus on language. Waiting to get the paper back to read the response creates some excitement.

ATT

Differentiation

You could differentiate the task by managing the language level of the pairs. A less-fluent pair could script the dialogue together, incorporating the target vocabulary with suggestions and corrections. Reading aloud could lead to interesting comparisons in how pairs dealt with this difficult conversation.

Terms of endearment vary with language, culture, even geographic region. For instance, in the United States terms of affection often connote to something sweet: honey, sugar, sweetie. In parts of England and Scotland: chick, hen, bunny. French-speaking Belgians use vegetables: petit choux-Bruxelles. Certain African cultures use essential parts of the body: you are my liver, my kidney. Some Asian cultures refer to the loved one as treasure, diamond, gold. Since the two characters in the dialogue are in an intimate relationship, students might find it entertaining to consider how they would address each other, comparing terms of endearment in their own language(s) with those in English.

The image is a generic one and has been given the caption ‘Producing a test-tube baby’. It could be used as a quick review of vocabulary students certainly use in their Group 4 science classes, but perhaps not in English.

CONTEXT

‘Context’ implies that language is appropriate to the situation, while ‘variation’ emphasises that differences exist within a given language.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 1.4

Audio track 7. The activity suggests the use of sticky notes so that everyone’s responses to the questions are included.

ATT

Differentiation

You might have students for whom the listening, thinking and writing are too many cognitive tasks at once. They are at the stage of language acquisition in which they listen in order to de-code meaning but cannot simultaneously concentrate on their reaction to the content. Here’s one way of adapting the activity so that it addresses the need for differentiation.

First, students listen for information that connects to what they already know. Allow silent time while they write on a sticky note and post it on the white board. You could choose to look at the board and quickly summarise the sticky notes out loud to the class as a way of recycling the language, repeating phrases from the audio, perhaps starting a glossary on the side of the board that they can refer to in the next stage of the activity. On the second listening, students try to catch ideas that extend their thinking. Once they have posted them on the board you can decide whether to keep the momentum going and move straight into the third phase of listening, or pause to do the same language re-cycling as earlier. Listening to the same audio track several times, but with a different purpose each time, builds confidence without overload or ‘mental shut-down’.

Activity 1.5

This activity could stand alone if you didn’t have time to use Activity 1.4 in your class. However, without the preparation of the preceding exercise it might prove challenging since it asks students to hold a statement in their heads while listening, de-coding meaning and catching a discrete phrase that either supports or disproves the statement.

In this sort of listening task, if you can give students individual access to the audio recording they will be able to stop and replay at their own pace. Additionally, as a pair-activity, students could collaborate on understanding the audio and catching the phrase that justifies their true/false answer. Perhaps one student is designated as scribe and the other to control the recording. This sort of task generates plenty of language use as they negotiate stopping, re-playing, spelling, etc.

Answers

True: the speaker presents a proposal for ‘increased funding’.

False: ‘the idea of nanorobots controlling our lives is fundamentally inaccurate’.

False: ‘Nanorobots are no different from all of the other robots already in our lives.’

False: ‘they do not actively think for themselves’.

False: ‘nanorobots are not those sci-fi gadgets that […] stop people from ageing’.

True: ‘we spend half our resources on creating and obtaining enough cell material’.

True: ‘although their progress is slow, their results are clear’.

True: ‘we could be talking about experiments on living organisms’.

Activity 1.6

This activity starts by encouraging the strategy of predicting content before handling a new text, whether visual or written. Preparing for an expected context is a form of linking to existing knowledge. The focus on images makes the activity accessible for students with differing levels of fluency and generates vocabulary that will be needed for the following exercises.

Activity 1.7

Teaching idea

If you can’t access the video on the Science Channel then you might be able to get a DVD, in English or with English subtitles, on a similar topic from the Biology teachers in your school. Perhaps some students in your English B class also take Biology and can take responsibility for finding short video clips to substitute for the ‘Human Clones, Through the Wormhole’ documentary.

Another solution would be to use a clip from a popular science-fiction film with genetically modified future humans, such as Gattaca. Such films are excellent for activities such as describing setting or characters in the future world. A fun homework assignment could be to ask students to find the trailers for sci-fi films which include future humans portrayed as robotic, cloned or genetically modified in some way.

Activity 1.8

Answers

All you need to clone a person (in theory) is a living cell from that person.

Geneticists cannot implant a cloned embryo into a uterus because it is considered unethical.

It is difficult for geneticists to obtain funds for research because society has vehemently rejected human cloning. There is also a shortage of material.

It could take hundreds of embryos, or ‘human eggs’, to perfect human cloning.

Robert Lanza explains that cloning a human is like putting a child into a rocket with a 50/50 chance of it blowing up.

The narrator (Morgan Freeman) states that a ‘rogue scientist’ will one day ‘pull it off’. (The terms in quotations may need explaining.)

Cloning a person is not the same as duplicating a person, because environment plays a large role in shaping who we are.

The narrator states: “Perhaps the key to life after death is not to grow an entirely new body, but to resurrect the one you have.” (Note this phrase may need explaining.)

Exploring texts

EXAM-RELATED TIP

As well as focusing on the topic content, you could use the short Activity 1.9 to build the repertoire of phrases that make a conversation more interactive. In the individual oral examination students are expected to take some responsibility for making the conversation with the teacher flow, so teaching these skills throughout the course is an essential part of preparing students for IB oral assessments.

Activity 1.9

This discussion activity is designed to prepare students for reading the news article Text 3.1.

Teaching idea

As a change from the whole class discussion format, you could organise interviews. Students sit in pairs facing each other. One becomes the interviewer, the other the doctor that is developing technology to clone humans. The interviewer asks the questions in the textbook yet must play the part of an active listener. Whatever response the doctor gives, the interviewer must respond with a phrase such as:

It’s interesting that you should say that. …

That’s surprising.

Good point.

ATT

Differentiation

For less advanced students who might have trouble manipulating the tenses in reported speech, you could set it up so that they respond directly, as if they were Dr. Zavos.

Activity 1.10

If students look at the source of a text before reading, they might get a clue as to the structure. In a news article the convention of the five Ws in the first paragraph (who, what, when, where, why) can be helpful, especially with lower-level students who need scaffolding support when presented with a long text. The Reading Strategy feature in the coursebook invites students to propose a headline for the news article, which will indicate their comprehension of the overall topic.

The ‘reason for reading’ in this activity is linked to Activity 1.9. It requires students to look for potential answers to the same questions they discussed in the previous activity. Students could be challenged to use reported speech grammar: I think he would say that he didn’t …

TOK

What is the language of instruction in your school? If it is a language other than English then the TOK feature can be used for talking about the scientific method – which students will be familiar with from their Group 4 courses – in English. Equally, if your students are non-native speakers in an English-medium school then they get a chance to practise talking about the scientific process in the language class.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The type of exercise in Activity 1.11 commonly appears on Paper 2 in the reading comprehension section of the exam. With first year students, one way of introducing them to the strategy of looking for the part of speech is for you to model it in a ‘think-aloud’. For example: “’Inject’ is the first word in the list. I’m not sure what it means but I know that it’s a verb so I need to look for a verb in the box of synonyms. Also it has the prefix ‘in’ so maybe there’s a verb in the box which also has that prefix. Yes! ‘insert’ is the only word in the box that seems to fit. It must be the synonym for ‘inject’.”

Activity 1.11

This vocabulary exercise leads students back to the same text, asking them to examine it in more detail now that the general topic has been explored.

inject/insert

transfer/move

testify/declare

viable/sustainable

deliver/create

intensify/increase

denounce/criticise

gag/censor

implore/ask

exhaust/try

refine/improve

dismiss/reject

Teaching idea

Another idea that students generally enjoy is to focus on word stress, especially with students whose mother tongue is not a stress-timed language like English. Tapping the stress out on a table is a good way to practise the sound of new multi-syllabic words.

For instance, ‘intensify’ – de DUM de de. It’s amusing if you deliberately change the stress so that a familiar word is, at first, unrecognisable. ‘yesterday’ when stressed correctly is DUM de de; do students recognise the word if you say yesTERday – de DUM de? Try it with ‘tomorrow’ and ‘today’.

Activity 1.12

Answers

No, this was Dr Zavos’ “‘first chapter’ in his ongoing and serious attempts at producing a baby cloned from the skin cells of its ‘parent’”.

No, he did not succeed in cloning four humans: “None of the embryo transfers led to a viable pregnancy.”

The word ‘parent’ is in quotation marks in order to indicate that the skin cells are not taken from the woman bearing the child, but from one of the biological parents.

By saying “There is absolutely no way that it will not happen,” Dr Zavos is suggesting that the cloning of a human is inevitable.

Scientists told British media not to give Dr. Zavos publicity, because he did not have evidence to back up his statements.

Couples seek Dr. Zavos’ help because they have ‘exhausted’ every other option of trying to have a baby.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

In the higher level oral exam, students will talk about an extract from a literary text, referring to lines or sections of the passage to support their statements. The language needed to refer to specific places in a text can be problematic, especially prepositions (for example, in line 10 or on line 10?). It might be worth drawing students’ attention to such phrases as:

in the second paragraph; on the first page

the line above; the line below (not the line ‘under’)

the following line; the previous line

the next to last paragraph

in the end versus at the end

Activity 1.13

One can expect IB students to know something about this topic either from general reading in mother tongue or from their science classes. They should be able to add their own knowledge to the discussion.

Teaching idea

With a whole-group exercise such as this KWL chart, it can work well to appoint one or two students to manage the activity. Taking responsibility for managing the group, including everyone and creating a collaborative attitude are – of course – skills to foster, but in addition, taking on the ‘teacher’ role requires a different use of language. It can also draw in students who tend to be less vocal in full-class oral exercises. Inform your ‘moderators’ that two columns must be filled in before the class reads the text and the third column is post-reading. They are responsible for managing the time and making sure the activity is finished within the limit you set.

Activity 1.14

Answers

sorting/filtering

daunting/challenging

proposed/suggested

initial/first

extending/prolonging

fluctuations/changes

yields/returns

issue/problem

trigger/start

trait/characteristic

toxic/poisonous

extinction/disappearance

emergence/arrival

Activity 1.15

Answers

d

h

f

b

a

g

e

c

Activity 1.16

If you chose to use student managers of the KWL chart (Activity 1.13) and it was a success, you could continue the same approach in this discussion. The ‘managers’ will need to use language for such skills as acknowledging what someone has said by re-stating or re-phrasing.

Form and meaning

LANGUAGE FOCUS

If you want to add more practice of modal verbs to your lesson you could use letters which have been written to the advice column in an English language newspaper. Write the target modal verbs on the board as a reminder. Students use forms that imply obligation, possibility or necessity. You can have fun with this by dividing the class by gender and giving them a few minutes to plan their responses. Is the advice from the boys different from that of the girls?

Activities 1.17 and 1.18

In the first exercise the emphasis is on how the choice of modal verb conveys degree of certainty. Since the students have been exploring the potential impact and possible consequences of scientific advances the topic lends itself to precise use of modal verbs.

The second exercise extends the focus to include other meanings attached to modal verbs.

Answers to Activity 1.17

seem

should

tend

could

would

might

try

decide

Answers to Activity 1.18

will

should

could

can

could

will

would

Discussion

Activity 1.19

This activity sets up discussion for the topic ‘Future Humans: Cloning’. It suggests questions that could initiate a class discussion and uses a cartoon to set the ball rolling. At this stage of the study of topics in Chapter 3, students should have some subject-specific vocabulary and an understanding of the basic issues around cloning. This discussion activity invites them to take a stance and justify their opinions.

Teaching idea

You’re sure to have many ways of organising discussions in your classrooms including strategies for dealing with a situation in which the number of students make it difficult to include everyone.

If you haven’t tried the ‘experts and advisors’ technique you could experiment with it here. Create an inner circle of ‘experts’ surrounded by an outer circle of ‘advisors’. Allow the discussion to go on for about 5 minutes; only the inner circle may speak while the outer circle listens. Call a time-out for 2 minutes. During this time the expert confers (in a whisper) with his or her advisor(s) who suggest arguments, supply data and generally ‘coach’ their expert. The time limit creates a sense of urgency and excitement. Continue the discussion and repeat the time-out breaks as you see fit.

Activity 1.20

This activity is designed to generate discussion about the topic ‘Future Humans: Nanobots’. The activity presents an image with five alternative captions. Students are invited to choose the statement they most strongly agree with, do some additional research, then give a short talk in which they justify their choice.

Depending on the language level of your students, you may find it useful to help them analyse the diction in the captions to identify which imply a positive and which a negative interpretation of the image. The emphasis should be on justifying and supporting a personal view.

ATL

The sidebar next to Activity 1.21 highlights Research Skills, one of the aspects of the IB Approaches to Learning. You might want to use this opportunity to talk about the relative merits and reliability of online sites plus the importance of acknowledging sources even in oral presentations.

Teaching idea

It takes a little organising, but one way of keeping the momentum going with a number of short talks is to set up a panel of 4 or 5 presenters. Just as in a conference, each speaker links to the previous one with the appropriate phrase. For example: “I’d like to thank my learned colleague for her perspective, however I have to totally disagree with her.”

ATT

In the documents on Approaches to Teaching in IB Programmes, ‘collaboration’ with other teachers, including across the lines of specific academic departments, is emphasised. Is it feasible to invite a teacher from Group 4 (Experimental Sciences) to join your class as a member of the discussion?

Activity 1.21

This activity is designed to create discussion about the topic ‘Future Humans: Genetically modified crops’. As with the previous discussions, the aim in this activity is to re-inforce the language that has been introduced throughout the unit. The objective is that students will use the new vocabulary and expressions in order to express their own views and justify them.

Teaching idea

As a variation, you could use the ‘sorting’ technique, in which one end of the classroom is labeled “Agree” and the other “Disagree”. Students move as each question is read out by the teacher.

Each group confers before making a statement which begins with a phrase such as:

We’re firmly of the opinion that …

We believe / we feel that …

We’re convinced that …

Writing

Activity 1.22

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Working with the photograph of the fruit and the syringe, introduce students to the standard level individual oral exam. Chapter 9 gives more information. In this activity students are in the teacher’s role of creating a caption for the photograph. This kind of exercise works effectively as a diagnostic to find out how well students have got to the heart of the topic.

Activity 1.23

Students are invited to write a news report about a successful human cloning. The reading of Text 3.1 was a reminder of the structure and conventions of the genre. If you want to give more support as students compose their own news reports, Unit 6.5 provides analysis of the genre along with examples.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Assessment of work produced for Paper 1 is against three criteria: Language, Message and Conceptual Understanding. The latter includes the question “To what extent does the response incorporate the conventions of the text type?” It would be helpful at this stage to make students aware of the need to become familiar with the features and conventions of different text types.

Teaching idea

Drafting and re-drafting based on feedback is a normal part of professional writing. If you want students to become more familiar with the IB assessment criteria they could do a peer feedback exercise. Here’s an entertaining way to set it up, but make sure the students use pseudonyms on their papers.

Organise two mock ‘newsrooms’. Assign the papers from one group to the other news team. The editor and his/her staff review the news articles (using the IB Assessment Criteria) and write comments for the journalist, who will then write a second draft.

Higher level extension

Activity 1.24

What do students think about parents being able to select the gender of their child? This discussion primes the class for reading Text 3.3 – a news article on the topic.

Teaching idea

If you need a way to launch the discussion, a way to get everyone involved, you could try the Silent Opinion technique. Students sit in a circle and have a number of large cards. Read the first part of a question – for instance “If you could select the gender of your child would you want a boy or a girl?” Students write their answer on a card and hold it up. Now that they’ve had a chance to see everyone’s answers, the discussion begins easily as they ask peers for their reasons. Note: you might have to adapt some of the questions so they can be answered on a card.

Activities 1.25 and 1.26

The six statements listed in the first activity are quite complicated – either linguistically or in content. For students to succeed in the second exercise you might need to help them de-code the sentences.

Teaching idea

Asking students for their opinion and justification is one way of achieving this because you can clarify as and when necessary. To make sure the whole group is involved, you could let a student finish his point then turn to another and say: “I missed that. What did he say?” and even follow it up with “Oh thanks. Well, do you think he’s right?”

Once you’ve gone through all the statements the students should be ready for Activity 1.26, finding sentences in the text which have the same meaning.

Activity 1.27

Answers

clients

provide

prohibited

abide

breach

reputable

devastated

conceive

infertile

complied

enforceable

Activity 1.28

Students show their understanding of the issues raised in Text 3.3 by writing a transcribed interview with a couple who had selected the gender of their child. First, they think of several questions they would ask the couple. Then they plan the answers they would expect to get based on the article from the Australian newspaper. The final step is to write the interview for a popular Australian magazine.

ATT

Differentiation

If your students would benefit from your scaffolding this writing task you might try this technique in which students see many possible questions, generated by peers, and hear various answers to them. By the time they sit down to write their own transcribed interview they have been given the ideas and heard the language so they can concentrate on the writing task.

Divide the class into small groups. Each group has a large sheet of paper (pinned to the wall so you can walk around and offer feedback if necessary). They come up with a few interview questions, working together to create searching questions that go below the superficial aspects of the topic. When the time is up, direct each group to move to the next poster. Here they will see variations on the questions and can discuss possible answers until each person in the group is confident.

Students return to their desks and, working individually, write the transcribed interview.

Activity 1.29

This ‘summing-up’ activity could be as brief or extended you feel appropriate.

Literature

Activity 1.30

Perhaps your students haven’t read very much fiction in English outside the class. However, it doesn’t matter if they are discussing these topics with reference to works in their mother tongue or to films and TV shows. The objective is to get the class thinking about how science fiction can reflect society’s concern about scientific advances.

REFLECT

This final reflection on the Unit 3.1: Future humans could be shaped as a conversation, free-flowing and relaxed, in contrast to the more formal discussions throughout the unit.

Activity 1.31

This activity reverses the usual pattern of giving a list of questions which students must answer by searching a text. No summary of the plot or explanation of context is given; the extract stands alone. The sharing of questions and the speculation as to the answers set up the next activity.

Activity 1.32

Having generated plenty of curiosity in the previous activity, the research into Ender’s Game would make a useful homework assignment.

Unit 3.2
Technology and human interaction

Unit 3.2: Technology and human interaction

In this unit students will explore how digital devices have affected the social interaction of Millennials

Learning objectives

Become more aware of the effects of technology on social interaction.

Be able to discuss and debate matters that are associated with technology and social interaction.

Language focus

Form and meaning: the future unreal conditional

Guiding questions

What effects has technology had on the way people interact with each other?

How can people best engage in meaningful relationships without technology getting in the way?

Resources referred to in the activities:

Video: ‘The Millennial Question’ by Simen Sinek

‘Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation’ by Joel Stein (article in Time magazine, 2013)

Audio track 8: an interview with a fictitious author and speaker, about the Millennial generation

Transcript of Audio track 8

Additional resources

The Shallows Nicholas Carr

Her (film)

Prince Ea. Can we auto-correct humanity? (YouTube)

Fake Empire (YouTube)

Smartphone Detox: How to Power Down In A Wired World (article) on the NPR website, Feb 2018

Further reading

Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century Carol Kuhlthau et al.

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Brainstorming and vocabulary: Activities 2.1 to 2.3.

Watch the video The Millennial Question. Activities 2.4 to 2.6.

Homework assignment: Extra.

Lesson 2

Audio track 8. Activities 2.7 to 2.9.

Text 3.5 Opinion column. Activities 2.10 and 2.11.

Lesson 3

Text 3.6 Reclaiming Conversation: Activities 2.12 to 2.14.

Lesson 4

Text 3.7 Offline. Activities 2.15 to 2.19.

Form and meaning: future unreal conditional structure. Activity 2.20.

Homework: preparation for a short presentation on distracted driving. Activity 2.22.

Lesson 5

Short presentations. Activity 2.22.

Review of grammar focus from lesson 4. Activity 2.21.

Lesson 6

Discussions: Activities 2.23 and 2.24.

Writing task: opinion column (Activity 2.25) or a letter (Activity 2.26).

Lesson 7 (higher level extension)

Text 3.8 Reading for pros and cons on a topic. Activities 2.26 to 2.28.

Research and role play. Activity 2.30.

Lesson 8 (literature)

Text 3.9 Activities 2.31 to 2.33.

Homework. Creative writing. Activity 2.34.

Lesson 9

Sharing of creative writing texts.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The image on the opening page of this unit is the type of photograph that could well be used in the standard level oral examination. It’s an image which is open to interpretation and suggests a story. There is a clear link to the IB syllabus theme of Human Ingenuity with the topic of technology. Students could practise describing the image and then interpret how it might be used as a social commentary.

Activity 2.1

Creating the spider diagram is one way for students to discover that they probably need more words in English to express their ideas about this topic. The word bank will help with ideas as well as vocabulary.

Activity 2.2

This activity of filling in a table should be done individually so that students have something to share in the discussion which follows. Depending on the language level of your class, preparation time like this is an important step; it allows time for students to clarify their ideas, find the vocabulary and mentally rehearse their statements.

Activity 2.3

In effect, the topic of this discussion is a summary of the ideas students have listed in the third column of the table.

Teaching idea

Typically, discussions are managed by the teacher and with larger groups the amount of time that students actually speak can be quite limited. It’s worth training students to act as facilitators so that you can observe or mark student performance using IB criteria. The responsibility for managing their own discussion becomes an opportunity for students to develop skills of teamwork and collaboration. A good discussion requires everyone to be active listeners and responsive to the comments of others.

One way of setting it up is for students to pick a card as they enter the class which indicates the table they should join; one card for each table is marked as facilitator. The function of the facilitator is to keep the discussion moving along, managing the interaction so that quieter students are invited to react to comments by others.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 2.4

This activity gives students time to think about the questions that will come up in the video ‘The Millennial Question’ and ask for clarification of any that are unclear to them. They are asked to decide how they, personally would answer the questions, which takes the process to a more thoughtful level than simply ‘understanding the question’. It’s a good technique for discovering if some students will have difficulty with the language comprehension needed to follow the video.

Teaching idea

Simon Sinek is an excellent speaker, which is why the marginal features next to Activity 2.5 emphasize the IB Approaches to Learning: communication skills and one of the five Concepts: Audience. However, if you are unable to access his TED Talk ‘The Millennial Question’ online then you could use the transcript which has been posted on several sites. For instance, it is included in a blog post at the Ochen website. This would allow you to use Activities 2.4 and 2.5 as models and design a lesson with the same approach: asking students to share their opinions before reading the transcript to discover if their opinions are shared by the writer.

The Sinek website is also worth looking at for additional ideas on the topic.

ATT

Differentiation

If your students will have difficulty listening to an authentic text, you could control the process by stopping the video at the appropriate places and helping them de-code the answers to the questions. Asking ‘what did he say?’ and getting students to repeat phrases individually or in chorus, reinforces the language learning.

Activity 2.5

Students are first asked to watch the video and write notes as they hear Sinek answer the questions they considered in the previous activity. The second part of the activity – writing complete sentences in answer to each question – recycles the vocabulary and idioms. Students compare their answers with peers. It’s worth playing the video again until everyone is satisfied with their answers, checking the language that Sinek uses.

Answers

Millennials are those people who are born after 1984. Their bosses see them as tough to manage, narcissistic, unfocused and lazy but the primary criticism of Millennials is that they are very entitled.

Millennials (younger generations), when looking for employment, look for a company or organisation that offers a sense of purpose. They want to ‘make an impact’. He jokingly adds that they would like free food and bean bags.

Sinek explains that younger generations struggle at their first place of employment. After years of experiencing ‘failed parenting strategies’ at home, they are used to getting everything they want and being told that they are great. When this does not happen at work, their entire self-image is shattered.

Sinek explains that mobile phones are addictive in a way that is similar to alcohol. Using phones to communicate can release dopamine, which is also released when using alcohol. He explains that most alcoholics come into contact with alcohol in their teenage years, as a way of dealing with different forms of stress. People who are addicted to their phones also use phones as a way of dealing with stress.

Sinek explains that people are more impatient today than before the arrival of the internet because they are used to ‘instant gratification’. In other words, they can watch a movie when they want, they can find a date online, and whatever they purchase will arrive the next day.

Technology, according to Sinek, cannot help people with job satisfaction, meaningful friendships, self-confidence, love of life or learning a set of skills.

Yes. Sinek believes that companies have a responsibility to help younger employees find fulfilment in work and life. He explains that it is not the fault of Millennials that they are addicted to technology. Companies should have policies about cell phones (mobile phones) at conference tables, for example.

Activity 2.6

Answers

articulate

attack

fail at

thrust into

rely on

overcome

form

check

binge

waft through

cope with

wander

The Extra box encourages students to follow up on a text studied in class. For example, by looking for responses to Sinek’s video they will see how a topic is debated in the media; however, in the context of this language acquisition course, it also presents them with models of language used to respond and disagree. Exposure to such texts, even if not overtly studied in class, is part of language learning. Perhaps it could be a ‘voluntary’ homework over a weekend so that the following lesson begins with a quick review in which one or two students report back on their findings.

The second suggestion is for a writing exercise, responding to Stein’s article ‘Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation’ in a letter to the editor.

Activities 2.7 and 2.8

The class brainstorms questions they would have asked Sinek if they had been the interviewer in the video. If you write them on the white board the students can see them as they listen to Audio track 8 to see if their questions are asked in the interview. This ‘targeted listening’ gives students a way into the text.

TOK

The TOK box in the coursebook takes two phrases from Audio Track 8 that would appear in a TOK class. Are your students studying TOK in their first language? If so, can they translate those terms (causal relationship and correlation) into mother tongue from English?

Teaching idea

Depending on your classroom style, you might encourage a ‘shout-out’ if they think they hear one of their questions. You stop and replay until everyone can catch it. This way, weaker students are supported but the replaying allows them to de-code the exact sentences.

Activity 2.9

Answers

publicity

controversial

quote

misconduct

strategies

show off

pick on

job hop / hop from one job to another / change place of employment

superficial

Exploring texts

Activity 2.10

Text 3.5

This ordering of paragraphs activity is a different approach to the first reading of a new text. Hopefully, students will be intrigued by the variation in task but it does require careful reading to complete successfully. The source identifies the text type as a feature article in a newspaper. Such articles commonly start with a focus on one individual (‘the lead’); then comes ‘the billboard’, a paragraph which sets out the topic of the article. In the jargon of journalism, the final paragraph is the ‘kicker’.

The correct order of the paragraphs is:

c

f

h

d

g

a

e

b

ATL

Self-managements skills is one of the five Approaches to Learning which teachers should foster in their classrooms. Asking students to reflect on the questions in the coursebook margin feature links the topic of this unit to their daily lives. If you want to pursue this topic further you could use these short videos which generally get a lively response form teenagers:

Can we auto-correct humanity? This is on YouTube

Fake Empire This is on YouTube

Activity 2.11

The emphasis of this exercise is on the strategy of using the context of a statement to interpret meaning. Students should locate the quotes in the text, read them in context and look for clues as to the intention of the writer.

Activity 2.12

The three questions are intended to draw the students into deeper reflection, before reading Text 3.6, by first asking them to consider the role of talking in relationships and communities. Then move to the suggestion that this kind of interpersonal communication has been lost (needs ‘reclaiming’), finally coming to the essential question of the difference between face-to-face versus electronic communication.

Note: these three questions are considered again in Activity 2.14

LEARNER PROFILE

One of the characteristics of an IB student is as Communicator. You could usefully point this out to your class – perhaps you have a poster of the Learner Profile on the classroom wall. The description of the attributes of a communicator could inform your discussion about ‘Reclaiming conversation’.

Activity 2.13

Answers

chat

mediated

empathy

development

revise

feed

devices

contact

irresistible

spontaneous

collaborations

implicated

cure

Activity 2.14

Having completed the previous vocabulary exercise the students should have caught the main idea of Text 3.6. This activity uses familiar questions (from Activity 2.12) and asks students to imagine how the author Sherry Turkle would answer.

Activity 2.15

There is no correct way of categorising the words. The objective of the exercise is to give students a reason to study the words in the box and think about their meaning, so that they can make predictions about what they will read in Text 3.7 (Activity 2.16). The words in the box are quite diverse so it is intriguing to speculate about the content of the next text.

Here is just one possible way how students might organise the words from Activity 2.15 into several ‘categories’:

Places – prison, school, office, cab

People – driver, friend, producer

Concrete nouns / devices – PC, phone, gadget, device

Abstract nouns about IT – technology, connectivity, information

Negative effects of technology – interruption, distraction, temptation

Human interaction – rendezvous, social engagement, conversation

Activity 2.16

Students consider the vocabulary items they have organized into groups and speculate about how they will fit into a text: what would the text be about?

Teaching idea

If you want to generate some oral practice in your lesson you could organise this activity into a competition. Students in groups of 3 or 4, brainstorm an idea for what the text will be about and frame it into a short written statement. They post the predictions on the board; when the class has read Text 3.7 the group which came closest in their prediction ‘win’.

Activity 2.17

Words from Text 3.7 | Synonym
a  simultaneous | at the same time
b  relief | liberation
c  anticipate | expect
d  hectic | busy
e  culminate | end
f  momentous | important
g  shoot | film
h  temptation | attraction
i  deflate | reduce
j  errand | chore
k  snippet | small bit
l  field | answer
m  intimidate | frighten

Activity 2.18

Answers

I’m annoyed by loud advertisements that are constantly in your face.

There are two kinds of people: optimists and pessimists. Fortunately, I fall into the first camp.

I have been looking forward to this big moment for ages.

Our weekend in the country was in stark contrast to our busy city lives.

Please don’t give me too many compliments. You’re stoking my ego.

I discovered this to be true through first-hand experience.

We hadn’t talked in such a long time. It was nice to catch up.

Activity 2.19

Answers

After Paul Miller unplugged the Ethernet, he played local-multiplayer video games in his office.

The cab driver did not think that his plan to live without internet was very interesting.

His evening with his roommate was different from usual, as he found himself very engaged in the moment, asking questions and listening closely.

There is reason to believe that Paul Miller works in journalism, as he learns about several breaking stories at his office.

He was busy answering a bunch of calls, while hanging out with his friend from out of town.

People responded as if he was going on hunger strike or planning to basejump off the Empire State Building.

Mr Miller does not have any plans or strategies for living his life without internet.

Form and meaning

Activity 2.20

Here are some suggested answers for this activity in italics. The non-italicised parts are taken from the activity.

If people still had a dial-up connection, we would not be able to stream video content.

If there were no censorship of the internet, people would be able to blog freely about the problems in their country.

If I had a faster internet connection, then I might be able to work from home.

If more information about politicians were available online, then citizens would be more informed voters.

If our city introduced free wireless, our computers might all be exposed to viruses.

If we could log on to Facebook at any time, students might not listen to their teachers any more.

If the public library ceased to exist, we would not be able to access some quality resources.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Teachers are likely to have plenty of ideas for further practice of this structure. Although it tends to be thought a bit old-fashioned nowadays, there’s a lot to be said for memorisation of sentences containing structures like this one. It draws attention to the pattern and rhythm of the grammatical form. Here’s a possible scenario: students each create a sentence using the future unreal conditional on the topic of how they would react if they could not access the internet. For instance:

If I lost my phone, I wouldn’t know what my homework was.

