TOK Areas of Knowledge

Areas of Knowledge

Areas of knowledge are specific branches of knowledge, each of which can be seen to have a distinct nature and different methods of gaining knowledge. TOK distinguishes between eight areas of knowledge. They are mathematics, the natural sciences, the human sciences, the arts, history, ethics, religious knowledge systems, and indigenous knowledge systems.

The knowledge framework is a device for exploring the areas of knowledge. It identifies the key characteristics of each area of knowledge by depicting each area as a complex system of five interacting components. This enables students to effectively compare and contrast different areas of knowledge and allows the possibility of a deeper exploration of the relationship between areas of knowledge and ways of knowing.

https://www.wcpss.net/Page/7359

Historiography Stuff

This is a great cold war site in general.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682745.2014.950249




https://www.scribd.com/document/294290216/Historiography-of-German-Unification

extended essay English

extended essay History ex

Extended Essay Guidlines

Note:

3. Required Introduction

The introduction should tell the reader what to expect in the essay. The introduction should make clear to the reader the focus of the essay, the scope of the research, in particular an indication of the sources to be used, and an insight into the line of argument to be taken. 

While students should have a sense of the direction and key focus of their essay, it is sometimes advisable to finalize the introduction once the body of the essay is complete.

5. Required Conclusion

The conclusion says what has been achieved, including notes of any limitations and any questions that have not been resolved. While students might draw conclusions throughout the essay based on their findings, it is important that there is a final, summative conclusion at the end. This conclusion(s) must relate to the research question posed.

Tragedy

The Characteristics of an "Archetypal" Tragic Hero

Noble Stature: since tragedy involves the "fall" of a tragic hero, one theory is that one must have a lofty position to fall from, or else there is no tragedy (just pathos). Another explanation of this characteristic is that tragedies involving people of stature affect the lives of others. In the case of a king, the tragedy would not only involve the individual and his family, it would also involve the whole society.

Tragic Flaw (Hamartia): the tragic hero must "fall" due to some flaw in his own personality. The most common tragic flaw is hubris (excessive pride). One who tries to attain too much possesses hubris.

Free Choice: while there is often a discussion of the role of fate in the downfall of a tragic hero, there must be an element of choice in order for there to be a true tragedy. The tragic hero falls because he chooses one course of action over another.

The Punishment Exceeds the Crime: the audience must not be left feeling that the tragic hero got what he deserved. Part of what makes the action "tragic" is to witness the injustice of what has occurred to the tragic hero.

Hero has Increased Awareness: it is crucial that the tragic hero come to some sort of an understanding of what went wrong or of what was really going on before he comes to his end.

Produces Catharsis in Audience: catharsis is a feeling of "emotional purgation" that an audience feels after witnessing the plight of a tragic hero: we feel emotionally drained, but exultant.

http://dt.pepperdine.edu/courses/greatbooks_i/old%20gbi%20files/The%20Characteristics%20of%20an%20Archetypal%20Tragic%20Hero.htm

The Great Gatsby

paragraphing

Boards (a little blurry) below

TOK Essay 2020

Essay of the Week

Both classes...

Using the last three chapters of the book

Discuss one of the following three prompts in a three page essay

• Steinbeck and the Common Man
• Steinbeck and Empathy for the Weak (pick two characters, one of whom is not George or Lenny)
• Foreshadowing and its Fulfillment
• Motifs in the Novel
• Use of Imagery

be sure to link your paper to elements from the earlier chapters of the novel

• start by generating 30 (juicy) quotes, minimum
• 
  
• then outline your essay on paper or digitally using your refined and reorganised quotes, grouped into ideas

submit a 3 page (minimum) paper, printed, helvetica or times new roman, with a space between each paragraph.

plus your list of quotes and your outline on accompanying pages

Quotes and organisation

TOK Arts

TOK Religious Knowledge

Conclusions

Essay of the week 12a

discuss one of the following three prompts in a three page essay

Steinbeck's use of dialogue in chapter two and three

The use of imagery in chapter two and three

The relationship between George and Lennie in chapter two and three

• start by generating 30 (juicy) quotes, minimum
• 
  
• then outline your essay on paper or digitally using your refined and reorganised quotes, grouped into ideas

submit a 3 page (minimum) paper, printed, helvetica or times new roman, with a space between each paragraph.

plus your list of quotes and your outline on accompanying pages

Essay of the week 12b

discuss one of the following three prompts in a three page essay

The exploration of the theme, “Guys like us, that work on
ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world." in chapter two and three

The use of foreshadowing in chapter two and three

Sympathy and empathy in chapter two and three

• start by generating 30 (juicy) quotes, minimum
• 
  
• then outline your essay on paper or digitally using your refined and reorganised quotes, grouped into ideas

submit a 3 page (minimum) paper, printed, helvetica or times new roman, with a space between each paragraph.

