The medium is the message

TOK essay rubric

In the Skin, In depth analysis

You will have been assigned one to read and present:

feel free to read as many as you like ;)

The Use and Abuse of Myth in Michael Ondaatje’s In The Skin of A Lion

Marginalization of immigrants 

The Struggle of Postmodernism and Postcolonialism in Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion

Setting and the Communication of Ideas: Ondaatje’s In the Skin of a Lion

In the Skin of a Lion reviews

The first sentence of every novel should be: “Trust me, this will take time but there is order here, very faint, very human.”


Read/listen/watch these

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/104013333

http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/98/06/28/specials/ondaatje-lion.html

https://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/06/book-life-skin-lion-writer

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/sep/15/featuresreviews.guardianreview31

The Menu

Remember that the Medium is the Message; Each text type in and of itself has an internal message to its very form.
(speak to that as you analyse it, and criticise if the content clashes with the means of delivery/medium)

What is the text type?
How is the piece presented overall?
How is it divided up? (if at all)


How do the visuals speak to/inform the text (and vice-versa)?


How do the visuals work?

Right to left?
Rule of three?
Hierarchy?
Eye-line?
implied movement?
hard or soft edges? (remember the video in the office)
Colour?
graphics?
and where are the visuals in proximity to the written text, to each other (if more than one)





What rhetorical devices are employed to focus the reader and why?

contrast/ juxtaposition
listing (rule of three)
repetition (anaphora, alliteration, consonance, assonance, rhyme)
hyperbole
understatement
use of 'facts'
jargon
naming
attempts to engender empathy
attempts to engender sympathy
appeal to desire
appeal to fear
appeal to authority  (and what kind in each instance)
syllogisms
analogies

propaganda techniques
straw man
bandwagon
what about 'ism
transference




diction

syntax

tone

mood (if it describes a setting)


What poetic devices are used?

Imagery

figurative language

• metaphors
• personification
• similes
• onomatopoeia

Who is/are the audience and why?

TOK Presentation order

Anja and Megi      1 Wed 2nd

Hana and Brisila 2 Thurs 1st

David 3 Thurs 4th

Margarita 4 Thurs 2nd

Stiven 5 Thurs 6th

Elen 6 Thurs 2nd

Amina 7 Thurs 3rd

Zhaklin and Dea 8 Thurs 1st

Bjorn 9 Monday 1st

Alex 10 Thurs 3rd

Flavia 11 friday 2nd

Luna 12 Thurs 5th

Yusuf 13 fri 1st

Bora 14  wed 1st

Kejsi 15 mon 2nd

More TOK ideas

Possible TOK Presentation Topics for Students

Keep in mind that a TOK presentation contributes roughly 33% of the final course grade, so watch out! You cannot earn more than 10 points for such an assignment, so do your best to get the maximum grade as it will be easier for you to survive the rest of the examination stages. Look at the topics for TOK presentation to ease the process!

Art

1. Imagination and will of art.
2. The Coherence Theory.
3. Simple Mimesis and relation to reality.
4. Avante Garde to Chance culture.
5. Gangnam style.
6. Obesity and the world of marketing.
7. Body language.
8. Westernization in art.
9. Cultural imperialism.
10. Correlation between evolution & art.

Ethics

1. The purpose of life.
2. Utilitarianism & Categorical Imperative.
3. Different types of ethical dilemmas.
4. Self-interest theory.
5. Living a life without knowing its meaning.
6. Moral relativism.
7. Duty ethics & Evolution-Creation theories.
8. Punishment according to ethical standards.
9. Defining what is right & what is wrong from an ethical perspective.
10. Different schools of thoughts.

Dance

1. Using dance as a language.
2. Common problems in dancing.
3. A separate genre of art/sports.
4. An Indian love story in the context of dance.
5. Communicating through various dancing movements.
6. Krumping - a different style of dance.
7. Dancing by Lacey and Kameron.
8. Dancing and the art of theatre.
9. Dancing in the modern cinematography.
10. The vital role of dance in indigenous communities.

Music

1. The evolution of the primary purpose of music throughout time.
2. The form of art to entertain.
3. History of rock music.
4. The role of classical music in students' lives.
5. The impact of different music on human emotions.
6. Cases of alleged music plagiarism.
7. The role of music in overall literacy.
8. The extent to which music conveys knowledge & insight.
9. Music in the '80s and its role in the modern world.
10. The Theory of Knowledge & music.

History

1. The consequences of removing monuments.
2. The way modern people erase history.
3. The fate of The Foot Soldier of Birmingham.
4. The good and the bad in US history.
5. Seeing the American Revolution from various perspectives.
6. The significance of the US Confederate Monuments.
7. Things that Georgetown owes the descendants.
8. Praising Trump and his actions.
9. The unfair fate of Mahatma Gandhi.
10. Reasons why the President needs the so-called Council of Historians.