If the school turned off the Wi-Fi, we would have a student protest.

Organise a few students to sit in a circle and choose someone to begin. They say their sentence. The second student repeats the sentence then adds their own. The third student now has to repeat two sentences before contributing their own. When the chain of sentences is broken (or a sentence is grammatically incorrect), the group steps aside and the next group of students tries the memory game.

Discussion

Activity 2.21

The proposed discussion utilises the conditional structure practised in the previous exercise. The words and phrases in the table are intended to be supportive rather than prescriptive. You might want to focus attention on the contracted form of “I would not be able to…” and “it would be impossible”.

Activity 2.22

The focus now moves to the subject of distracted driving and the skill of making a presentation. Depending on the confidence level of your students, it could be helpful to give them a template of a presentation structure. It might be as simple as this:

Greeting.

Topic and then the specific focus of the presentation.

State how many points you will present.

Transition, signalling the start of the first point.

Transition signalling the end of the first point and the move to the next argument.

Repeated as necessary.

Transition, concluding statement.

ATT

The IB philosophy is that teaching should be based on inquiry. In the relevant ATT document the work of Staver and Bay (1987) is referenced. They discuss the role of the teacher in supporting students to become curious and self-directed. Activity 2.22 would be characterised as ‘structured inquiry’ since students are instructed to answer the three questions in their presentations. Compare this approach with one in which students are told to “make a presentation about distracted driving”. In the language classroom this kind of structured inquiry provides a launching point for research, collection of information and preparation for a presentation. It serves as a kind of scaffolding for what could be quite a challenging task for less-fluent English B students.

Activity 2.23

This activity provides six provocative quotations about the internet. Depending on the time available in your lesson plan you could use the sentences as sources for a straight forward agree or disagree conversation. Alternatively, you could select one of the statements for an in-depth group discussion.

Teaching idea

Since this activity will need some research into the famous people who are quoted, it could be a homework assignment. It also lends itself to a simple role play. To include everyone in the ‘drama’ you could form six small groups and assign one quotation to each. The group must research the speaker and decide precisely what the quotation means. One member of the group will act the role of the speaker, saying the quotation with conviction. Other members of the group must also speak, introducing the character, clarifying the meaning of the quotation, and fielding questions and opinions from the audience.

Activity 2.24

Cartoons can be a very effective way of getting insights into a culture. Even this apparently simple drawing contains cultural clues. For instance, the conventional haircuts (the characters are probably businessmen); the fact that the men are going bald (middle-aged and perhaps a bit jaded); the business attire with the loosened ties (the end of the workday); the design of the glasses plus the way they are sitting side-by-side (they are in a bar). Then there are the conventions of facial expression in cartoons. What emotion do the two men convey? How does the emotion connect to the comment under the cartoon?

After you have explored the visual content and discussed the comment, then you can engage the students in a conversation about whether they feel that online communication has made them less communicative in face-to-face encounters.

Writing

There are two writing tasks in this section but you may decide you only have time to do one or the other. If your students are already experienced with this sort of writing task you could offer them the choice between the blog (2.25) and the letter (2.26).

EXAM-RELATED TIP

When it comes to assessing the work in Activity 2.25, make sure that students have the IB Assessment Criteria for Paper 1 (the writing exam). These can be found at the beginning of the coursebook and in Unit 7.1. IB believes in transparency of assessment systems so that examiners, teachers and students share the same knowledge of how work will be marked. Asking students to assess their own work, selecting descriptors from the mark bands which they think describes their work, is a good way for students to become familiar with the IB expectations. You can then take in the assignments, note the student’s selection of the descriptors and add any explanation that is necessary

Activity 2.25

The instructions for this exercise are quite detailed and lay out a strategy for a complete process. Vary and adapt as appropriate, but here are some considerations:

Many of the writing activities in the coursebook are supported by advice on style and structure for different text types in Chapter 6. In this activity students are invited to write a blog post, which is the focus of Unit 6.3.

Students could base their blog on one of the texts from this unit that you have already explored in your lessons – and this may be the best approach for students who are still developing their fluency in English. By recycling the language and the ideas from previous discussions they can give more focus to the writing itself.

For students who are further along in the two-year course, finding a new article on their own would be stimulating. The suggestion in the exercise is to look for an article about the future of information technology and human interaction (instruction a).

In order to avoid simple repetition of the points made in the articles, it is essential that students make a list of agree/disagree points (see instruction b) and plan the content of their blog (see instruction e).

Activity 2.26

This writing option invites students to write a letter to either Simon Sinek or Sherry Turkle. The same step-by-step approach that is advocated for Activity 2.25 is recommended for this exercise too. Unit 6.1 presents models and analysis of letter format and features in English.

Higher level extension

Activity 2.27

This activity is based on the provocative title of Text 3.8 – ‘Google Effect: Is technology making us stupid?’ It serves to introduce the topic of the article but asking students to brainstorm ideas is also useful to show how wide the range of opinions can be. You could do this quite quickly if you divided the whiteboard into two sections: agree with the title and disagree with the title. Students post sticky notes with their comments which gives a visual sense of how the group as a whole is reacting to the stimulus.

Note: this collection of responses is needed if you use Activity 2.28.

Activity 2.28

There are 15 words extracted from Text 3.8. Since this part of the unit is an extension for higher level students they should have the linguistic competence to complete the exercise in a reasonable amount of time. If you are using this unit in the first year of DP or with less fluent students, this activity could be done in pairs.

The answers below give the words and the reference number for the gaps in Text 3.8 where they fit.

cognitive (11)

safeguard (14)

store (4)

connections (9)

stick (15)

innovation (12)

danger (8)

engagement (6)

memory (3)

distraction (10)

amnesia (2)

intelligence (5)

concern (7)

raft (1)

bear (13)

Activity 2.29

You could choose to use this activity as a straightforward comprehension exercise in which students find arguments in Text 3.8 and enter them in one of two columns on a worksheet. However, if you have a longer class time, you could organise a debate. If the students use the arguments taken from the text as the basis of their argument, they can focus on language production rather than on working out new ideas on the topic.

Google is making you more stupid
Google is not making you more stupid

Just the fact that we often have to Google questions like “is the internet making us stupid?” is already an indication that we cannot think for ourselves anymore.

People are suffering from digital amnesia. We don’t remember anything anymore.

Memory play an important role in making connections (understanding). “If we’re not forming rich connections, we’re not creating knowledge.”

The average attention span has fallen in the past years (Microsoft).

Technology is reducing the richness in one’s own life and sense of self, if we assume that rich, deep thinking is a part of that.

Too much time online means we miss important real-life experiences, which create permanent memories.

The internet simply changes the way we handle information. Just because we don’t memorise as much as we used to does not mean that Google is making us more stupid.

People are getting better at formulating questions, a sign of intelligence.

Technology is helping us ‘think smarter’.

Activity 2.30

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Your approach to this activity will depend on whether you are using this unit with first year or second year IB diploma students. If the former, then you can use the proposed activity for introducing your students to the design of Paper 1. You might choose to replace the specified text types with others that you have studied in class. Depending on the fluency of your students, you could allow them to use their notes from the previous exercise. Alternatively, with second year students you could set it up as a more formal writing practice, as suggested in the coursebook. This might also be a good time to use the information in Chapter 7 to show students what to expect in the final writing examination.

Activity 2.31

The research part of the activity could be done for homework but in that case leave the assignment of roles until the lesson begins. Allow time for the journalists to brainstorm questions based on notes from their research (they should be able to answer any question they ask).

Teaching idea

To involve more students in the press conference interview you could give a team of ‘advisors’ to each of the students who are role playing Brin and Page. Their job is to whisper answers to their character if she/he is caught out by a question from the ‘press’. You could even allow the advisors to have a laptop ready for speedy research while the character stalls.

Literature

Activity 2.32

This is a brainstorming activity, imagining two extremes: watching too much TV and not watching TV at all. You could ask two students to manage the activity and write comments from the class on the board.

Note: you will need these lists for Activity 2.33

Activity 2.33

Text 3.9

Humour in a written text can be difficult to appreciate when you’re a language learner. For instance, understanding the idiom “doesn’t believe in (television)” could be problematic as it probably doesn’t translate with the same meaning into other languages. You could help students by offering ideas about how humour is created such as the effect on the reader of surprising contrasts, understatements and exaggeration.

Activity 2.34

Students look back at the ideas that were generated in Activity 2.32 and add any new points that Sedaris mentioned in his text. The aim is to give them a few minutes to gather their thoughts on the topic before starting a discussion on the value of television in family life.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

It is worth noting that in the oral examination students are expected to share in the responsibility for keeping the conversation with the teacher going. Criterion C asks “How well can the candidate maintain a conversation?” Therefore, practice in managing a group discussion is valuable preparation for the final oral assessment.

Teaching idea

At this point in the unit of work, you could organise it so that the class has a formal discussion without a facilitator (or teacher) managing or intervening. Explain that the goal is for the group to work together to make sure everyone speaks and is heard. At first, it might be a little stilted but once the ideas start being expressed the awkwardness disappears. Students should have a repertoire of appropriate expressions for referring to a previous comment, clarifying, steering the conversation into a new direction. It’s best to set a time limit so that even if there is no obvious ‘conclusion’ to be reached, the discussion can be brought to an end by students recapping or summarising as the time runs out.

Activity 2.35

This creative writing activity sets the context (a family which doesn’t allow cell phones or internet) but leaves the choice of narrative perspective and style of the story to the individual student. This should produce enough variety in the short stories that students are curious to read each other’s work.

REFLECT

This activity brings some action to the final part of the unit. Designate one side of the room as ‘Yes’ and the other as ‘No’. As you read each of the yes/no questions in the coursebook, students move to the appropriate area. Ask one or two students to give a brief reason for their decision before moving on to the next question.

Unit 3.3
Redefining art

Unit 3.3 Redefining art

In this unit students will explore how human ingenuity is expressed through art.

Learning objectives

Develop a greater appreciation for various forms of artistic expression.

Be able to articulate and express opinions on art.

Language focus

Form and meaning: active and passive structures

Guiding questions

How do you define ‘art’?

What is the purpose of art?

How should be literature be taught and how can you learn to appreciate it?

Resources referred to in the activities

Video: What is art for? by Alain de Botton

End Times – photographs by Jill Greenberg, 2006

Saving Banksy (documentary film)

Audio track 9: an interview with a fictional ‘vlogger’ about pulling a prank on exclusive art dealers

Transcript of Audio track 9

Additional resources

Exit through the Gift Shop (2010 documentary, or just the trailer)

Finding Vivian Maier (2013 documentary)

‘On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High’ (poem by D.C. Berry)

Further reading

The Best Class you Never Taught (Alexis Wiggins – online Spider Web Discussions)

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Expressing opinions: Is this art? Activities 3.1 to 3.4.

Developing vocabulary: word bank.

Lesson 2

Video What is art for? Activity 3.5.

Comprehension questions and opinions. Activities 3.6 to 3.8.

Lesson 3

Audio track 9 Activities 3.9 to 3.11.

Lesson 4

Text 3.10 Skimming. Vocabulary. Activities 3.12 to 3.15.

Lesson 5

Text 3.11 Ordering paragraphs. Activity 3.16.

Creating a title. Activity 3.17.

Form and meaning. Active and passive forms. Activities 3.18 and 3.19.

Lesson 6

Writing a review. Activity 3.20.

Lesson 7

Discussion topics. Activities 3.21 to 3.24.

Lesson 8 (higher level extension)

Text 3.12 Street art. Activities 3.25 to 3.28.

Lesson 9 (literature)

Text 3.13 Introduction to Poetry. Activity 3.29.

Imagery in the poem. Activities 3.30 and 3.31.

ATT

Collaboration

Get an art teacher to come into the class to help with the first activity. Share the word bank in advance with the visiting teacher so they can deliberately use words which the students are acquiring.

Are any students taking IB Art in Group 6? How is ‘art’ defined in that course?

Alternatively, you could invite a TOK teacher to join the conversation in the next activity which draws attention to the arts as an Area of Knowledge (AOK)

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 3.1

The topic ‘Is this art?’ is a subjective one so a pair activity allows more time for individuals to sort out their opinions. The word bank might stimulate some ideas. To keep the conversation on track you could ask students to jot down which of the images they decide are art and which are not.

Note: they will need this list if you use Activity 3.3.

Activity 3.2

This activity builds upon the ideas that were explored in the previous sharing exercise. It takes the topic to a new level by asking students to voice their views of various forms of expression. To do so effectively, they will need to consider the perspectives which are presented in the TOK sidebar.

Activities 3.3 and 3.4

Having spent time discussing art from a theoretical point of view, students re-evaluate the images they designated as ‘not art’ in Activity 3.1. You might combine this exercise with activity a suggested in the Extra box above Activity 3.4.

Teaching idea

If you choose to do Extra activity, you could make columns on the board so that students can come up and write their ratings of the images from 1 to 10. It will be interesting to see if there is any agreement at the upper and lower ends of the scale. After a short discussion in which students explain their choices for ‘most definitely art’ and ‘not art’, ask everyone to write a definition of art. The discussion should help students come up with a basic definition. They can write their definition anonymously and post it on a noticeboard. As study of this unit continues, students can be invited to amend their definitions as their views change.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 3.5

This discussion is intended as a preparation for watching the video What is art for?

Teaching idea

If you have a large class, deciding on the top five reasons might be complicated. One way of handling it is to divide the class into four or five groups, each with a large sheet of paper pinned to the wall. Set a time limit. Each group lists their ideas in answer to the question ‘What is art for?’ When time is up they move to the poster of another group and decide which of that group’s arguments is the strongest, marking it with a coloured sticker, and so on until every poster has been visited. You can now identify the arguments with the most stickers.

Note: students will refer back to these arguments when they do Activity 3.8.

Activity 3.6

The list of words is deliberately a long one so that students can practise the strategy suggested in the Tip box. It could work well as a pair exercise.

Answers

People flock to museums

There was a(n) awkward silence.

Maybe we can ascribe purposes to art.

We need pretty things close to us.

Problems weigh so heavily on people.

There is a lot of sadness and regret that we cannot express.

Art makes our pain more visible and accessible.

Sad works do not have to depress us.

Pain is part of the human condition.

Art fights the false optimism of commercial society.

Every good life has extraordfinary amounts of suffering.

We should not aggravate sadness by thinking we are losers.

We are drawn to art because is compensates us for what we lack.

Art helps us feel more rounded.

Art helps us get in touch with the pain and drama that we have had to stifle.

What a society calls ‘beautiful’ is a vital clue to what it is missing in society.

Some artists can make grass or oranges look glamorous.

Artists can tease out something that has been neglected in society.

Art can energise people for a cause.

People sometimes get stiff and lose their spontaneity around famous people.

Activity 3.7

Video: What is art for?

You might choose to play the video all the way through while students watch without taking notes. This is akin to scanning a written text before starting to read in detail.

Next, direct students to the questions, reading through them carefully. When you play the video a second time they can try to write down a word or two in answer to each question. The idea is that the words they manage to write down will help them construct a complete answer later.

Possible answers

People are too afraid to ask what art is for, because they are afraid of being the only one who does not know the answer and therefore looking silly or embarrassed.

People need pretty things to give them hope in hard times. People do not need art to help them forget the ‘bad stuff’ in life.

Sombre works of art are important, because it comforts us to know that we are not alone in our suffering. We are reassured that it is part of the human condition. Every good life has amounts of loneliness.

The video includes a scale to depict how art can help individuals find a balance that does not come naturally to us. Art compensates us for what we lack. It counterbalances us.

Sometimes a whole society falls in love with a particular style of art because it is trying to rebalance itself.

Alain de Botton depicts the oranges of Vincent van Gogh on a red carpet to symbolise how artists ‘tease out’ what really matters in life, like the media focusing on a few stars at the Oscars. He explains that the art glamorises or highlights what is genuinely worth appreciating in life.

Art is like propaganda, because it encourages you to fight for an ideal, cause, emotion or attitude.

We should relax around art because that makes it easier to ‘use’, as a constant source of support and encouragement for self-improvement.

Teaching idea

Instead of using the short, animated film by Alain de Bouton, you could create an engaging ‘watch and listen’ practice by inviting an English-speaking art teacher or local artist to make a presentation to your students with the title What is Art for? In advance you would use Activities 3.5 and 3.6 to prime your students for the topic. Having discussed their own ideas about the purpose of art and focused on some vocabulary they’ll be more confident in asking questions and perhaps disagreeing with the presenter. If your class prepare a poster with their ideas from Activity 3.5 they’ll find it easier to frame their comments to the presenter.

Activity 3.8

Recycling language that has been introduced in previous activities is one way to keep the focus of the lessons on language development. The more often students see and hear the statements the more comfortable they become with the new terms and vocabulary. Here, students compare their answers in Activity 3.5 to those proposed by Botton.

Activity 3.9

The eight questions will help prime the students to understand Audio track 9.

Teaching idea

As a variation on a whole class discussion, you could organise small groups and give them two questions each. Set a time limit in which they have to reach consensus. Each group would make a statement of their decision with a brief explanation. In this way all the topics could be covered and the class can move on to the listening task in the next activity.

Note: Activity 3.11 invites students to return to the answers from this exercise after listening to the audio track; they might re-evaluate their opinions after listening to the audio recording. If you plan on using Activity 3.11 you should note answers on the white board.

Activity 3.10

Teachers will have their own ideas of how to organise this very specific listening task. If students can access the audio track on their own devices they can replay a section as often as they need. This way everyone has a chance of succeeding.

Answers

viral

satirical

entrepreneur

authentic

genius

establishment

pirated

charlatans

noble

enlightening

Activity 3.11

You will need to decide if the previous activity allowed your specific students to focus on the overall meaning in the audio or if they were so concentrated on vocabulary that they didn’t process the full content. You might need to play the track again before doing this summing-up activity based on opinions from the discussion in Activity 3.9

Exploring texts

Activities 3.12 and 3.13

The first activity pushes students to skim Text 3.10, a skill that they can do easily in their first language, but they are probably not at that level of literacy in English. Ask them how they would find their name in a long list. Would they read every name until they came to their own? Explain that they’re going to try a general skimming exercise and shouldn’t try to understand every word and every sentence, just aim to get a general idea of what the text is about. Allow them some clues before they start the three-minute skimming: the Pac-Man image and caption; the title of the article.

The second part of the exercise, Activity 3.13, will show that when people skim they don’t always catch the same details of a text.

ATT

Differentiation

If the text is difficult for the level of students in your class you can adapt the exercise by setting a narrower goal such as catching the names of famous artists or the names of video games. The purpose is to draw attention to how their eyes can skim a page of text and pick out certain words.

Activity 3.14

This crossword puzzle takes students back to Text 3.10, which they have skimmed and then read more slowly. This should ensure they are able to complete the puzzle without too much trouble.

Crossword puzzle solution

Across

a person who comes to a place where they do not belong = interloper

a discussion or argument = debate

to deny, deprive or cheat = rob

a series of moves requiring skill and care = manoeuvre

creative skill or ability = artistry

an adjective to describe someone who is respected or honourable = dignified

to be surrounded by a sensation or stimulus = immersive

a verse from a song that was sung in Mass in medieval times = trope

the ability of the mind to be creative = imagination

the sense of ownership held by a creator of art = authorship

Down

a meeting for lectures and discussion = conference

an adjective to describe something that is holy or worshipful = reverent

an aspect or feature = dimension

to give up or give away = cede

a small wood or group of trees = groves

the study of beauty or artistic tastes = aesthetics

a public display = exhibit

Activity 3.15

Completing the crossword puzzle engages a student’s passive comprehension of new vocabulary – given a definition, they were able to come up with the word. This activity makes a game out of using the words; in effect making them a part of active vocabulary.

Activity 3.16

The point of the activity is for students to work together to find the clues in Text 3.11 that indicate the correct order of the paragraphs.

The article should appear in this order:

Paragraph C

Paragraph B

Paragraph D

Paragraph A

Paragraph E

Paragraph H

Paragraph F

Paragraph G

ATT

Differentiation

With a class of less fluent students it would be easier if they could see the effect of moving paragraphs around. You could give students a photocopy of the text to cut up so they can arrange the paragraphs on a sheet of paper. They can then easily compare their own finished version of the article with those of peers.

In this case, they can write their suggested headline (Activity 3.17) on the top of their re-ordered text.

Activity 3.17

The original heading of the article reads: ‘Stunning Portraits of Crying Children that Brought the Photographer Hate Mail’.

How close did they get with their suggestions?

Form and meaning

Activity 3.18

First draw attention to the different form of the first three sentences compared to the last three sentences. You could help by asking ‘who?’ about the passive sentences in the first group.

Activity 3.19

Answers

Example in the coursebook

Children were made to cry for Jill Greenberg’s photographs.

ProPrankster lied to art dealers.

People all over the world love paintings of landscapes.

Video games are not considered art by everyone.

Both players and programmers create an experience in video games.

Art should be used by people to discover themselves.

Some street art is acquired without the artist’s permission.

Critics have over analysed some works of art.

In the end, the value of art is determined by buyers.

The museum exhibited the artist’s sketches.

Writing

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Exam Paper 1 assesses students’ ability to write one of a variety of text types. The list of text types is not exhaustive but the Language B Subject Guide organises them into three categories: Personal, Professional and Mass Media. A journalistic review falls into the Mass Media category.

Activity 3.20

This activity outlines a step-by-step process for students to write a review. It refers them to Unit 6.2 for analysis and models of reviews and then recommends they examine a newspaper review of an art show. For the writing exercise, perhaps there is a student art show your class could review, or a field trip to a gallery could be arranged.

The instructions in this activity also propose peer feedback using the IB assessment criteria for Paper 1. These can be found in the IB Subject Guide but for the convenience of students they are also included at the beginning of the coursebook.

Discussion

Activities 3.21, 3.22, 3.23

The coursebook suggests three different topics for discussion but the goal of each is to practise language which has been developed through the exploration of art as a form of human ingenuity. It might be a good idea to set preparation as a homework assignment so that students can organise their ideas and look back over the language they have learned in this unit.

The first activity (3.21) recommends that students find examples of art in books or online to illustrate their arguments; the discussion will be grounded by the visual examples.

The second option (3.22) uses a mini-debate format which may include an audience, time limits for each team and be completed with a vote. This gives a definite sense of conclusion to the activity. Debates generally use a chairperson who manages the order of speaking, voting etc. Perhaps a student in the class has experience of a debate club and can volunteer to chair the activity.

The third option has a clear ‘product’ – a set of ethical rules for artists. A group which is working on this activity (3.23) could assign a ‘secretary’ to take notes which are then drafted into the ‘ethical rules for artists’.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The instructions in this activity are very similar to the expectations of a student in the standard level oral examination, namely to use the caption attached to a photograph to inspire a short presentation on a topic that has been studied in class. See Unit 9.1 for more information about this assessment.

Activity 3.24

ATT

Differentiation

Depending on your students’ level of English you might need to reword the captions so that the topic is more accessible. For example, you could create a caption for the first image which focuses on art and museums; in contrast, a caption for the second image could direct the student’s attention to the creation of art.

Teaching idea

As an alternative to the class presentations proposed in Activity 3.24, students could make podcasts or short radio programmes. They would still follow the topics (the captions connected to the two images) but work in groups of 3 or 4 to design and produce the audio recordings.

Higher level extension

Activity 3.25

These questions raise issues that real people were faced with, as students will discover when they read Text 3.12.

Teaching idea

You could use these questions for practising the routines of a good conversation. One person makes a statement and another responds with interest, making a comment or asking a question which keeps the interaction alive. Pairs could perform mini conversations in front of the class. The point is to draw attention to the important role of the listener in a conversation.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

This element of sustaining and interacting in a conversation is part of Criterion C in the assessment of the oral exam. See Unit 9.1 for more information about this.

Activity 3.26

Answers

saga = story

iconic = recognisable

issue = problem

integrity = honour

rampant = widespread

protagonist = hero

misguided = foolish

painstaking = careful

inadvertent = unintended

clash = argument

gain = profit

precedent = example

quandary = dilemma

pledge = promise

buck = dollar

Activity 3.27

The film, ‘Saving Banksy’ is about someone who rescues a piece of street art before it is removed by the municipality or art dealers. True = “It follows the saga of one man’s quest to save an iconic graffiti work by the infamous street artist Banksy from being whitewashed by the city government or being ripped from the streets and sold at auction.”

The film aims to spread awareness about the illegal practices of galleries and auction houses that sell the work of street artists. False = The practice of selling street art is not ‘illegal’, though it may be considered unethical, as viewers realise the art is not acquired with permission from the artists. The article states that the aim of the film is to “get people to appreciate street art – in its intended form”.

Brian Greif, who removed Banksy’s High Street Rat, intended to sell the work to SFMOMA, but they refused it because he could not authenticate the work or acquire permission from the artist. False = The key word from the text is “donate” which means to give away, free of charge.

Banksy frequently gives permission for his works to be sold. True = As the text states: “artists like Banksy make pieces in their studios that they designate for sale”. The statement does not comment on the sale of ‘street art’, which Banksy does not approve.

SFMOMA refused to accept Banksy’s piece because they did not believe it was an original work. False = They refused to accept Banksy’s piece because Banksy’s studio would not provide a certificate of authenticity nor a document to authorise the placement of the work in a museum. The work was listed on Banksy’s site as an original.

Banksy and other street artists do not feel it’s fair that they are not included in profits from the sale of their street art. False = They do not make street art for anyone’s profit except the public’s. They want to discourage the black market of their art, not be included in it.

Brian Greif allows Stephan Keszler to show Haight Street Rat at an art fair in Miami. True = “The presentation includes the Haight Street Rat, which Greif had lent in frustration after his unsuccessful attempts to return the work to a public context.”

Haight Street Rat does not sell at the art fair in Miami, because Keszler clearly states that none of the Banksy works on display are for sale. False = Haight Street Rat does not sell at the fair, because Greif did not take Keszler’s offer of half a million dollars. Even though Keszler claimed that his works by Banksy were not for sale, he “ends up selling all of the works that he presented – except Greif’s”.

Even though the creation of street art is illegal, building owners are free to sell what is painted on their buildings to art dealers. True = As Greif states for the article: “‘If a piece is painted illegally, without the owner of the building’s or the city’s permission, there’s not much that can be done. The building owner legally owns the painting and can do whatever they want with it.’ And that might mean selling it to a dealer like Keszler to make a quick buck, or more.”

Activity 3.28

After reading Text 3.12 and possibly watching the video Saving Banksy the students should have a chance to reconsider their responses to the questions in Activity 3.25. Do they now feel differently about any of their original responses?

Literature

Activity 3.29

These questions invite students to think critically about their own relationship with forms of art. Since they are currently IB students how important is art in the diploma programme? Do they feel that they have the opportunity to explore their own artistic potential?

Teaching idea

Any of these topics are ideal for a spider-web discussion. If you are not familiar with this technique in which students run their own discussion and decide on a group grade for their performance, have a look at Alexis Wiggins’ book The Best Class you Never Taught. Her work is also referenced in the IB Approaches to Teaching.

REFLECT

Throughout the work on this unit students posted ideas and short reactions to topics. The reflection could begin with students looking over these posts and flipping through their notebooks. To conclude the unit they should consider how their ideas and attitudes about art have changed.

Activity 3.30

Answers will vary but here are some suggestions:

From the title of the poem the reader can infer that ‘I’ is the teacher of the literature class, Introduction to Poetry, while ‘them’ refers to the students in the class.

He is trying to relate the experience of reading a poem to things that are familiar to the students. He wants to suggest strategies for exploring a poem and enjoying it, rather than simply focusing on ‘what it means’

Collins is frustrated by the way poetry is taught. He is exasperated that students haven’t learned how to explore the beauty of a poem.

Activity 3.31

Drawing an impression or an understanding from the poem could be seen as a response to the poet’s concern. If students are not trying to de-code the meaning perhaps they get closer to actually experiencing the poem.

4 Social organisation

The IB course in language acquisition is structured around five prescribed themes of which Social Organisation is one. The IB’s ‘guiding principle’ for this prescribed topic is “to explore the ways in which groups of people organise themselves, or are organised, through common systems or interests”.

Recommended topics within the theme are offered in the Subject Guide as shown in the table below. As you can see, the three units developed for Chapter 4 of the coursebook are related to the IB’s recommended topics and will engage the interest of students.

Social organisation

Optional recommended topics (IB)
Chapter 4 units in coursebook

Social relationships

Community

Social engagement

Education

The working world

Law and order

4.1 Minorities and education

4.2 Partners for life

4.3 The future of jobs

You may already have some materials that would fit in with this theme of social organisation and are encouraged to create your own units on ‘social organisation’ within the scope of the IB’s recommendations. You can take inspiration from the coursebook, materials that your students bring in to class or events that are happening in the local context of your school. Concrete, real-life situations and current texts are essential in making any unit meaningful. However, for each unit on ‘social organisation’ it is important to have an overarching focus so that the various texts and activities add up to a coherent and detailed exploration of a specific topic.

In addition, in the spirit of inquiry-based learning, students should be trying to answer guiding questions. While they should think of their own guiding questions, the IB and this coursebook have provided you and your students a few questions to steer learning in a certain direction. As you can see from both the IB’s and the coursebook’s questions in the table below, students are encouraged to develop international mindedness as they explore the topic of social organisations.

Social organisation

Possible questions (IB)
Guiding questions by unit

What is the individual’s role in the community?

What role do rules and regulations play in the formation of a society?

What role does language play in a society?

What opportunities and challenges does the 21st century workplace bring?

4.1 Are there social groups in the society who do not have the same access to education and opportunities as others?

4.2 How do individuals in a society commit themselves to lifelong relationships and what form do these relationships take?

4.3 In what ways is the world of employment changing and what does this mean for workers?

Scheme of work for Chapter 4

Unit 4.1
Minorities and education

In this unit students will examine the relationship between minority cultures and education, particularly the question of equal access to mainstream education and the opportunities it affords.

Learning objectives

Become more aware of the problems encountered by social minorities around the world.

Develop skills that enable you to discuss social minorities and education.

Language focus

Form and meaning: affect v. effect. Adjectives and adverbs

Guiding questions

What problems do social minorities face?

How can education help alleviate these problems?

Suggested resources needed for this unit

‘A teacher growing green in the South Bronx’ (TED Talk by Stephen Ritz)

Audio track 10: an imagined discussion with a fictitious Aboriginal leader about education in Australia

Transcript of Audio track 10

Additional resources

Rabbit Proof Fence (2002 film)

American Indian Boarding Schools Haunt Many (Audio and transcript: on the NPR website)

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Getting started. Activities 1.1 to 1.3.

Lesson 2

Video TED Talk ‘Growing green in the Bronx’. Activities 1.4 to 1.6.

Lesson 3

Audio track 10. Education and Aborigines. Activities 1.7 and 1.8.

Text 4.1 Education and Native Americans. Activities 1.9 to 1.13.

