Active, Compassionate Discovery Learners . . .
The A1 English Program is primarily a pre-university course in literature. Students who intend to pursue literature or related studies at university follow the Higher Level program, while students who do not intend to pursue a formal study of literature follow the Standard Level.
One of the most effective and humanizing ways that people of different cultures
can have access to each other’s experiences and concerns is through works of
literary merit. –Salma Jayyusi, The Literature of Modern Arabia
Language shapes our perceptions, our selective visual and auditory memories, and our experience of self, society, and the world. Literature engages our imaginations, our conceptions, our interpretations, and our shared reflections upon experience in the world, as well as our transformations or self-revisions. The study of literature enables us to explore of one of the more enduring fields of human creativity and artistic ingenuity, encouraging independent, original, critical, creative, and clear thinking. Besides promoting a healthy respect for imagination and its truth, the study of literature offers perceptual, emotional, rhetorical, and cognitive approaches to understanding and interpreting literary works. The discussion of literature is itself an art which requires clear oral and written expression. Students learn to examine in a variety of ways and on multiple levels the arts or practices by which different authors use language to convey poetic purpose and attitude. The framework of the two-year program invites students to compare and contrast fifteen creative works selected from a variety of cultures. We study four or five of these works in translation from other languages. Such a study of World Literature offers a global perspective and international awareness. Students experience how literature promotes a ‘world spirit’ through shared expressions of life common to all humanity. They develop attitudes of tolerance, empathy, and a genuine respect for perspectives different from their own.
Knowledgeable . . .
Both Higher and Standard Levels AIM
to encourage personal appreciation of literature,
to develop an understanding of the techniques involved in literary criticism,
to develop the students’ powers of expression in both oral and written communication,
to provide practices developing skills needed to write and to speak in a variety of styles and situations,
to introduce students to a range of literary works of different periods, genres, styles and contexts,
to broaden students’ perspectives through the study of works from other cultures andlanguages,
to introduce students to ways of approaching and studying literature, leading to the development and appreciation of the relationships between different works,
to develop the ability to engage in close, detailed analysis of written text, and to promote enjoyment of, and lifelong interest in, literature.
Communicators . . .
Higher and Standard Level Candidates will be expected to demonstrate
ability to engage in independent literary criticism in a manner which reveals a personal response to literature,
ability to express ideas with clarity, coherence, conciseness, precision and fluency in both written and oral communication,
a command of the language appropriate for the study of literature
a discriminating appreciation of the need for an effective choice of register and style in both oral and written communication,
a sound approach to literature,
a thorough knowledge of the individual works studied and relationships between groups of works,
appreciation of the similarities and differences between literary works from different ages and/or cultures,
ability to engage in independent textual commentary on both familiar and unfamiliar pieces of writing,
a wide-ranging appreciation of structure, technique and style as employed by authors and of their effects on the reader,
ability to structure ideas and arguments, both orally and in writing, in a logical, sustained and persuasive way, and to support them with precise and relevant examples.
Inquiring, Reflective . . .
hIgher Order ThInking skills
Literature challenges the certainty of completed knowledge.
-Frank Rarig, 20th c. American
Synthesis . . . is the musical arrangement of a passionate truth.
The force that through the green fuse drives the flower
Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees
Is my destroyer.
And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose
My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. –Dylan Thomas, 20th c. Welsh
Analysis . . . is the recognizing and examining of significant patterns in order to understand better their meaning.
The Red Cockatoo
Sent as a present from Annam—
A red Cockatoo.
Coloured like the peach-tree blossom,
Speaking with the speech of men.
And they did to it what is always done
To the learned and eloquent.
They took a cage with stout bars
And shut it up inside. –Po Chu-I, A.D. 815, Chinese
Hypothesizing . . . is the emergency of implications and possibilities.
I dwell in possibilities . . . –Emily Dickinson, 19th c. American
Prioritizing . . . is recognizing and implementing a scale of values.
. . . I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. –Dr. Martin Luther King, 20th c. American
Presenting . . . is discovering and finding the right medium for the message.
The purpose of the playing is to hold as ‘twere the mirror up to nature, to show
virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the
time his form and pressure.
–Hamlet’s advice to the Players, Shakespeare, 17th c. England
Life-long Learners . . .
|
