May and November 2022 Exams - Important Announcement – No Paper 2!
Sunday 21 February 2021
The IB recently sent an email to all IB Coordinators. In it, they said this (among other things): "Due to the continued loss of instructional time which will also have impacted these students, we have decided to extend the adaptations which were put in place for 2021 for sessions in 2022 (May and November)."
In practical terms, for Language and Literature teachers, that means Paper 2 is cancelled. This is for May and November schools and for both 2021 and 2022 examination sessions.
You will still need to cover the curriculum and teach the entire syllabus, but please note that there will be no Paper 2 exam.
As always, please do reach out to us for support if you have any questions! We are here to help you navigate this new and tricky terrain and if we can’t, we will be honest about that too. Most of all, we hope you are safe, healthy, and well.
Best,
Tim and David
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Comments 17
Can you confirm that the literary texts, and the exam skills, for Paper 2 must still be taught as if they were still going to sit the exam?
Hi Daniel,
This (below) is the information I can (currently) find from the IB. You should check with your IB Coordinator for updates.
The removal of paper 2 is intended to best balance disruptions to teaching and learning by allowing teachers to prioritise the skills that will be assessed in paper 1 as they teach the remaining literary works and non-literary texts or bodies of work.
Teachers are encouraged to continue to develop and refine student skills in the comparison and
contrast of texts. Although these skills will not be explicitly assessed in paper 1, skill development in comparison and contrast will create a keener awareness in students of how meaning is created in different text-types (literary and non-literary), of what makes a non-literary text similar and different from a literary text and of how the analysis of literary texts may help in the understanding, interpretation, analysis and evaluation of non-literary texts.
The study of the remaining literary works will in this way support the students’ preparation for paper 1.
Kind regards,
David
From my perspective, it would make far more sense to remove the HL / SL distinction for these years, remove paper 2 and make the HL essay compulsory for everybody. Teaching a two-year SL course where the two forms of assessment are a fifteen-minute oral and an hour fifteen analysis of a non-literary text seems rather underwhelming.
I completely agree with Carl: it needs to be more demanding for SL students. Either give them the HL essay or keep Paper 2 and scrap the oral.
Is there anyway we can appeal this? I agree whole heartedly with Carl and Susan.
Hi Carl, Susan, and Claire,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. As InThinking is not the IB, David and I can't speak for them or on behalf of them.
My advice would be to go to the Programme Communities Space on My IB and say the same thing you did here. That is the official IB online platform. While the powers that be don't necessarily read that, if there is enough "talk," maybe it will be bumped up to them. The other possibility is to put in a query through IB Answers to present your case.
Best,
Tim
Agree with the above comments to some extent. The course has become very flat and one dimensional for the SL students. I know we are still required to teach all of the literary texts, but the SL students really only need to engage with the text they are using for the IO. I am fortunate enough that I haven't lost too much contact time with the students and would have no problem getting through the whole course. If you are still required to teach the literary texts, is it that difficult to teach the students how to write a Paper 2? If the IB is bound and determined to get rid of Paper 2, I would support the HLE as both levels, and keep the IO as well. I think the IO provides some necessary rigour.
Hi Tim/David,
Paper 2 is scrapped but someone said that we still need to make the students write a paper 2 response for the Portfolio. I do not see such a note from IB.
Did I miss something?
Regards,
Swapna
Hi Swapna,
David wrote this to another subscriber/teacher about this question: "This (below) is the information I can (currently) find from the IB. You should check with your IB Coordinator for updates.
The removal of paper 2 is intended to best balance disruptions to teaching and learning by allowing teachers to prioritise the skills that will be assessed in paper 1 as they teach the remaining literary works and non-literary texts or bodies of work. Teachers are encouraged to continue to develop and refine student skills in the comparison and contrast of texts. Although these skills will not be explicitly assessed in paper 1, skill development in comparison and contrast will create a keener awareness in students of how meaning is created in different text-types (literary and non-literary), of what makes a non-literary text similar and different from a literary text and of how the analysis of literary texts may help in the understanding, interpretation, analysis and evaluation of non-literary texts. The study of the remaining literary works will in this way support the students’ preparation for paper 1."
Best,
Tim
Now that Paper 2 is cancelled, can SL students use any of the literary texts for the Individual Oral since none will be used for Paper 2.
Cheers
Hi Balan,
That would be correct.
Best regards,
David
Hi,
I'm sorry to be repetitive but I'm trying to find a very clear 'yes' or 'no' answer on the subject. Since Paper 2 is cancelled, can we in any way not reduce the number of literary texts that are studied? I am struggling with online teaching and not getting any face time with my students is resulting in them not reading on their own. Hence, wanted to know if not teaching one/multiple literary texts is an option?
Hi Sharon,
No, unfortunately, you can't. The IB has said that you must continue to teach the entire syllabus (all the required number of literary works). Still, there's wiggle room. You may decide to focus more time and attention on literary work A over literary work B. That's fine. You don't have to teach them all in the same way, in the same amount of time. And you may use the literary works to help prepare students for Paper 1 (the skills are similar even if they are closely analyzing literature rather than a non-literary text as they would in a real Paper 1). I find myself often providing a short extract with a guiding question and doing some thinking, discussing and writing around that extract. I wouldn't do this - in this way - if we did have Paper 2 still, but since we don't, I'm trying to tailor the teaching and the learning towards Paper 1, when it's appropriate.
And finally, I'm genuinely sorry to hear that you are still online and that being online is a huge struggle for you and your students. Please do reach out to David or I if you have any further questions or need additional support.
Best,
Tim
Thank you so much for that! I really appreciate it! Will figure out a different approach to the literary texts since the students don't have a comparative essay to write.
I have a query.
As the external Ib exams are cancelled in Bahrain owing to the rise of Covid,I would like to know if its okay to set for their mocks- two different papers for hl and sl students .
Regards,
Sindhu
The above question was for David,Thanks in advance
Regards
Sindhu
Hi Sindhu,
For internal exams, you are free to do whatever you want in the context of the school you teach in. That means you could, for example, set different exams for HL and SL. The notion of a 'mock', I think, presupposes that there will be an actual exam. It might simply be better to refer to your circumstance as an 'internal exam' or 'summative assignment'.
Kind regards,
David
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