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Extended Essay Lessons

This document provides guidance for students on planning their extended essay (EE). It discusses that the EE can be on any subject from the approved list. Students are instructed to review sample EEs, guidelines, and tips to understand what an EE entails. They are then asked to brainstorm potential topics from their classes and narrow them down by considering topics that intrigued, outraged, or puzzled them. Over multiple lessons, students formulate research questions on their top topics in different subject areas. The goal is for students to develop three promising EE topic ideas across different fields by the end of the planning process.

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jamesdeignan
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
847 views

Extended Essay Lessons

This document provides guidance for students on planning their extended essay (EE). It discusses that the EE can be on any subject from the approved list. Students are instructed to review sample EEs, guidelines, and tips to understand what an EE entails. They are then asked to brainstorm potential topics from their classes and narrow them down by considering topics that intrigued, outraged, or puzzled them. Over multiple lessons, students formulate research questions on their top topics in different subject areas. The goal is for students to develop three promising EE topic ideas across different fields by the end of the planning process.

Uploaded by

jamesdeignan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Extended Essay Planning Lesson

First Session. In class. Before you can envision your own extended essay, you
have to know what an extended essay is. The more you know, the more vividly
you'll be able to imagine your future EE.
Your EE may be in any one of the following areas: Biology, Chemistry, Business and
Management, Economics, English, Environmental Systems and Societies,
French*,History, Latin(Classical Languages), Mathematics, Music, Philosophy,
Spanish*, Visual Arts
The links in Lesson One will take you to exemplary extended essays in subjects open
to you. Your first task in Lesson One is to scroll through the sample essays, read a few
that grab your interest, and then answer the questions that follow. You might also
want to:

Read the Wikipedia entry on the Extended Essay.


Familiarize yourself with IBO's extended essay tips.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/International_Baccalaureate/Extended_Essay_Tip
s
Read through the new IBO Guidelines for the Extended Essay.

Groups compose the text for a flier about the EE based on your reading and
discussion. Compose it for sophomores and their parents.
Ten-minute freewrite. There's no right and wrong. You're writing to explore
your own personal relationship to this major IB assignment. Choose from among
the following prompts.

In what ways does the Extended Essay resemble writing that you have already
done?
In what ways does the Extended Essay differ from writing that you have
already done?
In what ways will the Extended Essay most challenge you? What scares you?
If writing this Extended Essay turned out to be your most rewarding academic
experience so far, what would it involve? What would you need? On whom
would you rely? What sorts of things would you do to prepare? How would it
shape the kind of person and student you become?

Homework. Think hard about what you might want to write your EE about. Post
at least one of your topics on Twitter and respond to another.

Second Session. In class. Now that you have a vivid conception of your ideal
Extended Essay, your third task is to brainstorm some possible ideas.
Take out a blank sheet of paper and a writing utensil. Turn the paper sideways and
fold it in thirds. Create three columns on each side. Write the names of your six HL
and SL courses you are taking here at CCHS across the topthree on each side, and
underline them (e.g. Physics, History, Theatre). Below each jot down anything that
comes to mind in response to the following prompts. Think through the prompts
course by course. For each course, remember the lessons, issues, projects, discussions,
and readings you experienced. Go back to freshman year if you need to and list the
ones that:

intrigued you
made you think you could do this for a living
made you talk nonstop
morally outraged you
broke your heart
disturbed you
made you feel exceptionally smart
opened a whole new world to you
left you unsatisfied--there was so much more to discover
puzzled you--something just didn't make sense

Fill the paper. When you've exhausted your memory, start crossing off ideas that are
outside the approved topics, less interesting, less promising, impractical, unoriginal,
or redundant. Circle your favorites.
Homework. Your last task is to formulate promising topics in three different
subject areas. Do some background research on these topics. Post at least one of
your topics on Twitter and respond to another.

Third Session. In class. Take a separate sheet and make three columns. On the
top, write down a favorite topic from three different subjects. In each column, do
the following:

If necessary, take it down another level of specificity. For example, I might be


starting with, "King Leopold's claim to the Congo." Then I might narrow it to
"The most significant effect King Leopold II and General Sanford's campaign
had on American trade with the Congo."
If your topic is a piece of literature you read as part of your IB Diploma
program, you must shift your attention to either comparing/contrasting the
work to another one that wasn't part of the curriculum, or to some other work
by that author or in that genre.
Compose three urgent questions related to each topic. For example, now that I
think about it, I really want to know, "What drove Sanford to betray King
Leopold at the Anti-Slavery Conference?" "By examining the early Belgian
Congolese trade, what can we learn about contemporary American trade
agreements with nations that institutionalize inhumanity against their citizens?"
In each column, consider the list of questions and then compose one unified
research question that incorporates the topic. For example, "What are the most
important principles underlying America's post-Emancipation Proclamation
response to the Belgian Congolese publicity campaign?"
Now you have three promising EE topics in three different fields!

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