IB commentaries

They will walk into a room. There, they will draw a 40-line passage from a book we have studied this semester (Song of Solomon, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, James Baldwin's Essays). They will take it into another room, and spend 20 minutes marking it up and planning a commentary about it. Then, they will come to me, and deliver it while I take notes and tape-record it. I will assess how well they know the book, how well they know and can analyze the style of the author, how well they can organize their thoughts, and how well they speak. I will listen to them for 12 minutes and then ask them questions about what they said.

And I will see if I've done my job this semester.

Wish me luck. Wish them luck. I can't imagine ever doing anything like this when I was in high school. These are your Baltimore City high school students.