'Guiding+Questions+Advice'

 I have collated some advice re Guiding (and occasionally subsequent) Questions for the IOC from both the //Teacher Support Material: Internal Assessment// and extracts from a series of //Subject Reports// Both of these are a rich source of information for teachers. **Guiding Questions Advice ** It is better when students are provided with two guiding questions that require them to focus on the details of the specific extract before them rather than on the larger work from which the extract has been taken. It is especially helpful to students when one of the guiding questions prompts them to focus attention on either the presentation of character or relationships, or on the development of relevant thematic issues or subject matter, while the other focuses on the effects of language, or style, or technique. Teachers should keep the following principles in mind when they set guiding questions for the IOC: • Different extracts require different kinds of guiding questions. • It is neither appropriate nor helpful to students when teachers formulate a generic, or even identical, set of guiding questions to be given to each student in the class regardless of the extract to be used for their particular IOC. • The most appropriate guiding questions are those that derive directly from the significant features of the particular extract. Such questions encourage students to focus on relevant details of the extract for commentary. • The least appropriate guiding questions are those created without reference to the extract itself ( 10).   A number of Guiding Questions, particularly from newer IB schools, were far too detailed and directive. Subsequent questions were often good when teachers formed them in response to what students had said in their commentaries, rather than when they were restatements of Guiding Questions or invitations to abandon the extract in favour of grand generalisations about the work as a whole. There is plenty of helpful information in the Teacher Support Material for this component to support schools in forming appropriate questions and this should be referred to.   [Avoid] four or five [guiding] questions either disguised as sub-questions or simply listed separately on the page. 
 * Teacher Support Material: Internal Assessment **
 * Subject Report May 2009 TZ1 **
 * Subject Report May 2008 **
 * Subject Report May 2008 **

Although a range of possible approaches to the Guiding Questions exists, Guiding Questions should not lead the candidate toward a particular reading (―Discuss how the author achieves an ironic tone in this extract ‖  ), nor should they be so broad as to be useless (―Comment on the use of literary devices. ‖ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> ) Most moderators feel it is helpful if one Guiding Question focuses on the matter in the extract (what is to be found there), and the other on the manner (how it is achieved). Teachers should remember, however, that use of Guiding Questions is entirely up to the candidates themselves. Marks are neither awarded nor withheld for their answering or not answering the questions, and students should not be pressed to answer them during subsequent questions, if they have chosen not to do so in their commentaries. Several moderators commented on the skilful manner in which some candidates were helped through subsequent questions to articulate what they had seen but had not quite said in their commentaries. While it is also appropriate for teachers to have ready some thoughtful, extract-specific back-up questions, it is not helpful if a teacher mechanically runs through a list of prepared questions, indifferent to whether the candidate has already answered them, or has such a poor (or excellent) understanding of the extract that the prepared questions are completely unsuitable. Subsequent questions about the work as a whole are not helpful (except to elicit comments about context, if these have been missing or inadequate). The most useful subsequent questions return to significant details in the extract that were previously untreated or insufficiently treated. They help the candidate to make connections, and to synthesise the matter and manner that inform the extract. All candidates must be asked questions for at least three minutes, however exhaustive their commentaries. In the case of short commentaries, teachers are encouraged to use as much as possible of the remaining time to draw out candidates‘ comments through questions. Neither Guiding nor Subsequent Questions should ever be of the ―How does this poem affect you? <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif';">‖ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> variety, as these encourage candidates in their tendency to generalisation. Subsequent questions such as, ―Did you like this book? <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif';">‖ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> or ―Does this remind you of anything in our world today? <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Cambria Math','serif';">‖ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> are not likely to earn the candidate any points.