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Learning engagement 2: Learner portfolio educator

A little about me

My name is Souleymane Diaw. I’m 56 now and I’m turning to 57 January 12th. I’m a Senegalese citizen, Senegal is located in West Africa. I’m a translator (French, English and Russian and I’m also an English and Russian teacher. I have been teaching English for 20 years. I’m the IB DP Coordinator of our school and this is my fourth year teaching English A – Language & Literature. I already went through the IB DP Coordinator training and I’m happy I was given the opportunity to go through the English A training. I hope that this workshop will help me deepen my knowledge and skills in teaching English A – Language & Literature.

During my free time, I play the guitar and I work on musical compositions.

I’m married and I have four children, the eldest is already married.

I really don’t have serious problems in this course and I really like working on external and internal assessments – Paper 1, HL Essay and the individual oral.

Each trimester, students receive an internal report card to assess the understanding of their knowledge in the subject chosen and the core and to identify their weaknesses and challenges.

According to me, it’s really beneficial for all of us to exchange with each other and to share our teaching best practices.

It will be profitable for us to continue relationships after the course by exchanging via emails and social media.

A successful outcome for me will be a deeper understanding of the curriculum, the collaborative planning and reflections and the course outline planning. Overall, I would like to have a greater understanding of the language and literature curriculum. The main things I think will help me get that are:

1. Better knowledge of what each of the exams/graded essays entail and how to mark them.

2. A stronger ability to plan the year’s workload of reading and study.

3. To meet others who are in a similar position to me and share best practice

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The Six Approaches to Teaching

What is your order of importance for the approaches to teaching?

1. Teaching designed to remove barriers to learning

2. Teaching developed in local and global context

3. Teamwork & Collaboration

4. Inquiry

5. Teaching informed by assessment

6. Teaching focused on conceptual understanding

What is your criterion behind some having a higher or lower priority?

1.      Teaching designed to remove barriers to learning

When ranking my choices, I focused mainly on the fact that teachers should be aware of students’ abilities, capacities, predominant intelligence (related to Multiple Intelligences), learning style, cultural backgrounds etc… According to me barriers will prevent students to display their entire potential.

1. Teaching developed in local and global context

As we live in a globalized village, teachers should pay attention to students ‘local realities and international challenges while being fully aware of the global issues.

1. Teamwork & Collaboration

My third priority is teamwork and collaboration. We should understand that all subjects are interconnected that’s why we talk about interdisciplinary activities. It leads to collaborative planning which is more than just working together on a document. It is a group of thinkers, discussing ideas, asking questions, clarifying thoughts, challenging opinions, respecting others, and furthering our understandings. Collaboration allows teachers to share their knowledge, ideas, and experiences in order to actively participate with others. Teamwork and collaboration enable teachers to share their best practices especially in terms of formative and summative assessments.

1. Inquiry

Inquiry is my next priority: teachers should always seek truth, information and knowledge. This calls upon our curiosity and develops our skills for research. We should understand that the key to success is being curious, independent, and capable of thinking “out of the box” going beyond what is available. The more we do research, the more we deepen our knowledge.

1. Teaching informed by assessment

As far as “teaching informed by assessment” is concerned, students consider assessment as a judgment rather than an opportunity for further learning or change of strategy. How can we turn this around? We should create an atmosphere where students don’t think they have to get everything right the first time. We can also use a formative assessment which is more student-friendly. This form of assessment can be used as a tool, but it serves our instructional goals better when it is also perceived as a process. “This ‘constructive’ use of formative assessment hinges on the ability of the teacher (or another provider of feedback) to actually give recommendations that are relevant and effective for improvement” (Dolin et al., 2018).

1. Teaching focused on conceptual understanding

“Concepts”, “understanding”, and their combination for “conceptual understanding” have more than one definition in an educational context. Concepts: “Broad, powerful organizing ideas that have relevance both within and across subject areas” (IBO, 2015). Understanding: Construction of an accurate and stable representation of any situation we encounter; it can be for something concrete, like an item or a phenomenon, or it can be abstract, like a notion. Conceptual understanding: Representations referring to a concept, as a group of ideas with regularities or patterns. According to me, conceptual understanding is mainly based on student’s capacity to understand abstract and concrete notions and concepts with the teacher’s guidance and teaching strategies. Instead of trying to eradicate students’ initial representations of concepts, use them as the ground floor, and build upon them.

