“You
don’t have to go fishing, of course, to fix your motorcycle.
A cup of coffee, a walk around the block, sometimes just putting
off the job for five minutes of silence is enough. That which
turns its back on this inner calm and the Quality it reveals is
bad maintenance. That which turns toward it is good.” –Pirsig,
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
“To see the
landscape without seeing the figure is not to see the landscape
at all.” –Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle
Maintenance
IB Theory of Knowledge
is an interdisciplinary course that asks students to reflect on
what they know and how they know it. Students engage in daily
discussions, prepare presentations relevant to course content,
and write regularly while keeping a journal of their work. Journals
are checked on a rotating basis throughout the semester. In Theory
of Knowledge 2, students continue to revise their extended essays
and prescribed titles, submitting revisions regularly until both
are completed and ready to mail to the IBO.
Resources
:
Readings from philosophy, epistemology, ethics, politics, aesthetics,
literature, and other relevant areas of knowledge reflected in
the full IB Program
The World is Flat—Friedman
Girl with a Pearl Earring—Chevalier
Man Is the Measure—Abel
Selected film clips, films, art examples, and audio recordings
Field trips to museums and performances, as possible
Weekly Focus:
Quarter 1
Overview of History, Ethics and Art
“To live only for some future goal is shallow. It’s
the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.”
–Pirsig
8/27-8/31— Exploration of Values and Summer Reading Packet
and The World is Flat, Collect Summer Reading
9/4-9/7— Extended Essay revisions from summer due by 9/7
What is History?
“History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't
want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history
that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we made today.”
–Henry Ford
9/10-9/14 — Definitions of history
9/17-9/21 — History methods and subjects—Writing
Assignment #1–Defend or refute an opinion of history
Ethics and
Knowledge (The “Moral” Life and the “Good”
Life; Moral Development and Judgment)
“To live is, in itself, a value judgment. To breathe is
to judge.” –Camus
9/24-9/28 — Exploration of Professional and
Other Codes of Conduct, malpractice
10/1-10/5 — Readings in moral development theory
and ethics, Group discussions on ethics—Writing Assignment
#2 (Does living a moral life matter?)
10/8-10/12 — Examination of political systems and judgments
Arts and Knowledge/The
Nature of Beauty/The Practice of Aesthetic Judgment
“Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth” –Picasso
“When you look at the cap long enough, . . . you see that
he has not really painted it white, but blue, and violet, and
yellow. . . . It’s painted many colors, but when you look
at it, you think it’s white.”
“Tile painting is much simpler. . . . You use blue and that’s
all. A dark blue for the outlines, a light blue for the shadows.
Blue is blue.” –Chevalier, Girl with a Pearl Earring
“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.”
–Zappa
10/15-10/18 — Revisions of Prescribed Titles* (drafted last
fall and revised over summer) due by 11/15—Begin
reading Girl with a Pearl Earring and other literary
selections; examine arts and knowledge
10/22-10/26 — Readings in arts/aesthetics; group orals on
aesthetics; Discuss Girl with Pearl Earring, Overview
of the individual oral presentation and choose oral presentation
topics
10/29-11/2 — Work on polishing Prescribed Titles/Continue
discussions of Girl with a Pearl Earring and other readings
in arts and aesthetics, work on presentation planning documents.
Quarter
2
The Structure of Knowledge and Revisiting Areas of Knowledge
“Traditional scientific method has always been at the very
best, 20-20 hindsight. It’s good for seeing where you’ve
been. It’s good for testing the truth of what you think
you know, but it can’t tell you where you ought to go.”
–Pirsig
During November
and December, students will make individual oral presentations
as their internal assessments for the course. Due dates will be
assigned according to the topic chosen. At least one week before
the presentation, the student needs to hand in a presentation
planning document (TK/PPD). Directly after the student completes
his/her presentation, he/she must hand in a presentation marking
form (TK/PMF) to evaluate the presentation.
11/5-11/9 —
Prescribed Titles due 11/15; Examine structure
of knowledge;
11/12-11/16 — Revisit Areas of Knowledge; Begin Formal Oral
Presentations—Presentation marking for due one after the
oral presentation
11/19-11/21 — Continue Revisiting Areas of Knowledge; Formal
Oral Presentations
11/26-11/30 — Formal Oral Presentations
12/3-12/7 — Address Linking Questions
(“Can there be false knowledge?”)
