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  Guides, reconsidered(free)

  The new Language B Subject Guide, published in 2011 for first examination in May 2013, is now established. It will form the framework for the teaching of English B for the next seven or eight years: its assumptions and instructions will be the givens for good practice. It is, however, sensible to appreciate that it is not some form of absolute...
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  The House on Mango Street

  This novel has been warmly recommended by at least one teacher in practically every InThinking workshop that I have done over the last couple of years. I hadn't read it, but now that I have, I understand why. This charming, subtle and thought-provoking novel is not only warm and moving, but it provides excellent material for teaching...
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  Question games(free)

  In thinking about questions, there seems to be an innate tendency to think about each question in isolation. This is perhaps because we think that we can construct and control the question, but the answer is not really under our control. This is actually a damaging assumption, because all questions occur in context - all questions come...
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  Question frames

  Grammar books, I discover, are not really helpful about how to handle questions usefully. Having scanned quite a few, they either concentrate on how to construct questions (inverting subject and verb [yes/no type], or using pronouns [wh-, or interrogative pronouns]), or on how and when to use questions (as polite requests, for instance) - but...
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  The Asking of Questions

  The essence of critical thinking is the ability to ask questions. Not only that, but the asking of questions is dynamic in any form of discourse - questions drive forward the process of thinking and the exchange of ideas. And in the end, questions are inherently interactive - to ask a question necessarily demands reaction, whether the reaction...
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  PR Criteria, expanded

  Marking Section B, the Personal Response, in HL Paper 2 involves using the same Criterion A Language as for Section A - sensibly enough, since one would not expect language skills to vary in any significant way during the course of a 1½ hour paper! So, I reproduce the same expanded version as provided for the larger writing tasks both at...

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