Lesson 4

Text 4.2 Education and gypsy children. Activities 1.14 to 1.16.

Homework: Activity 1.17 creative writing.

Lesson 5

Form and meaning. Affect and effect. Activities 1.18 to 1.20.

Adjectives and adverbs. Activities 1.21 to 1.23.

Discussion: Images of Native Americans. Activity 1.24.

Lesson 6

Discussion. Activity 1.25.

Practice SL oral exam. Activity 1.26.

Writing. An official report: Activity 1.27 or a review Activity 1.28.

Lesson 7 (higher level extension)

Education and the Maasai. Text 4.3 Activities 1.29 to 1.33.

Lesson 8 (literature)

Text 4.4 Studies in the Park. Activities 1.34 to 1.35.

REFLECT

Students consider their own experience of education systems in comparison to the experiences of minority children.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 1.1

Throughout the unit students will be discussing a topic which they may not have spoken about before in English. This activity draws attention to the word bank through a fill-the-blanks exercise. You could create a glossary on a poster, adding to it as the discussions produce the need for other words and expressions related to social justice and education.

Answers

enrolled

attendance

graduation

mainstream

entry requirements

dropout

illiterate

motivation

citizen

public schools

application

diploma

compulsory

meritocracy

differentiate

inclusive

Activity 1.2

The objective of the activity is to introduce a number of different issues to the students, giving a preview of the topics they will explore. It’s likely that their views will become more informed as they spend time reading and listening to texts in the unit so you might not want to spend too long on the discussion at this stage.

Teaching idea

You could appoint a student to monitor a time limit for each item while you facilitate the discussion – in the style of a TV panel show. The ‘buzzer’ cuts off a speaker mid-sentence if necessary which adds some drama to the proceedings.

LEARNER PROFILE

One of the attributes of an IB student highlighted in the IB learner profile is ‘reflective’. This activity poses two questions that require the students to “thoughtfully consider the world and their own ideas and experiences” (IB Learner Profile). In the context of Activity 1.3, the verb ‘consider’ implies recognition of a situation and reflection upon it.

Activity 1.3

The introduction to this unit and the two previous activities have already prepared the students for the topic of meritocracy in education. You might start your class discussion of this topic by directing students to look back at the sentences printed in Activities 1.1 and 1.2. As they do so, ask them to reflect on their own school life and the type of educational programmes they have experienced. Do they feel that the school they attend is designed to preserve a status quo?

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 1.4

Memorising commonly paired words, known as collocations, is essential for language learners. Native speakers express themselves in familiar ‘chunks’ of language which the listener also knows and expects. This has an important impact on the ease with which a statement is processed.

Teaching idea

For this reason, after students have completed the exercise, you might want to try a choral practice. You call out the first word and the students supply the second. However, it’s worth taking this a little further so that they practise the complete collocation. Call out the first word but now they repeat that word adding on the rest of the collocation.

Answers

learning disabled

prenatal nutrition

foster care

21-century technology

affordable housing

bank account

international community

farmer’s market

tax abatement

food stamp

pumpkin patch

living wage

health benefits

unconditional love

Activity 1.5

The purpose of a predicting activity for non-native speakers is to prepare a context not only for the topic but for the vocabulary that they will hear. This activity uses the technique of asking students to predict based on new language they have just studied. In effect, it requires them to recycle language from the word bank and the introduction to the unit.

Teaching idea

Since the teacher speaks quickly you could use a first listening primarily for word recognition, giving students a list of key vocabulary and asking them to check off when they hear them spoken in the TED Talk. This gives a sense of ‘success’ even if comprehension of the opinions in the presentation is limited.

Activity 1.6

One strategy that students should practise is reading and thinking about the questions before they begin watching the video and listening. In this activity, some of your students might need help understanding the questions: for example, question b has the word ‘grasp’ which could be new to them. Tailor the exercise to your specific context, selecting questions or adapting as necessary for your particular students to succeed. It’s not important that they understand everything in the video. If you can help them catch enough of the basic idea – that a school garden in a poor area of an inner city empowers students – then they will be able to add this idea to their future discussions and written work.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

In the IB Paper 2, the first part is a listening comprehension component. Students are played a recording in the exam room and then answer questions about it in the examination paper. Chapter 8 gives more information about this, along with specimen practice papers and exam support.

Teaching idea

If you are unable access the online video of Stephen Ritz’s TED Talk ‘A teacher growing green in the South Bronx’, or think that it might be too challenging for the level of your English language learners, you can use Activity 1.4 in another way. Focus on showing the class how speech communities pair words to create familiar collocations which communicate shared knowledge of how the society works. For language learners some of these collocations can give a window onto certain aspects of the culture. For instance, ‘food stamp’, ‘farmer’s market’ and ‘foster-care’ are all familiar ideas in the United States.

The focus of the TED Talk is on empowering poor children in inner cities through school-based urban gardens. There has been a lot of interest in these initiatives so it’s not difficult to find articles and images that you could use as an alternative to the TED Talk. For instance there’s an article about a programme in Washington, DC, on the NPR website, and one about schools in London on The Guardian website.

Using these alternative resources you’ll be able to have a class conversation about Stephen Ritz’s argument that teaching such skills to minority children is valuable. The quotes from Ritz in Activity 1.6 will give you some help even if you don’t watch the video in class.

Activity 1.7

In Audio track 10, the focus moves to Australia and the experience of the indigenous population with education. This time the preparation exercise uses words taken from the recording. Students study the meaning of the words in an ‘active’ way through looking for connections between them, rather than simply looking for definitions which could be described as a ‘passive’ approach to acquiring new vocabulary.

Here are some possible categories:

Not urban

bush
remote
rural

Adjectives that describe despair

dire
abandoned
poor
suffering

Nouns that describe problems

unemployment
crime
abuse
violence

Rural activities

bushcraft
woodwork
farming
metalwork

Nouns related to education

exam
tests
scores
assessment

Synonyms for circumstance

background
situation
context

Activity 1.8

This activity involves listening to complete sentences. It can be organised to take into account the level of your students. While more fluent students could approach the task as described in the coursebook, you could decide to give students access to the recording on their own devices so that they can reply and pause as needed. It lends itself well to a pair activity, generating quite a bit of spoken language as the students suggest what they’ve heard, how it might be written and spelled, etc.

Completing the exercise by asking specific students to read the completed sentences moves the focus into the area of intonation and perhaps pronunciation.

Here are the completed sentences:

According to Tom Anderson, Aboriginal children are failing NAPLAN tests because their lives may be affected by more pressing problems such as depression, alcoholism, domestic violence and crime.

According to Tom Anderson, teenage girls get pregnant deliberately because they will receive $4,000 from the government.

Tom points out that even though small improvements have been made in rural Aboriginal schools, crime has gone up, youth unemployment has gone up and drug abuse is at its highest rate ever.

Tom believes that the NAPLAN tests fail to address reality for Aboriginal children and give them knowledge and understanding of how the world works, so that they can live in harmony with it and each other.

In order to train students how to use the powers of observation, Tom suggests that they study tracks made by animals, insects and birds and show them what is out of place in their surroundings.

Tom thinks the idea of ‘preserving’ Aboriginal languages is wrong because it suggests that the languages belong in a museum for people to see.

Tom believes that private sponsors are necessary for his vision of education because current funding from the government is not reaching the right people who need it for language education.

The host, Mike, does not think Tom’s suggestion for Aboriginal education is very ‘revolutionary’ because it includes: the three Rs, computer skills, English, natural sciences and Aboriginal Australian history. Note: The ‘three Rs’ are: reading, writing and arithmetic. This expression may be unfamiliar to students and require some explanation.

The part of Tom’s plan that Mike does find revolutionary includes the teaching of woodwork, metalwork, farming, fence building, cooking, and argumentation techniques.

Tom wants to get rid of the NAPLAN tests for Aboriginal children because they have clearly not worked for them for over 10 years, and they are ‘Westist, Testist and Bestist’. Note: this phrase is explained in the ‘Text and context’ box. It suggests that schools have a bias toward Western culture, testable material and competitive students.

Tom is suggesting that instead of serving an exam board, aboriginal schools should serve their communities.

Exploring texts

Activity 1.9

Word association activities set the stage for a deeper exploration of a topic as they lay out stereotypes and assumptions that are likely to be socially engendered. The number of students in your class could affect the way you organise this activity. With a smaller group you could assign one or two students to write on the board as students call out their associations and then lead the discussion. With a larger group you could give everyone a number of sticky notes, write a word on the board and students then come up and post their associations around it. Will you recommend a question mark if they don’t know what the word means (‘reservation’ or ‘tribe’) or have no association (perhaps ‘South Dakota’) – or let the reduced number of sticky notes demonstrate the knowledge gap?

The ‘Text and context’ feature on gives some help with these cultural topics.

In addition, the Extra activities a few pages later (following Activity 1.11) could be used as a research assignment for homework. If you look ahead to Activity 1.24 and decide to use one or more of these discussion topics with your class, then you should include those aspects in the research assignment.

Note: Activity 1.24 brings students back to their associations from this activity, so ask them to keep a record in their notebooks, or keep the sticky notes to remind them of their work.

Activity 1.10

For this activity it would be useful to have a map of North America available so that students can locate South Dakota, sharing any knowledge about its geography, climate and economy. They may also find it interesting to do an online search for images of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe protesting against an oil pipeline through South Dakota.

There are a number of people quoted and referred to in Text 4.1. The Reading Strategy feature, which suggests drawing a family tree, could be the first step to help students make sense of this.

Here are the answers to the true/false questions. Students should identify a paragraph that supports their answer.

False

True

False

True

False

True

False

Activity 1.11

Noun | Adjective
system | systematic
society | social
economy | economic
sex | sexual

Activity 1.12

Answers

broad

struggle

exception

conditions

strewn

ailing

push

Activity 1.13

LEARNER PROFILE

This activity encourages students to be Inquirers, to go beyond the role of accepting knowledge as it is presented to them in a lesson. The strategy, in which each student writes a question anonymously on paper, makes it less threatening for weaker students in the group and easier for them to learn from peers. The voting process encourages critical assessment of the questions and whether they will draw deeper reflection from Janessa Driving Hawk. At this point you could mention the skill of a good interviewer and the avoidance of yes/no questions.

Activity 1.14

As a preparation for reading Text 4.2, this activity encourages students to consider the ways in which access to school has changed their lives, and the disadvantages faced by children who get no formal schooling.

Activity 1.15

These comprehension questions elicit factual information from the text rather than requiring interpretation or inference.

Students may come up with answers similar to the following:

Because she had not attended school.

In the UK, there are 100,000 nomadic Gypsies and 200,000 permanently housed.

Roxie grew up with five siblings and five half-sisters.

Roxie learned the arts, music and dance, about wildlife and nature, how to cook and survive, milk a goat, ride a horse and bake bread.

Roxie learned to read by having lots of books and with help from her mother.

Gypsies were depicted as dirty thieves that did not contribute anything to society, living on land that did not belong to them.

Activity 1.16

Answers

brother and sisters = siblings

wandering = nomadic

disagree with = dispute

offend = insult

disapproval = disdain

importance = priority

stain = blight

the only one = unique

opened up = exposed

hold back = shackle

unawareness = ignorance

rigorous = intensive

contemptuous = scornful

strange = alien

discrimination = prejudice

Activity 1.17

This short creative writing activity could be used to review narrative perspective in literary texts. Will the students choose to write in first person as in Text 4.2, or will they write in third-person narrative form? Can they explain how the effect on the reader would be different?

Form and meaning

Activities 1.18 and 1.19

Affect | Effect
a | b
b | d
| e

Activity 1.20

Answers

effect

affected

effect

affects

effect

Activity 1.21

Answers

adjective

adverb

Activity 1.22

Adjectives | Adverbs
a | b
c | d
e | f

Activity 1.23

Answers

commonly

well

poor

colourful

frequently

remarkably

sorely

perfect

incredibly

serious

Discussion

Activity 1.24

Culture clash or adaptation?

Photograph a is an advertisement for Indian – a brand of motorcycle.

Photograph b is taken at a pow-wow, which is a gathering of Native-Americans for a celebration of their traditional dances and customs. People come as tourists to watch the events.

Photograph c is an image of a Navajo hogan, a traditional hexagonal home. Perhaps students will notice the modern ice chest/cooler, the propane bottles for cooking on a gas ring, the plastic barrel used to store water.

Activity 1.25

These discussion topics vary in the background knowledge that will be needed for students to be able to participate. If you used the Extra activity they will have some relevant information.

ATT

Collaboration

The spider web method of running a discussion is a possible scenario here. It’s an excellent method of drawing students’ attention to their ability to use English to collaborate. For more see Alexis Wiggins (source in the lesson notes). Part of becoming fluent in a language is being able to use the expressions which function as social ‘glue’.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

To avoid a discussion becoming a series of separate opinions you could emphasise the importance of linking. For example in this activity you could challenge students to acknowledge another’s contribution before beginning their own. It’s not necessary, in this exercise, to restate or summarise the point; it’s enough that a student be recognised by name for adding to the discussion:

I think Luciana made an interesting point and I’d like to add that..

In line with what Ainil just said, I believe that …

Ali’s point is a good one but if we examine …

I see your point Maria, and I think it’s also important that …

Activity 1.26

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Even if students are still in the first year of the two-year English B course they should be introduced to the types of assessment which they will do for their IB grade. Transparency of assessment methods and criteria is integral to the IB philosophy.

The individual oral differs at higher level and standard level. The Programme Resource Centre (PRC) on ‘My IB’ contains the Teacher Support Material with samples of oral examinations. In addition, Chapter 9 in the coursebook gives further support for the student, with information and practice exercises.

This activity simulates the standard level oral exam in which a student receives a photograph with caption related to a topic studied in class. After 15 minutes preparation, the student makes a presentation (3 to 4 minutes) “describing the visual stimulus as it relates to the theme and the target culture” (Subject Guide).

CONCEPTS

The conceptual understandings, which IB presents as essential to the success of any communication, could be used as preparation for the whole research and report writing exercise in Activity 1.27. Once students have chosen a minority group in an English-speaking country they will need to decide who is writing the report, for whom and with what purpose. The Language B Subject Guide poses the following questions:

Context: “how does the setting influence the production of the text?”

Audience: how do “the perceived needs and interests, or previous knowledge, of the recipients of a text influence its production”?

Purpose: “how do I plan my message and language use in order to achieve my goal?”

ATT

Differentiation

For second-year students, or those who are more comfortable in the language, this is a pair-work exercise with each describing one photograph and a chosen caption. The student who is listening might be given another task such as timing or noting whether the speaker expressed personal opinions.

With a less fluent group, support might be necessary and can in itself be a useful language exercise. One way you could do this is for two or three students to work together, starting by listing vocabulary to describe the photograph. Then they discuss ways of responding to the caption; is it easier to agree or disagree? What reasons would they give? What do they know about the issue? The small groups could then be combined so that they individuals are paired and can make presentations.

Writing

Activity 1.27

EXAM-RELATED TIP

This activity introduces the skill of writing an official report in English. This is listed as one of the Professional Texts in the English B syllabus (Subject Guide) and could be one of the choices on the final assessment, Paper 1. The text type might be new to students in the context of the language course but it’s worth reminding them that in other academic disciplines, such as the experimental sciences, they certainly write reports. Ask them to describe the characteristics of such writing before looking at Unit 6.8 in the coursebook.

Activity 1.28

This activity proposes another type of formal writing, a review, which is classified in the IB syllabus as a Mass Media text. Help with writing this kind of text can be found in Unit 6.2. Since the audience (parents) is specifically stated in the instructions for this activity the students have a starting point for the planning of their text. They might need to help each other by brainstorming the kinds of information that parents would want to know when trying to decide if the school would be a good fit for their child.

Teaching idea

If you want to shorten this activity you could form the class into small groups which will each produce one review. Once they have brainstormed the various sections that they believe should be included, each student works on his/her piece. The full group edits each section until a final version of the review is ready to be handed in to the teacher.

This organisation allows you to work separately with small groups of students.

Higher level extension

Activity 1.29

LEARNER PROFILE

Students will need to imagine themselves in a different cultural context in order to make inferences from the image of the Maasai man with his herd of cattle. The characteristic ‘Open-Minded’ in the learner profile might come into play as they consider “the values and traditions of others” (Learner Profile). For instance, is a lifestyle based on a traditional herding culture ‘backward’ or ‘simple’?

Activity 1.30

This form of comprehension activity with students matching two halves of a sentence has the added benefit of modelling statements about the text, utilising vocabulary and complex sentence structures.

Answers

d

c

h

a

f

b

g

e

Activity 1.31

This activity asks ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions, which inevitably require more thought than the more factual aspects of a text generally sought by who, when, where questions. In addition, students are asked to interpret the meaning in context of several words. In their answers they should use these words as a way of introducing them into their active vocabularies. Perhaps you might also use the activity as an oral fluency exercise, asking students to memorise an answer and say it while making eye contact with someone in the class.

Activities 1.32 and 1.33

At this stage in the unit, students have been presented with enough information to have begun to form opinions and ideas about minority groups and mainstream educational systems. These short discussion topics invite them to put their views into English, using the vocabulary that has been developed in previous lessons.

The question in 1.33 also serves as a review, asking students to look back through the pages in this unit considering the connections between the different groups of people.

Literature

EXTENDED ESSAY

As you use the Literature study sections in each unit of the coursebook, you could help students think about possible EE topics. The EE box in the coursebook informs students that the literary works must be originally written in English; however, there is no list of ‘approved’ authors and no expectation that the works be of traditional literary merit. For instance, the genre of heroic fantasy adventures is very popular with teens and could easily be the base of an excellent English B EE if the appointed supervisor assists with framing an appropriate research question.

Activity 1.34

In this activity, the suggested approach is that the reading of the literary extract (Text 4.4) be done quietly and individually. The questions are guidance rather than true comprehension questions, directing the student to imagine the situation of the protagonist and notice how his emotional state is conveyed through the style. Although students will do this sort of analysis as a matter of course in their mother-tongue literature classes (IB Group One) it is different when reading in a foreign language as one gets distracted by unknown vocabulary or unusual syntax.

Activity 1.35

Similarly to the previous activity, the focus on literary style (here, on examining how atmosphere is created) aims to help students focus on the emotional content of words and phrases.

Inferring mood from the diction and rhythm of the sentences could be done silently at first and then you could ask for volunteers to read a particular passage in the tone of voice which they feel the author intends. They might not succeed in expressing the tone in their voice but the act of identifying and justifying it is the purpose of the activity.

Indicative answers are given below:

The atmosphere of the text could be described as quite explosive. There seems to be a lot of noise in the scene and a lot of tension between the characters. The narrator is trying to study, but it seems impossible in this environment.

The tone of the narrator could be described as ‘anxious’. He is anxious about the results of his exams, for which he must study hard. But he is too distracted by the noises to concentrate.

The mood of the text is very urgent. The narrator rushes out of the room with a sense of urgency that he must find a quiet place to study as soon as possible.

While the word ‘frustrated’ may not describe the atmosphere of the text, it can certainly be used to describe the narrator’s feelings, as he cannot accomplish anything with the noise in his house.

The atmosphere of the text could be described as ‘volatile’, as conflict seems to be everywhere in the scene. The narrator feels like hundreds of people will break down his door and his mother might just feed him to his siblings.

While the atmosphere may not be ‘claustrophobic’, the narrator might suffer from this. He runs out of the room, because it seems so full of people and action that he cannot think straight.

REFLECT

These six questions form an effective sequence, leading students from identification with the protagonist in the short story, through their own experiences with school to the wider topic of minorities and education.

Unit 4.2
Partners for life

Chapter 4.2 Partners for life

In this unit students will explore

Learning objectives

Appreciate cultural differences with regards to marriage practices.

Acquire appropriate language for discussing the topic of marriage.

Language focus

Form and meaning: prepositions. Punctuation of quotations

Past conditional Activity 2.39

Guiding questions

What does ‘marriage’ mean to you or your culture?

What constitutes a good marriage or partnership?

Suggested resources needed for this unit:

NYS Senator Diane Savino speaks out on the marriage equality bill. (This may be found on the TED website or NY Senate)

Audio track11: a fictional interview with a psychologist on the subject of ‘virginity pledges’

Transcript of Audio track 11

Additional resources

‘Fiction v nonfiction: Literature’s made-up divide’ by Richard Lea (2016 article in The Guardian)

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey (2014, Touchstone Press)

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Getting started. Activities 2.1 to 2.5.

Lesson 2

Video. The debate about same-sex marriage. Activities 2.6 to 2.8.

Lesson 3

Audio track 11 Purity pledges. Activities 2.9 to 2.12.

Lesson 4

Text 4.5 Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. Activities 2.13 to 2.14.

Text 4.6 Why I want a Wife Activities 2.15 to 2.17

Lesson 5

Form and meaning. Prepositions: Activity 2.18. Punctuating quotations: Activities 2.19 and 2.20.

Discussion Gender roles. Activities 2.21 and 2.22.

Lesson 6

Discussion. Activity 3.18 (if appropriate in your context).

Practise SL oral exam. Activity 2.24.

Writing. A choice between two formal text types: a speech and an official report.

Activities 2.25 and 2.26. Additional option: Activity 2.27 writing a satire.

Lesson 7 (higher level extension)

Arranged marriages. Text 4.7 Activities 2.28 to 2.32.

Lesson 8 (literature)

Text 4.8 Defining Moments. Activities 2.33 to 2.38.

Language focus: past conditionals. Activity 2.39.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 2.1

Completing the sentence anonymously and then the class guessing who wrote each one is a fun activity certain to generate some laughter. The purpose is to start the exploration of the topic by showing the range of possible views, whether serious or light-hearted.

Activity 2.2

The images direct the discussion to the ceremony of commitment, the wedding.

Activity 2.3

In this topic the precise interpretation of terms for ‘the other’ in a relationship can be complicated. The fill-in-the-blanks exercise will highlight differences of opinion among the students.

partner, boyfriend/girlfriend, friend (It may sound strange for someone to announce that they are moving in with their spouse or husband/wife, as it is often expected that they live together.)

husband/wife, spouse, partner, boyfriend/girlfriend, friend (The context of this sentence does not really say much about the kind of relationship.)

Anything can go in here too, as the context is not very specific.

spouse, husband/wife (These terms are usually used for forms.)

friends (This is what people say when they break up.)

partners (This is a common term used by gay couples.)

Activity 2.4

This kind of ‘Where do you stand?’ activity is ideal for topics that could be somewhat sensitive because, usually, students see that they are not alone in their opinion. In the situation that an isolated figure is standing alone in a specific category it tends to lead to curious questions from peers rather than the awkwardness of an isolated voice in a traditional discussion.

Making time for each group to confer on their reasons and then make a statement to the full class is a useful way of further developing thought on the topic.

Activity 2.5

Answers

True

False

True

True

True

False

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 2.6

In this activity the emphasis is on arguments (for and against same-sex marriage) that have been given in various social contexts, not on the students’ own opinions.

arguments for same-sex marriage
Arguments against same-sex marriage

fairness

eradicate inequality

legally protect the ones you love

homosexuality in natural

government’s role is not determine the validity of a relationship

government cannot practise discrimination

marriage is not about procreation

marriage has already lost its sanctity anyways

marriage is about procreation

threaten the institution of marriage

incompatible with beliefs

marriage is a holy sacrament

unfit for marriage

marriage is a privilege

homosexuality is immoral

changing the definition of marraige

LEARNER PROFILE

The attribute of being open-minded is identified in the Learner Profile as appreciating and respecting the “values and traditions of others”. When approaching a controversial topic such as this one on different opinions towards same-sex marriage, it would be useful to have a short discussion with the class about how they interpret the quality of ‘open-mindedness’. What would it look like in practice?

Activity 2.7

The activity focuses on going deeper than comprehension of content to ask why the senator has selected specific words and phrases. By pausing the video each time one of the words in the list is used you can guide the class through the activity. You can interpret and explain as necessary for your particular group of students to write answers in their notebooks. Once the exercise is completed they would benefit from watching the video again.

Here are some indicative answers

hanging in the balance – This phrase is used to describe people who are eagerly waiting for the outcome of the vote in the senate.

unbowed – This word is used to refer to gay couples, who, despite being disappointed with a negative vote, will continue to be determined in their fight for equal rights.

sound mind – Senator Diane Savino uses this term to describe homosexuals to suggest that they are not mentally dysfunctional. They are capable of making decisions about their lives, including marriage.

cavalierly – She uses this word to describe how people fight for the institution of marriage and maintaining its meaningfulness.

envy – She uses this word to describe how she is jealous of Tom’s relationship with his partner, because she has never had such a deep relationship even though she’s over forty years old.

protect – She claims that marriage is about the ability to plan and protect the person you love.

people on both sides – This phrase is used to refer to both Democrats and Republicans, suggesting that the vote is not about politics but fairness to all citizens.

administer that contract – This phrase refers to the act of getting married.

commitment – She uses this word to explain that she is not able or ready to giver her life and future to a stranger.

validity – She says that it is not government’s duty to judge the quality of a relationship.

to practise discrimination – She explains that religious institutions will still have the right to say who they will and will not marry.

divorce rate – She refers to the high number of marriages that break up, as a means to justify her argument that the institution of marriage is not as respected as it should be.

devoted to – There are TV channels that only show programmes about marriage and weddings.

bachelorette – There is a TV show about men who eagerly want to marry a single woman, or ‘bachelorette’.

distasteful – One TV show about marrying a dwarf is not politically correct or respectful of the institution of marriage.

socialised – This is the process in which people start to think about what is normal in society and start to act on these behaviours. Savino explains that young girls go through this process when watching TV shows about weddings and marriage.

Activity 2.8

Teaching idea

The purpose of including this video in the unit is to model a thoughtful, measured way of expressing oneself on a controversial topic. It also gives students a chance to hear an argument that they might not have considered. If you can’t access the video of this speech by Senator Savino then you can use Activity 2.6 followed by Activity 2.8 with the objective of helping students articulate the various perspectives on the topic of marriage equality. Your goal is for your class to practise discussing a controversial topic, first simply as a language exercise using new terms and expressions and then, if you deem it appropriate, for them to try expressing their own opinions.

Activity 2.9

The preparation for listening activity uses a KWL table on a whiteboard. Students write on sticky notes and post them in the first or second column: what I already know; what I want to know. You could assign one or two students to manage this task.

Activity 2.10

This activity aims to highlight some key vocabulary that they will hear in Audio track 11.

The ‘True Love Waits’ pledge is organised through churches.

By taking a purity pledge, young people are making a commitment to God, their families and themselves.

Some young people who break the pledge might feel shame and disappointment with themselves

Pledgers may be asked to sign a contract when they make their purity promise.

Some young people later deny ever having taken the pledge.

To not have sex is to practice abstinence.

An oath is a promise that you often read aloud for others to hear.

A ball is a formal dance or gathering, in which people dress elegantly and socialise.

A fantasy is the opposite of reality.

To act nonchalantly means to appear indifferent or to do something without much care

Activity 2.11

The first time the class listens to the recording, the focus is on catching answers to any of the questions posted in the second column of the KWL table. You could ask for a couple of volunteers to manage this activity, reading out the questions from the board so that the class knows what to listen for.

Students jot down any answers on sticky notes and again post them on the board, this time in the third column: what I learned.

Activity 2.12

This comprehension exercise poses questions that might be answered in the notes on the board. If students don’t know, they can come up to the board and look over the notes.

Teaching idea

If your class is large and a traffic jam at the board is likely you could make this a small group activity. Students collaborate on answering the questions based on what they remember hearing in the recording. If they cannot answer a question they can send a ‘delegate’ to the board to look for a possible answer.

Answers

The interviewer and interviewee think that the virginity pledge sounds logical because it promises to save something special, sex, for a truly special moment, marriage.

According to the research, 88% of those who take a pledge break it.

Believing in abstinence might be considered a ‘fantasy’ because statistics show that 95% of married Americans have had sex before getting married.

Some youngsters take a purity pledge as young as 12 years old.

An individual who has taken a purity pledge might not take it seriously because they may have been too young to understand what it meant at the time or what they were agreeing to.

According to Professor Waters, some young people justify their denial because they felt they were lied to.

Professor Waters believes sex education is ‘abysmal’ in the United States because only 19 states require a form of sex education that is based on science, another 25 states promote abstinence and other states just ignore the subject entirely.

Exploring texts

Activity 2.13

Text 4.5 is the Introduction to a work of non-fiction, in the form of a personal narrative. The author, John Gray, tells the story of the event which led him to write his book Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus. You could start by asking students to interpret the title. What sort of book is this extract introducing? The genre of ‘self-help’ books is an enormous part of the publishing industry. If students don’t know much about this genre you might suggest they look for a copy of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, a bestselling self-help book by Sean Covey, It might also help if you ask students to consider the purpose of an introduction to a non-fiction book. Why do authors write this kind of introduction?

The task of re-ordering paragraphs so that they form a coherent text depends on students identifying the transition words – ‘then’, ‘while I was away’ etc. In this exercise it also requires that they read carefully enough to follow the emotional arc of the anecdote, from defensive anger to understanding and to empathy.

Teaching idea

If you make enlarged photocopies of the text, students can cut them up and arrange them on a poster. Before attaching it to the wall you could ask them to annotate, perhaps labelling the sections with words to describe the emotion of the narrator and identifying the cues which helped them find the order of the paragraphs. As a small group activity this generates plenty of discussion and students become increasingly comfortable talking to each other in English rather than a shared mother-tongue.

The correct order for the paragraphs is as follows:

d

h

f

e

b

g

i

k

a

l

j

c

EXAM-RELATED TIP

This activity asks for short answers rather than complete sentences since this is the style of the reading comprehension section of Paper 2. You can read more about this in Chapter 8.

Activity 2.14

After the sorting exercise students will be familiar with the text. These comprehension questions focus on the behaviour of the two characters, asking students to find the reasons and motivation. To a certain degree, this requires them to ‘read between the lines’ by imagining themselves in the position of each character and inferring from the text why they acted in a certain way. After they have written their answers they could exchange with another student to see if they both understood the text in the same way.

Here are some examples of the kinds of answers that students may produce in response to the comprehension questions.

Bonnie was taking painkillers because of the damage she had suffered in childbirth.

John ‘exploded’ because he was angry with Bonnie for not having called him at work to tell him she was in pain.

Bonnie had asked John’s brother to call him, but he had forgotten to do so.

Realising the meaning of unconditional love would change John’s life.

John is only loving towards Bonnie when she is happy and everything is OK with her.

Caring for Bonnie when she needed him made John feel as if he really loved her.

Activity 2.15

Text 4.5 described a time when a wife needed help and emotional support; in contrast Text 4.6 presents a perspective of a partnership in which the wife is responsible for managing everything as a form of support for the husband.

The goal of this activity is to prepare students for reading the text. The puzzle of creating sentences from scrambled lists of words is more fun if students work in pairs. You might want to give them some strategies such as finding potential combinations of subject and verb, adjective and noun, writing these on a paper and arranging other words around them until the sentence appears.

