The Individual Oral is a ten-minute oral analysis that examines how a literary work and a non-literary body of work frame a global issue. Students should maintain a balance between discussions of extracts of the literary work and the non-literary body of work and discussions of each as a whole. The focus needs to be on how the global issue is presented, represented, or explored in each work and sustained throughout the whole IO. After the student speaks for ten minutes, the teacher has five minutes to ask them questions about the global issue and the works. The individual oral is internally assessed and externally moderated.
The Goal: Defining Superior Performance
Below you will find the rubric language used to define superior student performance with respect to each of the four criteria. To support every one of your students in achieving this level of performance, they will need ample practice speaking the language of literary interpretation in class. This analysis is formal and carefully structured. Students will be able to use ten bullet points to organise their arguments during the oral. You can download a copy of the bullet points template here. You can find a one-page version of the complete rubric here.
Exemplar: Literary and Non-literary Extracts
Global issue: Representations and explorations of the global Covid-19 health crisis
The literary extract found below, “Suffering Like Mel Gibson,” was drawn from a collection of essays by Zadie Smith: Intimations. Smith is on the IBDP Prescribed Reading List. The non-literary extract is by Richard McGuire. His body of work can be found on Toddle’s Database of Non-literary Bodies of Work.
Exemplar: Annotated Texts
Students are not permitted to use annotated texts during their orals, but they will certainly annotate their extracts as they build them. It’s vitally important that students identify at least two specific examples in each extract they can connect with their global issue.
Exemplar: Bullet Points
This form is available from the IB. You can find a blank, editable version of the document here. Typically, students speak between 1800-2200 words during the ten-minute, student-led portion of the individual oral. The printed bullet points used in this exemplar contain about 400 words.
Students should consider including the following in their bullet points:
- thesis statements regarding how the global issue is presented in each extract and work/body of work
- bullet points showing focused evidence: specific authorial choices or textual features
Exemplar: Individual Oral
Click the graphic below to listen to the exemplar oral.
Exemplar: Mark Scheme
The most significant weakness in this individual oral is the lack of balance between the extract and overall work/body of work. To achieve the highest marks, students must spend equal time examining how the global issue is presented in four different ways:
- Literary work: extract
- Literary work: work as a whole
- Non-literary work: extract
- Non-literary work: body of work as a whole
Your students don’t need to sequence their orals according to the bullets found above, although they may choose to do so. What matters most is balance. Balance and clarity, as students move between analyzing how meaning is constructed with four distinct areas of focus.
Exemplar: Teacher Questions
The audio exemplar lacks an important component of the Individual Oral: teacher questions. The purpose of teacher questions is to allow the student to further demonstrate proficiency in Criteria A and Criteria B. In the exemplar, for example, insightful answers to the teacher questions found below would have resulted in higher scores in these two areas. Which questions should you ask? Ask the questions that help your students raise their scores in their (rubric-based) areas of greatest weakness.
Individual Oral: Preparation Workflow
Critical Thinking: Global Issues
Critical thinking and flexibility will be key for students as they develop a plausible global issue for the Individual Oral. They have to wordsmith their global issue until it has a level of precision appropriate to the task. This level of precision in language will not be possible until students have selected their extracts and begun the process of analysis.
Critical Thinking: Balance
This downloadable organizer will help your students achieve balance as they build their individual orals. This organizer is helpful in that it focuses students’ attention on what matters most for their orals: how they use their time.
Critical Thinking: Practice & Time Management
Balance is key element of successful Individual Orals. Assessors are looking for (and marking for) a balanced approach to your students’ exploration of how the global issue is presented in the literary and non-literary work. They are also looking for balance between the extracts and the literary work or non-literary body of work as a whole. The graphic below represents one way to support students in sequencing a balanced Individual Oral. Use this video timer to help your students practice.