plus your list of quotes and your outline on accompanying pages

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men was published in 1937, after John Steinbeck had achieved literary acclaim with his novel Tortilla Flat but before he wrote his better known works The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden. The story epitomizes the themes and ideas that Steinbeck propounded throughout his novels: the plight of the labourers, the perils of isolation, and the hope for a better future. Set in California during the Great Depression, Of Mice and Men is an excellent vehicle to learn about the life and times of migrant works in the 1930s. With its beautiful descriptive passages, easily accessible dialogue, and fast-paced timeline, it is very easy to follow along. Readers are drawn in by the memorable characters that, ironically, represent a segment of society that was largely ignored in its day. Analysing the balance of power, the importance of friendship, and the role of dreams in our lives allows readers to gain a deeper understanding of the text while applying valuable lessons to their own lives. 

Of Mice and Men is set in the Salinas Valley of Southern California in the late 1930’s, the era of the Great Depression. Like many writers of the Modern Period (1915-1945), John Steinbeck attempts to make sense of the early decades of the 20th century; he sees the humanity in a class of people who are often ignored by writers and by society at large. These issues are further developed in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. 

Born in Salinas Califonia in 1902 to a middle class family, when Steinbeck was a young adult, he spent his summer vacations working as a hired hand on local ranches. His interactions with the people he met during those summers greatly influenced the characters he created throughout his career. In an interview following the publication of Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck revealed that all the characters in the novel are composites based on real people. 

http://shepardfreshman.weebly.com/of-mice-and-men-by-john-steinbeck.html

Themes to date:

The American Dream

Empathy and Sympathy

“Guys like us, that work on
ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world."


Motifs:

Soft things

The story



Ideas to consider

Steinbeck writes about the common man

the symbiotic relationship between the characters

the extensive use of simple but powerful imagery

Sibilance, Plosives, Liquids, Fricatives and Nasals

Sounds in Poetry

http://englishtutorhome2.blogspot.com.es/2013/04/sounds-in-poetry-sibilant-plosive.html

Sounds in Poetry: Sibilant, Plosive, Liquids, Fricatives, Nasals

ATeacherWrites.com

How are sounds used to create mood?
The main sounds that I teach to students are
1. sibilant /s/ /sh/ /ch/ /x/
2. plosive /b/ /p/ /t/ /d/
3. liquid /l/
4. (sometimes) fricative, voiced /th/ 'the' /v/ and unvoiced /th/ 'theatre' /f/
5. (rarely) nasal /m/ /n/

Should we always comment on sounds in writing?
No. Sounds are everywhere. Some are deliberate, but most are accidental. Only a few will help prove your point about the theme or meaning. Choose examples with care. Two per poem would be enough. Use your own judgement.

Sibilant /s/ sounds. This can be written <s> <ss> or <c> as in 'ice'. <sh> <dg> <x> <ks> or <ch>
WARNING: This is actually one of the most common sounds in English, so be careful to make sure the writer is deliberately using it for effect.


Why is it so common? In English, plurals end in -s or -es, a lot of verbs end in -s for the present tense, and it appears in very common words like 'is'.

What is the effect of the sibilant /s/ sound?
The effect depends on context, and also the meanings of the words around it.
It can be: 
- soft
- hissing or insidious
- sinister

You can also call this 'onomatopoeia'.
How to write about it: 'the sibilant 's' creates an onomatopoeic, sinister effect' OR 'the onomatopoeic sibilant sounds create a sinister effect'.

More examples:
How to write about it: e.g. The sibilant sounds in ‘softly, sweetly, sickly’ creates a soft, gentle mood, which turns sinister on ‘sickly’ as the sounds flow across the line. The unusual shift in mood within the same, sibilant sound, creates a disturbing effect.

Plosive /b/ /p/ /t/ /d/ sounds create an abrupt, sharp, sometimes shocking effect. Look for plosives blended with sibilants or liquids - as a short, sharp shock after the softer mood OR, where both are interlaced (sib/plo/sib/plo/sib/plo) think about which feels stronger - is it a juddering effect, stuttering (be creative with your interpretation: what does it make you think of?)
How to write about it:
At the end of the stanza the places are listed as if an incantation, repeating the monosyllabic plosives : ‘Belfast. Beirut. Phom Penh.’ 

Liquid  /l/ this can flow, creating a sense of quick, light movement - or of water - ‘light slipped down the lee of the hill’, or sound thick, heavy when combined with dull sounds - as in 'ladle', 'paddle' and 'paddle'.