The Five Approaches to Learning

What is your order of importance for the approaches to learning?

1. Thinking Skills

2. Self-Management Skills

3. Communication Skills and Social Skills

4. Research Skills

5. Social skills

Although these are presented as distinct categories, there is some overlap and close connections between them. These categories should be seen as interrelated as well as linking closely with the attributes highlighted in the IB learner profile.

What is your criterion behind some having a higher or lower priority?

1. According to me, the most important one is thinking skills. For the DP, specifically, with its core elements, Theory of Knowledge and Extended Essay, focuses on critical and creative thinking that enable students to analyze situations, revisit challenges and create possible solutions to problems.

2.      The second is Self-management which every IB student should exhibit as they grow in the their learning process. It’s a mix of organization skills – managing time and task effectively, goal setting etc…and affective skills – managing state of mind, self-motivation, resilience and mindfulness.

3.      Communication skills are also important. They represent the ability to produce and interpret messages effectively. Social Skills are based on the ability to par1cipate and collaborate with others whilst showing awareness and respect for other cultures, varying points of view, and individual differences.

4.   For students, research skills play the central role of the Extended Essay in which students have to carry out a piece of personal research. Research skills are at the heart of an inquiry-based pedagogy.

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Learning Engagement 4

IB Mission

1. What ideological biases exist in the IB mission statement, and how do you know this as a reader?

The first sentence of the statement uses 3 important attributes “inquiring, knowledgeable and caring” to determine how should be the IB students and what is expected from them, i.e to create a better world, a peaceful one through intercultural understanding and respect. The second idea mentions the IB programmes, the assessment mode and the intercultural aspect of the programmes.The main purpose of the mission is to promote mutual understanding and respect among people in a peaceful world

IB Learner Profile

2. What is the dominant reading of this text and what might be an oppositional reading of the IB learner profile?

The way we understand the text is that all the ten (10) attributes of the learner profile are already in the IB student.  Another understanding of the text is that the ten (10) attributes should be developed through students’ learning process. These attributes can be considered as new competencies that students should acquire in the two (02) year programme and beyond.

Course Aims and Assessment Objectives

3. What is the tone created in the aims and assessment objectives, how does the author create it, and why?

The tone created in the aims and assessment objectives is formal, academic, serious and concise. Verbs like "know, understand, analyze, evaluate..."from Bloom’s Taxonomy are used to describe the aims and the assessment. In so doing, the reader can form a clear and accurate understanding of the goals to achieve in the program.  The aims determine the learning process and the assessment refers to the capacity, ability, competency and knowledge at the end of the two year course. As the programme has many requirements and regulations, the tone should be strict and rigorous to imply the responsibility of all stakeholders.

Question 4: Standards and practices

What words or phrases have a highly charged
connotation and what is the effect on the reader?

Celebrate – meaning hapiness,
festivities, recognition; i.e. happiness to be in the programme  and recognition of its value.

Open and Democratic – i.e “No student is
left behind (expression, role to play and contribution to the development of
the programme and the community

Cycles of inquiry, lifetime
of learning and deeper understanding: they mean permanent growth,
development and perenization of the programme.

Question 5: Creativity, activity and service

What
words or phrases demonstrate the ideological perspective of this text?

Creativity, creative response and critical review show the specificity of the IB programme having a
global vision which is different from many schools around the world.

Service, raise awareness, global issue, show an ideology of improvement through community
service and dedication to local and global issues.