When they then read the text, the key sentences – the ones they have re-created – jump out of the text and provide a way into the reading.

Here are the untangled sentences from Text 3.5

I belong to that classification of people known as wives.

Not too long ago a male friend of mine appeared on the scene fresh from a recent divorce.

And while I am going to school I want a wife to take care of my children.

I want a wife to make sure my children eat properly and are kept clean.

And I want a wife who will type my papers for me when I have written them.

Needless to say, my wife will arrange and pay for the care of my children while my wife is working.

I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about a wife’s duties.

CONCEPTS

In a written text, tone is expressed through word choice, sentence forms, punctuation and other stylistic choices but it also depends on the audience being aware of the context in which the text was written. What is ‘normal’ at that time and what is being questioned or criticised through tone? The ‘Text and context’ feature in the coursebook helps with this. This activity is an excellent opportunity to reinforce four of the conceptual understandings which are an integral part of the Language B syllabus (Subject Guide): Audience, Context, Purpose, and Meaning. The Concept feature Meaning contains a useful explanation of how irony is used to make a serious point.

Activity 2.16

This activity draws student attention to the importance of tone. You could start with a quick demonstration showing them that they are aware of the concept of tone in spoken communication. Say “Come in. Sit down” in various tones of voice – welcoming, annoyed, impatient, or exasperated.

tongue-in-cheek – This is a very appropriate word to describe the tone of the text because the author is joking that she wants a wife, when in fact she wants a servant.

critical – Judy Syfers is most definitely critical of a society where men can treat their wives in the way described, replacing them like they would replace a housemaid.

biting – The speech is certainly ‘biting’ in the sense that it sounds all too familiar to housewives who are suffer from this patriarchy.

mocking – The author is mocking men who think they have the right to treat women in the way described.

serious – It could be argued that the message of the text is very serious, though the tone is meant to be funny.

sarcastic – Yes, the text’s tone may be considered sarcastic, as sarcasm is a form of criticism where the author says one thing but means the opposite. The final question, ‘My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?’ is meant sarcastically.

cynical – A cynical tone is one that is distrustful of human sincerity. Syfers is most definitely distrustful of men, like the one mentioned in the second paragraph, who say that they ‘want a wife’.

humorous – Yes, the tone of the text is very humourous. It is funny to imagine a woman asking for a wife as a kind of maid.

subversive – Yes, the message and tone are subversive, as they go against the expectations of society and the reader. This can be seen in language such as ‘I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one’.

ironic – An ironic tone is one that says one thing but means another, like sarcasm. When Syfers says she wants a wife who can take care of her children when they are sick, because she cannot miss classes, this is ironic, because she has had to miss classes, most likely as a result of sick children.

passionate – The tone of the text sounds passionate because she repeats the line ‘I want a wife’ so often.

begrudging – The tone of the text sounds begrudging because it sounds like the author has had to endure the kinds of situations she wants her wife to fix.

Activity 2.17

This concluding mini-discussion invites students to think about the title of this unit: Partners for Life and the earlier discussions they had in Activities 2.1 to 2.5.

The word ‘wife’ can be substituted with ‘maid’ or ‘servant’.

Form and meaning

Activity 2.18

Answers

of

over

for

around

in

as

up

at

out

Activity 2.19

Answers

Single quotation marks are used for emphasis on a supposed meaning, such as in the first bullet point ‘choose’. Single quotations are also used to highlight specific terms or words. Such is the case in the fourth and seventh bullet point. Double quotations are used for direct speech, when quoting what someone has said word for word. This should have been used in the second, third, fifth and sixth bullet point.

Capital letters should be used at the beginning of a sentence (all bullet points) and at the beginning of a quoted speech (second and third bullet points).

A comma comes before a quoted speech, in order to introduce it. This is the case in the second and third bullet point. A comma comes within the quotation marks, at the end of quoted speech, before adding the subject and verb of the sentence. This is the case in the sixth bullet point.

Commas are also used for listing items. If these items are in single quotations, commas appear outside the quotations (seventh bullet point).

If commas are used in conjunction with quotation marks for direct speech (see ‘c’), the comma appears within the (double) quotation marks (sixth bullet point).

Activity 2.20

Answers

Parents often ask me, “When is the time right?”

Technically she is not a ‘pledger’, but she has made a promise to herself.

Some people prefer the term ‘same-sex marriage’ to ‘gay marriage’.

Judy Syfers ends her speech by asking, “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?”

I had never been called a ‘fair-weather friend’ before.

‘Open-minded’, ‘caring’ and ‘reflective’ are a few useful traits for maintaining a relationship.

Do you believe in ‘love at first sight’?

Discussion

LANGUAGE FOCUS

The example sentence in the coursebook for Activity 2.21 uses the phrase ‘tends to’ which might need explaining. Other expressions could be:

Most of the time …

Generally …

Normally …

On the whole …

Activity 2.21

This introduction to the topic of gender roles in a society is framed within contexts which are familiar and not too controversial. Practising the English to talk about yourself and your experiences is an important element of the course but it requires that the students trust each other.

Activities 2.22 and 2.24

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Students taking English B at standard level have an oral exam in which they make a presentation based on a visual stimulus. The first step is describing the image and linking it to the topic which was explored in class. The Subject Guide has detailed instructions for managing this assessment which is marked by the teacher and then moderated by an IB examiner. You might also want to use the Teacher Support Material for samples of oral exams which are marked by IB. Both the Guide and the TSM are available on the Program Resource Centre (PRC). Chapter 9 of the coursebook is devoted to preparation for the oral exams, with practice exercises.

The images in Activity 2.22 make excellent practice. How much can the students find to say when describing the photograph? The discussion uses the captions for each photograph as stimulus for the group conversation. If your class are second year students who are getting close to the doing the IB oral exam, you could choose to move on to Activity 2.24, a simulation of an oral exam with students working in pairs.

Activity 2.23

Depending on the context in which you teach, you might organise a formal discussion on one or both of these topics. To maintain the focus on language development you could set the requirement that students need to re-state a comment made by a previous speaker before they add their own opinion. The phrases need not be long but they do create an atmosphere of true engagement. Respect and open-mindedness, two of the characteristics from the IB Learner Profile, are not abstract concepts when they are communicated in the turn-taking behaviour of a group in discussion.

Steven said that he … and I agree with him because in my opinion …

I tend to disagree with Monique’s point that … It seems to me that …

I understand Iqbaal’s argument about … but …

Writing

Activities 2.25, 2.26 and 2.27

These activities propose topics for writing two of the text types specified in the Language B syllabus (Subject Guide): a speech and an official report. As an alternative, Activity 2.27 invites students to try their hand at writing satire. This type of creative writing will not appear on the Paper 1 writing exam, simply because it’s so difficult to evaluate, but students will learn from manipulating the language to create the desired effect.

The detailed instructions for Activity 2.25 can be applied to the report writing exercise if you choose to set that task for your class. Support for speech writing is the focus of Unit 6.4, and report writing can be found in Unit 6.8.

Higher level extension

Activity 2.28

The ‘Text and context’ feature will stimulate some curiosity about the new focus. Any discussion on this matter will need a certain precision of vocabulary which is the aim of this first activity. Students might consider the importance of cultural context when they discuss their understanding of the difference between the paired words. When they come across these words in Text 4.7 they will be more sensitive to the way they are used to argue a point of view.

Activity 2.29

Text 4.7

ATT

Differentiation

When you are a language learner and still having to make a conscious effort to de-code the meaning in a text, identifying bias is challenging and may need a scaffolded approach. For instance, you might set up this activity so that pairs of students work together to locate arguments. If you give them a photocopy of Text 4.7 they can use highlighters to mark the arguments. Next, ask them to list them in two columns: attitudes towards marriage in India and attitudes towards marriage in the West.

Once they have completed the two tasks they will be better able to focus on individual arguments and label them according to bias, as directed in the coursebook.

Activity 2.30

Searching for synonyms in the text also gives an additional chance to focus on the arguments, prior to the discussion in the following activity.

outlook

rare

go away

created

dating

Activity 2.31

Teaching idea

This unit has included a number of discussion activities. In the language classroom involving everyone can be tricky; differences in language level, self-confidence and personality inevitably mean that some students dominate a discussion while others remain very quiet. Teachers have different methods of dealing with this situation. Here’s one that you might want to try. Give every student three cards (the number will depend on how large a group you have and how long you want the discussion to last). In order to speak, students have to use a card; they can toss it on the floor in the centre of the group. When they have no more cards they can only listen. The objective is for everyone to use their cards before the discussion comes to an end.

Activity 2.32

Students might be surprised by the statistic about the low rate of divorce in India. Does this change their attitude to arranged marriages? Why do they think the divorce rate is higher in other countries?

Literature

Activity 2.33

This pre-reading activity has the objective of clarifying some of the more unusual words that students will meet in Text 4.8, a short story. More than simply finding the definition in a dictionary, students use the words to complete sentences. You might choose to begin by focusing attention on the part of speech for each of the words in the box, highlighting this strategy for the gap-fill exercise.

implode

improvised

smirk

possessed

cog

elaborate

quest

beckoned

pivotal

Activity 2.34

These comprehension questions help students focus on the key moments in the plot before moving on to the more complex tasks of exploring theme and conflict in the following activities.

Answers

Peter and the narrator.

She has just started her secondary education, so she may be 12 or 13 years old.

Other children didn’t take the time to try to understand him.

So that she can be popular with her new friends, Katie and Alice.

He caught chickenpox.

When Peter arrives, she takes on the role of Guinevere.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

One of the skills assessed in the Individual oral exam is ability to take responsibility for keeping a conversation going. That takes practice with a set of conventional phrases such as the following:

Yes. I think you’re right because …

I’m not sure that makes sense because if you look at line …

I hadn’t thought of that. That’s a good point.

I see what you mean.

Activity 2.35

You could use this close reading activity to build the skill of discussing without raising hands or the teacher choosing someone to speak. Explain to students that you want them to suggest an interpretation of the underlined words and that once a student has made a suggestion, a classmate must respond. Perhaps they will agree and add a further reason for interpreting the underlined word(s) in that way. Perhaps they will disagree and explain why. Your goal is to help students interact rather than simply answer the question.

Activity 2.36

EXAM-RELATED TIP

As students will be studying literature in another class, perhaps an IB Group One course, they will be familiar with this convention of four types of conflict in a literary work. Even though Text 4.8 is only a short story, it is possible to discuss the form that conflict takes in this piece. Higher level candidates will do an oral exam in which they make a short presentation about an extract from a literary text they have studied in class. Details are explained in the Subject Guide. Unit 9.2 in the coursebook gives additional support and practice. This activity helps students develop a sense of the aspects of a text they might highlight in their oral presentation.

Activity 2.37

The dividing line between the genres of prose fiction and prose non-fiction is not universal. Some cultures – for example some Eastern European cultures – do not see the distinction as clear-cut and, in fact, do not organise their library shelving by fiction and non-fiction. There is a good article on this topic by Richard Lea in The Guardian, March 2016. The question of whether authors use personal experience or imagination in their work is an intriguing one. Shifting the question to another art form – dance, film or visual art – makes the question clearer to students. Does it matter to their enjoyment of the literary text whether the events happened in the author’s life or in her imagination?

Activity 2.38

As a follow-up to the previous discussion, this question invites students to consider the specific conflict faced by the protagonist in the extract. Have they experienced being ‘torn between’ two friends or groups? Given the nature of the topic, this conversation will likely be more reflective and meaningful if the students are in pairs rather than working in a large group.

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Regret for past actions is expressed in several different grammatical forms (I should have …, I wish I hadn’t … etc). Here the focus is on using the past conditional which is a useful structure because it includes the sense of an alternative action:

If I had done X, then Y would have happened.

If I had not done X, then Y would not have ...

Activity 2.39

The exercise includes three practice sentences based on the literary text but you can easily extend the activity for a quick practice related to school topics. It’s fun to create hypothetical ‘disasters’ as in this example:

If I hadn’t taken Maths higher level, then I wouldn’t have failed the exam.

Answers

If she had not greeted Peter, then she would have regretted that.

If Peter had not come down with chickpox, he would have started school with the other pupils that year.

He would have played with her more that summer, if his parents had not taken him to Ireland on holiday.

REFLECT

The list of topics in the final activity shows students how many aspects of the theme Partners for Life they have explored in this unit. The question asks them to consider the views that they have been presented with and reflect on whether their own opinions have changed as a result.

Unit 4.3
The future of jobs

In this unit students will investigate the way globalisation and technological advances have impacted job security.

Learning objectives

Develop an understanding of how employment practices and opportunities are changing due to globalisation and technology.

Be able to speak proficiently and written coherently about globalisation, technology and job opportunities.

Language focus

Form and meaning: connectives and transition words

Guiding questions

How has globalisation affected employment practices and opportunities?

How is technology changing the way people are employed?

Resources referred to in the activities

Video: Thomas L. Friedman’s Next New World: dispatches from the front lines. New York Times

Audio track 12: an imagined talk given at a conference on ‘The future of jobs’

Transcript of Audio track 12

Additional resources

Universal Basic Income: the answer to automation? (Infographic)

The Futurism website

Free Agent Nation by Daniel Pink

Could this robot chef change the future of cooking? (video – Wired magazine)

United Students Against Sweatshops

The website of international student activism group

Suggested reading

Hinds, John. ‘Reader versus writer responsibility: A new typology.’ Landmark Essays on ESL Writing, vol. 17, 2001, pp. 63–74.

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Getting started. Activities 3.1 to 3.4.

Lesson 2

Preparing for a career in a rapidly changing world. Thomas Friedman video. Activities 3.5 to 3.7.

Lesson 3

Audio track 12 A conference on the future of jobs. Activities 3.8 to 3.10.

Lesson 4

Text 4.9 ‘Nine “futureproof” careers’. Activities 3.11 to 3.13.

Lesson 5

Form and meaning: connectives and linking words. Text 4.10 Education for future jobs. Activities 3.14 to 3.17.

Lesson 6

Discussion Activity 3.18. Practice SL oral exam. Activity 3.19.

Writing Activity 3.20 (a blog post) or 3.21 (a speech) to be completed for homework.

Lesson 7 (higher level extension)

Migration economics. Text 4.11 Activities 3.22 to 3.25.

Lesson 9 (literature)

The opening page of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Activities 3.26 to 3.29.

Concluding reflection on the topics in the unit.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 3.1

This engaging activity begins the topic of the unit by applying it directly to the students’ own futures. How do they see themselves earning a living? The method of anonymous notes allows them freedom to be imaginative and creative, to dream rather than necessarily being practical.

Activity 3.2

The vocabulary pairs highlight differences in how perspectives (and experiences) of the world of work are expressed in lexical items. For example, how does a ‘job’ in a fast-food restaurant become a ‘career’?

Activity 3.3

In the globalised world new terms for the world of work have become necessary. This activity provides students with terms they can use in their work in this unit. You might also want to draw attention to the word bank on the previous page. If you use vocabulary quizzes with your students then you might consider using both these lists for a homework prior to a quiz.

the gig economy

race to the bottom

lifelong learning

soft skills

outsourcing

flattening of the world

future-proof career

knowledge economy

freelancing

on demand mobile service

automation

Activity 3.4

The statements are framed so that they are best read aloud by a series of students. When students move to one side of the room or the other new groupings are formed. How you handle the presentation of reasons for their choice of agree or disagree will vary with your aim in using the activity. You could pick one student in a group to state a reason or ask them to confer and come up with a summary statement. In terms of the exploration of the topic, the statements work to show the scope of the issue and give a foretaste of some of the materials they will read and listen to.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 3.5

IB diploma students are certainly thinking about their futures and making decisions about whether to go on to further education and in what field they will study. These questions ask them to imagine entering the job market and, among other topics, think about how the process will be different to that which the older generation experienced. Technology has changed the way companies look for employees; similarly entering your resume into a database such as LinkedIn, even when you are not actively looking for a new job, is considered necessary in many fields.

Note: students will return to their answers to this activity when doing Activity 3.7 after watching the video, so they should keep a record of their opinions.

Activity 3.6

The fluency of your students will determine how you set up this video activity. You could perhaps present the video in short sections, pausing after each section so the students can jot down notes in answer to a few questions at a time. Alternatively, setting the video and the comprehension questions for homework would allow students to replay as often as needed. You could go over the answers in the next class, moving the discussion of the topic forward.

Here are some indicative answers

Thomas L. Friedman aims to answer to the question: ‘How is my kid going get a job?’

Andrew McAfee thinks that his Montesorri education helped him prepare for life, because it taught him to discover and explore the world. He does not feel that the traditional style of disseminating knowledge is a relevant form of education today.

He encourages students to spend time on ‘both sides of campus’ so that they are balanced and able to work with different kinds of people.

She thinks job applicants are more likely to succeed in job interviews if they see themselves as a ‘product’, because they will convince the employer that they can add value to the employer’s business.

By ‘hustling’ your way into a job, she means that you have to make yourself noticeable to an employer by doing something special. Submitting a CV and letter of application alone is not enough to get noticed.

Ben Kaufman is looking for people who are critical of the business they work for. He wants them to push the company to be better at what it does.

Laszlo Bock believes that cognitive ability, besides ‘smarts’, also includes problem solving, curiosity and ability to learn.

He defines ‘emergent leadership’ as the ability to step in when they can help solve a problem and step out when there’s not a need for their expertise.

Bock explains that the culture at Google is rather ‘messy’ and so workers need to be able to deal with ambiguity and be conscientious.

Jeff Weiner suggests that you include your skills and ambitions on your profile.

He suggests that, by keeping your profile ‘fresh’ and ‘relevant’, businesses will want to work with your business, people will want to invest in your company, and journalists will notice your work.

Dov Seidman says that things that motivate people are: a mission that is worthy of their loyalty, a purpose that they can connect to, and trust that is real.

Teaching idea

Activities 3.5 to 3.7 set up a process in which students share ideas, watch a video and then add to their original ideas. If you can’t access the video of Thomas Friedman talking about the future of jobs, you could substitute one of the interviews he has given on the topic. One which contains many of the ideas expressed in the video can be found on the Deloitte website.

You could start by using Activity 3.5, which asks some leading questions to help students consider how their future experiences training and applying for jobs will differ from methods used by the current workforce. Adapt the questions in Activity 3.6 to fit the content of the article or interview that you plan to substitute. Your goal is to help the students identify the points that they had not considered. They can then complete Activity 3.7, refining the ideas they had listed in Activity 3.5.

Activity 3.7

Having watched the video and discussed some of the main points, students are asked to return to their answers to Activity 3.5 with a view to considering whether Friedman’s expert perspective has influenced their opinions. This sort of ‘thinking back’ exercise is key to an IB approach to learning. Reflecting on, and thinking critically about, one’s own views as well as those of others is an important habit to develop.

ATL

The section on Thinking Skills in the IB document Approaches to Learning (available in the Programme Resource Centre) emphasises the importance of reflection in the building of critical thinking skills.

Activity 3.8

ATT

Differentiation

These noun phrases are common in any discussion of employment and the world of work so they might be familiar to students who have had more experience in English; however, for less-fluent students the activity might take a long time to complete. As a variation, you could write the list on the board. Off to the side of the board place sticky notes with the words from the box. Students come up one at a time, choose a sticky note and place it after the word in the list. They must then explain the meaning of the phrase they have created. The ‘audience’ may not participate but must wait for their turn to come up, when they can move a sticky note if they think it is in the wrong place, and define the noun phrase.

Here are the answers

job description

pension plan

human resources

the bottom line

low-wage countries

social media

baby-boomer generation

work force

the power equation

means of production

a natural progression

mobile app

independent contractor

workers’ rights

fair trade

Activity 3.9

Once the previous activity is completed, give students a moment to study the list of phrases and then ask them to predict the topic of Audio track 12, that they will listen to in the next activity.

Activity 3.10

The purpose of this activity is for students to listen and then summarise what they have heard. The role play activity involves a student acting out the part of the owner of a taxi company which is losing money. S/he missed the conference and now wants to find out if there was any information that could help the failing company. You could choose to expand this role by assigning roles of a CEO and a CFO so that they can help each other with the task of eliciting information by asking questions.

To avoid a situation in which one confident student summarises the entire audio track, the suggestion in the coursebook is that you allocate specific words and phrases from the recording to individual students. It is their responsibility to provide this aspect of the presentation to the unfortunate owner of the taxi company.

Exploring texts

Activity 3.11

The theme of the unit is the future of jobs. This activity asks students to work in small groups to come up with five jobs they think will not be made obsolete due to advances in technology and artificial intelligence. If each group writes their list on the board it will be interesting to see similarities and differences. The focus of any follow-up discussion should be on the risk for future automation and a corresponding loss in jobs.

Note: students will refer to their lists again in Activity 3.13 so it would be a good idea to keep them on the board.

Activity 3.12

The study of Text 4.9 begins by finding phrases in the passage which are similar in meaning to those listed in the exercise. Thus, students’ first experience of reading the text is focused on the language used to express key ideas.

Here are the phrases from the activity, followed by the phrases from the text:

jobs could be made redundant = careers may become obsolete

jobs that are less susceptible to automation = occupations which will be harder to automate

technologies could streamline the processes of factories and offices = machines have the potential to make the workplace more efficient

despite their efforts = no matter how hard they try

computers do not have an imagination, nor can they innovate = machines aren’t great at critical thinking, or coming up with new and exciting ideas

qualities that computers do not currently posses = things you probably won’t get from any machine that exists now

retaining new knowledge from someone else is easier = there’s something about learning new things from a person that makes the information stick better

the title speaks for itself = the clue is in the name.

improbable that computers will replace such people in the near future = unlikely robots will be taking these jobs away any time soon

computers are limited by systems and programs = there’s only so much a machine can do with algorithms and code.

hiring individuals on this basis is controversial = there is a lot of debate around the issue of employing people in this way

Activity 3.13

Having read Text 4.9 which proposes nine ‘futureproof’ careers, students look back at the list they produced in Activity 3.11 and compare with those in the article. What characteristics do these professions share that seem to protect them from becoming automated?

Activity 3.14

This activity is useful if you intend to use the ‘Form and meaning’ section of the unit which uses Text 4.10 for study of connectives or ‘linking words’. The intention is to clarify some of the new vocabulary in the text so that students can concentrate on matters of coherence and cohesion.

Answers

exaggerate – overstate

brawn – strength

anxiety – concern

materialise – appear

unprecedented – exceptional

era – time

recall – memorise

rank – list

very – exact

resourcefulness – inventiveness

retain – keep

complement – add to

pivotal – central

onus – responsibility

bear – carry

vocational – occupational.

adjust – change

convenience – ease

initial – first

fiscal – financial

Form and meaning

Teaching idea

Linguists have observed that texts in certain languages are structured to be ‘writer-responsible’. It is the responsibility of the writer – or speaker – to use transition words and phrases to clarify the structure of the text and the relationship of the various arguments. English is one of these languages; good writing (and formal speaking) relies heavily on ‘connectives’ and transition words. In contrast, a language such as Japanese is described as ‘reader-responsible’; few connectives are required and the reader takes a more active role in identifying the structure of the text. For more on this topic you could look at the work of John Hinds.

Most languages will fall somewhere along a pole between the two opposites of English and Japanese. The exact location doesn’t matter but students find it interesting to consider their mother tongues and decide whether texts tend to be more or less ‘writer-responsible’. Once students have thought about this concept they are likely to be more interested in the wide range of transitions and connective words that exist in English.

Activity 3.15

Words that connect ideas
Words that conclude
Words that indicate sequence of ideas

consequently

not only... but also

which

thankfully

in fact

In fact

thankfully

Since

not only... but also

Words that express contrast
Words that compare
Words that explain

Whereas

but

rather

however

yet

instead

even though

not only... but also

nevertheless

while

as much as

not only... but also

If

since

consequently

not only... but also

thankfully

that said

Activity 3.16

Here are the linking words which have been omitted from Text 4.10:

whereas

if

since

but

in fact

which

rather

however

yet

yet

instead

rather

even though

consequently

as much as

while

only

not only

but also

thankfully

nevertheless

that said

if

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Paper 2 assesses receptive skills, both listening and reading. There is a specimen exam and mark scheme on the Programme Resource Centre (PRC) accessed from your ‘My IB’ homepage. You will see an example of this type of true/false exercise in the practice exam in Chapter 8. It’s challenging because it requires that students first analyse a statement for its accuracy and then identify a phrase in the given text as evidence.

Activity 3.17

Answers

True – “If managed well, this revolution is not necessarily a cause for concern.”

False – “Rather than making humans redundant, technology has simply shifted work to other areas.”

False – “Yet today, method and recall are the very things that are easiest to automate.”

True – “‘soft’ skills such as resourcefulness, creativity, and emotional intelligence are the likely domains where humans will retain a comparative advantage.”

False – “it is vital that students, teachers, and parents, can access quality and timely information on the likely skills needed by employers in the future.”

True – “Computer based learning is not a perfect substitute for a traditional university education.”

False – “Government should also explore tax incentives to encourage continuous engagement in education for adults.”

Discussion

Activity 3.18

Following the study of Text 4.10 with its strong criticism of the school system in the UK, this activity asks students to articulate their opinions about the education they are currently receiving. First, they are asked if they see similarities between the type of school described in Text 4.10 and their current school. Your objective is for your class to use some of the new terms and expressions that they have encountered during their work in this unit.

The focus then moves to 21st century skills, which many schools use to design their academic programme. Since your class is preparing for the IB diploma, they should be able to find correlations between aspects of the 21st century skills shown in the diagram and the characteristics of the IB programme. Perhaps you have a poster of the Learner Profile in your classroom? Another resource that will be helpful is the document, Approaches to Learning. You can find it on the ‘My IB’ website in the Programme Resource Centre. It sets out five skill areas that must be emphasised in an IB programme: thinking skills, communication skills, social skills, self-management skills and research skills.

ATL

In the Approaches to Learning (PRC),communication skills is one of the attributes which IB hopes students will develop. In the Subject Guide it is specifically applied to the Language B course and phrased as “using linguistic strategies for the maintenance of communication…”

Activity 3.19

The suggestion here is to run a ‘mock’ or trial oral exam one-on-one with each student. As the final IB oral assessment approaches this could be a valuable experience and, as you mark the presentation and conversation using the assessment criteria, the students will get feedback on their performance. You could spread the practice oral exam over several classes as the other students’ work on the writing exercises in the following activities.

ATT

“Teaching informed by assessment (formative and summative)” is one of the main pedagogical principles in the IB Approaches to Teaching (PRC). It emphasises the use of assessment as a tool to inform further teaching and learning. An exercise such as the mock oral exam in Activity 3.19 is an excellent way of doing this. If the students have problems meeting the expectations of the task then you can adjust your materials and planning accordingly.

Writing

Activity 3.20

The text type, audience and purpose are all specified in this activity. The blog post will be read by people who are already interested and informed about technical advances. Students who choose to write this text will need to bear in mind that this will affect the vocabulary and expressions they use. Unit 6.3 has information about the format and style of a blog post.

Activity 3.21

As an alternative to the blog post, this activity proposes a speech to university students. Since the speaker is an expert on the topic of future work, students should plan carefully and use the resources in this unit of the course book for ideas and vocabulary. The structure and style of speech is covered in Unit 6.4.

Higher level extension

Activity 3.22

Text 4.11

This pre-reading activity sets up a potential contrast between assumptions that students have about the effect of immigration on an economy with the facts presented in the article by a professor in the field of migration economics. How did they acquire their understanding of the topic? When they try to justify their answer as to whether a statement is ‘fact’ or ’myth’ are they able to give reasons?

Activity 3.23

Before reading the text students will need a basic understanding of some economic concepts. You might have students in your class who are studying IB Economics and could lead the activity.

Answers

technological adaptations

occupational mobility

human capital

labour shortages

specialisation

public opinion

economic migrant

Activity 3.24

The ‘reason for reading’ which is set up in this instance, is the search to discover if the statements in Activity 3.22 were indeed ‘fact’ or ‘myth’

These are the phrases from Activity 3.22 which are either fact or myth:

fact – Migrants often accept jobs that natives don’t want.

myth – Migrants take both high and low-end jobs, as some are skilled and others unskilled.

myth – The article shows how immigration can boost the economy.

myth – Most people in the US, France, Germany and the UK believe immigrants fill job vacancies.

myth – Most people in the US, France, Germany and the UK believe immigrants create jobs.

myth – Immigrants do not always qualify for welfare and they would rather take a low-paying job.

fact – Migrants are often willing to accept these low-skilled jobs in order to seize the opportunity that a new country offers.

fact – Because of population increase, created by migrants, there is a higher demand for products and services.

fact – Immigrants are more likely to start a new business or create their own job.

Activity 3.25

The topic of immigration and its impact on jobs is an especially relevant one. This activity suggests allowing students time to do more research and present it in graphic form as an info-board visible to the school community. They might want to particularly focus on the statements that were discovered to be ‘myths’.

Literature

Activities 3.26 and 3.27

Higher level students are expected to have an appreciation for basic aspects of literary style. Asking them to produce text rather than simply analyse the literary devices used by an author, is an unexpected method for getting them to focus on the power of words. It’s not so much what is said but how it is said. If they can do this before reading the extract, Text 4.12, then they will be curious to see what Kafka himself wrote about Samsa’s first morning.

Activities 3.28 and 3.29

The link between Text 4.12 and the topic of this unit is Kafka’s presentation of work as pointless drudgery. The comprehension questions help students notice for themselves that the novel is about the dehumanising effect of a meaningless job. They are then invited to compare their own motivation for working – in a job or as a ‘professional student’ – with Samsa’s motivation to go to work.

Answers to Activity 3.28

Gegor seems more concerned about being late for work than being deformed. He’s more concerned about his working conditions, what his boss thinks of him, and his parents’ debt to his boss than his physical condition.

He does not know what caused his deformation. It is suggested that it might be due to a lack of sleep, in his mind.

He does not like his job because of the travelling.

He does not resign from his job because he is working to pay off his parents’ debts with his boss.

The last line is funny, because after not being able to get up, he tells himself that he had better get up to catch his train. He is not focused on the immediate problem, but the problem of worry about his career.

It might be said that this passage exemplifies human behaviour in that people sometimes ignore the most pressing problems while worrying about abstract problems.

REFLECT

The reflective process that completes this unit begins with a ‘memory game’. For each word in the box, who remembers the context in which it was used in this unit? This, and the subsequent questions, function as a review but also invite thought about what they have learned and how their perspective on the issues has changed.

5 Sharing the planet

‘Sharing the planet’, as one of the five prescribed themes for Language B, is intended to be a context within which students develop their language skills. The IB’s ‘guiding principle’ for this theme is “the challenges and opportunities faced by individuals and communities in the modern world” (Subject Guide).

The chart below shows the connection between the ‘optional recommended topics’ from the subject guide and the three units in this chapter of the coursebook.