Fricatives /f/ /v/ /th/ /th/
These are divided into voiced (hard) and voiceless (soft). It's fun to notice the connection: the <f> in 'knife', is soft, and becomes hard in the plural 'knives'. The same thing happens in 'loaf' and 'loaves'.
Voiceless fricatives can create an airy effect.
e.g. In the poem 'Flag' by John Agard, he repeats voiceless fricatives at the start of the first two stanzas: 'flag', 'fluttering' 'unfurled', to create a free, flowing  and airy effect - of freedom.

When commenting on sounds: remember - it's not just noise! It's words. Words have meanings. So you need to figure out how the sounds add to (or contrast with) the meaning.
You can't just take a one size fits all approach.
Sibilants aren't always gentle. Sometimes they're sinister.
Sometimes flowing sounds are positive. Other times they may flow too fast as if they're out of control.
Plosives are sometimes harsh in a bad way, sometimes energetic and bouncy. When combined with liquids, they can sound sensual.

LOOK OUT FOR

Plosives and Liquids together:

At first, though we’re introduced to the main characters in an empty, Eden-like place of natural beauty of ‘warm’ ‘golden’ beauty, with sensory language like ‘pool’ ‘slopes’ and ‘Gabilan’ that run sensually over liquids (l) and plosives (p,b). Steinbeck’s love of his home landscape is tangible. His use of the present tense ‘the Salinas river drops... and runs deep and green’ give it a timeless, eternal feel, which adds to the Edenic quality.


Sibilants, Voiceless Fricatives and Liquids together: 

The mood is made even more awkward through the rich and sensual sounds, of sibilants, liquids/voiceless fricatives and long syllables in 'spools' and 'suffering'.

Practice Essay

Questions for practice

1. “The quality of knowledge is best measured by how many people accept it.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

2. “The production of knowledge is always a collaborative task and never solely a product of the individual.” Discuss this statement with reference to two areas of knowledge.

3. Do good explanations have to be true?

4. “Disinterestedness is essential in the pursuit of knowledge.” Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

5. “The production of knowledge requires accepting conclusions that go beyond the evidence for them.” Discuss this claim.

6. “One way to assure the health of a discipline is to nurture contrasting perspectives.” Discuss this claim.

• Define Your Terms
• Organise Your Examples (how it could be true/beneficial, how it could be false/problematic)
• Outline
• Build Your Paragraphs Carefully with precise Examples and extensive explanations (be sure to say a lot about a little) that show implications of shared and personal knowledge

How to TOK Essay

click here

Written Task 1 rationale

scoring of exemplar

Level 5 (9 marks)

There is a sustained focus on knowledge questions confirming and contradicting that “doubt is the key to knowledge”, as the prescribed title demands. A clear approach using different perspectives shown in real-life examples related to different areas of knowledge can be easily identified.

The first examples, regarding mathematics move from a personal example on how the student visualizes her own learning in class to a more sophisticated topic like the way conjectures are dealt with, emphasizing effective links to ways of knowing, especially reason.

Then there is an insightful investigation about religion, viewing it from different perspectives, focusing on Christianity, Islam and a way of proving that God exists, showing how doubting in that context might be a key to knowledge and how not.

Arguments are carefully and clearly developed. Every assertion is effectively evaluated giving a proper place to authority, experience, the search of truth, among other relevant TOK issues. The student definitely acknowledges the implications drawn in each of the examples.

It is worth pointing out that in spite of the effective and well-supported examples, the fact that they were not fully evaluated resulted in a mark of 9 being awarded instead of the highest possible mark of 10.

TOK Paper exemplar

Earnest Irony Language n D

Capote Language

Language and Modernism in Gatsby

Modernism

Modernism

Rhetoric of…

Rhetoric of…

LOGOS – reason

Rhetorical question

Comparison

Contrast

Juxtaposition

Antithesis– contrasting ideas sharpened by the use of opposite or noticeably different meanings.

Paradox

Irony

Specific detail

Jargon

Listing

Instruction

Exaggeration

Hyperbole

Understatement

Bathos

The big lie

Reference

·  Quote

·  Allusion (Biblical, Classical, Literary, Historical)

·  Intertextuality

Repetition

      Of words

      Of phrases or patterns

·      Anaphora – the repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of a succession of clauses

·      Epistrophe – a figure of speech in which each sentence or clause ends with the same word

PATHOS – Emotion

Desire

Empathy

Insult

Patriotism

Loaded language

Naming

Belonging

Fear

Hate

Indignation (righteous anger)

Bathos

ETHOS – Ethics, Religion, that guy

Morality

Ideology

Faith

transference......

