Misinformation and disinformation: how the term fake news is meaningless

January 10, 2020

The ability for our students to determine who and what to trust is critical literacy in a nutshell. Our focus on how to analyse texts has not changed. What has changed is the media landscape in our ‘post truth’ or ‘post fact’ world. As Toby Manhire, editor of the New...

Helping yourself to a prawn off your boss’s plate

July 26, 2019

Having recently started teaching Theory of Knowledge for the first time this academic year, the links between Language A and TOK are even clearer. Recently while working through the language way of knowing, the class of year 1 diploma students and I watched RSA...

Paper Two: Students Teaching Students

May 29, 2019

How can teachers ensure that they offer revision activities that benefit a variety of skills and learning styles in their classroom? Here are some tried and tested activities that I like to use to prepare my mixed ability class for Paper Two. 1. Poster making Students...

Should Language and Literature teachers give more privilege to the politicians?

May 22, 2019

Using election campaigns for studying the power of language  It’s 1960. Personal computers don’t exist. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, by Harper Lee wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature. Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts is about to become the youngest elected...

Some wise advice about commentary?

April 15, 2019

At least from my point of view, what Robert Scholes had to say about close reading contains some good reminders. I think we all recognize the New Critical roots of the these IB assessments, both oral and written. And though I suspect not too many of us deliver ‘the’...

Migration as the Subject of Literary Art

March 22, 2019

Whether in your current courses in Language and Literature, or looking forward to the upcoming Individual Oral of the revised course (first examinations 2021), it certainly appears that a matter which touches our lives and those of our students all around the world is...