Sharing the planet

Optional recommended topics (IB)
Chapter 5 units in coursebook

The environment

Human rights

Peace and conflict

Equality

Globalisation

Ethics

Urban and rural environment

5.1 Ending poverty

5.2 Climate change

5.3 Power to the people

These three units can be used individually or as a sequence of units in a chapter. It should be noted that teachers are encouraged to create their own units of work within the scope of the IB’s recommendations. You may already have materials which would fit well into this theme, or have a particular video that you could use as a starting point to inspire students to create their own portfolios of texts and images. The units in this coursebook are created with a particular angle or perspective which serves as a connecting thread between the various video, audio and written texts. Concrete, real-life situations and current texts are essential to making any unit meaningful.

Inquiry-based learning is based on classroom practices in which students are engaged with trying to answer guiding questions. While they should think of their own guiding questions, the IB and this coursebook have provided you and your students a few questions to steer learning in a certain direction. The theme ‘Sharing the planet’ focuses attention on local and global issues encouraging the development of international-mindedness as students study the topics within the set theme.

Theme: Sharing the planet

Possible questions (IB)
Guiding questions by unit

What environmental and social issues present challenges to the world and how can these challenges be overcome?

What ethical issues arise from living in the modern world and how do we resolve them?

What challenges and benefits does globalisation bring?

What challenges and benefits result from changes in rural and urban environments?

5.1 Why is it so difficult to eradicate poverty in the world?

5.2 Why, when there is clear evidence, is the topic of climate change debated so much?

5.3 How have people used democratic principles and protest to fight for their rights?

Scheme of work for Chapter 5

Unit 5.1
Ending poverty

Unit 5.1 Ending poverty

In this unit students will take a global perspective on poverty, exploring causes and efforts to eradicate it.

Learning objectives

Gain a better understanding of the various approaches to alleviating poverty.

Be able to discuss the merits of various approaches to alleviating poverty.

Writing focus: a brochure, an essay and a blog post

Language focus

Form and meaning: commas

Guiding questions

How can poverty be eradicated?

What can you do to make the world a more equitable place?

Resources referred to in the activities:

Poverty isn’t a lack of character; it’s a lack of cash. Rutger Berman, TED Talk (Activity 1.7)

Audio track 13: imagined interview with a philanthropic rock star

Transcript of Audio track 13

Additional resources

Kiva. Loans that change lives. The Kiva website.

Heifer International. The Heifer website.

Grameen Bank Founder Muhammad Yunus on Ending Poverty (video). Bloomberg TV. Published 6 October 2017

The Poverty Paradox: Why Most Poverty Programs Fail And How To Fix Them (video) Efosa Ejomo, TED Talk. 14 August 2017

Further reading

Eats, Shoots and Leaves: why commas really do make a difference! By Lynne Truss. Profile Books.

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Word bank. Getting started. Activities 1.1 to 1.4.

Lesson 2

Video TED Talk. Rutger Berma. Activities 1.5 to 1.7.

Lesson 3

Audio track 13 ‘Factivism’. Activities 1.8 to 1.10.

Lesson 4

Text 5.1 Fair Trade. Activities 1.11 to 1.15.

Text 5.2 Finca. Activities 1.16 to 1.21.

Lesson 5

Form and meaning. Commas. Activities 1.22 to 1.24.

Discussion. Activities 1.25 to 1.28.

Lesson 6

Writing. Brochure or essay or blog post. Activities 1.29 to 1.31.

Lesson 7 (higher level extension)

Text 5.3 Activities 1.32 to 1.35.

Lesson 8 (literature)

Text 5.4 Activities 1.36 to 1.38.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

The introduction to this provides some interesting facts and figures about wealth and poverty. It also asks questions which students may not have thought about, ending with the provocative statement that “the question to ask is not if we can beat poverty but when and how”. This sets the tone for the unit.

Activities 1.1 and 1.2

Starting with a brainstorming activity on the causes of poverty will begin to show the complexity of the issue. You could assign one or two students to be the scribes for a large spider diagram on the board as their classmates come up with ideas. The next step is to add ways to relieve poverty. These could be connected by lines to specific ‘causes’ in the original spider diagram. This kind of activity can lead to quite a bit of language activity as students debate whether an idea is new or a different way of saying the same thing.

Note: the spider diagram and associated ideas produced in these two activities will be needed for the final Reflection.

Activity 1.3

This focus-on-vocabulary exercise draws attention to the word bank. After they have linked the definitions to words in the list the class may want to add more items to the spider diagram.

fair trade

developing nations (note this has been removed from the word bank. It is an error in the coursebook. The word developing nations a the end of the third paragraph of the introduction should also be in bold.)

child mortality rate

exploit

aid

scarcity mentality

Activity 1.4

This activity asks some questions about poverty. Once students have had the opportunity to come up with their own suggestions for the answers to the questions about poverty, give them these statistics.

71% of the world’s population lived on less than $10 a day in 2015 (Source: CNN). In 2008 it was 80% of the world’s population.

In 2015, 43 out of every 1000 children died before the age of five. In other words, 5.9 million children under age five died in 2015, which was 16,000 every day. (Source: World Health Organization).

1.3 billion people lived without electricity in 2015 (Source: World Bank Development Indicators).

1.3 billion people live on less that $1.25 per day, i.e. in extreme poverty (Source: World Bank).

83% of the world was literate in 2014 according to Our World in Data.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, 663 million people did not have access to clean water in the world in 2015.

Which answers (if any) were they surprised by? The objective of this activity is for students to look for change. Is there progress in tackling poverty or is the situation deteriorating? What do they think might be the reasons for this?

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 1.5

The TED Talk by Rutger Berman, Poverty isn’t a lack of character, it’s a lack of cash, introduces a new perspective. In preparation for watching and listening, this activity clarifies several two-word phrases which appear in the video. As well as focusing on combining the two words, students should make sure they understand the meaning of the phrases so that they can do the Activity 1.6.

Here are the two-word phrases:

underlying assumptions

blood sugar

brain scan

poverty line

statistical analysis

domestic violence

venture capital

health care

human capital

status quo

Activity 1.6

Based on the ten, two-word phrases from Activity 1.5, students should be able to predict that the TED Talk will be about something related to human health and wealth. Words such as ‘blood’, ‘brain’ and ‘health’ may lead them to believe that the talk is about something medical. Even though this is not the case, it is an interesting point to raise after watching the talk. You may want to ask them the question: ‘Is poverty like a disease?’

Activity 1.7

The questions in the coursebook help students focus on the key ideas they will hear in the video. Reading through the questions before watching the video is an important strategy.

ATT

Differentiation

If you have students of varying language level and fluency in your class, you might set up the activity so that pairs or small groups can watch the video on separate devices. They can replay sections as they need to. Working together reduces the stress of listening to authentic speech with the accent and speed to contend with.

Answers

Many people believe that poor people make poor decisions because they are not smart or they are mentally disabled. This was the speaker’s underlying assumption before doing research.

Bergman changed the way he thought about poverty after talking to a university professor about research that has been conducted in this field.

‘Scarcity mentality’ is a frame of mind where resources such as time, money and energy seem limited. People make poor decisions about their future when they are in a scarcity mentality, because they are more worried about short-term problems than long-term solutions.

Bergman does not see that investments in education directly help the lives of poor people.

Popular solutions for poverty, among politicians, include assistance and reminders for poor people applying for jobs and benefits. Bregman does not find these solutions effective because they do not address the underlying problems of poverty.

A ‘basic income guarantee’ is a promise to every person in a country that they are entitled to a certain amount of money, regardless of where they work. If their income drops below this amount, then they can receive the difference between their income and the ‘basic income’ from the government.

In Dauphin, Canada, from 1974 to 1978, a basic income guarantee was implemented with much success. Domestic violence and mental health improved as a result. This is important evidence that supports Bergman’s argument for basic income for all.

A ‘negative income tax’ refers to the amount that you would receive from the government if you fell below the poverty line while working, in order to top up your income to meet the basic income guarantee.

Bergman believes in a future where you are not judged by the size of your pay check, where education prepares people for a life well lived, and where everyone has the right not to live in poverty.

Teaching idea

If you are unable to access the online TED Talk by Rutger Berman you could create a lesson based on the title: Poverty isn’t a lack of character, it’s a lack of cash. Write it on the board and explain that it’s a view held by a respected author who writes about history, philosophy and economics. Ask students to think about the implications of the statement. This would work well as a small group exercise to be done along with Activity 1.5. The phrases indicate aspects of living in poverty that Berman feels are underestimated and not generally understood.

After the groups have shared their ideas you could introduce Berman’s ideas about ‘scarcity mentality’ and the societal responses to poverty which are effective and those which are not. The answers to Activity 1.7, provided above, might help you with this discussion topic.

Another excellent resource is Berman’s book, Utopia for Realists, which is a collection of easy-to-read essays.

Activity 1.8

The way into Audio track 13 is through targeted listening – building skills by trying to catch individual words to complete a phrase. This is quite challenging, as students may not have come across the phrases before. They may not experience the immediate recognition that a native or bilingual speaker would.

The phrases are completed using the verbs as indicated below:

to promote transparency

to campaign against poverty

to report the facts

to spread awareness

to counter corruption

to make backroom deals

to arm citizens with facts

to hide money in offshore accounts

to commit evil acts

to overthrow dictators

to eradicate poverty

to contribute to the cause

Activity 1.9

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Paper 2 – Listening comprehension – is organised so that exam candidates first have 5 minutes to read the comprehension questions on the exam paper. Then each audio text is played twice with a two-minute pause in between. This activity is organised in a similar way. Because the students have heard the recording once they now see how much they remember by jotting down answers to the comprehension questions. After that, they listen a second time.

A new brand of activism which spreads facts and promotes transparency.

The host described the campaigns as ‘high profile’.

The number of people living below the poverty line has been halved / the child mortality rate in sub-Saharan Africa has been cut by 75% / countries have doubled their education completion rates.

To spread awareness of the positive outcomes they’ve achieved and to counter corruption.

For selfish reasons (e.g. they see debt cancellation as a threat, local producers of medicine as competition, more healthy people as more mouths to feed).

He’ll go back to being a rock star.

ATL

The introduction to the IB document Approaches to Learning (PRC) quotes Zimmerman (200:65) in talking about the importance of helping students see learning as something that they “do for themselves in a proactive way”. Activities such as this one change the role of student from passive ‘receiver’ of material selected by the teacher, to ‘course designer’ as they become active selectors of videos.

Activity 1.10

The parameters of the search for other videos in which Hans Rosling speaks directly (rather than being quoted) about ‘Factivism’ means that everyone in the group will have the same focus. It then becomes possible to hold a discussion in which additional ideas related to the same topic are explored. It has the additional benefit that the language which has been studied can be consolidated.

The suggested method in the coursebook is for students to find the videos and then take the responsibility for organising a small group audience for each one. You could propose that each group make a short presentation after the viewing in which they share their answers to the three questions:

What information in the video did you already know?

What additional information or ideas did you learn?

Were you left with any further questions?

Exploring texts

Activity 1.11

The Fairtrade logo is unique, because it is ambiguous. Some people see a river running through a landscape. Some people see a man raising his fist in protest. Others see a yin yang sign that is slightly out of balance. Any answer is correct. This activity asks for an initial response (‘first thing that comes to mind’), and answers may vary. The activity is intended to brainstorm about the Fairtrade philosophy in preparation for reading Text 5.1.

Activity 1.12

This vocabulary activity requires that students consider the specific meaning of four words in order to identify the “odd one out”. In each of the sets there is a word from Text 5.1, along with the number of the paragraph in which it appears. Essentially, the task is to decide which other words in the set are synonyms of the word from the text.

Answers:

d (idea)

b (inflation)

c (adjustable)

c (included)

a (remarkable)

c (unfortunate)

d (code)

c (produced)

b (habits)

d (rules)

a (interest)

d (reporting)

Activity 1.13

The act of writing complete sentences has the effect of emphasising the basic information about the Fairtrade concept, making it more memorable so that students can refer to the initiative in later discussions.

The Reading Strategy feature suggests a spider diagram be applied to this short text. Reading in L2 requires more concentration than in L1, and students frequently have trouble remembering a number of different points. Turning the information into graphic format can be very effective.

The following are indicative of the kinds of answers students may produce in response to the comprehension questions on Text 5.1.

Fairtrade helps farmers in developing countries by ensuring they get a better deal through use of the Fairtrade Mark.

The first Fairtrade product was coffee grown in Mexico.

A product can receive the Fairtrade Mark by meeting international Fairtrade standards.

Most people see the blue and green in the Fairtrade logo as sky and grass, with a person holding up their arm to display their produce or to buy a Fairtrade product.

Activity 1.14

One way of synthesising the key information in a text is to write captions for photographs which will be used as illustrations. The additional thinking required here is that the purpose of the text must be considered. Which photograph – and which caption – will best encourage consumers to buy Fairtrade products?

Activity 1.15

The objective of this short role play – conducted in pairs – is to use the information from the text to explain what the Fairtrade Mark means. The task becomes interesting since the purpose is to do more than give information; the student who plays the knowledgeable role has to persuade his/her classmate to buy the slightly more expensive bar of chocolate.

Activity 1.16

This writing activity primes the students for the topic of micro-credit by asking them to imagine how they would use $30 (or a small sum in a currency in your specific context) to start or improve a small business. If you limit their ideas to the realm of buying and selling a product or a service they will be more prepared for the significance of the idea in the next reading.

Teaching idea

This activity can be fun for group work. They could start by thinking of the ways they currently ‘run a business’. Do they baby sit, help with chores at home, walk dogs for neighbours? What technological devices do they own? Could they rent out their use in 5 minute increments? In short, with a little initiative and $30 could they start a small business?

Hearing the entrepreneurial ideas from their peers would complete the activity.

Activity 1.17

Following on from the previous activity, these phrases take on additional significance since they communicate ideas related to the imaginative ways that people try to create a small income.

Answers

small loans

food vendors

increasing profits

powdered drinks

nutritious food

living standards

basic needs

juice-making equipment

Activity 1.18

loan or capital

fees

afford

clientele

premises

adjacent

tenants

wholesalers

wages

exceed

Activity 1.19

Now that the students have read Text 5.2 and seen how Saumu spent her $30 loan from FINCA, what is their reaction? The questions in the coursebook could direct their discussion, but the objective of the activity is for students to articulate their reflection on the difference between their own idea from Activity 1.16 and Saumu’s business initiative.

CAS

The students in the class could create an English B CAS project to raise funds for a micro-loan to an individual in a developing country. KIVA is an organisation which connects people who want to make a loan with someone who will invest it in a small business and then pay it back within a time limit. Since the information and the process of donating are in English it makes for a very engaging ‘real-world’ language activity.

Activity 1.20

CONCEPTS

The Language B Subject Guide states that conceptual understandings must be “explicitly integrated into the curriculum”. In the context of the language acquisition classroom this refers to five concepts related to understanding why and how people use language. Throughout the coursebook features draw the attention of students to the underlying concepts of the syllabus. In the study of Text 5.2 the focus is on Purpose. Students may not have heard of FINCA but the fact that the source is a “.org” website might give them a clue that it is a non-profit.

Activity 1.21

Asking students if they would be prepared to give an interest-free loan to someone in a developing country will likely get an affirmative answer. But what are their reasons? Can they express the theory and practice of a micro-credit system? The Extra feature takes the topic further as the class is invited to find out about organisations which specialise in micro-credit.

Form and meaning

Activities 1.22 and 1.23

The six rules for how commas are used are given below, followed by the correct pairs of sentences for each.

When to use commas | Sentence pair
to separate a list of ideas | a + f
to separate multiple adjectives | h + k
before the word ‘which’, if a non-essential clause follows | e + i
after a time phrase at the beginning of a sentence | b + l
if a non-essential clause appears after the word ‘because’ | d + j
before an ‘ing’ verb that starts a new clause | c + g

Activity 1.24

Answers

Recently there has been a promotion of responsible governance, because ...

Fundraising can be hard, frustrating, ...

My grandmother left everything to charity, which ...

Before coming to Australia, ...

Some people believe that charity causes more problems than it helps, ...

The interest on their loan was too high, ...

Every year they organise an auction, take part in a charity run, and ...

After five loan cycles, ...

Because the government received so much money from charity organisations,..

The men returned to the village from work, ...

Teaching idea

The short illustrated text Eats, Shoots and Leaves: why commas really do make a difference! by Lynne Truss is an excellent extension of the work in this section of the unit. She argues that: “punctuation marks are the traffic signals of language: they tell us to slow down, notice this, take a detour, and stop.” If you have a copy in your classroom, students could choose their favourite examples of communication problems caused by mis-use of commas.

Discussion

Activity 1.25

Working in pairs, students are presented with six assertive statements about efforts to eradicate poverty. Their task is to decide whether they agree or disagree with each statement. Each pair reports back to the class, practising the vocabulary which has been acquired in the previous activities.

Activity 1.26

The focus of this oral activity is an ad from the ‘Africa Works’ ad campaign by clothing company Benetton. The questions help students analyse the way the design creates a certain effect on the audience. The discussion should elicit personal reactions from the students, especially asking if the ad makes them uncomfortable in any way.

The Learner Profile (Principled) feature alongside the activity can be used to raise the question of exploitation and diminishment in the portrayal of the African entrepreneurs.

Activity 1.27

Students will certainly have opinions about donating money in each of these situations. The language focus is on justifying a personal stance.

Activity 1.28

Teaching idea

One suggestion for starting a discussion of different forms of humour is to set a homework assignment to find cartoons, one from an English-speaking country and one from the students’ home country. Your lesson would begin by asking students to present the cartoons to the class, discussing to what degree an understanding of cultural elements and allusions to current events is necessary to appreciating the cartoons. What would they need to explain in order for someone from another country to understand the cartoon?

Next, direct the students to Activity 1.28 and the cartoon in the coursebook. What cultural elements seem to be important? Is the cartoonist making a serious point? Work through the list of terms for forms of humour, deciding if they apply to the cartoon. You could choose to finish the lesson by going back to a few of the cartoons from English-speaking countries. Can the students apply any of the terms to those particular cartoons?

Students may comment on the following in the cartoon:

Black humour

Irony

Satire.

Writing

EXTENDED ESSAY

A study of advertisements, as suggested in the coursebook, is an accessible topic for a Language B student. The key will be finding a successful research question so that the essay is an analysis rather than simply description. As they have often done in this coursebook, students could apply the KWL strategy to texts or videos they find as they begin their exploration of the topic. Activity 1.31, a blog post about the Benetton ‘Africa Works’ ads, requires individual research which may turn up some articles that inspire an EE. However, students may not repeat work done in the course; the objective is for them to extend their interest.

Activity 1.29

This writing task uses the understanding of micro-loans that has been developed throughout the previous activities. Students choose an audience for the brochure – either people who might be persuaded to make a loan or those who could apply for a loan to invest in their small business. Unit 6.6 covers the conventions of the text type, which is listed in the IB syllabus as an example of a Mass Media text.

Teaching idea

The instructions in the coursebook suggest that the student’s response to Activity 1.29 be assessed with the IB criteria for Paper 1 – the writing paper. These are available for reference at the beginning of the coursebook. Another way for students to get feedback on their work is to form small groups – editorial teams working for a micro-credit organisation. Their first task is to create a list of aspects they will use to assess the submissions. To do this they will need to consider the purpose, the context and the targeted audience (three of the conceptual understandings referred to in the subject guide), as well as the characteristics of the genre. If they also make a scoring chart they can end up with the ‘winning submission’ from the work of several of their classmates. The element of role play reduces any awkwardness in assessing each other’s work but it would also be a good idea for the brochures to be anonymous.

Activity 1.30

Writing an argumentative essay requires a thesis, a stance on a topic; therefore, the first step should be to decide what position the writer will take regarding the extra cost of Fairtrade products. After that, evidence is needed and should be organised into paragraphs. Unit 7.1 shows how this planning and organizing stage can be approached by using a mind map.

Activity 1.31

This writing task requires some preparatory research finding more examples of Benetton ads. Students can then refer to more than one ad in a blog post. They are not required to be critical of the Africa Works campaign. In fact, some students might enjoy taking a position defending the company against the public criticism, and this should be encouraged.

Higher level extension

Activity 1.32

To start the students thinking about the topic in Text 5.3, you could write the first two sentences from the text on the board, then ask your class what they think. Has development aid helped the poor in Africa?

Activity 1.33

Given the level of vocabulary in the text, this activity aims to clarify possible blocks to comprehension before students start to read. You might begin by asking students to identify the part of speech of the words in the list. Next, they could look up the words in a dictionary which provides examples of the words used in a sentence. Then they should be ready to try the gap-fill exercise.

d (myths)

g (reduce)

i (escalate)

f (rejected)

b (dependent)

h (vicious)

a (debunking)

j (reliance)

e (optimistic)

c (desperate)

Activity 1.34

Text 5.3 has the characteristics of a journalistic book review. Students should give evidence such as the opening to the second paragraph: “In Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo describes…”; the phrase: “Moyo offers a bold new road map…”; or the evaluation and recommendation in the final paragraph.

Activity 1.35

Accordingly, this activity presents students with several other topics on which Moyo has expressed opinions, encouraging students to ask the question: “I wonder what Moyo thinks about that?” Once they find some information it’s not enough to read and summarise; they must decide whether they agree or disagree with Moyo.

ATT and ATL

Inquiry Learning is the basic pedagogical principle underlying an IB education. As such, it is emphasised in the documents Approaches to Teaching, and Approaches to Learning which can be found on the Program Resource Centre. It is also the first characteristic in the Learner Profile

Literature

Activity 1.36

Students should read the ‘Text and context’ feature before reading the extract from Untouchable (Text 5.4).

Activity 1.37

Students may have variations of the following indicative answers.

Bakhu’s father once said ‘You lover of your mother’ because... he wanted to insult Bakhu for being so ‘soft’ and for using British blankets when sleeping at night.

‘But Bakhu was a child of modern India.’ This line suggests... that times are changing in British India, and that young people, like Bakhu, think differently about how they dress and think about technology.

Bakhu had the chance to observe the British soldiers when... he lived on the barracks of the British soldiers with his uncle.

Bakhu wants to wear the clothing of British soldiers because... the British are considered ‘sahibs’, meaning superior. He thinks that if he dresses like them, he will be superior like them.

Bakhu does not go into the clothing shop because.... he is afraid that he cannot afford the clothing. He is worried that the shopkeeper will discover that he is a sweeper-boy from his accent.

Bakhu is called ‘naïve’ because... he thinks that he can overcome social barriers by dressing differently.

Activity 1.38

The questions are designed to help the students see the relationship between the topic of the unit and the literary passage Text 5.4. There are no ‘right answers’ and the conversation might usefully head off in interesting and worthwhile directions not directly specified in the questions.

REFLECT

Returning to the first activities of the unit sets up a concluding reflection on the work that has been done and the ideas that have been discussed. Students would benefit from some quiet time to reflect on their own answers to the questions before the class shares comments.

Unit 5.2
Climate change

Unit 5.2. Climate change

In this unit students will explore the causes and potential solutions to climate change.

Learning objectives

Become more aware of the causes of climate change and their effects on the world.

Be proficient in discussing climate change and ways to prevent it.

Writing focus: a letter, a news article, a journalistic review

Language focus

Form and meaning: reported speech

Guiding questions

How and why is the climate changing?

What can you do to help prevent climate change?

Resources referred to in the activities

The Hidden Costs of Hamburgers (video. Activity 2.5)

Cowspiracy: the Sustainability Secret (video: 90 minutes long. Activity 2.9)

Audio track 14: an imagined conversation between a climate change activist and a documentary film-maker

Transcript of Audio track 14

Additional resources

Videos suggested in Activity 2.9:

An Inconvenient Truth

An Inconvenient Sequel (2017)

A Sea Change

The 11th Hour

The Age of Stupid

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Word bank. Getting started: Activities 2.1 to 2.4.

Lesson 2

Video The Hidden Costs of Hamburgers. Activities 2.5 to 2.6.

Audio track 14 Activities 2.7 to 2.8.

Possible homework or additional class. Cowspiracy. Activity 2.9.

Lesson 3

Exploring texts: Text 5.5 Is Global Warming Real? Activities 2.10 to 2.13.

Lesson 4

Form and meaning: reported speech. Activity 2.17.

Discussion: debateable issues. Activity 2.18.

Lesson 5

Discussion: analysing photographs. Oral exam practice. Activities 2.19 to 2.20.

Lesson 6

Writing: letter, news article or film review. Activities 2.21 to 2.23.

Lesson 7 (higher level extension)

Text 5.7 Activities 2.24 to 2.28.

Lesson 8 (literature)

Text 5.8 Activities 2.29 to 2.32.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activities 2.1 and 2.2

Students will have been exposed to a lot of information about global warming, both in and out of school. These two activities focus on the English needed to talk about the topic. Before students look at the word bank, they brainstorm causes and then debate an order for the items. You could assign a student to run the activity.

Activity 2.3

This short writing task begins with interpreting a diagram of the greenhouse effect. Next students refer to the word bank and the list of words next to the diagram as they plan the paragraph of explanation. The aim is for students to be able to explain the process to someone who knows nothing about the science. This might entail defining key terms.

Activity 2.4

The language objective of the activity is for students to be able to talk about ‘carbon footprint’ with more specificity. Becoming familiar with how the release of CO₂ is measured in tonnes (and the comparison) will lead to better discussions about solutions.

1.5 tonnes | 7 tonnes | 13 tonnes
a, c | f, e | d, b

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 2.5

Teaching idea

Prior to watching the video The Hidden Costs of Hamburgers, students guess the answers to a number of questions. An entertaining way to organise the activity would be as a quiz game with the class divided into 3 or 4 small groups. Make columns on the board and write the answers for each group. When the class watches the video they can see which group had the closest answers.

The answers in the video are:

Americans eat 3 times more meat than people from other countries.

The author estimates that Americans eat 48 billion burgers every year.

Livestock and the land used to feed livestock account for 30 per cent of the earth’s land area.

It takes 1,800 gallons of water to create a single pound of grain-fed beef. That’s 6,814 litres to make 0.454 kilogram of beef.

In the year that this video was made (2012) there were roughly 90 million cows.

Cows produce three times more manure than humans. Cow create about 500 million tons per year in America.

Methane has 21 times more climate-changing power than CO₂.

17 billion pounds of nitrogen fertiliser to grow feed for cows in America.

DNA traces from 1,000 cows can be found in a single hamburger patty.

The author estimates that with Americans eating 3 hamburgers per week on the average, 158 million tons of greenhouse gases are created. That’s the same about of greenhouse gas as 34 coal-fired power stations create each year.

According to research that the author quotes, hamburgers should be about $1.51 more expensive to compensate for environmental and health costs.

In 2012, 1.3 billion people lived in China. The author implies that the planet could not sustain every person in China eating three hamburgers every week.

Activity 2.6

Students can turn on the ‘transcript’ tool on YouTube to help them with the context of each phrase.

“[It] turns out that” means “it seems that” or “there is evidence to suggest that”

“[It is] right up there with” means “it is just as bad as”

“Big time” means, “in a big way” or “to an extreme”

“At the counter” means “in any shop”. To “end up paying for” something, means there are unaccounted costs.

“Voila” is French for “there you go” or “there you have it”

“Anyway, back to” means “to return to the subject”

“To take a toll on” something means “to come at a cost”

“To keep up” means “to maintain sustainability”

Teaching idea

The suggestion made for setting up Activity 2.5 as a quiz game (using the answers provided) could still work even if you can’t access, or prefer not to use, the video. The aim is for students to have facts they can use in future discussions or writing on the subject.

Activity 2.6 focuses on a few idiomatic expressions that occur in the video. You might ask students to work in pairs to script a short dialogue incorporating facts from the previous activity as well as the underlined phrases in Activity 2.6. As students perform the dialogues to the class they are practising language skills which will be assessed in the discussion part of the individual oral exam.

Activity 2.7

Students may put the list of words from Audio track 14 into the following suggested groups or clusters, using labels that are similar to those in bold. There will be many other ways of organising them.

Words that describe the meat industry:

animal agriculture

factory farms

meat industry

livestock

Words that describe elements that cause climate change:

CO₂

methane

fossil fuels

Words that describe good causes:

charity organisations

non-profit organisations

environmental groups

Words that describe environmental problems:

species extinction

global warming

climate change

Words that describe people with principles related to animals:

animal rights activists

vegans

vegetarians

Words that describe various animals:

whales

pigs

cows

polar bears

Activity 2.8

The correct answers to the multiple-choice questions are underlined. In parentheses you can find comments on why answers are either correct or incorrect.

Chuck likes David because...

he is a ‘disrupter’ who reports what he finds out. (Chuck says: “you’re a disrupter and that’s what I like about you.”)

Chuck has invited David to a meeting because...

he wants to interview David about charity organisations. (Chuck says: “We thought we’d bring you in to talk about the hypocritical behaviour of environmental groups.”)

David has not been able to talk to charity groups because...

they haven’t agreed to any interviews with him. (If you read the question carefully, it asks why they have not been able to talk together. Chuck has not been able to talk to the charity organisations because they have refused his requests for an interview.)

David disagrees with Chuck’s comparison of the meat industry to the tobacco industry because...

David thinks that Chuck’s comparison should include the American Heart Attack Association instead of the American Lung Cancer Association. (David says: “I think it’s more like the tobacco industry secretly funding the American Heart Association.”)

Chuck uses the term ‘bait and switch’ in this context to suggest that...

while charity organisations talk about CO₂ and global warming, people overlook the environmental impact of animal agriculture. (‘Overlook’ is a synonym for ‘ignore’. As Chuck explains: “First get people to care about species extinction and global warming. Get them to believe that carbon dioxide is the enemy, and then everyone ignores the methane problem. And animal agriculture can continue to pollute and make billions.”)

Chuck and David think that people willingly ignore the problems of animal agriculture because...

they like to eat meat. (Chuck asks David if people ignore the problems of animal agriculture because they like meat too much. David’s first answer is ‘exactly’. Then he talks about the reputation of vegetarians and vegans.)

Activity 2.9

The video Cowspiracy: the Sustainability Secret provides more information about the topic presented in Audio Track 14. Since it is 90 minutes long, one approach could be to use class time for discussing possible answers to the five questions in the activity and then students can watch the video for homework.

Note: Activity 2.23 in the Writing section of this unit, invites students to write a journalistic review of a film. Several films are suggested, one of which is Cowspiracy.

Exploring texts

Activity 2.10

TOK

Each course in the IB diploma is linked to Theory of Knowledge by providing students with “the opportunity to reflect on the fundamental question of how they know what they know” (Subject Guide). This pre-reading activity takes the title of Text 5.5 ‘Is global warming real?’ and asks students to apply the TOK ‘ways of knowing’ to the topic of global warming. The TOK feature can be used as a guide.

Activity 2.11

Answers

envision

shrinking

divisive

recipient

varying

accuracy

document

distract

akin

symptoms

elevated

overtly

rate

controversy

Activity 2.12

Here are some indicative answers that students may produce to the comprehension questions on Text 5.5:

Scientists cannot agree whether the earth is hotter now than it has been in the last 10,000 years.

Scientists report different results on climate change because they use varying methods to measure global warming.

David Keith describes the media’s reporting on global warming by using the analogy of a patient hooked up to a mercury drip, and then focusing on the patient’s symptoms rather than the underlying condition and the cause behind it.

