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Below are some resources to assist you with our study of Haruki Murakami:

Murakami: An Introduction

Official Haruki Murakami Website

Murakami Interview with Paris Review

Murakami Interview with The Guardian

Original 1997 New York Times’ Review of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle

Greetings Seniors!

Paper Two is a compare and contrast essay, focusing on an evaluation of the playwrights’ choices. To prepare for this essay you should…

• Reread at least two scenes/speeches from each play
• Review your study guides (index cards)
• Identify which “conventions of the genre” are associated with each play.

Below are all of the resources I have for Paper Two:

Paper 2 Rubric

Conventions of drama associated with

Paper 2 Higher Level

Paper 2 examiner comments

Paper 2 Introduction Example

Paper 2 Sample Drama Prompts

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WRITE ABOUT ANOTHER GENRE; DO NOT WRITE ABOUT POETRY, FICTION, OR (OTHER THAN FICTION)!

Our chosen genre of study is DRAMA!!! Select only one prompt associated with drama.

Given that you are being assessed on your ability to respond to the prompt, please ensure that you refer to language from the prompt in your essay.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

p.s. Feel free to contact me via email, jccoey@gmail.com or by phone 916-284-7673

Seniors!!!

Would you like to see a scored Paper 1 essay? Well, good news. I have this Paper One Standard Level essay for you to consider. Unlike our Higher Level Literature course, this Standard Level exam provides two guiding questions. You will see those questions at the top of the typed response. Give it a read and notice the following:

• the writer’s use of evidence from the passage (lots of concrete details!)
• commentary on the writer’s choices and techniques
• use of the writer’s name in several paragraphs
• an evaluation of the effects of those choices
• “foil”, narrative voice, word choice, and tone (literary concepts)

The essay scored a 17/20, which is a very high score. Please consider reviewing these Paper 1 Standard Level Examiner Comments for the sample essay. Download the Paper 1 Rubric here..

Please keep in mind that Monday’s Paper One exam assesses your ability to:

• show  understanding of either the prose passage or poem through well-supported interpretation
• identify language usage, structure, style, and technique employed by the author
• discuss the effects that arise for the author’s choices
• present your ideas in a formally organized and coherently developed piece of writing

For more information about how to approach writing a literary commentary, please refer to this document, which we discussed in class: What is literary commentary

If you would like to review ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF PAPER ONE AND PAPER TWO EXAMS CLICK HERE.

I look forward to seeing you bright and early Monday morning at 7:30 a.m. in front of room J1.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

p.s. If you need to brush up on your idioms, metaphors, and litotes, be sure to check out this resource @ http://literarydevices.net/

p.p.s Should the need arise, please contact me at jccoey@gmail.com or by phone 916-284-7673

Folger Theater Hamlet Overview

Reading plays

The Tragedy According to Aristotle

To be or not to be

The Tragedy of Hamlet Powerpoint for IB English

Harold Bloom on Shakespeare

Hip-Hop & Shakespeare? Akala at TEDxAldeburgh

George Detmold Essay on Hamlet

The Language of Shakespeare

Effective Citing and Referencing

Individual Oral Commentary Schedule 2015

IOC Practice Discussion Questions 2015

Individual Oral Commentary and Discussion Rubric

Oral Commentary Discussion Rubric Explained!

Organizing Your Commentary and Historical and Literary Context

how to talk about what literary devices do

Hey IB seniors!

If you were absent Friday, October 10th, this is the assignment I need  you to complete by Monday, October 13th:

Chapter XI and Appendix

Questions for Discussion of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass For this assignment, prepare at least three passages (thematically linked of course) for question 1 AND three passages for question 2. Due Monday. You will not have advanced knowledge of which question you will be assigned to discuss for 10 minutes! So prepare both! Sorry, that’s IB.

To support your journey into the ‘highlands of the mind,’ I would like to share the following resources so that we may further develop an understanding of the historical and literary context surrounding Douglass’ narrative:

1. The Abolitionists, a PBS documentary, is fantastic! Abolitionist allies Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown and Angelina Grimké turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation. This is a must see!

2. Characteristics of the Slave Narrative. This is an outline of the archetypal slave narrative plot, themes, and motifs.

3. Understanding Racism to End Its Effects. This essay describes the mythology behind antebellum white supremacy and the approaches African-Americans might take in order to refute such racist claims.

4. Three maps of the United States of America: 1820, 1850, and 1854

5. Frederick Douglass’ Vocabulary Defined!

6. Our reading schedule…Reading Schedule

This should suffice for now. I have other resources, but I don’t want to inundate you with too much. Check back soon for an update.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

Look at these examples! It’s quite easy actually.

Citing Drama

This would be ‘germane’ to your typed Antigone essay. Be sure to include a works cited page with the proper citation for your essay:

Sophocles. The Oedipus Cycle: An English Version. Trans. Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald.   San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, 1977. Print.

Kafka, Franz. “Letter to His Father.” Trans. Ernest Kaiser and Eithene Wilkins. Legacies: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1995. 322-28. Print.

Kafka, Franz. “The Metamorphosis.” The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken, 1988. 89-139. Print.

Ninh, Bảo. The Sorrow of War: A Novel of North Vietnam. Ed. Frank Palmos. Trans. Phan T. Hao. New York: Riverhead, 1996. Print.

–Coey

Greetings all,

Below are examples of high-scoring IB English essays.

Score of 23/25

engalit_hl_sample9  

Enlish HL sample 9 examiner comments

Score of 22/25

engalit_hl_sample10_en

English HL sample 10 examiner comments

Score of 18/25

engalit_hl_sample12_en

English HL sample 12 examiner comments

Remember to write strongly focused topic sentences, and in each paragraph discuss the writer’s choices and the extent to which you appreciate those choices. If you discuss Kafka’s choices throughout your essay (perhaps 2-5 times each body paragraph) you will likely improve your evaluation of “The Metamorphosis” as a work of art.

Thank you for all of your hard work.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

p.s. Spring Break is almost here!

My dear students,

I’m surprised to know that you haven’t discovered the wonderful world of audiobooks! You know, this can be a great way to experience great literature. In my experience, the best professional readers generally are NOT giving their work away for free, however. If you want a GREAT listening experience, you’ll need to go the the public library. Once there, you can often search for available audiobooks or search for the book title. Some audiobooks you can stream, or you can request the title and have it sent to your nearest library branch. It’s easy, and it’s a great way to read. Yes, this still counts as reading. And for you reading purists out there, don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!

Some free audiobooks are available through Youtube. Grab a cup of tea and enjoy someone else reading to you!

“The Metamorphosis” audiobook by Librivox

Also, some people process/learn better by listening and using their imagination. If this is true of you, then what are you waiting for?!

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

Dear students,

Again, thank you for all of your hard work!  Last week we wrote creative, Kafkaesque shorter stories and shared those stories with a small writing group. I hope you have had a chance to make revisions to your story (so that it is more Kafkaesque). By the way, I would like to thank my group for providing valuable suggestions for how to improve my creative writing.

1. Please proofread your shorter story prior to publishing in the ‘comment’ section of this post. Be sure to provide your user name (as I previously approved it); otherwise this website will think you are a different user.

2. Upload your shorter story. Due Monday at the start of class.

3. Provide positive comments about your classmates’ stories, specifically citing examples of Kafka’s style in their writing. Due Monday at the end of class.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey