Guillermo Duff - Language A Curriculum Manager - The Hague

Guillermo is Curriculum Manager for Language A in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and is based in The Hague. This episode was being released slightly earlier in the week as I believe that what Guillermo has to offer may help with any Language A teachers currently reviewing the course for next term.

We discuss:

• The one literary text or writer that continues to provide Guillermo with a passion for education.

• The Language A curriculum’s recent shift from designated Parts to greater school autonomy and its success thus far.

• The possibility of a ‘Bodies of Work’, Prescribed Reading List for language in the same way we have one for literature.

• The types of language text that are better suited to Bodies of Work in Guillermo’s opinion.

• The reason why the Individual Oral asks for students to focus on ‘Global Issues’ whilst the HL Essay is concerned with the course’s ‘Key Concepts’.

• The inclusion of rhetoric in the final delivery of the Individual oral and how far students are expected to go with this.

• And finally, the Learner Portfolio and how Guillermo sees its role in the course.

Many thanks to Guillermo for speaking so passionately and in-depth about topics hotly debated on forums and in English department staff rooms around the world! I wish him well with his continued leading of the course.