Scientists are alarmed and concerned about the rate of climate change, and the rate of increase in CO₂ levels in the atmosphere.

Climate change sceptics and scientists agree that the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere is going up.

Activity 2.13

Planning an informative presentation is a good way for students to discover if they have absorbed the information from texts. The task here is to make a list of the key arguments they would use to convince someone who is sceptical about global warming. You could expand the activity by discussing the structure of a presentation in English, the importance of transitions and a strong conclusion.

Activity 2.14

This activity is a variation on the task of inserting paragraph headings in the appropriate place in an article. Here, students are inserting topics that would appear as hyperlinks to other webpages in Text 5.6.

c

g

j

l

f

i

b

m

d

k

e

h

a

Activity 2.15

Here are some indicative answers that students may produce in response to the comprehension questions on Topic 5.6 ‘Greener living: a quick guide’.

The three main ways in which individuals affect the environment are energy used in the home, individual travel, and food.

You can reduce your environmental impact in your home by turning down heating and buying energy saving products.

A quarter of all damage done by individuals to the environment is caused by travel.

To offset CO₂ emissions means to pay money for projects that reduce these emissions in other ways, such as renewable energy.

Processed and frozen foods use a lot of energy to produce and keep.

You should hang on to an old mobile phone rather than replacing it.

Most local authorities in the UK support recycling by running doorstep collections and recycling centres.

Activity 2.16

The readings and previous activities have identified numerous ways in which people affect the environment. This activity works as a synthesis but also a language consolidation. Students post specific ‘resolutions’ for changing their personal behaviour with regard to their impact on the environment. The follow-up at the end of the 31-day period will generate a review of the language that has been acquired throughout the unit.

Form and meaning

Activity 2.17

Students might rewrite the sentences into reported speech as follows:

Five years ago he predicted that the planet would be warmer in 100 years than it was 10 million years ago.

She asked why she had to take the glass and paper out every week.

David Keith said that there was no controversy among anybody.

Chief Seattle once said that the Earth did not belong to us. We belonged to the Earth.

My four-year-old daughter asked when we would run out of oil.

At the meeting last night, I asked how we knew where ‘green energy’ came from.

He suggested that we tried using an online carbon footprint calculator.

ATT

‘Teaching focused on effective teamwork and collaboration’ (PRC) is one of the six pedagogical principles of the IB programme. These three discussions in Activity 2.18 could each be organised to emphasise the element of teamwork by having a spokesperson for each research group supported by one or two expert advisors. The speakers (with no notes) sit in a circle with their advisors (who have the notes from the research) behind them. At certain points in the discussion you call a 2-minute break during which the speakers hurriedly confer with the advisors.

Discussion

Activity 2.18

For these discussions to be more than simply exercises in expressing ‘opinion’, students will need factual information. Depending on the language level of your class they could research individually or in pairs/small groups, creating a shared set of information to refer to in the oral activity.

Activity 2.19

In this activity the questions begin by drawing students’ attention to the design of the two ads, examining them critically and with an awareness of how ads manipulate the audience. After this, the questions elicit personal reactions. This kind of critical literacy is more difficult in a foreign language, so it is good to give students the opportunity to practise this skill.

Activity 2.20

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The standard level oral exam starts with a student making a presentation on a photograph, using a caption written by the teacher as a ‘springboard’. This is followed by a conversation between the teacher and the student. The marking criteria include an assessment of interactive skills. To score in the highest mark band of Criterion C a candidate must actively participate in the conversation “with some independent contributions”. For this reason, opportunities for students to practise one-on-one conversations with the teacher should be incorporated into the English B coursework. Chapter 9 offers more support and practice exercises for the oral examinations.

Writing

Activity 2.21

Writing a letter to a future child is a creative way for students to practise writing about the topic of climate change. In order to make the letter more substantive it is recommended that the steps outlined in the course book be followed. The inspiration will come from finding other letters of the same type and sharing reactions with peers. In the IB Paper 1 higher level students should write 450–600 words; standard level students have the same time – 90 minutes – but are expected to write less: 250–400 words.

Activity 2.22

Writing a news article focuses the content of the task on a specific situation or event rather than the whole complex issue of climate change. The conventions and structure of news articles are covered in Unit 6.5. It is important that students understand how their written work will be assessed by the examiner and that you too will use the same criteria. Students can refer to the criteria for Paper 1 – the writing exam – at the beginning of the coursebook.

ATT

Differentiation

Students’ fluency and communicative competence in English will develop over the course so using the assessment criteria in the first year could be somewhat demoralising. Teachers have their own ways of dealing with this but one possibility is to use the standard level criteria in the first year, even with higher level students. Another approach is to choose only one of the assessment criteria, for instance Criterion B: Message, until the students can achieve the standard of the satisfactory to good mark bands.

Activity 2.23

Writing a journalistic review is covered in Unit 6.2. This activity suggests several films related to the topic of climate change, including Cowspiracy, which students may have watched in Activity 2.9.

Higher level extension

Activity 2.24

The media often talks about a rise in sea level and the impact on coastal communities. In this activity students speculate about how this would affect their own lives. The aim is to initiate speculation about other effects than erosion of coastlines and submerged communities.

Note: Activity 2.28 asks students to think back to the comments they made in this activity.

Activity 2.25

Answers:

briny

sprout

intensified

surging

seeping

inexorably

bleak

contaminating

barrier

trigger

desperate

LANGUAGE FOCUS

Each of the phrases listed in Activity 2.26 contain words with negative connotations. Some are metaphors; others convey negative images. You might choose to dissect the phrases with the class, discussing how the diction becomes part of the message.

Activity 2.26

Students might give answers similar to those suggested below, to explain the phrases from Text 5.7.

Their lives are being affected by the actions of people in other parts of the world.

The United States, China and Russia are most responsible.

The changes to global temperatures and sea levels predicted in the report are already starting to happen.

A threatening force that is too strong to be held back.

The rising ocean will cover the land and lots of people will have to move to find somewhere else to live.

Activity 2.27

In the completed table below are examples of adjectives, verbs and nouns from Text 5.7 ‘Bhamia, Bangladesh...’ that students may choose as words that encourage them to think about the effects of global warming.

| Adjectives | Verbs | Nouns
1 | briny | surging | thirst
2 | inexorably | squeezed | reality
3 | bleak | contaminating | misery
4 | unstoppable | poisoning | force
5 | desperate | smothering | disaster

Activity 2.28

Students are asked to look back at Activity 2.24 and the comments they made about the impact of rising sea levels on their own lives, comparing their situations with those of the people in Bangladesh. You could introduce expressions such as:

to be worse off than / to be better off than

We’re not as badly off as …

At least we’re not + verb-ing …

Literature

Activity 2.29

The focus on fantastical images in the poem is an interesting way of discovering ‘what the poem is about’. Filling in the three columns in the table requires students to interpret the images rather than simply identify them. By the end of the activity students should have a good sense of the theme of the poem.

Here are few of the answers students should aim to articulate.

Things that are fantasy | Why these things are fantasy | How these things comment on reality
A lake that is so dirty that the moon’s reflection cannot be seen on it. | Any lake, dirty or not, would create a reflection. | It suggests that soething as beautiful as the moon refuses to be seen in something as ugly as a polluted lake.
Underwater pigs | Pigs cannot swim or dive. | Pigs will eat anything. If there is food to be found in a polluted lake, they might mutate, grow webbed feet and swim. Maybe their mutation was caused by human pollution. People pollute too much.
human-eating pigs | Pigs have never eaten people before. | Perhaps the pigs have ‘acquired the taste for flesh’ because they are tired of eating garbage. If people pollute so much, mutated animals might hunt us and haunt us.

Activity 2.30

Students will have an understanding of literary style from their work in Group One courses. The challenge in this activity is expressing observations and appreciation of style in English. The questions steer the discussion towards the literary effects so that the task is not so much about identifying stylistic features as communicating their effect on the reader.

Activity 2.31

Making an illustration of the images in the poem is another way of exploring the text, showing comprehension of figurative language and its relationship to the theme.

Activity 2.32

Creative writing is a good task for higher level students. It allows them to experiment with sensory language and imagery in a way that would not be appropriate in the informative texts they generally write in the language classroom.

REFLECT

The suggestion for the final reflection in the unit is a circle activity asking the question ‘why should we care about climate change?’

Unit 5.3
Power to the people

Unit 5.3 Power to the people

In this unit students will explore ideas about how people should be governed with an emphasis on how resources and power should be shared with equal opportunity for all.

Learning objectives

Learn how young individuals are making a difference in the world.

Develop proficiency in speechmaking and argumentation techniques.

Writing Focus: a blog entry. A political speech

Language Focus

Form and meaning: ing verb ending.

Guiding questions

How are young individuals fighting for a safer and fairer world?

What is the importance of democracy in solving social injustices?

Resources referred to in the activities

Micah White on The National with Wendy Mesley discussing The End of Protest (Activity 3.8)

Bowling for Columbine (documentary 2002)

Audio track 15: an imagined interview with participants of the original Occupy protests in 2011

Transcript of Audio track 15

Additional resources

Malala Yousafzai addresses United Nations Youth Assembly on Theirworld website

It’s no wonder the youth are turning to protest. (editorial) on The Independent website

Cartoons for the Classroom. Association of American Editorial Cartoonists on the Nieonline website

Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize, Redefining Boundaries of Literature New York Times.(13th October 2016)

Further reading

Being Bilingual (2010) Francois Grosjean

Peer Feedback in the Classroom (2017) Starr Sackstein

Lesson planning

Your course design and lesson plans will be unique to your own classroom. However, here is a basic schema for how you could combine the various activities in this unit into hour-long lessons. Of course you may need to abbreviate some exercises or decide to add extra texts or research to others. Some activities would work well as homework. Adapt as you see fit to meet the needs and interests of your students.

Lesson 1

Word bank. Getting started: Democracy. Oral exercises – Activities 3.1 to 3.4.

Lesson 2

Audio track 15 Protest: the Occupy Movement. Activities 3.5–3.6.

Video The End of Protest Activities 3.7–3.8

Lesson 3

Exploring texts: Text 5.9 Malala speech. Activities 3.9–3.10.

Text 5.10 Tunisia article. Activities 3.11–3.13.

Lesson 4

Form and meaning: ing structures. Activities 3.14–3.15.

Discussion: photographs and cartoon. Activities 3.16–3.17.

Lesson 5

Writing: a blog for a news website or a political speech. Activities 3.18–3.19.

Lesson 6 (higher level extension)

Activities 3.20 to 3.22.

Lesson 7 (literature)

Activities 3.23 to 3.24.

REFLECT

Concluding reflection on both the unit, ‘Power to the people’, and to Chapter 5, ‘Sharing the planet’.

Unit teaching guidance

Getting started

Activity 3.1

This unit depends upon students being able to use abstract words for concepts of power, governance and protest; therefore, the unit starts with the whole class studying the word bank. It would be useful if students started their own glossary in their notebooks, adding vocabulary as new words and phrases come up in the activities.

Teaching idea

This might be a good time to ask students if they find it more helpful to translate new words into their first language or if they have reached the point where a definition in English is sufficient. Are there subjects in which English words come to their mind before words in the first language? For more on the experience of being bilingual, you might want to look at Being Bilingual by Francois Grosjean.

Activity 3.2

The quotations about democracy highlight its flaws as well as its strengths. By asking students to choose four of the statements they become aware of the opposing views of the system.

Activity 3.3

The two photographs lead into the subject of civic protest which is explored in several of the following activities. The students may have various suggestions in answer to the questions about the images. You might need to steer them towards the word ‘empires’ in photograph A and the allusion to Wall Street in B.

Activity 3.4

Interpreting cartoons from a society other than one’s own can be a challenge because of the assumption of shared knowledge. In this cartoon the lettering above the building gives a clue: New York Stock Exchange. Given the hat on the figure leaning out of the window, who do the students think it could represent? The task is to express the message of the cartoonist in one sentence.

It would be worth eliciting from students that the idea itself, when expressed in a sentence, is not as powerful as the way in which it is presented in a cartoon format.

Teaching idea

Cartoon of the Day is a fun way to start class. Students take it in turns to start the English class by presenting a cartoon which draws attention to a political or social event. They should project it so the class can see it and spend no more than five minutes explaining the cartoon and answering any questions.

Watch and listen fig fig

Activity 3.5

This preparation-for-listening activity involves everyone, first in finding out what is being referred to in the list of names, places and concepts and then in sharing what they discovered. Depending on your class, you might set a time limit for the quick online search and a two sentence limit on the explanation. This ‘pressure’ will create some energy in the group as well a clear focus. You could ask students to make a table in their notebooks listing the terms and then jotting in explanations as their classmates report on their search.

Activity 3.6

EXAM-RELATED TIP

In this activity students listen to Audio track 15, answer as many questions from memory as they can, and then listen a second time. In the listening comprehension section of the final Paper 2 examination they will follow a similar procedure. They will have four minutes’ reading time before the recording is played the first time. This allows students to familiarise themselves with the topic of the audio track and prepare to catch the answers to the questions. After the first playing there will be two minutes’ pause while students write, then the recording is played one more time.

Answers:

Zuccotti Park / Manhattan

it is more fun – there are acts and sketches / there are food trucks / they are not sleeping in tents

the reporter is referring to a sketch showing a group of sad clowns playing violins over tombstones that read ‘peace’, ‘hope’, ‘justice’, ‘Earth’ and ‘truth’

Harrison has had a martial arts studio where he teaches people how to protest and stand their ground against police brutality

Harrison thinks it would be difficult for Occupy to get a candidate elected into public office because Occupy is a leaderless organisation

women’s rights / Black Lives Matter / Paris Climate Agreement / climate change / Arab Spring

“we are the ninety-nine percent”

Occupiers were naïve to believe that upending Wall Street was going to be a quick win

Activity 3.7

Vocabulary which might cause comprehension problems has been extracted from the video for this activity. The words in bold in the box are from the word bank, which students have already studied.

Answers:

mayhem

nomination

consensus

decentralise

evict

sovereignity

hack

symptomatic

underpinning

insidious

disruptive

petition

Once students have completed the exercises they will be better able to understand why White’s new book, The End of Protest, has generated so much debate. In place of the video, you could substitute a review of his book, or the promotional blurb. You are looking for material which will give your students a summary of White’s view that mass demonstrations don’t automatically lead to social change.

TEACHING-RELATED TIP

Audio Track 15 could fulfil the listening component of this unit if you are unable to access the online Canadian television interview with Micah White. However, even without the video, Activities 3.5 to 3.7 are valuable because they introduce vocabulary and invite quick research on specific social protest movements. The objective is to teach students more precise vocabulary for the topic, as well as relevant examples for their speaking and writing exercises.

Activity 3.8

The challenge in this comprehension exercise is writing answers while watching and listening. You might have to organise the activity to meet the level of your students, perhaps pausing after a section which gives an answer to one of the questions, or dividing the questions between the students.

Indicative answers

Micah White is being interviewed by Wendy Mesley because he recently published a book called The End of Protest.

Micah White sent out the first Tweet that started the Occupy movement. He worked for Adbusters magazine which started the movement at the time.

The ‘one demand’ of the Occupy movement was not clearly articulated because participants of the movement were asked to reach a consensus about the demand and they could not.

Micah White calls Occupy a ‘constructive’ failure because it trained a generation of activists, changed the way people talked about income inequality and started new movements like Black Lives Matter. But it did not achieve what it aimed to achieve: to get money out of politics.

The ‘wrong lesson’ that the Black Lives Matter campaign learned from the Occupy movement was that protest could not be overly disruptive.

Micah White suggests that Black Lives Matter becomes the force that controls the police and that is part of the police.

Micah White feels that online petitions are insidious because they do not accomplish anything, even though they give people who sign them a good feeling about themselves.

Micah White believes that North Americans can learn from the protesters in Spain, who set up their own political party and became involved in politics.

Micah White believes that Sanders could have had more ‘risk-it-all guts’ that Trump had.

Micah White’s ‘grand vision’ is to see the 99% take power and rule countries more fairly.

Exploring texts

Activity 3.9

This activity invites students to read Text 5.9 – the speech by Malala Yousafzai – and then, without going back to the text, to complete the five sentences in the coursebook. Retaining the ideas and being able to recall the language they heard is not as easy as it seems when one is still learning English. You could ask students to look online for a recording of the speech and invite them to play it in a later class.

The following are suggested answers only. Students may offer variations of these;

Despite being shot in the head by the Taliban, Malala dared to speak out against the terrorists to advocate for human rights.

Thanks to the inspiration of great leaders like Nelson Mandela and Gandhi, Malala has taken a non-violence approach to the Taliban and terrorists.

Education scares the Taliban because knowledge is power that could bring about change and gender equality, which is a threat to the Taliban.

Of all the problems in her country Malala says we should focus on women’s rights and girls’ education because they are suffering the most and they can change the world for the better.

She calls on developed countries of the world to promote peace, protect women and children’s rights and fight against terrorism.

ATL

The Language B Subject Guide lays out the five skills which teachers should foster in their students’ approach to learning. The paragraph on Thinking Skills emphasises the value of collaborative activities and the importance of allowing time for students to “analyse and synthesise” topics which have been introduced in class. The activity suggested above meets these requirements while generating an authentic communication as the group members share ideas and negotiate a plan for the poster.

Activity 3.10

This is an activity which engages students in creating a graphic representation of the ideas presented in Text 5.9. Working in small groups on large poster-size paper their challenge is to use all the words in the box plus any other words, images or symbols they choose. Encourage students to communicate with each other only in English.

Activity 3.11

The exercise involves choosing the correct preposition to make phrasal verbs. Since these phrasal verbs appear in the text, students will see them in context when they read the article.

Answers:

to stand out

to lie ahead

to balk at

to trace back

to come down

to build on

to keep at

Activity 3.12

The word associations will likely show up both stereotypes and gaps in knowledge of current events, which is why the discussion is helpful in preparing the class to read the article about Tunisia. You could do the associations individually in writing or, with a more confident class, you could randomly pick a student and call out one of the words from the list. The student should respond as quickly as possible either with one word or a phrase.

Activity 3.13

After the preparation of the two previous activities, students work on a comprehension exercise. It is suggested that they use the strategy of reading the questions before they read. This technique will be helpful when they take the final exam, Paper 2 – reading comprehension.

Answers

You could say that the purpose of the article is to highlight the successes of Tunisia’s transition to democracy and to encourage support for the country.

There was a revolution in 2011 with democratic elections.

The death of a young vendor sparked a popular uprising that led to the overthrow of Tunisia’s dictator.

He does not think the Arab Spring has been a big success because most nations, other than Tunisia, have experienced violence, corruption, coup attempts and limited democracy.

People were worried about Beji Caid Essebsi because he was part of the old regime associated with the former dictator.

He believes that Tunisia has been more successful than other nations because of their history, including constitutional order, the separation of state and religion, the legacy of public education, social reforms, female emancipation, a peaceful army and a strong middle class.

At the time of writing the country has deep economic problems and volatile neighbours such as Libya and Syria.

Form and meaning

Activities 3.14 and 3.15

Rather than giving students the rule for a syntactic structure they are first asked to analyse four sentences to see if they can explain when to use the verb –ing form. There are two structures, as explained in Activity 3.15. The objective of the exercise is to help students use the structure in their own writing, adding variety and sophistication. Even if students have trouble with the grammatical explanation, the exercise of combining two sentences into one will introduce a new rhythm, a pattern which they can imitate.

Answers to Activity 3.15

Swimming is something I like to do on holiday.

Protesting for over a week has been banned in many countries.

Voter turnout was good, with people lining up outside stations all over the country.

The UN was in the country, monitoring the elections.

Reading political science magazines makes me understand the news better.

The economy going down disappointed him.

Telling people not to vote was a bad idea.

The government shut down access to social networks before the election, including Twitter and Facebook.

She can forgive the Taliban for shooting her.

Security prevented them from disrupting the election.

Focusing on education is her way of reforming the country.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

Chapter 9 gives advice on organising ideas and planning the presentation for the individual oral. Students will have 15 minutes in which to prepare. They are only allowed to take one sheet of paper, with notes in bulleted point format, into the oral exam. Exercises such as Activity 3.16, planning and making a 3–4 minute presentation, help students become efficient at the whole process. Listening and giving feedback to a classmate also helps students recognise when a presentation is well-structured and easy to follow.

Discussion

Activity 3.16

In this activity the students are in pairs and given one photograph. They decide who will take which caption and work on their presentation plan for 15 minutes. When time is up, they take it in turns to make a 3–4 minute presentation, receiving feedback from their partner.

Activity 3.17

You might find it useful to look back at the list of terms for specific types of humour in Unit 5.1 Activity 1.28. Even if you have not used Unit 5.1 with your class, you can still direct them to the list and discuss which terms could be applied to the cartoon about voting in Ukraine. This will allow students to focus on specific elements of the image and clarify the political situation that it represents. After this introduction, they will be ready to express their views of the questions about democracy and peace posed in the activity.

Writing

Activities 3.18 and 3.19

Both of these writing activities provide a step-by-step approach for students, using guiding questions and directing them to texts in this unit for information and ideas.

The whole process will likely take more than one lesson, although once they have started, students should be able to work independently and finish for homework. The choice of texts is a blog post (Activity 3.18) which is supported by Unit 6.3, or a political speech, with guidance from Unit 6.4.

The recommendation is that students refer to the assessment criteria for Paper 1, at the beginning of the coursebook.

CONCEPTS

The two suggested writing activities are specific about the Audience, Context and Purpose. It is worth reviewing these conceptual understandings with students at the beginning of the task, perhaps asking them to make a diagram of how these aspects will affect the register and vocabulary they will use.

ATL

Students can learn from reading the work of classmates. In the context of a peer feedback activity as in Activities 3.18 and 3.19, if the parameters of the feedback are clear and within the skill set of the students, this can be an effective way of testing out a draft on a reader and re-drafting as necessary. However, it does take some training for the students to be able to take on this role. Peer Feedback in the Classroom: empowering students to be the experts (2017) by Starr Sackstein is a good resource of theory and techniques.

Higher level extension

Activity 3.20

This activity is not intended to be a full research exercise. Instead, students pick one of the items in the list and do a quick online search, perhaps on their phones. The objective is to provide the context for the speech by Emma Gonzalez, gathering some of the background information (second amendment, NRA, etc.) and the facts about what happened.

Activity 3.21

This activity is in two parts, with the aim of helping students to recognise that reading the transcript of a speech has a very different impact on an audience than the actual delivery of the speech on one particular day. First, they should be asked to read it silently, then watch the speech online. The questions will generate discussion about the power of the spoken word and then steer students towards analysis of the language of the speech itself.

Activity 3.22

Bowling for Columbine might be too long to watch all of it in your lesson. Depending on the language level of your students and their interest in the topic, you might choose to use only a short section in class. Another approach is to find the trailer for the documentary and design your lesson around that. Activity 3.22 provides a range of questions from which you can select, according to your lesson objective.

Literature

Activity 3.23

Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, which might surprise some students. If they are sceptical that song lyrics could be considered as ‘literary’ you could have an interesting discussion about what exactly falls under the umbrella of ‘literary text’. Who decides if something is ‘literature’?

Here’s an article in the New York Times you might find useful: Bob Dylan Wins Nobel Prize, Redefining Boundaries of Literature (13 October 2016)

You could also talk about protest songs in general. Do they still exist in the way that protest songs were used in the 1960s and 1970s or have they been replaced by social media posts? What could be the songs for current social protests such as Black Lives Matter?

The activity starts with students being responsible for searching for the lyrics to Blowin’ in the Wind and also a video of Dylan singing it. When they have listened to the song and studied the lyrics, they are ready to share their views as the class discusses answers to the five questions. If it’s possible to reach agreement on any of the answers it would be useful to make notes. The following activity will refer back to these questions.

Activity 3.24

A literary text can be experienced and interpreted in more than one way. This activity sends students to search for interpretations and analyses of Blowin’ in the Wind. They should choose one which they found surprising or interesting and explain it to the class.

The topic concludes with students looking back to their responses in Activity 3.23 and seeing if any of the interpretations they found online are similar.

REFLECT

A number of questions are provided with the objective of concluding the unit with reflection on the causes they have studied. Additionally, you could ask students to turn the pages of the complete chapter seeing how the topics add up to an exploration of the theme ‘Sharing the Planet’.

6 Exploring text types

The IB syllabus requires that students be exposed to many different types of text throughout the two-year course. Within the study of the five themes, teachers are encouraged to present numerous “written, visual, audio and audio-visual texts” (Language B Guide). The organising principle for including a variety of genres in your course is that you should be guided by how they fall within three broad categories: personal, professional and mass media texts. This will allow you to emphasise the essential concepts that underpin all communication: audience, context, purpose, meaning and variation.

Each unit in Chapters 1–5 has an Exploring Texts section and a Writing section. Students read a wide range of texts as they learn about the syllabus themes and topics. They are then invited to express their understanding of the issues, and their personal opinions, in writing

By contrast, in Chapter 6 the focus is on the text types themselves rather than the themed topics. Students learn about the conventions of nine types of text selected from the list of suggested texts in the Language B Guide.

Personal texts | Professional texts | Mass media texts
Blog – Unit 6.3 | Formal letter – Unit 6.1 | Review – Unit 6.2
| Guidelines – Unit 6.6 | Blog – Unit 6.3
| Official report – Unit 6.8 | Speech – Unit 6.4
| Speech – Unit 6.4 | News reports – Unit 6.5
| Essays – Unit 6.9 | Brochure – Unit 6.7

The writing skills of Language B candidates are assessed in Paper 1: productive skills – writing. There are three assessment criteria: A: Language, B: Message and C: Conceptual Understanding. You can find these reproduced in the coursebook. The ability to create a written text which meets the expectations of a native speaker – in other words a text which conforms to the conventions in English for structure and language – is assessed in Criterion C. The guiding question which is posed to examiners, teachers and students is: To what extent does the response incorporate the conventions of the chosen text type?

Chapter 6 aims to help you prepare your students for this aspect of Paper 1. It provides models, key features and common expressions for the nine types of text. Once they have worked through the activities which help them analyse the samples, students are offered ideas for writing exercises so they can practise what they have learned. In addition, Chapter 7 gives more information and exam preparation activities.

How you use Chapter 6 will depend on the way you organise your course. The ‘Unit teaching guidance’ for Chapters 1–5 include details of the materials provided in this chapter so that you can incorporate study of a specific text type into your lessons at appropriate moments.

Another approach would be to use the chapter as revision as the exams approach. Your students will have come across the text types during their two-year course and now you ask them to consider the conventions of style and structure in more depth.

Unit teaching guidance

Unit 6.1 – Formal letter

Model Text

The model text (Text 6.1) is for a letter of complaint which is a useful form to highlight how cultures use different conventions. For instance the salutation in the model is To whom it may concern but in English it is also appropriate to begin with Dear Sir or Madam. This surprises many students who interpret the salutation ‘Dear’ as friendly and something that would be reserved for friends.

Activity 1.1

Text 6.2

Having studied the model letter students are asked to analyse a letter with a similar purpose, filling out the chart with lists of things that are ‘wrong’ with the letter and then ideas for how they would edit it.

Teaching idea

The objective of Activity 1.1 is to develop a critical awareness of the conventions of formal letter writing. Since most of the unit is focused on individual writing practice you could organise this activity as a small group exercise. Groups of 3 or 4 students draw the two columns on a large sheet of paper attached to the wall; they fill in the ‘errors’ and their proposed improvements. When time is up, the groups circulate comparing their ideas with those of other groups. Encourage the groups to ask for clarification or to disagree with each other.

Activity 1.2

The next stage is to rewrite the letter (Text 6.2). Before the class begins to write, it is suggested that you help them gather ideas and the vocabulary to express them. What exactly is the complaint they want to make to Barnardo’s? Is it the image of force-feeding poison? Is it the distress of the baby?

Activity 1.3

Having improved the model letter in the coursebook, students consolidate their understanding of the genre by writing their own letter to Barnardo’s. Ideas have been generated in the previous activity and the model text (Text 6.1) supplies some standard expressions. The objective is to practise the text type so that it becomes more familiar.

Activity 1.4 – SL exam preparation

Students are offered a choice of three letter-writing tasks. The first two are again letters of complaint; however, the third option is the opposite: a letter of appreciation to a gallery for holding a pleasing exhibition.

Each of the tasks is supported by units in the coursebook. Even if you did not study those sections with your class they could use the texts for inspiration.

EXAM-RELATED TIP

The time limit for Paper 1 is an hour and 15 minutes. However, students are expected to use plenty of time in planning before they begin writing. Chapter 7 has more information about guidance and preparation for Paper 1.

Activity 1.5 – HL exam preparation

At higher level students are expected to write more words (450–600 words) about rather more complex topics. They have an additional 15 minutes compared to the standard level exam. The three tasks offered here – letters to a public speaker, a university and a politician – are related to topics within the IB set themes. It is not necessary that students have studied the indicated sections in the coursebook; these are offered as a source of ideas for the opinions in the letters. Students may have their own arguments.

Teaching idea

If your classes are not long enough to allow for a full exam practice you could set it up that the researching of ideas (potentially from the sections of the coursebook indicated in each question) and the planning take place in one lesson. At the end of that class, collect the notes and hand them back in the following class for students to write their letters.

Unit 6.2 – Review

The introduction to this unit in the coursebook points out that internet sites are full of reviews written by people who want to share an experience or opinion. You could start by asking students to brainstorm as many types of review as they can think of.

The word bank sets the vocabulary for the essential characteristics of any review. In addition, the concept box emphasises the purpose of a review and gives one example of how the decision about purpose affects language: ‘I think…’ is not appropriate in a formal review although it may appear in short consumer reviews in an online site.

The model Text 6.3 is a film review. The key features are annotated on the text and explained in the adjacent table.

Activity 2.1

This activity focuses on book reviews. It asks students to think about the difference between three types of writing about a book: a journalistic review, notes in a study guide and an academic essay. They place statements in the relevant column(s) on a table. If students work individually and then compare their answers in a whole class discussion it allows you to clarify each point, linking it to purpose, audience and context, so that they are prepared for the next activity in which they will annotate Text 6.4.

Activity 2.2

Using the table they have completed in the previous exercise, students carefully read the review of Room (Text 6.4) and mark sections where they notice the characteristics they listed in the review column. Discussing their annotations with other students, exploring differences and defending their work, is a good way to consolidate their understanding of the elements of a review.

Activity 2.3

Teaching idea

The list of 15 interesting words taken from Text 6.4 could be used first for pronunciation practice. Ask students if they can tell whether a word is positive or negative from the sound. Ask them each to choose their favourite word based on its sound. Encourage them to practise saying the words out loud. Then you can move on to the specified task of finding synonyms.

