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IB History HL
Summer Work Historical Investigation
The Assignment:
You are going to review, revise and improve your Historical Investigation
1. Your first step is to identify the weaknesses through peer evaluation.
2. You may need to revise your research question based on the evidence you found, this is the time to do it. You undoubtedly will need to find some additional resources. This is always the nature of research—the answers you find lead to more questions, and so on.
3. Carefully proofread, review and make revisions on each section of your Investigation. You are your own best editor! Give special attention to the Summary of Evidence and Analysis of Evidence. These two sections are the “meat” of your HI.
4. Assess your final draft using the HI rubric. (Copy is on Mr. Bouchard’s Web site). This should result in more revisions—this is the nature of the process.
5. Half page reflection on what changes, revisions and improvement you made to your HI during this process.
Grading:
You will turn in your draft at the beginning of the semester to your IB Twentieth Century teacher. Part of your grade will be the improvement of your investigation from the draft you turned in to your IB teacher before summer.
You will get comments back from an IB history teacher and then you will have a month to make corrections and turn the final in to your IB Twentieth Century teacher who will grade it and send them into IB for review.
if you have questions or need help, email Mr. Bouchard. Wait 1-5 days for my response.
IB English A1 Year One
Summer Work
Rationale: Because International Baccalaureate English requires students to work at a deep level of study, and because analysis and writing instruction will begin on day one, it is essential that you prepare yourself for the course by doing the preliminary tasks. Before you arrive in class in September, you will need to have engaged in a close reading and analysis of the following works. Even if you have read one or both of the works, it is highly recommended that you read them again, with a deeper level of analysis, so that you are fully prepared for class in the fall.
- Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck
- Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
The Assignments:
- Dialectical journal. For each chapter, for each novel, you will need to write two double entry/ dialectical journals, focusing on literary style and technique (two entries per chapter per book.) Each quote must be written in proper MLA style and the analysis should be at least two sentences in length per quote. Please see Ms. Helling-Christy (room 56D) prior to the end of the year if you are uncertain how to write a double entry/ dialectical journal.
- Reduction. For each novel, write a one page reduction.
A reduction gets its name from this definition: "the reduced or distilled essence of something." In cooking, when you reduce a sauce, you cook it until the water cooks out of it and you are left with a thick, intensely flavored liquid, like gravy or stock. That’s what you’ll be doing here. You’ll take each work we read and cook it down to its essentials.
You will create your reduction on a single sheet of 8 ½" x 11" paper (front only). Imagine you could take this one sheet into an exam. What would you want to have on it? You will determine what to include and how you will organize it. No two reductions will be alike. You may use dashes, bullets, arrows, boxes, brackets, underlining, and shading to highlight items and make connections. This format is creative and self-determined. Avoid including too much plot summary and character description. Some is okay; focus also on themes/messages, symbols, etc. In short, be creative, thoughtful, and thorough. It will pay off.
Grading: You will receive a grade no lower than a 90% on these tasks if they are complete and turned in on time. This is an excellent way to start your year with a high grade.
Texts for the year: We will study a total of 7 works (novels, plays and collections of writings) during your junior year. We will be spending only brief class sessions on each novel; it would therefore be in your best interest to read as many of these ahead of time as possible, and then re-read them along with the class for further insight.
I strongly encourage you to purchase as many of the texts as possible, many of which you can find affordably online and at used book stores. Purchasing your books will allow you to write in them, making useful notes that you will be referring to as we proceed through the class. Books will, of course, be available for check-out should you decide not to purchase your own and may be checked out at the end of the school year. The following works will be read (in this order) your junior year:
- Obasan; Joy Kogowa
- A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. James M. Washington ed.
- Song of Solomon; Toni Morrison
- Like Water for Chocolate; Laura Esquivel
- Chronicle of a Death Foretold; Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Blood Wedding; Frederica Garcia Lorca; Translator Ted Hughes.
- Zorba the Greek; Nikos Kazantzakis
Dialectic Journal
Chapter 1:
“Om silently—this word of words, to say it inwardly with the intake of breath, when breathing out with all his soul, his brow radiating the glow of pure spirit. “ (Hesse 3)
“There was wonderful wisdom in these verses—all of the knowledge of the sages was told here in enchanting language, pure as honey collected by bees.” (Hesse, 7) |
Literary device: ambiguity. Hmm… so how do you “radiate the glow of pure spirit?” what does that even mean?? This would certainly seem an example of ambiguity—b/c what does it mean. Definitely a metaphor—a figure of speech b/c indeed his brow did not actually radiate.