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Learning engagement 1

Theory of knowledge debate

1.      Who gets left off in canonical discussions of literature and why does that matter?

Whether one is aware of it, literary canons permeate society on many levels and have undoubtedly shaped everyone’s world view. The term “literary canon” refers to a body of books, narratives and other texts considered to be the most important and influential of a particular time period or place. Take a 19th century American literature course, for instance. One is being exposed to a version of a group of texts that has, through one means or another, been established as representative of the essential authors, movements and historical events in America during the 1800s. Through the course of education, when one is asked to read any novel, essay, poem, or some other sort of text, it is because a teacher or some other entity decided the text should be canonized. Canons, then, can be understood as value-determining lists that are ingrained in our education system, perhaps unavoidably so.  The African perspective examines the idea of an African literary canon through the creative works of African writers, their criticism by African literary scholars, and the validation of African aesthetic values. Based on the premise that literature is a cultural production, modern African literature expresses the socio-cultural, historical, and other experiences as well as the sensibility of its people. Literary works that focus on certain criteria of cultural acceptability,  Africanness, or Africanity constitute modern African literature and its canon. Since modern African literature is still relatively young compared to Western literatures, there have been debates and controversies over what is truly African literature.  As a result of the postcolonial experience shared by many African and Asian societies, many of the issues relating to African literature and its canon have parallel responses in modern Asian literary discourse. Defining African literature can be complicated. There are some authors who believe African literature can only be composed in African languages. Others believe African literature can be composed in any language so long as it is composed by authors from Africa.African literature has evolved over time, from oral stories and Egyptian hieroglyphs to the novels, poems, and plays of today. Obviously, creating a canon will inevitably leave out many important writers. However, it can be a useful exercise for getting a grasp on the literary traditions of a region

2.      And so, is the notion of a canon helpful in the study and understanding of literature? How does a canon get established?

The canon consists of influential works that are essential to understanding the time period, country, or genre. It may sound pretty snazzy and a little snobbish to be a part of canon literature, or even study it, but the science behind it isn't rigid at all. Literature is an ever-growing and changing subject of study. Canon or the classic refers to the best and most representative works in a literary or cultural tradition, and the rise of world literature now provides an opportunity for scholars of different literary traditions, particularly non-Western and the less well-known and insufficiently studied “minor” traditions, to introduce and present the canonical works they know best to form a canon of world literatures. World literature is not just all the works that happen to circulate beyond their culture of origin, but the collective body of the best canonical works from various literary traditions that circulate to constitute what we call world literature.

Anyone who has studied literature in a secondary school or university in the western world knows what that means. It means that the works in the canon get read, read by neophyte students and supposedly expert teachers. It also means that to read these privileged works is a privilege and a sign of privilege. It is also a sign that one has been canonized oneself -- beatified by the experience of being introduced to beauty, admitted to the ranks of those of the inner circle who are acquainted with the canon and can judge what belongs and does not.

3.      And what "canon" are you presenting to students in your literature choices? Why does that matter?

It’s been pointed out that most of the texts studied in secondary and post-secondary schools are written by white men, which might give the impression that only white men are capable of writing canonical works.

But we know this isn’t so; the reality is that the people who have long been in charge of deciding the curriculum looked a lot like those authors they chose, whether they were consciously biased or not. (For significant chunks of the twentieth century, many women and Black Americans couldn’t even vote, much less help decide national school standards.)

Examples of this include the American canon, under which works such as The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby fall or the canon of Romantic English poetry which poets such as Blake, Wordsworth and Keats belong to. Since the 1960s though there has been a shift in opinion towards the canon.

The most important positive aspect is that the canon provides students with a selected bibliography, which gives most literature classes a sense of unity. The canon also allows a student to read a select amount of literature from each period so they may reach several literary movements in a small amount of time.

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| Teacher(s) |  Mr Souleymane Diaw | Subject                  group and course | English A: language and literature
| Aresa                     of exploration: Key concepts: | Readers, writers, and texts Identity, culture, communication and representation | SL or HL/Year 1 or 2 | SL and HL, Year 1 | Dates | First weeks of the course
| Unit description and texts | DP assessment(s) for unit
| [Note * denotes a concept] •             This unit introduces students or “readers” to the key concepts of identity, culture, communication, and representation* through close analysis of a text—a speech or academic lecture. Another non-literary text, such as an advertisement, might suit the teaching approaches of this unit. •             The main text of focus is a TED Talk written and delivered by Keith Chen, Associate Professor of Economics at UCLA's Anderson School of Management. The TED Talk is entitled “Could language affect your ability to save money”. Keith Chen. This text was chosen with an audience of bilingual and multilingual Chinese students in mind. •             Students can then self-select other TED talks on language, culture and identity. Some examples include Mark Pagel’s engaging lecture, “How language transformed humanity”, and Suzanne Talhouk’s passionate speech, “Don’t kill your language.” •             Thought-provoking connections could be made between the content of this unit and dystopian novels that also address language and identity, such as George Orwell’s 1984 or Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We; a related poem that comes to mind is Josephine Jacobsen’s “Language as an escape from the discreet”. •             The unit includes aspects from the IB TOK course as well as incorporating key ATL metacognitive skills, particularly note- taking, organising and transforming information, and differentiation. | Paper 1
|   |   |   |   |   |   |

Inquiry: establishing purpose of the unit

| Transfer goals List here one to three big, overarching, long-term goals for this unit. Transfer goals are the major goals that ask students to “transfer”, or apply, their knowledge, skills, and concepts at the end of the unit under new/different circumstances, and on their own without scaffolding from the teacher.
| 1.        Students will understand the notions of linguistic determinism, relativism, and mentalese. 2.        Students will be able to analyse the use of rhetorical and multimodal features in writing and to apply this understanding to any academic lecture, evaluating the purpose and effect of these features. 3.        Students will be inspired to independently choose, listen to, and make notes on further TED Talks related to identity, culture, communication, and representation.

| Essential understandings List here the key content/skills/concepts that students will know/develop by the end of the unit.
| Students will know the following content. •             Linguistic determinism •             Linguistic relativity •             Mentalese •             Rhetorical and multimodal features •             Characteristics of paper 1 Students will develop the following skills. •             Students will distinguish key points, elaboration, and examples, question and evaluate arguments and write their own opinions. •             Students will distinguish between weak and strong theories, and sort them on a continuum. •             Students will decide which argument supports linguistic determinism, weak and strong versions of linguistic relativity, and mentalese. •             Students will practise note-taking of key points, summarizing, identifying a lecturer’s thesis, and making their own judgements. •             Students will analyse a persuasive speech/script in depth, evaluating a range of rhetorical and multimodal features and the degree to which these features convince/engage/inform/entertain. •             Students will be able to identify dominant technical or formal features in a text.

| •             Students will analyse and evaluate the use of different types of statistical information in persuasive texts. •             After analysing and synthesizing the above, students will plan and write an organised commentary evaluating the persuasiveness of the TED talk. Students will grasp the following concepts. •             The language we speak influences our perception* or attitudes towards time and place, culture*, and identity* •             Written and verbal language represents* mental thoughts, but is often limiting or inadequate. •             Research is often based on statistical data or graphics which are representative* but their reliability and potential to mislead must be assessed. •             A speech, when crafted carefully, is a powerful tool to communicate*, to persuade, and to inform.
| Missed concepts/misunderstandings List here any misunderstandings the students may have had during the unit with relation to skills, content and concepts.
| Content based •             Linguistic relativism is deterministic. •             Statistics is a sure way to prove any argument. •             Paper 1 is an unfocused text commentary. Skills based •             The range of rhetorical features available to a speaker is limited, and they are easy to recognize and analyse. •             Planning a commentary in a way that provides a coherent argument and offers development of ideas or subtopics is very challenging Concept based •             Use of language is effortless and communication can be taken for granted. •             The relationship between thought and language is a simple one.
| Inquiry questions Rewrite the missed understandings listed above in question form (preferably as ones that inspire students to answer them). Feel free to create additional questions that help inspire further inquiry in the unit but may not directly connect to an essential understanding listed above.
| Content based •             What are the differences between linguistic determinism, linguistic relativity, and mentalese? •             What tools are available to aid us in speech making? •             What are the characteristics of paper 1?

|  Skills based •             How can I best take notes of key points, summarize, identify the lecturer’s thesis, and make my own judgements? •             What is the effectiveness of rhetorical and multimodal features used in speeches? •             What are the strengths and weaknesses of different theories about linguistic relativity? •             How can I evaluate the use of statistical information in persuasive texts? •             How can I plan and write an organized commentary to communicate my interpretation of the speech? •             How do I identify key formal and technical features of a text that may support a guided textual analysis in paper 1? Concept based •             How does language we speak influence our perception or attitudes towards time and place, culture, and identity? •             To what extent does written and verbal language represent thought? How is it limiting or inadequate? •             Is statistical data or graphics representative of a linguistic group? Is the data reliable? How might numerical data mislead an audience? •             How can a speech effectively communicate, persuade, and inform? •             To what degree does language influence thought and behaviour? Is it possible that language shapes our savings behaviour? •             How does the language you speak represent your notion of time and place, particularly “futurity”?