Answers

acquisition: b purchase

incarceration: a imprisonment

lurid: b shocking

voyeuristic: a nosey

quirky: d strange

abducted: c captured

exquisitely: d creatively

precocious: a clever

macabre: c horrific

crass: b insensitive

plight: a dilemma

grotesque: d weirdness

ferocity: c fierceness

vile: b disgusting

audacious: a daring

Activity 2.4

The objective of the activity is to draw attention to the various ways in which a review can make a recommendation to the reader, indirectly as well as directly. Answers will vary. You might want to turn the activity into a quick oral exercise with students reporting on the notes in their table.

I think I’ll look for a copy of Room because…

I really don’t think I want to read it because…

I’m curious to read it because…

The comment in the review that caught my attention is …

Activity 2.5 – SL exam preparation

Text 6.5 is a book review of The Road written by a student. The task is to mark it according to the Paper 1 assessment criteria which are available at the front of the coursebook.

ATT

‘Teaching informed by assessment (formative and summative)’ is one of the six IB Approaches to Teaching. The full document is in the Programme Resource Centre. It states that teachers must find ways to include “assessment for learning rather than simply assessment of learning.” Changing roles so that students act as examiners requires them to become very familiar with the assessment criteria and is an interesting way for them to think more deeply about assessment and evaluation of their own work.

Teaching idea

If you want to extend this exercise you could set it up as a 1–2–4 activity. Each student marks the text individually and then finds a partner. The pair must come to an agreement over the marks they award, plus a justification for their decision. Finally, two pairs combine and try to agree. Evidence from the text is essential. You might remind students of the annotation system they used in Activity 2.2.

Activity 2.6 – HL exam preparation

Although the section is addressed to higher level students the suggestions for writing a review could equally-well be used with standard level students. However, if you intend it as an exam practice, remember that for Paper 1 SL students write 250–400 words in an hour and 15 minutes. The third option, reviewing a piece of technology, extends the skill of review writing beyond film and book. As always, students should consider the intended audience.

Unit 6.3 – Blog

Activities 3.1 and 3.2

Before students experiment with writing their own blogs it’s important to clear up any misunderstanding about how the text type is distinct from other forms of written expression on topical matters. The introduction to this unit includes information about the origin of this text form and the word bank, as well as Activity 3.1, mentions other texts which might have similar purposes.

The point is to lead students towards an understanding that blogs might contain elements of other text types. In this activity they have not yet studied a blog so they are making statements based on their own experience of reading them.

Next, the class reads Text 6.6 – a blog post from the website of The Guardian newspaper. The task is to identify overlap between a blog and the other text types listed in Activity 3.1. There are no right answers. The goal is for students to see how a blog might contain characteristics of different text types.

Activity 3.3

The students will certainly see the humour in the cartoon even though their own experience of reading blogs might be quite limited. Discussing the ‘point’ of the cartoon could be backed up by asking them to do a quick search online for blogs which seem to fall into one of the categories in the image.

Activity 3.4

Based on the way the model blog has been annotated, students are invited to try the same exercise with Text 6.7. If they have a photocopy of the text they could use different colour highlighter pens to mark exact phrases or sentences. Comparing their annotations with another student is a way to further explore the text and see how another reader reacts to it.

Activity 3.5

This activity concentrates on the linguistic choices made by the writer of the blog. Activity 3.4, ‘voice’ was one of the characteristics which was examined. What is the attitude of the writer towards the reader? This sort of analysis is more difficult in a language that one is still learning but by working through the items in the list, students should be able to notice the chatty, informal register and describe the effect on the reader.

Activity 3.6

Applying the same type of linguistic analysis to Freeman’s blog, Text 6.6, is a little more challenging but students will be able to discover a similar style of informality despite the complexity of her topic. The question then becomes whether this is a characteristic of blogs in general. It can be set as an additional question to those listed in the next activity.

Activity 3.7

In this activity students do their own investigation into a variety of blogs. It would be useful to assign students different blogs and ask them to prepare a short presentation to the class about it. They could project the blog page and use it to demonstrate their answers to the five questions in the coursebook.

Activity 3.8 – SL exam preparation

ATT

Differentiation

The two proposed writing activities ask students to act as informed ‘experts’ on a topic and to write for an audience which is already interested in that area. As the Tip side bar in the coursebook suggests, if this role is too challenging for the level at which your students are currently writing then asking them to collaborate is an option. They can do this by creating a mind map of ideas together and then looking back to the model text to imitate the same structure. If they have difficulty organising themselves into the actual writing of the blog, you can intervene and suggest they draft a paragraph each, then edit together until they are satisfied with the complete 250–400 words.

Activity 3.9 – HL exam preparation

The two options for blog writing are suggestions. You can, of course, create your own tasks modelled after these in the coursebook. It’s a useful way to review language and ideas developed in previous units. You might also give your higher level students the option of choosing one of the subjects from Activity 3.9 as long as they write the length of text which is expected in the higher level examination.

Unit 6.4 – Speech

Activity 4.1

The activity invites students to consider several statements about speeches before they analyse the model speech by Barack Obama (Text 6.8). Their reaction to the statements will be an indicator of their exposure to this text type.

Teaching idea

A dynamic way to start the class could be to assign one or two students to run a poll activity. They create two columns on the board: true and false. They ask the class to raise hands according to their view for each statement and record the numbers. After students have quietly read the text, the two facilitators repeat the poll and lead a discussion on each statement with evidence from the Obama speech. The annotations and the table key features explained should be drawn upon for the evidence. The underlying purpose of the activity is to prepare students to write their own speeches and experiment with these characteristics themselves.

An optional homework assignment could be to find a video of Obama making the speech so that they get a sense of how it would sound. After all, speeches are intended to be heard not read.

Activity 4.2

CONCEPTS

This activity could be approached through the conceptual understandings of context and purpose. If you have a poster on the classroom wall you can direct attention to the two concepts and ask students to think first about how American citizens would be affected by these statements and then whether the same effect would be experienced by citizens of other nations.

Activity 4.3

These sentences from famous speeches in English certainly contain powerful messages yet they are also memorable because of the sounds and rhythm. The Extra box lists five techniques which are commonly used in speeches. Students analyse the extracts from the speeches with the aim of identifying the stylistic devices. You might want to close with a reading aloud exercise. Students volunteer to read an extract using their voice as suggested by the particular technique with pausing, emphasis and rhythm.

Alliteration | The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words to create a specific effect.
Analogy | Explaining one thing in terms of another
Expletive | A word which is considered rude or offensive
Hypophora | This is similar to a rhetorical question except the speaker goes on to answer the question instead of leaving it hanging.
Tricolon | This term refers to the use of three parallel words or phrases to create a rhetorical effect.

Activities 4.4 and 4.5 – SL and HL exam preparation

The coursebook offers two SL assignments and two HL assignments for speech writing. The way you organise the task will depend on your goals. If students are to focus on the characteristics of good speeches they might need to work on just a small part of a speech – such as the opening or conclusion, or the section with the most powerful argument. Remind them to use the resources in this unit as they work on style.

In terms of the content of the speech, they could use their own ideas or they could ‘recycle’ arguments from earlier work within the five IB themes.

Teaching idea

Students could be grouped into small teams of ‘public speaking experts’. Give each group two or three short speeches written by members of the class. It helps if the writers use pseudonyms. The ‘experts’ decide how to edit the speeches adding stylistic features to make the text more powerful.

Unit 6.5 – News report

The word bank provides some vocabulary that will likely be new to students. Five of the words are explained in the TOK feature. In addition, ‘bias’ is the subject of Activity 5.7.

Activity 5.1

The unit begins by asking the class to think about journalists. You could use this opportunity to clarify different roles in the profession. What is the difference between a reporter and a journalist; between a newsreader and a reporter? What does a ‘correspondent’ do as in ‘foreign correspondent’ or ‘economics correspondent’? What qualities are needed in a journalist?

Activity 5.2

This activity draws attention to the fact that news reports are expected to provide facts related to the ‘Five Ws and one H’, as explained in the ‘Reading strategy’ box. On their first reading of the model Text 6.9, students should approach the article in the same way that the reader of a newspaper would: reading for information. They can fill out the chart and compare their answers.

Activity 5.3

The next stage in the analysis of news articles is to apply the characteristics of the Key features chart to Text 6.10. It is suggested that you give students a photocopy of the article so they can use different coloured highlighters to mark the features.

Activity 5.4

Here the focus is on language use within news reports. Each question about Text 6.10 begins with ‘why’ so that students need to consider both the purpose of the journalist and the effect on the reader.

Activity 5.5

The final activity based on Text 6.10 is a way of summarising or getting to the essence of the news report by choosing one of three images to accompany the text. There is no right answer. The purpose is for students to justify their choice with their understanding of the reason why the article was written and published. In this way they are prepared for the next activity on ‘newsworthiness’.

Activity 5.6

This exercise addresses the question of what news actually gets in to the media and why. It is argued that at least one of three main characteristics is required. The task is focussed solely on headlines from real news articles. Students fill out the chart as shown in the example. The topic of ‘relevance’ will include discussion of how that might vary depending on the intended audience of the article.

Activity 5.7

ATT

Differentiation

Headlines can be tricky to understand because of the conventions. You might start this activity by asking students to rephrase each headline into complete sentences. After that, they should be ready to focus on the diction in each headline looking for signs of bias. With a less-advanced class you might choose to stop at the identification of bias and not deal with the analysis of exactly how bias is created through language. Alternatively, if students are taking TOK in a language other than English you could give them time to look for translations of the terms and explanations in the side bar.

Teaching idea

A fun way of building awareness of bias is to come up with a few imaginary situations related to the school community. Students write two biased headlines: one for publication in a student newspaper and one for a teacher/parent publication. For example, imagine a ban on cell phones during the school day. Teachers might see it as providing necessary relief from the distraction of social media, whereas students could present it as a violation of their personal rights.

Activity 5.8 – SL exam preparation

In this activity students are presented with a choice of three photographs. They select one and write an imaginary news report using the information in this unit as support for their work.

Activity 5.9 – HL exam preparation

Students choose one of the proposed topics and write a news article which meets the number of words required in the higher level examination. Timing the exercise is useful because it shows students how quickly they have to plan and write. You might want to address the question of whether 450 words is enough or whether they should try to write the upper limit of 600. The important thing is for the task to be completed in an organised and professional manner. There is more on preparing for the Paper 1 exam in Chapter 7.

Activities 5.10 and 5.11 – Literature

Text 6.11 is based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. It is a convincing imitation of a news article. The first activity functions as consolidation of the ideas which have been studied in this unit. Students identify aspects of journalistic style and identify the key features of a news report. The second activity suggests they try a similar exercise based on a literary text they have studied as part of the English B class.

Teaching idea

This would be an entertaining homework assignment. If you have studied short stories then students could be assigned stories to turn into front-page articles, perhaps in a tabloid style of publication. They can be posted on the classroom noticeboard for everyone to enjoy.

Unit 6.6 – Brochure

Activity 6.1

The unit starts by asking students to suggest things they would expect to find in a brochure. A student could list the items on the board as peers call out ideas.

When the group then looks at Text 6.12, they could point out the characteristics they had mentioned which are checked off on the board.

Activity 6.2

Several brochures are needed for this activity. With some notice, students could collect them before the class or you might pick them up yourself. The purpose is to compare the brochures with the model in the coursebook, Text 6.12. Students will need a copy of the table as shown.The objective, as mentioned in the Concepts feature following the activity, is to recognise variation within a genre. The brochures they examine in class will have different purposes, intended audiences and contexts leading to variation in design.

Activity 6.3

Following on from the previous activity, study of the Key features chart will give students more in-depth information about the conventions of the genre, brochures. The activity asks them to arrange six panels from a tri-fold brochure bearing in mind the purpose and the effect on the audience. Once this has been completed, the questions are intended to draw attention to aspects they will need to include when they create their own brochures, in class or, potentially, in Paper 1.

Activity 6.4

The model Text 6.12, is a brochure for a yoga company. The company believes it is important to state its mission, in other words its attitude to teaching yoga to its clients. This matching activity involves guessing which brand is represented by which mission statement in the list.

Answers

Coca-cola

Facebook

Ikea

Chanel

Amazon

Nike

Starbucks

Toyota

Activities 6.5 and 6.6 – exam preparation

The four tasks proposed here as writing practice could work for either standard or higher level students, especially if you have recently focused on the specified IB syllabus topics – Experiences, Sharing the Planet and Human Ingenuity. The Tip box gives helpful advice about formatting a brochure in an exam situation. If students are doing this for a class assignment or homework then they might enjoy producing a paper version of a brochure which is folded. Another option is for them to produce both the version which would be written for an exam and the final brochure so that they can practise the layout.

Unit 6.7 – Guidelines

Activities 7.1 and 7.2

These activities clarify the precise genre of guidelines as distinct from other texts with a similar purpose. The second activity asks students to consider the language which is used in guidelines and how it is specific to the text type. This aspect is developed further in the next activity.

Activity 7.3

The first approach to the model guidelines, Text 6.13, focuses on structures which tell the reader what to do. If students make a list in their notebooks they will end up with expressions which they can then apply when they write their own sets of guidelines.

Activity 7.4

As in most text types, the details of style will vary somewhat depending on the context. In this exercise students examine the use of pronouns in the model, Policy on Dress Code. For example, in the first section the pronoun ‘our’ is used several times. In paragraph three the word ‘your’ is repeated. Can students explain the effect of decisions like these and others in the text?

Activity 7.5

This activity uses Text 6.14 to continue the focus on expressions and verbs which are commonly used in professional texts of this nature. The fill-in-the-blank exercise gives three words or phrases which would be appropriate and only one which would not fit. In this way students are introduced to synonyms which will give them a wider range of vocabulary to choose from when they do their own writing.

Answers

d following

c advantage

b desired

a adhere to

c enact

c all right

d taken care of

a discharging

Activity 7.6

Use of passive forms is essential for such formal documents as guidelines and policy statements. This exercise reviews the grammar by asking students to transform active sentences into passive forms.

ATT

Activity 7.7 would work well for pairs or small groups as it will generate discussion and negotiation as the students decide not only on the items to be included but also the style in which they are expressed. ‘Collaborative learning activities’ are one of the characteristics of an IB classroom which are emphasised in Approaches to Teaching: teaching focused on effective teamwork and collaboration. In the language acquisition classroom these kinds of exercise give you an opportunity to sit in with a small group and observe how individuals are managing with interactive skills. In the two discussion parts of the oral examination, students will be expected to take some responsibility for making the conversation flow. They will need to practise throughout the two-year course.

Activity 7.7

The inspiration for this practice exercise is a cartoon. Based on their understanding of the image, students create a set of guidelines for the situation based on a school code of conduct.

Activity 7.8 – SL exam preparation

In approaching either of these two suggested writing activities, students should be reminded of the importance of collecting their ideas and planning the text before they begin. A mind map is a good technique to use as they can see the connections between their various ideas and from that, get a sense of the side-headings they will use.

Activity 7.9 – HL exam preparation

At higher level students are expected to write more words (450–600 words) about rather more complex topics. They have an additional 15 minutes compared to the standard level exam. Of the two proposed practice exercises, the first might be the more challenging since the topic might be something the students have not thought about. Every IB school is required to have a language policy so, after students have worked on their own version, you might give them a copy of the official Language Policy and get their reaction. How similar is it to the policy they wrote themselves?

The second writing option, guidelines for recycling, may also exist in the school context. Students could use the recycling system followed by the school or invent a new procedure with help from ideas in Unit 5.2. After they finish their own document they could compare with the existing guidelines.

Unit 6.8 – Official report

The word bank lists several nouns which apply to this professional text type. If students are studying other courses in English they may be familiar with them; if not, you could choose to let them find translations.

Activity 8.1

This introduction to the genre of official reports asks a number of yes/no/possibly questions about Text 6.15 – an annotated British Council report highlighting the key features. The focus is on style and structure not on the content of the text.

Activity 8.2

There are several types of report but since they have a similar purpose – communicating information about past events, presenting facts and data, interpreting findings – they will have similar characteristics. The key features might help if students are short of ideas. However, you can always ask them to think about how lab reports are structured since they will all have experience with that type of writing.

Activity 8.3

Students scan the model text, Text 6.15, to look for the features they listed in the previous activity. In a sense, this activates prior knowledge as the objective is for students to recognise structural aspects of the text type from their writing in other academic contexts.

Activity 8.4

The focus now turns to the Key features explained chart. The sentences in the activity are taken from the model text and can be viewed as exemplars of some of the features listed in the chart. The task is for students to label each sentence with one or more of the terms. This activity lends itself to pair work.

Activity 8.5 – SL exam preparation

This activity invites students to continue learning about the genre by analysing part of a report on climate change Text 6.16. The text is a particularly good example of the style of language used in an official report with the use of passive, the short declarative sentences and the paragraph structures. Activity 8.5 could equally well be used with higher level students because the task of deciding if a statement is true or false often appears on Paper 2: receptive skills- reading. It can be quite challenging as it involves close reading with attention to precise wording in a text.

True – “Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.”

False – There is a “95 percent probability” that the warming of the earth is cause by human activity.

False – It is increasing at “a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.”

True – “The heath-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.”

Unknown.

Unknown.

Activities 8.6 and 8.7 – HL exam preparation

Similarly to the previous activity, Activity 8.6 focuses on analysis with questions that again draw attention to characteristics of the text type. Text 6.17 is a report about the career prospects for young people referred to as ‘Millennials’. The questions require students to make inferences about the audience and purpose of the report, as well as interpret the conclusions reached by Deloitte.

Activity 8.7 asks students to locate the referent for pronouns used in the text. It is a common task on Paper 2 and can be problematic for some students, especially if the text is formal in style. You might want to create more short exercises like this if it proves to be difficult for students in your class.

Answers to Activity 8.6:

The quotation by JFK has been included to set the tone of the report on the future of the workforce.

It is directed at businesses who seek to “attract, develop and retain millennial talent” (third paragraph).

The report has been commissioned in order to learn more about the outlook of the millennial generation on the workplace.

There are both pessimistic Millennials in developed countries and optimistic millennials in emerging markets.

Millennials have become more loyal to employers in this period of uncertainty. They are turning down freelance work.

Millennials expect businesses to behave in a responsible manner and alleviate society’s challenges.

Answers to Activity 8.7

businesses’

this report

business

business’

automation

Unit 6.9 – Essays

The term ‘essay’ is rather general and can be understood differently depending on the context. For instance, in a school setting ‘essay’ refers to an academic paper written in answer to a question posed by the teacher or IB examiner. In the context of creative writing, an essay is a personal response to a stimulus and sometimes referred to as a ‘composition’. In journalism, an essay published in a magazine could seek to persuade readers or simply aim to provoke thought. You should remind your students to think about the concepts of audience and purpose when they read a text which is referred to as an ‘essay’ and especially so when they write their own essays.

Activity 9.1

This unit begins by inviting students to ‘activate prior knowledge’, a technique which is emphasised in IB Approaches to Teaching. Depending on the context in which you’re teaching, English may or may not be the language of instruction in your school. The question asked in Activity 9.1 is how students have been trained to structure an essay in other academic courses. It is recommended that you write their statements on the board and revisit them at the end of this unit.

Teaching idea

Contrastive rhetoric is a research area in linguistics which analyses how conventions for writing various texts differ between cultures. It’s a fascinating topic and one which you might introduce to your students. In summary, the cultural preferences for how a text, such a as an essay, is structured is part of language learning. A student who aims to become bi-literate, reading and writing with fluency in more than one language, has to adapt to the discourse structure of the target language. Therefore, if you use Activity 9.1 with a more advanced group of students you might ask them to reflect on how an essay would be structured in their first language and compare that with an essay in English. Your students may not have the experience to discuss this topic in any depth but it reminds them of the importance of the IB conceptual understandings and the expectations of a native speaker.

A key point is whether an essay structure in first language requires a thesis statement in the introduction. Whereas it is considered essential in an English essay, in some cultures it would seem too obvious and unsophisticated. If you’re interested in reading more about this topic you might want to look at Journal of Second Language Writing published by Elsevier.

Activity 9.2

The activity prepares students for reading the model essay Text 6.18. You should also point out the ‘Text and context’ box, which follows the essay. Students should answer the question in the left-hand column before reading; the objective is to arouse some curiosity to discover if their own opinions are mentioned in the text.

Activity 9.3

There are two aspects to this activity. Students might find it easier to start by filling in the right hand column of the table they began in Activity 9.2. After this, they examine the structure of the essay and see if it fits with the ideas they raised in Activity 9.1.

Activity 9.4

The organisation of body paragraphs in an English essay should follow the convention identified in this activity, but, as explained above, it might not be the case for essays written in the first language of your students. Textbooks on writing use various acronyms to help students remember the pattern. PEE (Point – Evidence – Explain) is a popular one. It is especially useful when students are not sure when to start a new paragraph; it becomes clear that a new point requires a new paragraph and cannot be added on to the end of the previous one.

Activity 9.5

This activity builds on the previous exercise by asking students to identify the purpose of sentence in the model essay. In other words, they are searching for the PEE types of sentence. The use of coloured highlighters creates a pattern making visible the structure of paragraphs in English.

Activity 9.6

Another characteristic of essays in English is the use of transition words and phrases. This activity asks students to pay attention to the way these short words and phrases – which can often be overlooked – function to guide the reader through the text.

The completed table is shown below.

Words that illustrate | words that point to time and place | words that show contrast | words that show consequence
e | a | b, d, f, h, i | c, g, j

Activity 9.7

Before the students move on to write their own essays, this part of the unit summarises the structural conventions for an essay in English. Again, it is suggested that you refer them back to their notes from Activity 9.1 and discuss any variations with your students.

Activity 9.8 – SL exam preparation

The two topics presented for essay writing practice are typical of the type of writing prompt which appears on Paper 1. It’s worth noting that at SL students are expected to write between 250-400 words in 75 minutes; there is no penalty for writing more than 400 words and the examiners are instructed to mark the full script. However, if students work too quickly in order to write more than the required word count they may make more errors.

If you ask your students to stay within the word limit for this practice exercise they will probably discover that it’s not possible to write a five-paragraph essay. They should follow the PEE structure they have studied in this unit and create convincing arguments even if it means reducing the body paragraphs to two.

Teaching idea

If students use a pseudonym on their essay you can organise a follow-up exercise in which they mark the essays of two or three peers. In this way they become more familiar with the assessment criteria and also become aware of the importance of clear handwriting and tidy presentation. You can limit their marking to Criterion B – message and Criterion C – conceptual understanding, if you think they are not able to evaluate the language level.

REFLECT

If you have used the full chapter for revision before the final IB exams, then it is worthwhile completing your study of text types by asking students to reflect on their learning. A few guiding questions are provided. Direct students to the list of text types in the Introduction and remind them of the three categories: personal, professional and mass media. Which text types do they feel most confident in producing and which the least confident? This discussion will give you an insight into any areas you may need to review before your students sit the exams.

Activity 9.9 – HL exam preparation

ATT

The IB advocates transparency in its system of assessment. For instance, teachers are encouraged to use the same assessment criteria as the IB examiner when marking students’ work during the course. For more on the topic of transparency in the IB programme you should look at the Approaches to Teaching documents available online in the Programme Resource Centre. As the final exam time draws closer this type of activity in which students take on the role of examiner can be very useful in helping them understand how their own work will be evaluated. The assessment criteria for Paper 1 are in the coursebook.

Activity 9.10

HL students get 90 minutes for Paper 1 but should spend plenty of time planning their essay before they start writing. Throughout the coursebook, students have been asked to make spider diagrams (mind maps) in the context of planning oral presentations or brainstorming ideas for written work and they might choose to continue with this technique as they prepare for Paper 1. Alternatively, having studied the PEE format of body paragraphs you might direct them to use that as their organising method for an essay. They would write the acronym vertically on their planning paper and make notes of the key points they will use in the paragraph, repeating for each paragraph. In this way they produce an outline of the body of their essay.

7 Paper 1 – Productive skills: Writing

The essence of Paper 1 is the statement in the Subject Guide that students “show through their use of text type, register and style that they understand the concepts of audience, context, purpose, meaning and variation”. This is clarified further in the description of the skills that will be expected:

At both standard and higher levels, students are assessed in their ability to:

Communicate clearly and effectively for the purpose specified in the exam question

Use language appropriate to the interpersonal and intercultural context and audience specified in the exam question

Use language to express and respond to ideas in the exam question with fluency and accuracy

Organise and present ideas on the given topic

The IB process of regular curriculum review led to changes in the format of the writing exam from examination session May 2020 onwards. The coursebook provides examples of the new format. You can also find specimen exam papers on the IB DP Programme Resource Centre (PRC). Students choose one of three questions but within each question they also have a choice of three text types. Examination of the choices will show that not all of the genres are appropriate to the situation described in the question. Thus, understanding of context, audience and purpose are key to success on this exam paper.

Assessment criteria have also been adjusted in the curriculum review. One of the main changes is to Criterion C which now emphasises the five conceptual understandings.

The assessment criteria pose the same evaluative questions at standard and higher level. It is the specific descriptors for each mark band which discriminate between the two levels.

Criterion A

How successfully does the candidate command written language?

To what extent is the vocabulary appropriate and varied?

To what extent are the grammatical structures varied?

To what extent does the accuracy of the language contribute to effective communication

Criterion B

To what extent does the candidate fulfil the task?

How relevant are the ideas to the task?

To what extent are ideas developed?

To what extent do the clarity and organisation of ideas contribute to the successful delivery of the message?

Criterion C

To what extend does the candidate demonstrate conceptual understanding?

To what extent is the choice of text type appropriate to the task?

To what extent are register and tone appropriate to the context, audience and purpose of the task?

To what extent does the response incorporate the conventions of the chosen text type?

Unit teaching guidance

Unit 7.1 – Paper 1 Standard level

ATT

The exercises and information in this chapter of the coursebook are intended to help teachers create transparency with regard to the IB system of assessing writing skills. In fact, transparency between examiners, teachers and students is one of the basic characteristics of an IB education. Students should have access to the same assessment criteria that their teachers and the IB examiners will use. These are provided at the beginning of the coursebook and in Chapter 7. It therefore becomes feasible for ‘Teaching to be informed by assessment (formative and summative)’, as stated in the IB document Approaches to Teaching (available on the PRC).

The activities in this chapter are not necessarily reserved for final preparation before the IB examinations; they can be used at any point in the course when you wish to give students practice with the type of exercise they will do in Paper 1.

Activities 1.1 to 1.3

These activities lead students through the three steps of preparing to write their text: selecting the question and the text type, creating a mind map of ideas and organising the ideas into a logical structure.

First, students see an example of an exam paper. The activity recommends that they discuss their reasons for choosing both the question and the text type. The aim is for the class to be aware that not all of the text types would meet the requirements of the task. Careful reading of the question is needed. For instance, for task 1 “an active and popular travel writer” would be unlikely to write an essay or even an email. The key word ‘popular’ suggests a regular audience as would be the case if the writer had a travel blog.

Activity 1.2 gives an example of what a mind map for answering task 3 on the exam paper might look like. Encourage students to write out the full question in the centre box so that they don’t overlook any of the details. The links in their map should connect to words in the question.

The next stage is to make an outline for the text. Using a table like the one in Activity 1.3 is a way to ensure that the final text has a coherent structure. If students get practice in this sort of strategy when they write during the course then it becomes automatic.

Activity 1.4

After studying the examples in the previous activities, students are ready to evaluate a sample script. The exercise provides one question from each of the three assessment criteria; this is enough for the students to deal with on a first assessment of the script.

At the end of the sample script, the Concepts box reminds students of the five aspects which have underpinned their work throughout the course, to help them to see the link between this and Criterion C.

Activity 1.5

This activity extends the assessment exercise. The class discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the script. Based on this, you could ask them to make a list of suggestions for the student writer.

Teaching idea

When it comes to the stage of using the complete set of assessment criteria to mark the sample script, you might use a 1–2–4 activity. Individuals study the criteria and decide on a mark for each of the criteria. Then they find a partner and compare their marks. They must debate, using evidence in the script, until they reach agreement. Next two pairs join together and repeat the process of negotiation.

It is likely that there will be some small variation between groups but as long as they are in the same mark band this is acceptable.

Activity 1.6

In this activity, students are invited to take the role of chief examiner, producing marking notes to guide the team of examiners marking the sample Paper 1. An example is given for the marking notes for the first two questions on the exam paper. Students must write the notes for question 3. Since they have already discussed the question in detail and assessed a sample script, they should be able to come up with some ideas. The objective of the activity is to give students an insight into how the IB examiner will approach the job of marking their exam script. If they know what the expectations are, then they will be better prepared to produce quality work.

Activity 1.7

This is another activity which changes students’ roles with the objective of helping them better understand the exam challenge. If you have used other topics than those in the coursebook then you can adapt the list to include the topics you have covered in your classroom. You might decide to divide the students into small groups, assigning each group one of the five IB themes. Their task is to become exam writers, following the design of the exam paper shown.

Activity 1.8

The final activity in the standard level section of the chapter is to practise everything that has been learned in the unit. Several suggestions for a writing task are provided but you can also create your own, based on the sample.

Unit 7.2 – Paper 1 Higher level

Since the exams at standard and higher level are similar, it might be useful to use both units of this chapter with higher level students. The additional practice will help develop exam skills.

Activity 2.1

The suggested process for exploring the sample exam paper is for students to fill out a chart listing ‘possible pitfalls’ and ‘possible opportunities’ of each question. The objective is to draw attention to the importance of selecting the question very carefully when they are taking the final exam.

Activity 2.2

Marking notes identify the essential characteristics expected in the response to a specific exam question. The task here is to write the marking notes for questions 1 and 2 by using the notes for question 3 as a model.

Activities 2.3 and 2.4

In Unit 7.1 (SL), students marked a sample script. Here, the first task is to compare a poor script with a very good one in order to produce a list of ‘do’s and don’ts’ for Paper 1. It would be engaging for this activity to happen in small groups with students creating a poster.

The second activity requires the small groups to look at the table which summarises the key aspect of each of the three criteria. They must match each of the items in their lists with the relevant criterion. The aim is for students to become more familiar with the way their work will be assessed by an examiner.

Activity 2.5

The IB syllabus includes a list of text types which could be utilised throughout the course “to develop students’ receptive, productive and interactive skills in the target language”. However, the list is described as neither “prescriptive nor exhaustive”. Having said that, it is clear that some of the text types are better suited to a writing exam than others. This activity asks students to look at the list of texts included in the Introduction to the coursebook and discuss which ones would most likely appear on Paper 1. They should make sure they are confident in the conventions of each of these texts.

Activity 2.6

This activity asks students to take initiative by finding out about the conventions of a text type they think might appear on Paper 1, but is not included in Chapter 6 of the coursebook. They might find examples of the text type elsewhere in the coursebook. Their goal is to present information about the style and structure of the text type to their peers.

Activities 2.7 and 2.8

Writing within the time limit is an essential part of preparing for an exam. Students are asked to practise, using the example Paper 1 at the start of the unit. It is suggested that they mark their own work using the IB criteria before handing in the assignment for the teacher to assess. Any differences in the marks could be a useful starting point for a discussion about what the student is doing well or is having trouble with.

