The TISA MYP Language and Literature classes explore the world of communication in its varied aspects, from classic literary texts to the ads and messages students get in day to day life.

While M1 students investigate a flurry of questions to make sense of how they understand themselves and how they present their ideas to others, M5 students are honing in on detailed study of specific texts, starting with a focused writing on a single word.

The current M1 Unit “Names and Identity” challenges the students to engage in the ATL of Creative Thinking as they try to answer big questions like “Who am I?’ and “How do I present myself to others?” and “Do others see me the way I imagine they do?” We have the students re-imagining themselves through Graffiti Tags and Personal Logos, and then checking with their peers to see if their imaginative designs are speaking to the audience as intended.

M2 students reenact a scene from the novel Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. They are focusing on communication and learning empathy as they imagine the scene from another character’s perspective.

At the other end of the MYP spectrum, M5 students dive into a “Word Search” unit that has them researching and critically considering how words have multiple uses and meanings, where the meaning comes from, and how the word usage has changed over time. In order to engage their audience in this pursuit of meaning and critical thinking, students are writing blog posts that invite response and discussion.

The intention of MYP Language and Literature is to give students confidence and skill in using their own voices in effective and appropriate ways, while helping them to understand the importance of really listening to the voices of others and receiving the messages and purposes of communication, making them more empathetic, but also more aware of how language might be used to sway or manipulate them.