Action: teaching and learning through inquiry

| Essential understanding goals Copy and paste the essential understanding goals from above “Inquiry” section. | Assessment of essential understanding goals Assessments should be labelled formative (F) or summative (S). | Learning process pedagogicalapproachesusedduringthe unit. Aim for a variety of approaches to help facilitate learning.
| Students will know the following content •             Linguistic determinism •             Linguistic relativity •             Mentalese | Content based •             Read texts and listen to speeches and determine the nature of the argument made and decide the degrees to which if supports linguistic determinism or mentalese. (F, S) | Before listening to the talk, discuss what students already know or feel about language and how it shapes thought or perception. Untranslatable words might be a starting point.

| •             Rhetorical and multimodal features •             Characteristics of Paper 1. Students will develop the following skills: •             Students will distinguish key points, elaboration, and examples, question and evaluate arguments and write their own opinions. •             Students will distinguish between weak and strong theories, and sort them on a continuum. •             Students will decide which argument supports linguistic determinism, weak and strong versions of linguistic relativity, and mentalese •             Students will practise note-taking of key points, summarizing, identifying a lecturer’s thesis, and making their own judgements •             Students will analyse a persuasive speech/script in depth, evaluating a range of rhetorical and multimodal features and the degree to which these features convince/engage/inform/entertain. •             Students will be able to identify dominant technical or formal features in a text. •             Students will analyse and evaluate the use of different types of statistical information in persuasive texts. •             After analysing and synthesizing the above, students will plan and write an organised commentary evaluating the persuasiveness of the TED talk Students will grasp the following concepts •             The language we speak influences our perception* or attitudes towards time and place, culture*, and identity*. | •             Make presentations on the notions of linguistic determinism, linguistic relativity and mentalese having different audiences in mind (primary school students, people with no interest in linguistics, bilingual speakers). (F) •             Quiz: identifying rhetorical features in an unseen speech or lecture. (S) •             10 tips on how to do well on paper 1 (applied to a particular text or generic) (F) Skills based •             Analyse rhetorical and multimodal features, evaluate, and organize a paper one (F,S) •             Write guiding questions on the basis of dominant technical or formal features (F,S) •             Organise a coherent paper one essay. (S) •             Portfolio entry: “You have been invited to a discussion panel where the notion of linguistic determinism is discussed. Prepare by drafting your thoughts in a written text entitled ‘Linguistic determinism and I’” (F) •             TED Awards: In groups students look back on all the TED talks watched and pretend to be the TED Award committee. They decide which awards there will be, for example, TED award to the best use of a rhetorical device, TED award to the best conclusion, and so on. They decide on the nominees first, and then on the winners. (F) | Discuss ways of listening and effective note-taking, such as using columns for recording, commenting, and questioning. https://student.unsw.edu.au/note-taking-skills   True for whom? Identify different viewpoints presented or counterarguments. Consider role- playing various viewpoints or using the Visible Thinking routine “True for who?” Sort cards with statements or quotations about linguistic relativity on a continuum, negotiating the degree of linguistic determinism/relativity/mentalese that each quotation represents. Offer groups extracts/sections of the script. Expert groups identify and analyse key features; more confident students can write guiding questions themselves, others who need more support can use the guiding questions provided; students then negotiate their interpretations with each other; understanding is then shared through a jigsaw puzzle activity. Visualize the key concepts, viewpoints, structure and style of the lecture in a journal entry. Sort and make connections between points. Discuss the many ways a paper one essay might be structured, from sequential, thematic, structural, or overarching rhetorical devices. Begin writing a plan that shows how understanding and analysis will be communicated.

| •             Written and verbal language represents* mental thoughts, but is often limiting or inadequate. •             Research is often based on statistical data or graphics which are representative* but their reliability and potential to mislead must be assessed. •             A speech, when crafted carefully, is a powerful tool to communicate*, to persuade, and to inform. | •             Vying for attention—role play: different figures of speech in one same text expose their claims to being the most important figure of speech in it. Students represent different figures of speech in the role play. (F) Concept based •             Portfolio entry—reflection: Roman Jakobson said “Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.” Are you aware of what your mother tongue forces you to do? (F) •             Lost in words: communicating through words and communicating through images. Students are given a painting which is either non-figurative or unrealistic (Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and so on). Students are asked to imagine what the thoughts behind that painting were, and then to imagine what the outcome of those thoughts would have been if instead of relying on visual art, the artist had relied on words for the communication of those ideas. (F) |
| Resources: |
| Textual analysis •             Guiding Questions for Keith Chen’s TED Talk to be used individually or in jigsaw puzzle groups •             Glossary of persuasive language features •             Word bank for analysing persuasive language texts with critical questions •             Handout on the use of statistics in persuasive texts Linguistic relativity •             Keith Chen’s Ted Talk (see below)
|   |   |   |