Teaching idea

It may be that your lessons are not long enough for the full hour and a half needed to practise an exam. One way of handling this could be to use one lesson for students to plan responses to at least two of the questions on the exam paper. If you collect their work at the end of the class you can select one of the tasks and assign it to the student in the next lesson. In this way there is an element of ‘exam’ because they don’t know in advance which question they will be given; however, since the planning has been completed they can go straight into the writing part of the process.

8 Paper 2 – Receptive skills: Listening and reading

Throughout the English B course students have been exposed to many different types of text, with the characteristics of the IB categories of personal, professional and mass media texts. Their understanding of written and audio texts has developed as they studied the importance of each of the five conceptual understandings which underpin any communicative event: audience, context, purpose, meaning and variation. In addition, it is hoped that they have been exposed to the “full range of the varieties of the target language” so that they have become familiar with different accents and vocabulary (Subject Guide). In Paper 2 the emphasis is on comprehension of spoken and written English; grammatical mistakes, spelling and punctuation errors in written responses are not graded unless they interfere with meaning.

The distinction between the expectations for comprehension in standard level and higher level students is summarised in this table. In large part, the difference reflects the fact that students taking the course at standard level should have 150 hours of teaching, while those taking the higher level course are expected to receive 240 hours of teaching.

Receptive skills SL
Receptive skills HL

Understand descriptions of events, feelings and wishes

Understand comparisons and recognise a straightforward linear argument

Can use context to deduce the meaning of sentences and unknown words and phrases

Understand and evaluate a wide variety of spoken and written authentic texts

Understand fundamental elements of literary texts such as theme, plot and character

Can analyse arguments, distinguishing main points from relevant supporting details and explanations

Can use a variety of stratagems to deduce meaning

The curriculum review of Language B courses led to a redesign of the examinations starting from the May 2020 exam session. A significant change was the addition of listening comprehension to the examination which assesses receptive skills. The format of Paper 2 (from 2020) is provided in the specimen exam papers on the Programme Resource Centre. Since the conceptual understandings of context and purpose will be particularly important, the table below shows the contexts of the audio texts on the specimen exam papers.

Note that Text C for standard level is the same as Text A at higher level but the comprehension questions in the exams are different.

Specimen Paper 2:

Listening comprehension – SL

Specimen Paper 2:

Listening comprehension – HL

Text A: an interview with the director of a school about his decision to ban mobile phones in school
Text A: a conversation between two colleagues about their attitudes towards dress codes in the office

Text B: a news report about the influence of video games on teenagers
Text B: an interview between a journalist and a politician about the plans to turn a green area of a city into a residential area

Text C: a conversation between two colleagues about their attitudes towards dress codes in the office
Text C: a speech given by an academic to secondary school students about gender equality

The protocol for the listening comprehension part of the exam is as follows:

4 minutes of reading time (to study the questions in the exam paper)

Text A is played once (students may make notes and answer questions)

2 minute pause in which students answer questions

Text A is played a second time (students continue to answer questions)

Continue with the same pattern for Texts B and C

Approach to Chapter 8

Chapters 1 to 5 in the coursebook each contain three units. Every unit contains a ‘Watch and listen’ section and an ‘Exploring texts’ section which are specifically designed to develop student competence in the receptive skills of listening and reading. In contrast, the activities in Chapter 8 focus on exam preparation and practice. You may have to divide the practice for Paper 2 into two sessions to fit into your class schedule.

| Standard level | Higher level
Listening comprehension | 45 minutes | 60 minutes
Reading comprehension | 60 minutes | 60 minutes

Teaching idea

One way to use the practice exam papers as a teaching tool is to give students the experience of being examiners. Ask students to use pseudonyms when they take the exam and then distribute the papers and the answers. As they mark exam scripts students discover how important handwriting and following specific instructions on the exam can be. They will likely have questions about alternative answers. Ask them to note their query on the script.

The next stage could be for the students to form small groups and function as a ‘grade awarding team’. They go through all the questions, comparing how their student did. When there is a wrong answer the team should discuss it and decide if it is an accurate alternative to the official answer. At the end of the process they collectively write a short report, commenting on areas that were well-handled or that need more attention. They might include recommendations for their classmates when they take further practice tests and the final IB examination.

Unit 8.1 – Paper 2 Standard level

Listening comprehension

The transcripts of the Audio tracks are available online as part of the support offered by these resources.

Text A – Wingsuit jumping

questions his father’s understanding of wingsuit jumping

questions the role of the sponsors in the sport of wingsuit jumping

the sponsors publish videos of wingsuit jumping on their channel

are encouraged to take unnecessary risks by their sponsors

sponsor money depends on the level of risk that jumpers are willing to take

By sponsoring wingsuit jumping, filming it and posting it on their channel, the sponsor intends to increase sales of their product or service / increase popularity of wingsuit jumping and therefore encourage the jumpers to take increased risks/put themselves in more danger.

Text B – Cornrows

True: “we made a few calls to hear both sides of the debate and find out what was really going on.”

False: “our dress code has a purpose: It’s designed to hide social class, ethnic background and any other differences.”

True: The principal evades the question by saying “that’s beside the point”

True: She suggests that allowing the girls to wear cornrows will encourage others to ‘express their individuality’ in ways that go against the dress code too.

She calls the girls ‘recalcitrant’ because they have challenged the school on their dress code. They refuse to accept this part of it.

The host asks the principal if girls loosen their ties, in order to find out if girls are any better or worse than the boys at abiding by the dress code.

The host’s questions suggest that she is critical of the school’s dress code.

The principal compares the girls’ protest to a broken window in her school’s building. She suggests that more people will break the dress code now that the girls have done this, just as vandals tend to throw rocks through windows of buildings that already have broken windows.

Text C – Cyber bullying

The interviewer has called Dr. Cass to “elicit a few quotes and paint a clearer picture” of his research for The Times’ team of reporters, who will write an article about the research.

Dr. Cass hopes his research “sheds some light” on cyber bullying, which is “a rather pernicious problem” in the UK.

The interviewer doubts the significance of the research because 320 interviews (160 with teenagers and 160 with adults) do not give a fair representation of all British teenagers and parents.

Dr. Cass suggests that The Times’ features these three main points:

Point 1) Most perpetrators aim to embarrass their victims.

Point 2) Many parents are not aware of their children’s involvement in cyber bullying, either as victims or perpetrators.

Point 3) There is a grey line between being a perpetrator and victim. Many young people become a cyber bully after being bullied.

Discrepancy 1) The parents weren’t aware that their children had received threats as often as they actually had.

Discrepancy 2) There’s also the discrepancy between the number of teenagers who’d been shamed online versus the number of parents who were aware of this shaming.

Discrepancy 3) There was the discrepancy between the number of parents who were aware of their children’s malevolent behaviour and the actual number of students engaging in it.

It’s the behaviour of silent bystanders which condones the cyber bullying of the others.

The interviewer says that teenagers are naïve to the dangers of cyber bullying in response to Dr. Cass. He says that many teenagers dismiss bullying as teasing, and they cannot recognise the seriousness of the problem until someone is hurt, shamed or blackmailed.

Reading comprehension

Text D – Underwater Wonder

Because this is the language of one of her pre-teen daughters.

Because of its ‘invisibility’. When the problem is under the surface of the ocean, it’s not so visible.

She’s doing this to get the message out and for people to take notice.

Choose to eat the right kind of seafood that does not threaten the population of the sea life and their environment.

True: ‘With 125 million people relying on these reefs for their food and income, the threat to human health and well-being... is very real.’

True: ‘we [the Coral Triangle initiative] are on the way to achieving that [setting up Marine Protected Areas].’

False: ‘hopefully my kids will not be completely mortified.’

c

b

a

f

i

g

Text E – How Cell Phone Behaviour Affects Other People

(1) c

(2) f

(3) d

(4) b

(5) i

(6) a

... give telephone users privacy in public places.

b

d

d

c

a

Text F – The Challenges of Modern Parenting

guardians

guilt

notions

input

error

situations

compassion

opportunity

process

leeway

territory

The challenge of raising children in modern times is the conflicting advice from various ‘experts’ in the field of child rearing. As a result parents feel guilty or they doubt their ability to make decisions.

First parents should “shed the belief that [they] must be perfect parents.” Secondly, parents should let their hearts guide them. Let love and compassion be the forces that govern their decisions.

He author views this evolution of parenting techniques as a “fruitful phase in the growth of humanity”, and an opportunity to try methods that work better than those of previous generations.

Unit 8.2 – Paper 2 Higher level

Listening comprehension

The transcripts of the audio tracks are available online as part of the support offered by these resources.

Text A: PISA report

none of the above

Singapore is an emerging country that values education and educators highly

he saw how they were hard-working and obedient

agrees with psychologists who say that creative thinkers are often good at memorisation and arithmetic

both a and b

All the high-ranking countries on the PISA list have high income equality within their countries.

Martin is reluctant to claim that the smartest students are only from certain countries, because there are smart students everywhere in the world and the PISA tests only consider student averages.

Text B: Cameron Rouge

True: “it is a bit nerve-wracking,” she says. And she adds “I’m putting myself out there to be judged on something other than my looks.”

True: “I’m getting modelling gigs all the time.”

True: “I’ve included a few interesting before-and-after pictures in the book to prove the point.”

False: The interviewer asks “But what about the plus-sized models you see on America’s Next Top Model? What about people like Tyra Banks?” To which Cameron answers: “Did you know that non-whites only account for 4 percent of the girls on the runway?”

False: “In some parts of New York, 85% of black men have been pulled over by the cops for no apparent reason. And that’s in stark contrast to my experiences.”

Cameron believes that she, of all people, has to speak out against racial discrimination, because “it takes someone as privileged as myself to spread awareness about racial bias in the industry”. She believes the message is more powerful when it comes from her.

First of all, Cameron says that she cannot apply for a serious career after 10 years of modeling. Secondly, she has problems with self-esteem.

The interviewer accuses Cameron of being hypocritical because she is suffering from the same pressures of being beautiful that she is helping to create.

Text C: Online gambling

The interviewer finds it paradoxical that Dr. Gurken would publish an article titled ‘There’s no such thing as the natural-born gambler’ in a time when online gambling has become so popular.

In Western Europe, the rise of gambling coincided with the rise of stock markets, insurance companies and foreign trade.

Colonialism could be seen as a kind of gamble because there was no certainty that ships would return from the colonies carrying spices and goods.

Three factors that lead to gambling in a society are: 1) an accumulation of wealth, 2) an unequal distribution of wealth, and 3) mobility.

Places like Papua New Guinea did not have experiences with gambling for so long because they were isolated, with stable economies and strong social hierarchies.

Rates of addiction to gambling have increased in recent years due to due unregulated online gambling. Pop-up ads act as a trigger for people who are genetically inclined to addiction.

Dr Gurken says that the interviewer’s logic is flawed. If people did not create laws for actions that couldn’t be prevented, we would have no laws at all. And laws, she explains, are there to protect people – sometimes from themselves. Countries that block pop-up ads for gambling have lower addiction rates.

Reading comprehension

Text D: We need to ensure that more African girls get an education

reinforce

face

provide for

resort to

threatens

fetch

optimise

transition

drive

The phrase suggests that people should invest in the youth if they are to prosper in the future.

The author is disappointed to find pots and cooking ware in the computer room in the girls’ school, because it suggests that they value home making over computer skills.

Families are bigger than they used to be in many sub-Saharan African homes because fertility rates are higher than they used to be in poor homes and infant mortality rates have gone down.

Adverse cultural practices like female genital mutilation and lack of access to menstrual hygiene products are experienced by girls who grow up in rural parts of Africa.

Text E: Dramatic rise in plastic seabed litter around UK

False: “the rise in 2016 was the first after three years of reductions.”

False: Almost 78% of the litter is plastic, 6.3% rubber and 2.7% metal, according to the data published by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

False: They are seeing more and more plastic in the tideline, particularly single-use plastic, which has “grown exponentially in the last two decades” (not steadily).

True: Tagholm called for taxes and policy changes to increase recycling and reduce business and supermarket use of single-use plastics.

Hugo Tagholm feels that the plastic problem, unlike climate change, is still in its early stages, and can therefore be reversed.

She feels that supermarkets and the government could be more proactive in helping people to make the right choices, but people should not have to rely on them for change.

The plastic problem could become worse because the production of plastics is expected to double in the next 20 years.

Besides polluting the sea, plastic and other litter have damaged fishing equipment.

Text F: A Stranger’s Eye

The word ‘they’ in the last line of the opening paragraph refers to the historians.

They congregate around the old range in the kitchen to keep warm.

They are reluctant to talk about their relationship with their landlord because are dependent on his goodwill. In other words they are not paying much rent because they cannot afford it.

The phrase ‘fail to make ends meet’, in the context of this story, means that Gwylithin and Arwen have had more financial costs than income.

Despite the laws of supply and demand (which should make mutton cheap when there is an oversupply of sheep), the price of mutton is high because the supermarket chains are powerful and can ask whatever they want from consumers.

He feels that the supermarkets are making a fool of him for not giving him a fair price for his sheep. They are lying to him about their costs.

10 years before this story, when Arwen and Gwylithin became sheep farmers, the prices of meat were relatively stable.

Arwen feels like a failure because he receives family credit of £104 a week.

She is not consoled by the idea that other farmers are in the same position, because it does not take away from the fact that her husband is overworked.

Gwylithin is worried that her husband will not be able to physically handle the strain of working on the farm when he is older.

Gwylithin gives two reasons for not getting a job: 1) She wants to be home for her children. 2) She has responsibilities on the farm, like watching the cow that is calving.

She signed up for a computer course to gain skills that could help her seek a job, which she may have to do for financial reasons.

9 The individual oral

In Chapters 1 to 5 students have developed their spoken English through many different activities, including presentations and discussions on topics within the IB syllabus.

The two units in this chapter aim to clarify the process of the oral examination for the students. Unit 9.1 focuses on the standard level exam and Unit 9.2 on higher level. The activities in the coursebook introduce step-by-step strategies for dealing with each part of the exam.

Even if your students are registered for English B higher level you might still want to use the standard level section of this chapter. For instance, it could be an effective way to assess oral skills at the end of the first year. It is also an excellent way to complete study of a particular IB theme. A concluding oral exam based on images will allow students to show their understanding of the subject as well as their language acquisition.

Oral skills in the IB Language B programme are regarded as interactive skills. Students should be able to take some responsibility for a conversation in the target language. The Subject Guide identifies the expectations, and the differences between standard and higher level are shown below.

Interactive skills: standard level
Interactive skills: higher level

initiate and maintain the flow of conversations and discussions

express and respond to opinions and feelings on a variety of topics

use and understand clear speech on topics related to course content

use a variety of strategies to negotiate meaning and foster communication in a manner appropriate to the culture

initiate, maintain and close oral exchanges in culturally appropriate ways

display ability to make adjustments in style or emphasis

use a variety of strategies to maintain the flow of conversations and discussions on topics related to course content

students at HL are adept in negotiating meaning and fostering communication

Assessment of these skills takes place in one individual oral exam which composes 25% of the final IB grade. In IB terminology this exam is referred to as ‘internal assessment’ since it is conducted and marked by the teacher, with samples being submitted to IB for moderation. It is important that teachers, despite differences in school context, use the same protocols and standards in administering the oral exams. Therefore, the IB has provided detailed explanation of procedures in the Subject Guide and also in the Teacher Support Material (found in the online Programme Resource Centre). The activities in the coursebook are in line with the expected conduct of the exams.

It is worth noting that the oral examinations at standard and higher level are similar; it is the topic of the presentation and follow-up discussion which is the essential difference.

Standard level
Higher level

Topics
Two of the five IB themes
One of the two literary works + one of the five IB themes

Stimulus for presentation
One of two photographs from different themes
One of two extracts, one from each literary work

Preparation time
15 minutes
20 minutes

Part 1: Presentation

Part 2: Follow up discussion

Part 3: General discussion

12 to 15 minutes
12 to 15 minutes

Unit teaching guidance

Unit 9.1 – Standard level individual oral

The activities are organised to focus on each stage of the exam.
Activities 1.1–1.4 | Selecting the photograph
Activities 1.5–1.7 | Using the preparation time
Activities 1.8–1.9 | Listening to a sample oral exam: Audio track 22
Activity 1.10 | An informal practice presentation
Activity 1.11 | Practising the follow-up discussion
Activities 1.12–1.13 | The general discussion
Activity 1.14 | Finding a good photograph

Activity 1.1

The activity draws attention to the basic characteristics that students should consider when they look at the visual stimulus. They should think about how they can use the photograph to show the language they have learned in the exploration of a specific topic during the course. The six criteria listed in the activity are adapted from the Subject Guide, in which teachers are given guidance in the selection of photographs.

Image a has possible connections to ‘experiences’ and ‘sharing the planet’, if the damage is seen as the result of a hurricane.

Image b has possible connections to human ingenuity.

Image c has connections to ‘identity’ and ‘experiences’.

Image d has connections to ‘identity’.

Image e has connections to ‘social organisaton’.

Image f has connection to ‘human ingenuity’ and ‘social organisation’.

Image a meets the criteria: ‘intriguing and thought provoking’ and ‘open to interpretation.’

Image b has a ‘clear connection to one of the prescribed themes’.

Image c also has a ‘clear connection to one of the prescribed themes’ and it encourages ‘you to speak about international mindedness.’ It is also ‘thought provoking, perhaps by telling a story.’

Image d is ‘relevant to an Anglophone culture’ and it should ‘lend itself well to a discussion’.

Image e is ‘open to interpretation,’ ‘encourages you to speak about international mindedness,’ and allows you to ‘formulate an argument.’

Image f is ‘intriguing and thought provoking’ ‘open to interpretation’ and ‘relevant to Anglophone cultures’.

Activity 1.2

The photographs used for the standard level exam do not have a caption, as they did prior to the 2020 exam session; they are simply labelled with the IB theme. This activity uses the technique of matching a declarative statement with an image to emphasise that a good presentation will have a thesis, which the student supports with evidence from work done in class.

Activity 1.3

The thesis statements in the previous activity are short, direct and contain a strong opinion. Each of them clearly indicates what aspect of the topic a student would defend in the oral presentation. In this activity, students experiment with writing two thesis statements (captions) for image f. If you ask them to write the captions on the board, the class can discuss which ones would be the best thesis statements for the presentation in the standard level oral exam.

Activity 1.4

At the start of the SL exam students are shown two photographs from different themes and choose one. The Tip feature gives some guidance about this, reminding students that the presentation is about more than just describing an intriguing image.

As your students explain to the class why they picked a specific image, you will be able to see if they can recall the themes and topics they have studied in the course. Ask them to make a few notes before they speak to the group.

Note: students will refer back to their chosen photograph in Activity 1.10

Activity 1.5

This activity uses the Harvard Project Zero method to stimulate thinking: ‘see – think – wonder’. Students work in pairs going through the routine with regard to the image they chose in the previous activity.

Activities 1.6 and 1.7

The next stage of the oral exam is the 15 minutes preparation time. Students plan a 3–4 minute presentation. These two activities recommend a two-step process:

Step 1: creating a mind map of ideas inspired by the image

Step 2: turning the diagram into notes they may take into the exam room.

Activity 1.8

The strategy here is for students to listen to Audio Track 22, a ‘mock’ SL oral, and assess how well the candidate meets IB expectations. Rather than asking students to use the full assessment criteria with the detailed descriptors in each mark band, they concentrate on the questions which form the headings for each criterion. They are presented in table form in the coursebook.

This activity will work best if students can listen to the audio track on their own devices. In order to find evidence for their judgement as to how well the candidate performs on each criterion, they will need to replay and make a few notes as they listen. The transcript of the recording is provided. After discussing their assessment with other students, you can direct the class to the full criteria for the individual oral at the beginning of the coursebook. The class can identify the exact descriptors which they feel apply to the candidate’s oral exam.

Suggested criteria and marks for the ‘mock oral exam’ (Audio track 22) are given below.

Criterion A: Language – 10 out of 12

The student’s use of English is appropriate to the task. In his opening talk he articulates his ideas effectively, using words such as “empathy”, “emotional damage” and “real consequences”. He uses a variety of grammatical structures, though not all are complex. He also repeats structures such as “so now...”, “so in a sense...” and “so what I’m saying...” Overall pronunciation and intonation are easy to understand and they help to convey meaning.

Criterion B1: Message – Visual stimulus – 6 out of 6

The student knows how to say a lot about a little. While the visual stimulus is rather limited in its scope, he knows how to comment on it effectively. Besides describing the scene in the photograph, he places himself in the person’s shoes, wondering what he would do in such a situation. He explores real-world problems, such as recent hurricanes, commenting on political tensions between the US and Puerto Rico, the US pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement and misinformation in the US about climate change. The presentation makes clear links to the target culture for these reasons.

Criterion B2: Message – Conversation – 6 out of 6

The teacher quizzes the student on the causes and effects of climate change and what was studied in class, which is not easy for the student. Nevertheless, he answers her questions with very concrete examples, referring to texts studied in class and clear explanations on climate change.

Criterion C: Interactive skills – Communication – 6 out of 6

He clearly shows signs of understanding his teacher and he participates effectively. When she asks which topics he found interesting in class, he mentions one, “poverty” and explains why he found it interesting, “because I learned a few things that I didn’t expect to learn”. Besides referring to classroom texts, he comments on his own life in a relevant way, such as biking and being Dutch. He sometimes asks for clarification, such as “Is that what you mean?” This shows good communication skills.

Activity 1.9

This is another approach to the important skill of planning the presentation. It asks the student to consider their presentation as answering a number of questions. This activity focuses attention on nine key questions by asking if they were answered in the sample oral presentation in Audio track 22. You might choose to put students in pairs for this memory exercise because it will generate discussion about the points that they remember from the recording. See transcript for specific answers to questions.

Activity 1.10

Following on directly from Activity 1.9, students apply the nine questions to the visual stimulus which they chose in Activity 1.4. By answering each of the questions and linking them with appropriate transition phrases they can create a short presentation.

Depending on the number of students in your class you could ask students to make their presentation to the full group. Not only will they get feedback from peers, but they will also learn by listening to other students’ presentations. An alternative approach is to put the students in pairs and use the next activity for both presentation and follow-up discussion work.

Teaching idea

As the Tip feature at the top of the page in the coursebook suggests, you could arrange to record students as they make their presentations. For homework, they could be asked to listen to themselves and use the same process as that in Activity 1.8 to get a sense of what they might need to improve.

ATL

The IB identifies ‘self-management skills’ as one of five competencies that a diploma student should develop. In preparing for final exams this is an essential characteristic.

Students need to develop their own strategies for reviewing their work and practising the skills which will be assessed. You might want to ask students to share the ways in which they study before exams. What strategies do they use? Which of the activities in this unit have they found most useful? Which would they go back to as they do their final revision before the oral exam?

Activity 1.11

This activity helps students prepare for the follow-up discussion in the oral exam. They will be asked several questions about the theme which was represented in the image. More details can be found in the Subject Guide. In order to practise this part of the exam, students work in pairs; one takes the role of the teacher, asking questions from those listed in the coursebook. The aim is to use the questions to create a short conversation on the topic of the presentation.

Activity 1.12

In the final few minutes of the oral exam the teacher starts a conversation about a second theme. This activity uses a series of questions to remind students of the topics they have studied throughout the course. Students should refer to their notebooks or binders, coursebooks and any other materials they have gathered during the course.

Teaching idea

One way of approaching this review exercise is to assign one or two students to elicit ideas from the class and write them on the board. It might be in the form of a large spider diagram so that connections between topics can be drawn in.

Activity 1.13

This activity also focuses on Part 3 of the exam, the general discussion. It suggests that students practise using set phrases from the list in the coursebook because they help create the style and tone of a discussion. Criterion C assesses the ability to make independent contributions to a conversation rather than simply communicating information or responding to questions.

Activity 1.14

As a concluding task, students search for an image which would make a strong visual stimulus for an oral exam. Now that they have worked through all the activities in this unit they will have a good sense of what kind of photograph would lead to an interesting presentation and an engaging conversation.

Teaching idea

You might choose to do further activities in which the students act as examiners and assess oral exams by using the two SL samples from the Teacher Support Material. This can be found on the Programme Resource Centre on ‘My IB’.

Unit 9.2 – Higher level individual oral

The activities in this unit are organised to focus on each stage of the exam.
Activities 2.1–2.2 | Using the preparation time
Activities 2.3–2.4 | Listening to a ‘mock’ oral exam: Audio track 23
Activity 2.5 | Part 1: a presentation using an extract from a text that has been studied
Activity 2.6–2.7 | Part 2:the follow-up discussion on the literary work
Activity 2.8–2.9 | Part 3: the discussion about one of the five IB themes
Activity 2.10 | Assessing the performance on Audio track 23
Activity 2.11 | Reviewing literary texts through presentations

The unit begins with an explanation of the format of the higher level oral exam. At this point, you could explain to the class that this unit proposes strategies for handling the challenge of the oral exam and will go step-by-step through the complete process.

Activity 2.1

Using Text 9.1, an extract from the novel The Collector by John Fowles, this activity recommends that students use a mind map as a way to start the preparation for the oral presentation. The ‘5 Ws and 1 H’ questions are likely to be familiar to students from their work on texts throughout the course. Although your students may not have read this novel they should use the extract for this exercise because it is the subject of the ‘mock’ oral on Audio track 23.

Activity 2.2

The next stage in the 20 minutes preparation time is to organise the notes and ideas from the mind map into a structure for the 4-minute presentation. The activity lists six important points students should include in their presentation. They are allowed to take one page of up to 10 notes in bulleted form, into the exam room.

Students work individually on creating the plan for a presentation on the extract from The Collector. You might choose to give them time to compare their plans with those of one or two other students. However, the main comparison will happen in the next activity when they listen to the recording.

Activities 2.3 and 2.4

These two activities ask students to listen to the first four minutes of a ‘mock’ higher level oral exam (Audio track 23). The transcript is provided. You can decide whether you prefer your students to work from the audio alone or give them the transcript as support material for the following activities:

The first task is to listen for the structure. Students have just tried to create their own structure for a presentation on the same extract so they are well-prepared to analyse the way this IB candidate has done it. Your class should make an outline according to what they hear in the recording so it might work better if they can listen on their own devices.

The next task focuses attention on the importance of quoting from the extract in the presentation. Once the class has had time to listen again to the recording and answer the three questions in Activity 2.4 you might want to lead a short discussion on the difference between summarising and analysing, as pointed out in the side bar.

Activity 2.5

The way you approach this activity will likely depend on whether you are using the unit to complete the work on a literary text or as the final preparation before the IB oral examination. The objective is for students to select their own extract from a literary text, create a plan for the presentation and then record themselves. When they listen to their recorded presentation they use the assessment criteria to evaluate their work. As an additional exercise they exchange recordings with a classmate.

Teaching idea

If you think your students need more support before trying the exercise as laid out in the coursebook, you could put them in small groups to complete the first two steps of the process. Once they have chosen an extract, created a spider diagram of ideas and drawn up the outline in 10 bulleted points, they make individual recordings.

Activities 2.6 and 2.7

These tasks move the focus to Part 2 of the oral exam, the short discussion which follows the presentation. Activity 2.6 gives examples of the types of question which the teacher could ask. Give the class some time to reflect on how they would answer those questions about the presentation they had recorded in the previous activity. It’s not required that they share answers at this point; the aim is to prepare them for the next task which is listening to the follow-up discussion on Audio track 23.

Activity 2.7 doesn’t direct students to listen for the information; since they probably haven’t studied this novel the answers given by the student are not important. The aim is to notice the style of question (closed/open) and the way the candidate responds to the teacher. The transcript can be useful for focusing attention on the way the conversation flows.

Activity 2.8

This activity suggests that you use the recording of the ‘mock’ oral exam (Audio track 23) to introduce students to the way that Part 3 of the oral exam moves to another part of the syllabus. Listening to the full audio track is the best way to organise the activity as the class will be able to notice the timing: 4 minutes presentation, 4 to 5 minutes follow up discussion, 5 to 6 minutes on a new topic.

Prepare them to catch answers to the questions in the activity as they listen to the last part of the recording. The goal is to emphasise how the student has a ‘message’, an opinion, to convey and can back it up with reference to coursework.

Suggested criteria for the ‘mock’ oral exam (Audio track 23) are given below.

Criterion A: Language – 10 out of 12

The student’s vocabulary is appropriate to the task. When speaking about the novel’s characters, she uses relevant terms such as “passive aggressive” and “psychopath”. She places herself in the shoes of the character and explains that she “would be concerned,” using multiple conditional phrases. Her use of language is effective for an analysis of the novel. Later in the conversation, when discussing the theme of identities she uses language in proficient and fluent way.

Criterion B: Message – Literary extract – 6 out of 6

The student has a lot to say about the literary work, and her presentation shows a clear understanding of it. She analyses the characters carefully and gives examples of their behaviour, referring to the text frequently. She comments on the themes and places the work in the context of the 1960s and the hippie movement. She speaks about The Collector in a meaningful way, making insightful interpretations frequently.

Criterion B: Message – Conversation – 6 out of 6

The teacher frequently asks the student to expand or elaborate on her statements, which she does nicely. For example, in their conversation about respecting other cultures, she refers to fasting during Ramadan in Dubai, where she lives. Her responses are consistently appropriate and developed, showing thought, reference to school work and personal engagement.

Criterion C: Interactive skills – Communication – 6 out of 6

The student shows that she understands her teacher. For example, when asked what contributes to her own identity, she says that tennis plays a role in her life. When asked about international mindedness, she gives good examples that were discussed in class. Participation is sustained with many independent contributions.

Activity 2.9

Revising for an exam in a language course requires reviewing vocabulary as well as content. Although this activity asks questions about the course content, as students look through their notebooks and other materials, they should remind themselves of the terms and expressions they have acquired as they discussed the topics.

Teaching idea

One way of approaching this review exercise is to assign one or two students to elicit ideas from the class and write them on the board. It might be in the form of a large spider diagram so that connections between topics can be drawn in. You might extend the task by asking for additional vocabulary associated with specific topics in the diagram.

Activity 2.10

Having listened to Audio track 23 several times, the students are familiar enough with the content to try to assess the candidate’s performance. This is quite a difficult task so the method that is suggested here is to use the questions from the opening of each of the criteria. They are listed in table format. There are no ‘right answers’; the purpose of the activity is to give students a reason to really think about the aspects that will be assessed.

You could conclude the discussion by referring students to the full assessment criteria at the beginning of the coursebook, so that they can read the descriptors in each mark band. Are they able to agree on the mark bands for Audio track 23, even if they disagree on the precise mark awarded?

Teaching idea

You could do further exercises in which the students act as examiners and assess oral exams by using the two HL samples from the Teacher Support Material. This can be found on the Programme Resource Centre on ‘My IB’.

Activity 2.11

This activity describes one way of organising your class to work on extracts from the two literary texts studied as part of the course. The technique of students working in pairs on the same extract leads to plenty of discussion and builds confidence. Each pair makes a presentation to the class. When all the presentations on one text have been completed, a discussion opens up on the key themes, characters, stylistic features and other aspects of the text which have been highlighted. It is an effective way to review a literary text.

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First published 2018

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