Category Archives: IB Lang & Lit

Portfolio Post 4 Sacrifice and Protests in Sports: Just do It! Or don’t?

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Language

In this Language and Literature unit, we focused on the similar concepts of beliefs and values that were presented earlier in the play of A Doll’s House and Antigone. Nonetheless, we involved a brand new topic, the area of sport, to further strengthen the ideas of beliefs and values through incidents that athletes present similar ideas of individuality and how they value personal beliefs over the norms. In general, we focused on two main works of sports which are Nike’s advertisement and a documentary named Icarus. Both works present a solid connection to beliefs and values by having an iconic representation or character that demonstrates the approach of such ideologies within the works. It was a unique unit because the area of sports does not come up really often in terms of learning literature concepts, which I am even more excited to be able to engage in class through connection to literature topics and the passion for sports.

For this specific work accomplished in this unit, we were guided to create a slide for better preparation of the assessment of Individual Oral. We were required to select a non-literary work and a literary to make a comparison between two works relating to the topic of this unit, which is the significance of beliefs and values. I chose to work on Antigone for the literary work and Nike’s advertisement for the non-literary work. For the evidence of the Individual Oral, I chose a specific sentence from Antigone and Colin Kaepernick’s Nike advertisement to work on. While doing the annotation and background information of the work, it is essential to look inside the work with depth and discover the genuine intention of the purpose that authors aim to convey. It is important to extrapolate the work with something more than just the text or the image itself, the assessment requires us to think in more abstract thinking that can correlate to many other factors such as emotions, persuasiveness, and word choices.

This is my video for the Individual Oral about the comparison between two works that we studied this year. It is essential to present the IO with a great understanding of the works and a clear interpretation with organized structures on conveying ideas. Moreover, creating a comprehensive thesis is a thing that has to be accomplished correctly in this assessment. From the experience of the mini-IO that we also have done previously this unit, I work on further interpret multiple techniques artists used to better annotate and explain the work. Moreover, for the Nike advertisement, I evaluate more carefully on the minor objects presented in the ad such as the logo and slogan of Nike to better link and connect the artist’s purpose of the text and strengthen its persuasiveness. Overall, I learned how to construct an organized outline for Individual Oral and it can be largely beneficial for further usages in the literature study.

This unit connects largely to the world by mentioning or implying some potential or obvious global issues presented in the world. The most memorable one is Colin Kaepernick’s advertisement which presents the global issues of racial inequality. Kaepernick sacrifices his career as an NFL player in order to raise the awareness of such issues which is the reason I believe it is the most memorable one to sacrifice one’s beloved thing in order to pursue individual beliefs. Lastly, I enjoy the content of this unit and looking forward to more ways of literature work presentation in the remaining year.

Debate on Nike’s Colin Kaepernick advertisement

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Inquiry & Creativity, Language
  • My thoughts about the Nike advertisement:
    • In my opinion, I am on the supporting side of Nike having that advertisement on Colin Kaepernick. I believe it is essential for Nike to take this opportunity to further promote its own reputation and upholding its main belief:” Just Do It”. Colin Kaepernick’s incident has fully displayed Nike’s spirit of just doing it no matter the cause of it to be, which Kaepernick decided to stand for voicing the need for a change on racial prejudice by kneeling down during the national anthem. Moreover, the quote stated “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” stands out in the ad and is targeted to be the main focus of the advertisement. Although people might think Colin Kaepernick did not sacrifice everything, I believe he is mostly there to sacrifice everything by giving up his life of being a professional football player and his career. It is a huge sacrifice for an athlete that works for his whole life just to play in the NFL and his sacrifice on this is extraordinary for me. 
  •  What extent the context of production should be considered when analyzing advertisements: 
    • I believe it is significant to consider the context of production which in this case the involvement of Nike in Colin Kaepernick’s incident. The relationship between it is something to be focused on and the purpose of Nike to display such controversial ads should be considered as it informs the meaning of the ad and the reason for Nike to intervene in this incident. I believe the spirit of “ Just Do It” correlates to Colin Kaepernick’s action is the main reason for Nike to take this opportunity to seek attention from the customers, ultimately achieving its goal to promote Nike as a sportswear company who strongly stand on what the company believes in. 
  • Why do we study language?
    • We study the language and the structure of language because it is a way people express their meaning and intention through a variety of ways of language. The quote shown in Colin Kaepernick’s Nike advertisement divided a sentence into two separate segments in order to strengthen its intention to make specific words to be seen before the other. It can help to develop a stronger expression of the message of the advertisement by “believing in something” first then the consequence of it to “sacrificing everything”. The usage of syntax here is effective as it helps to make a more clear message of the advertising and become more persuasive.
  • In what ways is meaning constructed, negotiated, expressed and interpreted?
    • Meaning can be fully expressed in these ways through, in this unit, the strength of an advertisement. It is essential to structure details and icons in the right place in order to fully display the meaning of it. The placement of things in this ad is essential as it leads the way how the audience views it and makes it influential of not. For example, the quote present in Colin Kaepernick’s Nike advertising impact a lot on the overall performance of the ad as it was placed in the middle of the ad and kept Kaepernick to be the background, which further strengthens its purpose of the quote by relating it to colin Kaepernick’s incident, therefore, making the ad to become persuasive.

Portfolio #3 Antigone

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Literature

For this Language and Literature unit, we focus more on a specific Greek play written by Sophocles called Antigone. It is a Greek play that demonstrates a rebellion movement by the female protagonist to emphasize the importance of culture, identity, and community and how an individual connects to society. Throughout the unit, we accomplished two paper 2 writing, discussion, and the Morality and Marginalization Project which these three tasks are considered the most essentials materials to learn in this unit. For Paper 2, we did an untimed and timed one while writing prompts that focus specifically on investigating implicative or potential ideas that occurred in Antigone and to have a clear interpretation and demonstration of our thoughts on those prompt ideas. The work that I present underneath is the outline of the paper 2 untimed versions which is formed base on breaking the context, structure, and ideas separately in order to organize it efficiently, therefore, creating a better thesis statement and strong arguments with clear interpretation in the writing. I become to be more familiar with forming a decent thesis statement that can clearly be proven by evidence in the text and other symbolic representations, ultimately helping me in writing literature writing overall.

The discussion we did in this unit also helps me discover and found out the hidden ideas or implications represented in the play which help me better understand the perspective and identity of characters in the play. We have completed three discussions in this unit and each discussion we discussed the play in distinct perspectives and objectives in the play which help me interpret symbolic literature evidence in the play while also present personal connection and opinions in the discussion. Moreover, we also make connections to other literary work that we have studied such as A Doll’s House which we compare and contrast the similarity and difference within two plays, ultimately finding the purpose of the playwrights on presenting such ideas in the play.

Through the discussion, new ideas I had were the contemporary tension that links back to the literature text we studied. While I am doing the connection between modern and past well, as I continue in my literature studies and discussion, I want to focus on improving the interpretation and implication of the literary text. I will do this by exploring various ideas in the text, which help me on justifying the purpose of depicting the characters in a specific way from the playwright.

Lastly, we did a project called the Morality and Marginalization Project which we were divided into groups and present rebellion ideas either by debate or video. For my group, we chose to do a debate because we feel like it is better to understand arguments from both sides in order to identify if it’s a rebellion or not. Moreover, we chose “Greta Thunberg” to be the person we discussed in this debate because her climate change movement has been controversial in society and resulting in whether her action is a rebellion or not. We chose to work on the “climate change” global issue because we feel like this issue is somehow not been considered as much essential as other global issues and actions should be more actively taken. Our debate topic is about whether Greta Thunberg is a positive impact on society which I stood as the negative side of this debate. Consequently, we formed a website for this project and put up our works onto the website, “Making of a Rebel“.

Throughout this unit, I was able to investigate the relationship between society and individuals in-depth by different materials such as the play Antigone or the project. I realize the importance of the system of society can do to an individual’s identities and morality. Furthermore, I learned about the power of rebellion and the impact it could deal on society, which I believe a balance should be taken between upholding individuality and orderly society. Thus, we should cherish the rights we have nowadays to be able to express our individuality through a freedom society and democracy.