12/10-12/14 — Education and “Quality”—Final
extended essay revisions
Truth and
Knowledge
“The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I’m
looking for the truth, and it goes away. Puzzling.” –Pirsig
“They who know the truth are not equal to those who love
it, and they who love it are not equal to those who delight in
it.” –Confucius
12/17-12/21 — Evaluating Learning Models—The Value
of Education/The Art of Schooling
Constructing
a Personal Model of Knowledge
1/2-1/4 — Final
copies of extended essay due on January 8—ready
to be mailed
1/7-1/11 — Personal models
of knowledge with written reflection due (personal models of knowledge
and the written reflections count as the final exam grade for
ToK 2)
*The ToK Prescribed
Title and the Extended Essay are required IB external assessments.
The Formal Oral Presentation, the TK/PPD, and the TK/PMF are required
IB internal assessments.
Aims
The aims of the TOK
course are to:
- develop a fascination
with the richness of knowledge as a human endeavor, and an understanding
of the empowerment that follows from reflecting upon it
- develop an awareness
of how knowledge is constructed, critically examined, evaluated
and renewed, by communities and individuals
- encourage students
to reflect on their experiences as learners, in everyday life
and in the Diploma Program, and to make connections between
academic disciplines and between thoughts, feelings and actions
- encourage an interest
in the diversity of ways of thinking and ways of living of individuals
and communities, and an awareness of personal and ideological
assumptions, including participants’ own
- encourage consideration
of the responsibilities originating from the relationship between
knowledge, the community and the individual as citizen of the
world.
Objectives
Having followed the
TOK course, students should be able to:
- analyze critically
knowledge claims, their underlying assumptions and their implications
" generate questions, explanations, conjectures, hypotheses,
alternative ideas and possible
- generate questions,
explanations, conjectures, hypotheses, alternative ideas and
possible solutions in response to knowledge issues concerning
areas of knowledge, ways of knowing and students' own experience
as learners
- demonstrate an
understanding of different perspectives on knowledge issues
- draw links and
make effective comparisons between different approaches to knowledge
issues that derive from areas of knowledge, ways of knowing,
theoretical positions and cultural values
- demonstrate an
ability to give a personal, self-aware response to a knowledge
issue
- formulate and
communicate ideas clearly with due regard for accuracy and academic
honesty
Policies and Procedures:
Assessment
Criteria:
Please see external and internal assessment criteria published
by the IBO and distributed to students in rubrics that apply to
written and oral work for the course, in addition to the grading
policies noted below. Please see IBO Diploma Points Matrix for
diploma points awarded for successful completion of the Extended
Essay and Theory of Knowledge assessments. The external assessment
for TOK is weighted at 40 points, applicable to the final IBO
grade in TOK, while the internal assessment (the formal oral presentation
and self-evaluation report) is weighted at 20 points. Students
may continue to revise their prescribed title and Extended Essay
until the deadlines set on our timeline.
Final marking period
grades will be determined on a percentage basis:
A—90-100%
B—80-89%
C—70-79%
D—60-69%
E— 0-59%
Late work will be
graded up to one grade down if handed in between the due date
and the final deadline. Work handed in after the deadline will
receive an E.
A student who does
not complete the internal and/or external IB assessments may risk
not receiving the IB diploma and not passing the course.
The following B–CC
policies are consistent with the MCPS Grading and Reporting Policy
as outlined in Learning, Grading and Reporting Guidelines
(MCPS, 2004).
- Teachers will
assign grades to reflect individual achievement on course objectives.
- Teachers will
determine grades based on a variety of assessment methods.
- Teachers will
issue progress reports at the 4½ week mark in each quarter.
- Teachers will
establish clear due dates and deadlines. The maximum penalty
for work submitted after the due date but before the deadline
is one letter grade on an A-E scale or 10% on a 100% scale.
Teachers will record
50% as the lowest possible grade for work attempted except in
cases of academic dishonesty.
Reteaching/Reassessing
Policy:
Students will be allowed to be reassessed on assignments as determined
by the IB ToK 2 team. Students will be informed ahead of time
when an assignment may be reassessed. Only students who meet the
deadline may be reassessed on an assignment. They must show evidence
as determined by the teacher and team that they have made an attempt
to relearn the material before taking the reassessment. Examples
of that evidence include, but are not limited to:
- Coming to the
teacher for extra help
- Attending TAP
- Completing practice
assignments
- Making corrections
on the original assessment/assignment.
Reassessment must
be done in a timely fashion according to a schedule determined
by the teacher and team. The reassessed grade will replace the
original grade.
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