Psychology

1. Human Sciences.
2. How approaches to natural sciences are related to human sciences.
3. Ways of quantifying data in human sciences.
4. The credibility of the findings in psychological sciences.
5. What role ethics plays in psychology.
6. Empathy & feeling as the way of knowing your neighbor in psychology.
7. Ethical responsibilities from a psychological point of view.
8. Human behaviors that are beyond the scope of psychology.
9. Various psychological approaches applied across different historical periods.
10. The effectiveness of psychological research.

Maths

1. Radioactive decay.
2. A look from the math perspective at Fibonacci numbers in nature.
3. The constants of nature.
4. Analysis of the compounding chess squares legend.
5. The speed of light & time dilation.
6. The invention of logs.
7. Different log scales in real life.
8. Lottery math: the ways to win.
9. Game theory & expected value.
10. Scientific induction & deduction.

Emotion

1. People who base their understanding of the world on feelings.
2. Evaluating facts vs. feelings.
3. Mapping human emotions.
4. The primary purpose of language.
5. Communicating emotions through language.
6. The contribution of mentions to reasoning.
7. Factors that influence emotions: culture, gender, personality traits, etc.
8. To what extent are human emotions reliable?
9. Should we rely on our emotions in the decision-making process?
10. The consequence of having reason and no emotions.

Beauty

1. Different perceptions of beauty.
2. The main concepts of beauty in developed countries.
3. Comparing beauty standards of the Ancient times with modern days.
4. The central idea of beauty.
5. Theory of Knowledge and beauty.
6. The way social media represents beauty.
7. Factors that affect the perception of beauty.
8. The role of culture in understanding what is beautiful.
9. Internal & external beauty.
10. Plastic surgery.

https://www.writemy-essayforme.com/blog/tok-presentation-topics

TOK Presentation videos

TOK Presentation ideas and tips

How to Structure a Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Presentation

The following Theory of Knowledge (TOK) presentation structure has been designed very carefully. (It’s taken several years of conversations!) It’s easy for you to follow and ticks all the boxes.

I'm going to tell you how many slides to have (nine), what text should go on each slide (less is more) and what you should talk about while each slide is up (focus on the interesting parts).

A clear structure like this is essential because it helps the audience follow what you’re saying. It also keeps you from wasting time, both during your presentation and in your preparation phase.

(This is also done for the TOK Essay, here). 

There are a few things I need to go over before we get into the slides.

The Development Section

When you get into the Development section (where the knowledge question is explored and analyzed with reference to the AOKs and WOKs), you’ll see that we use a Claim, Counterclaim, Mini-Conclusion structure. We do this (claim, counterclaim, mini-conclusion) for each of your developments (AOKs or WOKs), so we do it 3 times in total. Here’s an example, for one of your developments:

-Your claim might be that emotion is reliable when trying to achieve new knowledge art and you show this using some theory (evidence) you learned from your teacher or your pal Google.

-Your counterclaim is a problem (a limitation) with your claim, or an opposing idea in the same perspective. It might be that emotion can sometimes lead to unreliable insights in the arts (i.e. creating or interpreting art). You show this using (as evidence) an example from your own life experience or some other kind of evidence.

-And then, in the mini-conclusion, you basically have to find a way to draw together the two opposing sides. You have to somehow synthesise these two insights to arrive at a more insightful understanding or some kind of summary. So you might say that emotion can be both reliable and unreliable at the same time, or perhaps there are situations where it's pretty hard to know whether emotions are helping or not (in terms of achieving reliable knowledge). So your MC (mini-conclusion) is a possible conclusion to your KQ (Knowledge Question).

In the final conclusion of the presentation (I call that your Big Conclusion) you will try to combine (draw together/synthesize) the insights of this mini-conclusion as well as the other ones (from the 2 other development sections) to show a really sophisticated/developed answer to your KQ.

Using Evidence

Use evidence for each of your claims and your counterclaims. It will make your talk much more compelling.

Evidence can be:

-Examples of from the course or from your research. For example, stories of real scientific experiments or how society responded to a certain piece of art.

-Personal examples. Specific and realistic examples from your own life experiences are really powerful in presentations, because if they're true (and the audience can normally tell) they are normally really convincing. If you processed your break-up grief by creating a powerful piece of art and you can talk about how you did that (how much this knowledge-generation was coming from emotion). 

-Also I've made some notes you can use. 

Now let’s go through the structure of your presentation, slide by slide. (The suggested timings in green are assuming you're in a group of two, so you'd have 20 minutes). Don't work by yourself. 

The TOK Presentation Structure 

Slide 1: Title Page (1 minute)

Text on this slide: 

• The title of your presentation.
• Your group members’ names

What to say:

• Explain what you thought about the real life situation (RLS) when you first encountered it.
• Explain why it’s significant to you.

Slide 2: Decontextualization (1 minute)

Text on this slide: 

• Some of the thoughts or questions you had about the real life situation. Start explaining the situation in a ToK sort of way --using some of the key terms from the course.