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Connection Between Political Cartoons and ADH

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Literature

After going through the second unit, political cartoons. I found out there are several similarities that can be compared to our first unit, A Doll’s House. The “tone” is an essential element for both units as it conveys different styles and feeling to the audience. The usage of tone is able to make an argument become more persuasive, which an effective usage of tone is able to use both in political cartoons and role-plays. For instance, several cartoons will provide a quote which very frequently uses punctuation to presents its tone on the argument and increase its persuasiveness to ultimately formulate a better product in both cartoons and plays. Furthermore, symbolization is another similarity between cartoons and plays. Both of these literate and non-literate texts are able to utilize a specific object to create unique implications to support the author’s main points and argument through either cartoons and plays. In conclusion, the two units have been somehow related in terms of the usage of writing techniques, which is able to strengthen their arguments in either the form of cartoon or role-plays.

Portfolio Post #2 Political Cartoon Analysis & 1st Timed Writing

IB Lang & Lit, Language


Throughout this unit, we were asked to analyze different types of cartoons and determine the usage of humor under each one of them. For instance, I chose to annotate a cartoon about gender inequality in sports from Liza Donnelly and to analyze it with a formal structural analysis that consists of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I was able to improve my skills in getting in depths to understand the ultimate idea the author is trying to convey. Nonetheless, I did not completely and correctly annotate the cartoon as the comment from the teacher to reveal that the people on the cartoons are actually female not male, which I somehow miss the part and formulate a different thesis statement in my analysis. I learned that I have to work on the implication and interpretation of the actual text in order to correctly formulate a strong and suitable thesis statement for this specific text.

The intention of Liza Donnelly to create these cartoons is to draw attention and raise awareness from the public to focus on global issues around the world, which in this case she focuses on gender inequality for most of her cartoons. Gender inequality has been a serious issue that affects the rights of people to acheive things in society. There are a lot of advocates aiming to promote gender equality in the world such as Malala who aim to advocate young female education in society. In conclusion, it links back to how our group came up with an ultimate statement about Donnelly’s action in this unit, “By utilizing your own strength to raise awareness on social discrimination, you ultimately shape and change the social value in the end”.

Moreover, we did our first “timed writing” during this unit as a practice for paper 1. I think it was quite new for me as the time limit somehow makes me feel like being pressured. I have to do better jobs in organizing the structure of my analysis better within the time limit. It is essential to strike the main argument and create a solid thesis statement to be expressed in the analysis with the help of supplemental paragraphs to strengthen the main idea of the analysis.

Portfolio Post #1 ADH

Diploma Program, IB Lang & Lit, Literature

For this ADH Unit, we have written a complete analysis of a specific act in the play. In this analysis, we focus on different scenes that occurred in act 2 and analyze it with deeper understandings and ideas. For my act 2 analysis, it focuses on the scene that Dr. Rank is being pessimistic about his circumstances in society. He receives a lot of fo pressure from societal norms and his illness as well, which he demonstrates his pessimism throughout different reasons in the play. I believe I can write a better analysis by providing more specific and detailed on the intentions of Dr. Rank’s interaction with Nora and has a more comprehensive overall view of the scene with a solid conclusion sentence.


Furthermore, in order to investigate more deeply on this play, we have several discussions about some specific topics that either directly or indirectly shown throughout the play. For me, I received a topic about “in what ways does the family depicted in the work help you to understand the culture surrounding the nature of love and marriage?”, which it is essential to look at the family especially on their tone and interactions with each other. Evidence and interpretation must be provided and explained throughout the discussion, and more essentially, this discussion benefits me by knowing some additional ideas or opinions from my classmates which help to strengthen my understanding of the act. I believe I can do better on explaining my own points and ideas with more confidence and fluency so that people will be able to truly understand my points. I think it will be important to provide a beneficial point of view from myself throughout the discussion.