WT2 HL Topics

Dea

How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

Nick as old money no money midwest class

how nick is old money with no money and how he talks about it throughout the whole book

Outline

• Fitzgeralds past and his relationship w wealth
• Nick’s characterisation
•  how nick’s money or lack thereof affects his relationships to people
• The whole i am within and without thing
• How fitzgerald uses language to represent nick
• How nick fits into the east vs west and rich people are different

Flavia



How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?

The different perspective: someone in favour of death penalty and someone against it, how the understanding of the text can differ.

charcterisation

Nature vs nurture and & empathy vs sympathy

Capote embedded (new Journalism



Anja

Which social groups are marginalized, excluded or silenced within the text?

Women, Daisy, and jordan

Paragraph 1: How general context affected the way F.Scott Fitzgerald shaped the female characters in the text. 

Paragraph 2: How the society affected women and helped shape their personalities analysed through the main characters: Daisy, Myrtle and Jordan. Women viewed as  porcelain dolls without any purpose or dream in life. How they were portrayed and the symbol of beauty in females. 

Paragraph 3: The traditional gender role. How men wanted to control women and their actions towards them seen in the text.

Elen

How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

Tom and Daisy, so old money that eevn though they are outsiders they are immediately insiders

language

Fitz's background

charaterisation of tom and daisy

East vs West

Megi

How could the text be read and interpreted differently by two different readers?

importance

David

Brisila

How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

Importance of Being

Upper class women

Setting

Language

Characterisation

Stiven

Question: How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

Tittle: F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.

East Egg

Paragraph 1

East vs West

Paragraph 2

Characterisation

Paragraph 3

setting

Paragraph 4

language

Amina

Elio

Written Task 2

Question chosen for analysis: How and why is a social group presented in a particular way?

Text: Truman Capote, In cold blood

Part of the course to which the task refers: Part 3

Focus of the task:

I have came up with the question--- How has the environment which Dick and Perry grew up in played a role in them becoming murderers?

I could link this with my 2 favourite topics from In cold blood being- Nature vs Nurture, America vs America. 

I have chosen to discuss language, theme, new journalism and Capote’s background as my main 4 ideas to complete my WT2.

• As I explained above, for the theme part I would bring out Nature vs Nurture and America vs America.
• For the language part I would explain how Dick and Perry differentiate in their way of talking and how Capote influences it, how he makes Perry look a bit smarter than Dick---
• With this leading to the New journalism part of the text being that Capote adds up that subjective part to the journalism and showing that he does prefer Perry more than Dick, because of different reasons which were seen unnormal at the time being that they were both homosexuals, and that Capote sees himself in Perry
• And as I said in the point above Capote’s background would be the start of new journalism and his feelings for Perry.
• Characterization/Indirect

Borena

1. The question I choose is:

 Which social groups are marginalized, excluded, or silenced within the text? 

2. The text that I will focus on:

“Great Gatsby”

3. The title of the analysis:

How the proletarian class (George Wilson and Myrtle Wilson) in “The Great Gatsby” are marginalized in the text.

4. This takes part from :

Part 4 

• The three key ideas that I will focus on are:

1. Key Idea 1:  Commenting on the working class during 1922 in New York and how they were treated during this era

2. Key Idea 2:  Commenting based on the Marxist theory,  on how the socioeconomic class is a strong factor when it comes to dividing people for their working classes in the society

Key Idea 3: Demonstrating examples (quotes) from the text on how the characters of George Wilson and Myrtle Wilson are marginalized, excluded, or silenced within the text

Kejsi

Question 3; How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?

Topic; Why Jay Gatsby of F.Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”  could not be part of the old upper class society. 

1. How the portrayal of East vs West Egg is used to differentiate between the social classes.
1. The East egg is where all the people from the highest social classes enjoyed their lavish lifestyle, meanwhile the West egg is the less-fashionable part of the city. Fitzgerald uses imagery to show how different the two locations are from each other, but most importantly, how the location of a character reflected their  status and social class. Even though one would think he has all the money in the world, Gatsby still lives in the West Egg.
2. New Money vs Old Money.
1. New money stands for the people who have recently become rich and old money stands for the ones who are able to enjoy the luxury life as their families have had a string of inheritances passed on to them for generations.  In “The Great Gatsby”, Jay Gatsby represents New Money vs Jordan,Nick, Tom and Daisy represent old money. Gatsby is the only one that profits from a shady business and that sets him aside from the truly rich social class.
3. Jay Gatsby vs Tom Buchanan
1. In a rivalry between Jay Gatsby versus Tom Buchanan to win Daisy over,  Fitzgerald emphasizes how Gatsby’s status couldn’t come close compared to Toms’.  Gatsby came from nothing and made himself someone known and successful and he does the most to prove that in front of Daisy, however, that is still not nearly enough for her as after a string of eventful incidents, she continues to stick by Tom’s side.