Texts are windows into the world around us. And one of the cornerstones of the DP language and literature course is the interpretation and analysis of important global issues present in texts. What are some of these pressing issues and how can we equip our students to seek them out in the texts they read?
Use this resource set featuring a slide deck and illustrated bookmarks to help your students dig deeper into global issues in literary and non-literary texts. The ready-to-use slide deck sheds light on the process of unpacking a global issue using the popular Netflix series, Stranger Things, as an example. The bookmarks are designed as reading companions for students, encouraging students to reflect on the following during their reading of a text:
- How do global issues relate to the five areas of inquiry?
- How do specific authorial choices relate to global issues?
- How may global issues be presented both emotionally and conceptually?
As students work toward the individual oral, they can use the bookmarks to begin the process of analyzing how the same global issue is explored in one literary work and one non-literary body of work.
Ideas for using the resource:
- Put students into collaborative teams. Each team is tasked with completing three different bookmarks for the same work or body of work. Students present their favourite bookmark(s) to the class.
- Students are tasked with creating three bookmarks for one work or body of work. The teacher picks any number between 1-3 and the student presents the global issues described on this bookmark to a group of peers.
- Speed dating global issues activity: Students are arranged in a double circle. Each student in the outer circle has 3 minutes to present their global issue bookmarks to the person sitting in front of them in the inner circle. After 3 minutes, the inner circle rotates for the next presentation.
