Using your Learner Portfolio to Prepare for Assessment (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

The work necessary to meet the requirements of all assessment components should evolve from the contents of your Learner Portfolio. If you have built your portfolio properly across two years, you should arrive at each assessment with the groundwork already done. 

The following guide shows how you can use the portfolio to prepare for each specific assessment component.

Paper 1: Guided Textual Analysis

Paper 1 requires you to analyse two unseen non-literary texts, each accompanied by a guiding question. The portfolio can help you prepare in the following ways:

• Practising first impressions: 

  • You can use the portfolio to record your first responses and close analysis of passages read for the first time

• Formulating guiding questions: 

  • You can practise writing your own guiding questions for different passages to learn how to explore texts

• Tracking text types: 

  • You can keep a log of all the different non-literary text types you have analysed, ensuring you are exposed to a wide variety of formats before the exam

• Monitoring progress: 

  • By keeping chronologically ordered practice Paper 1 responses, you can track your progress and identify which skills you need to build confidence in

Paper 2: Comparative Essay

Paper 2 is a comparative literary essay written under timed conditions, responding to one of four general questions using two literary works from the course. The portfolio can therefore help you prepare in the following ways:

• Mapping comparisons: 

  • The portfolio is an ideal place to group texts by common themes or issues and explore their similarities and differences

• Testing combinations: 

  • You can consider which combinations of works would be the most useful to use when answering potential general essay questions

• Analysing form: 

  • You can track how different literary forms (e.g., a novel versus a play) impact the way a specific theme or issue is approached

Internal Assessment: Individual Oral (IO)

The IO requires you to choose a global issue that connects a literary work and a non-literary work, select appropriate extracts from each, and deliver a 10-minute analysis of how both texts address the global issue, followed by 5 minutes of discussion. The portfolio can therefore help you prepare in the following ways:

• Tracking global issues: 

  • You can keep an ongoing record of the different global issues that arise in each text you read

• Finding links: 

  • The portfolio helps you explore links between one literary work and one non-literary text based on a shared global issue

• Curating extracts: 

  • You can use the space to select and annotate suitable extracts (up to 40 lines) that represent significant moments where a global issue is explored

• Practice recordings: 

  • You can record audio of practice orals or written commentaries to refine your speaking and analysis skills

Higher Level (HL) Essay

The HL Essay is a 1200–1500 word essay in which you develop an independently chosen line of inquiry about a literary or non-literary work or body of work studied during the course. The portfolio can therefore help you prepare in the following ways:

• Exploring concepts and themes: 

  • You can reflect on how each text relates to the seven central concepts (such as identity, culture, or perspective) and keep an ongoing record of interesting themes for a broader literary or linguistic investigation

• Drafting and researching: 

  • The portfolio provides a place to trace the development of your thinking on your chosen topic, create drafts and record references and quotations from secondary sources

General organisation and tracking

To make assessment preparation easier, you can use summary sheets or tracking tables for every text studied. By logging a text's themes, authorial choices and links to course concepts, you create a quick-reference guide that will help you quickly decide which texts to use for the IO, Paper 2 or the HL essay. 

Finally, the portfolio culminates in the mandatory Works Studied form which officially records all texts chosen during the course and shows exactly how they interact with the final assessment components.