Literary device: metaphor. Again, a metaphor—“pure as honey collected by bees.” Never thought of honey being pure, but I can see that it is really pretty darn pure
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Chapter 2:
“ . . . everything lied, stank of lies; they were all allusions of sense, happiness and beauty. All were doomed to decay. The world tasted bitter. Life was pain. (Hesse, 14)
Siddhartha speaks to himself: “What is meditation? What is fasting? What is the holding of breath? It is a flight from the Self, it is temporary escape from the torment of Self. It is a temporary palliative against the pain and folly of life. The driver of oxen . . . takes this temporary drug when he drinks a few bowls of rice wine or cocoanut milk in the inn. He then no longer feels his Self, no longer feels the pain of life; he then experiences temporary escape. (Hesse 17) |
In the preceding text Hesse identifies a wide range of significant life experiences—parenting, death, love, business—and yet groups all those experiences together as lies, allusions—doomed to decay—suggesting that human experience isn’t meaningful? Seems a bit on the negative side of life—life is pain? Not always surely! Is this an example of a paradox?
Reaction: Interesting . . . so mediation could very well be the solution for people who have escape issues—i.e., those who eat/drink to escape from the “pain of life.” There is research on the biological effects on the brain from both prayer and mediation—I wonder if it affects the same regions as pleasure or if it utilizes the same neurotransmitters? Does seem like many folks need to escape life—is that an escape from self?? `
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Chapter 3: He saw him bearing an alms bowl . . . the Buddha (Hesse 27)
“your doctrine of rising above the world .. ..to salvation.” (Hesse 32) |
I thought Siddhartha was the first Buddha! So was there always a Buddha?? Who was the first Buddha
I’m not sure what this means . . perhaps just the concept of heaven? Something behind the temporal
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Chapter 4: He looked around him as if seeing the world for the first time. The world was beautiful, strange and mysterious . . . . and in the midst of it, he Siddhartha, the awakened one, on the way to himself. . . . Meaning and reality were not hidden somewhere behind things, they were in them, in all of them.
.. . this was also clear to him: he who was in fact like one who had awakened or was newly born, must begin his life completely afresh. . . .
That was the last shudder of his awakening, the last pains of birth . . .when he stood alone and was more firmly himself.” (40, 41) |
Not sure what this means . . .is it part of “what is, is?”
By being totally alone he was more himself?? Hm… this has to be more of a metaphor. Not sure what he means. The theme of rebirth—in Christianity—seems at play. When the earth melts away—when the temporal is gone, and only the spiritual is left?
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Senior IB Summer Work Composition Journal
The Assignment:
You are going to compose a reading journal which you will submit for review the first day of your senior year. This typed journal (MLA format of course) will be kept in a folder with pockets.
1. Each week you’ll read a chapter in Sound and Sense (so, you’ll complete chapters 1-9) .
2. Entries are to be in response to a specific chapter from Sound and Sense. Title your entry using MLA format, as you would for a works cited page. Make sure you include the page numbers in the text.
3. For each chapter, choose three poems to answer each poem’s questions in complete sentences.
4. Write a one-page analysis for a fourth poem from the chapter. Your response should analyze the poem’s use of style (diction, imagery, syntax, resonance, structure, etc.) and how that style contributes to the meaning of the poem.
Documentation Example:
Dickinson, Emily. “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” Sound |
and Sense. Ed. Laurence Perrine. San Diego: Harcourt,
Brace, Jovanovich, 1987. 262.
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Grading:
As each chapter focuses on more literary techniques, your poetic knowledge should grow as the summer moves on. Therefore, your writing will be graded on your growth as a poetry reader, writer, and thinker. Obviously, I won’t be convinced of growth if you always choose similar-style poems and never incorporate the techniques discussed in the chapters. Try poems from various eras and forms. I will reward writing that reflects superior effort and extraordinary insight.
You will receive a grade no lower than a 90% for your journal if the entries are complete and turned in on time. Each chapter’s analysis is worth 25 points, so this is an excellent way to start your year off with a high grade.
In addition, there will be a test of your poetic knowledge when you return to SHS in the fall.
Additional Note: For those of you who want to read ahead/early (which I strongly encourage), here you go. See Ms. Dann after school to check out any book you’d like to start on.
1. The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Holy Sonnets of John Donne – Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed.
3. Journals of Susanna Moodie – Margaret Atwood
4. King Lear - Shakespeare
5. Hamlet -Shakespeare
6. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead – Tom Stoppard
7. Waiting For Godot – Samuel Beckett
8. The Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen
9. The Crucible – Arthur Miller
if you have questions or need help, email Ms. Dann. Wait 1-5 days for her response.
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