What to say: 

• Explain a few of the things we can know about the RLS and how we know it. For example, our senses may provide some insights, while emotion provides other ones.
• Explain that there may be limits to what can be known about your RLS.
• Basically, show us your thought-journey from the RLS to your KQ. 

Slide 3: Knowledge Question (1 minute)

Text on this slide: 

• Write down your KQ -List the AOKs and/or WOKs you will use to explore your KQ and how they are related to your KQ

What to say: 

• Mention 2 KQs that you considered and the one you are investigating.
• Explain how this KQ will help you to explain the RLS.
• For each of your AOKs/WOKs, preview how they can help to answer your KQ.
• Explain any assumptions you’ve made about your KQ (if any).
• Explain any key terms that need to be explained in order for us to understand your KQ.

Slide 4: Development #1 (3.5 minutes)

On the slide: 

• Very briefly, state your claim for WOK/AOK #1 (see development example above). State how it is supported by evidence (i.e. a scientific theory).
• Very briefly, state your counterclaim for WOK/AOK #1 (i.e. an opposing idea in the same AOK/WOK). State how it is supported by evidence. -State your mini-conclusion.

What to say: 

• Explain the claim and how it is supported by evidence. Make it clear how it would answer the KQ.
• Explain the counterclaim and how it is supported by evidence. Make it clear how it would answer the KQ in a different way than your claim did.
• Explain your conclusion and how it ties together the claim and counterclaim.

Slide 5: Development #2 (3.5 minutes)

On your slide: 

• Very briefly, state your claim for WOK/AOK #2. State how it is supported by evidence.
• Very briefly, state your counterclaim for WOK/AOK #2. State how it is supported by evidence.
• State your mini-conclusion.

What to say: 

• Explain the claim and how it is supported by evidence. Make it clear how it would answer the KQ.
• Explain the counterclaim and how it is supported by evidence. Make it clear how it would answer the KQ in a different way than your claim did.
• Explain your conclusion and how it ties together the claim and counterclaim.

Slide 6: Development #3 (3.5 minutes)

On your slide: 

• Very briefly, state your claim for WOK/AOK #3. State how it is supported by evidence.
• Very briefly, state your counterclaim for WOK/AOK #3. State how it is supported by evidence.
• State your mini-conclusion.

What to say: 

• Explain the claim and how it is supported by evidence. Make it clear how it would answer the KQ.
• Explain the counterclaim and how it is supported by evidence. Make it clear how it would answer the KQ in a different way than your claim did.
• Explain your conclusion and how it ties together the claim and counterclaim.

Slide 7: Conclusion (3 minutes)

On your slide: 

• Write down your conclusion.
• Write down a possible flaw in your conclusion.

What to say: 

• Explain your conclusion.
• Explain how this conclusion is supported by the insights you’ve drawn along the way (in your mini-conclusions).
• Explain the possible weakness or a flaw in your conclusion.
• Explain an example of someone from a different perspective (a different gender, age, time, or culture) who might disagree with this conclusion.

Slide 8: Link back to the RLS (3.5 minutes)

On your slide: 

• Write 2 interesting ways that your conclusion applies to the RLS.
• Write down two other real life situations (which are perhaps related). If possible provide pictures for these two other situations, so they can be quickly understood. One of these should be personal to you (something one of you encountered) and another which is more of a shared experience.

What to say: 

• Clarify how your conclusion applies to the RLS.
• Explain how this conclusion can help to explain 2 other real life situations you have on your slide.

Slide 9: Bibliography (0 minutes)

What to say:

• Nothin dude you're done.
• Just leave this one up on the screen as the class erupts in thunderous applause. Some people will want autographs, but try to be cool about it. You were once just like them. 

Of course you are not required to follow this structure (unless your teacher says otherwise), but it is recommended. Everything in this structure is there for a very good reason.

Footer

I also recommend that every slide from #3 onward should have your KQ written on the bottom of it, as a footer. This will make it easier for the audience to relate your various insights to the knowledge question.

Also (to be completely honest) sometimes we don't hear you when you quickly said your knowledge question. We were writing something down or thinking about lunch. 

Signposting

Finally, to help to make sure that the person marking you gives you full credit, it’s useful to do what we call signposting. This means, using the exact key words the marker was trained to look for. Professionals do this all the time. Their use of specialist language signals to their colleagues that they know what they're talking about. So try to speak like a TOK teacher basically. In this case, your marker will respond favourably if you use a fair amount of terminology you learned in the course. For example, use the term perspective. So you might say, “from the perspective of a historian..” rather than saying, “Historians believe that…” --just to get that word in there.

That’s it! Thanks for reading and good luck with everything!

https://ibmastery.mykajabi.com/blog/how-to-structure-a-theory-of-knowledge-tok-presentation

TOK Presentation Planning Document

TOK presentation planning document

TOK Paper redux

Videos explaining each quality paragraph and screenshots of the boards for each 😇

Bloor Street Viaduct

In the Skin of a Lion

The Assault

download here


12b pg 75

12a pg 61