Greetings IB Juniors:

You have recently completed your supervised writing of your Murakami essay. Congratulations! Remember to develop your essay from your supervised writing; the IB organization wants to deter plagiarism and promote academic honesty. DO NOT, under any circumstance, copy any sentences, paragraphs, or entire essays from any online essays. IF YOU do this, you are cheating and you will earn a failing mark for the assignment and be referred to the principal and IB coordinator. I only mention this, not for the majority of you, but for the minority. Sadly, there have been two recent examples of such plagiarism. Overall, however, I am very pleased with your creativity and your perseverance. Great ideas!

Outlining Your Essay:

In the past, I have asked students to outline with topics and supporting examples. For this essay, however, I would like you to instead use questions as the guiding ideas for your essay. For example, let’s say my essay topic is “darkness in Murakami’s novel, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle.” I might outline my essay with the following questions:

1. What role does ‘darkness’ play in Toru’s search for the truth?
2. How does Murakami use the image of darkness to create tension and ambiguity?
3. How does the ‘darkness’ associated with the woman in Room 208 relate to not only Toru’s search but also his state-of-mind?
4. What role does ‘darkness’ play in Kumiko’s life?
5. Why does Murakami include this motif? How might it be related to the novel’s themes?

You can see that from these questions, I will generate several answers, and these answers will become my topic sentences for the development of my paragraphs and my essay. Think of your topic sentences as mini-thesis statements (Topic, opinion, and support). If you approach the outline and development of your essay this way, I am certain that you will have a well-developed and well-organized essay, which is ONE of the CRITERIA you will need to address.

1. Respond to this post with 4 or more questions about your essay topic. They need to be good questions, related to literary concepts/aspects of the novel as a genre. Two of the questions should mention Murakami by name. Remember, this is an essay about the author’s choices, namely Murakami’s choices.
2. Click on the “comments” at the bottom of this post and submit your questions. We can comment on each other’s questions and provide suggestions or feedback as necessary.
3. Due Monday, March 7
4. After submitting these questions, please begin developing your essay, and use these questions to organize and develop your essay!

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

Welcome to the first Magical Realism and Surrealism Convention! February 24-25

In our two day convention, teams of gamers will be competing to design the most clever games meant to illuminate, interest, and confound willing participants. The rules are simple:

1. Develop a game using characters, settings, motifs, symbols, images, and other aspects of Murakami’s world of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle.
2. Design a unique game with a unique objective or design a game based on an already popular game format, e.g. “Pokemon,” “Monopoly,” “Clue,” “Texas Hold ‘Em” and so on.
3. Practice your game within your gaming team and make modifications to your game when this occurs (sometimes referred to as “special exceptions” to the rules).
4. Emphasize details of the novel so that (from a teacher’s point-of-view) I know that you are reviewing the book and the classmates who play your game will have insights into the novel’s themes or stylistic qualities.

Grading: For the purpose of using an assessment we are already familiar with, let’s use a modified IOP rubric:

A: Knowledge and Understanding– How much knowledge and understanding of the work does the gaming team demonstrate? (10 points)

B: Presentation–How much thought has been given to the creative presentation, the game’s objective, the rules of the game, the game board, game cards, and game pieces. (10 points)

C: Murakami–How much of the author’s thoughts, feelings, and choices (language, structure, style, and technique) are explored through the game play? (10 points)

Teams: For the sake of expediting this process, we will begin with our traditional “small group” of 4 students or “Lily Pads” as we sometimes call them. Once those groups are formed, you may swap out one group member for another if both individuals mutually consent. For example, let’s say a group is designing a Murakami game based on Pokemon and I am something of an expert, I should request to join that team. Use your best judgement and be inclusive!

Due: Wednesday, February 24: Game design and initial practice

Thursday, February 25: Game play and guest invitations to rival teams

Dear IB Juniors,

We just completed our first round of interactive oral presentations! The presenters did a great job explaining their concepts, providing examples, and then drawing us into the conversation so that we left with a renewed appreciation of the historical, philosophical, biographical and psychological contexts! Click here for the Interactive Oral Presentation Topics

Thank you so much!

It’s difficult for me to ask more of you, especially when you are all already working so hard. Still, this IB English course requires that we write a 300-400 word “Reflective Statement” after the “Interactive Oral Presentations.” (By the way, if you would like to see a sample “reflective statement,” click on “Nick Peters SOW Essay” on the page titled “IB Exemplary Essays.” His essay received the highest mark possible from an IB examiner)

I know you are all hard-working and very capable, however. So, I expect great thinking on this important writing assignment!

Use the following questions to help you develop a personal reflection and please do not go over the word count:

Because of the “Interactive Oral Presentations,” which concepts or ideas do you now understand? Select only one or two concepts to write about. (topic sentence)

Which specific examples from the novel can you relate to this idea? Explain in several sentences of commentary how this scene/moment/passage exemplifies the concept. (Concrete detail and commentary here)

 Explain the author’s role in addressing this concept. Which choices specifically does Murakami make to influence how we think about this concept. (commentary on the writer’s choices)

 Which questions about Murakami are you left with as a reader because of your participation in the “Interactive Oral Presentations”?

 Word count: 300-400 words

Due: Monday, February 15th at 7 p.m.

1. Type your reflection into a word document or cloud storage. Save. Then, read aloud and proofread.
2. Upload it to this website by clicking on the “comment” link at the bottom of THIS POST.
3. You will not see your reflection post immediately. First, I will need to approve your comment. Once I approve your comment, you will see your reflective statement on this website.

Our reading schedule should allow for us to read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle: Book Two, chapters 1-6, up to page 229. Please maintain the good habit of reading nightly and taking notes or making observations as you read. You’ll need those quotes in three weeks!

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

Greetings, Juniors! Our class website is a place where you can share resources, gather inspiration, and comment freely. Please subscribe to this website by adding your email account to the “subscription” field in the lower right corner of this page.

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!

Starting tomorrow you will have an opportunity to reflect on your formative years by making a “high school playlist.” These are the four songs that best represent your friendships, accomplishments, challenges, and successes. Or, if you prefer, include a song that captures your feelings about these last four years.

You may upload your songs to this shared folder.

Or, you can simply reply in the comment section of this post with the song title and artist. I’ll do what I can to find your song. Be warned, however, that YouTube has been restricting unofficial music videos, and the school district has censored some material. If you can, it would be best to upload a music file to our shared folder.

I’m looking forward to hearing your high school playlist!

Kind Regards,

Mr. Coey

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

Written Assignment Cover Sheet : Please fill in the fields for your name, candidate number, check the work you are writing about, essay word count, reflection word count, essay title. Print! You will sign. Then, I will review and sign! (If you get a “plug-in error,” just click the “always allow” pdf icon in the upper right. It should open.)

You may review the Rubric for World Literature Essay so that you know exactly how the examiner will score your essay.

The prompt for the Reflective Statement is as follows:
“How was your understanding of the cultural and the contextual considerations of the work developed through the interactive oral?”

You may copy this into your reflective statement, and paste it just above your typed response.

Reflective Statement: (300-400 words)

Written Assignment: (1,200-1,500 words)

——————————————————————————-

Below are examples of how to properly provide in-text citations and a works cited page.

Look at these examples! It’s quite easy actually when you are…

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.

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