| Approaches to learning (ATL) Check the boxes for any explicit approaches to learning connections made during the unit. For more information on ATL, please see the IB publication Approaches to teaching and learning. | Metacognition Check the boxes for any metacognitive approaches used that ask students to reflect on unit content, their own skills, or unit concepts. For more information on the IB’s approach to metacognition, please see Approaches to teaching and learning. | Differentiation: For more information on the IB’s approach to differentiation, please see Approaches to teaching and learning.
| Thinking Social Communication Self-management Research Details •             Cognitive Skills: Students critique the LR theories put forth (also see TOK); higher order thinking skills practised when evaluating the persuasiveness of the TED Talk; claim/support/question practised. Learner profile: inquirers, knowledgeable | Reflection on content Reflection on skills     Reflection on concepts Details •             Reflection on the content: notes made in students’ learner portfolios entries. •             Reflection on skills: reflection and application of speech writing techniques and ways to engage and inform an audience; reflection on research methods. | Affirm identity—build self-esteem Value prior knowledge Scaffold learning Extend learning Details •             Paper one analysis may be completely independent or supplemented with detailed guiding questions. •             The SEAP acronym (subtopic, evidence and explanation, analysis, purpose in context/s) may be offered for language

| •             Communication Skills: both oral (emulating the persuasive TED Talks they have watched and analysed) and written communication skills (the learner portfolio entries and paper one); note-taking skills for listening to lectures. Learner profile: communicators •             Social skills: Fostered by collaboration and debate; appreciation of other genders and nationalities in the range of texts studied; awareness of audience, both of the TED Talks and their own audience. Learner profile: communicators, caring, open minded •             Self-management skills, particularly affective skills: the central TED Talk is carefully chosen: my “audience” are teenage boys at a very academic school in Hong Kong; in the past they were rarely exposed to academic and well-crafted English texts written by Chinese males (or females); I use Keith Chen as a model speaker, a "big brother” they can emulate and look up to. Learner profile: open- minded, principled | •             Reflection on concepts: rethink how paper one commentaries might be organised to show logical development of an argument; reconsider how language shapes or limits our world and perception. How does this apply to the various subjects in the IB and the language used in each? Learner profile: reflective | and literature students who need basic framework for writing paragraphs. •             Students interested in this topic and concepts may extend themselves through reading extracts from Steven Pinker’s essay collection, The Language Instinct. •             Students or TOK teachers interested in the design and deception of graphs and images may read Edward Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (1983). Learner Profile: inquirers
| Language and learning Check the boxes for any explicit language and learning connections made during the unit. For more information on the IB’s approach to language and learning, please see Approaches to teaching and learning. | TOK connections Check    the    boxes    for    any             explicit           TOK connections made during the unit. | CAS connections Check the boxes for any explicit CAS connections. If you check any of the boxes, provide a brief note in the “Details” section explaining how students engaged in CAS for this unit.
| Activating background knowledge Scaffolding for new learning Acquisition of new learning through practice Demonstrating proficiency Details | Personal and shared knowledge Ways of knowing Areas of knowledge The knowledge framework Details | Creativity Activity Service Details

| Scaffolding for learning of new language and rhetorical strategies through using TED Talk speakers as examples. Learner profile: good communicators, risk-takers Acquisition of key linguistic terms in this unit consolidated by continuous use in the discussion and assessment activities. Learner profile: good communicators Proficiency is demonstrated by producing an engaging and informative TED Talk (an IOP). Learner profile: good communicators, risk-takers | Language as a way of knowing (chapter 8 of Dombrowski’s IB TOK textbook). Knowledge question: to what extent does language facilitate or impair acquisition of knowledge? Students reflect on and evaluate the use of statistical language and data as a means of proving a thesis, then compare with the use of anecdote and metaphor. Learner profile: inquirers, knowledgeable, reflective | Creativity: the content of TED Talks on language issues that have local relevance can be rewritten as feature articles or columns for our school magazine.