Batter up

Tomorrow, students will walk into the library and draw an envelope from the orange box that has been passed down to me from the previous instructor. Contained in each sealed envelope is a 40-line passage that I have culled from the four texts we read in the first semester - Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, Baldwin's Essays, and Morrison's Song of Solomon. The 16 passages (duplicated 3 times) have been painstakingly chosen (they have to have plenty of meat in them, so students can analyze the author's techniques) and guiding questions have been written as according to IB Guidelines.

Once they randomly draw their sealed envelopes containing the passages, students will individually and independently mark up their passage in another room. In 20 minutes, they will be expected to create a cohesive and organized 10-15-minute commentary on the passage, with a thesis and interpretation that shows they know the text well and can analyze the techniques the authors use to create meaning. We have coached students how to do this: the introduction should include some context of the overall text plus the passage in question, as well as a brief summary of what is going on in the passage. Then, students must create a 3-part thesis with three devices, and run through the passage by device, developing their argument with textual evidence and concluding with a big "So what?", or Larger Implication.

After their 20 minutes spent marking up and planning their commentary, students will join me (individually) in a different room with a computer set up to record them, and then present to me. I am expected to take notes, score, and ask the student questions to push understanding or interpretation further. Each commentary takes 15 minutes. In a few weeks after this occurs, IB will ask me for ten students' scores, and their recordings will be burned onto CD and sent to Sweden to moderate my scoring of them.

I have 42 students, and each has been given a 40-minute time slot throughout the week. Colleagues are helping with the supervision of the 20-minute marking slots. It will be an intense and dramatic week for an assessment for which we have spent all semester (and the previous year) preparing, but we're ready.