DP Class of 2021 Begins Their Extended Essay Journeys!

Class of 2021 DP juniors shared their "Excitements, Questions, and Concerns" as they embark on the EE writing process.

​Our Grade 12 DP students recently shared their Extended Essay findings with Grade 11 students, who are now beginning their EE (extended essay) journeys! The extended essay is an in-depth, 4000 word (max) study of a focused topic chosen from one of the student’s IB Diploma subjects. For many of our students this research influences their choice of university studies and careers.
 
Ms. Murphy, DP Coordinator & EE Coordinator, and Ms. Maguire, Secondary School Librarian & EE Co-Coordinator, have already had two extended essay support classes for the Grade 11 students to introduce them to the nature of the extended essay and to begin interest inventories to help students decide upon a subject area. By January students will have preliminary research questions.
 
Over the next year, the Grade 11 DP students will have more than twenty support classes, focusing on the following topics:

• Understanding the nature of the Extended Essay
• IB Ethical Guidelines for Research
• Academic Honesty and the IB Diploma; Using Turnitin Similarity Index Reports
• Choosing a subject area
• Time management skills
• Understanding subject-specific assessment criteria and methodology
• Analyzing exemplar EE’s in the student's chosen subject area
• Writing a workable research question
• Unpacking the assessment criteria
• Selecting best research tools & using databases effectively
• Source evaluation
• How to read a scholarly (peer reviewed) article
• How to integrate quotes and secondary source material smoothly and effectively
• Review of strong paragraph writing
• Exploring different tools for making &  organizing notes
• Introduction to different types of outlines (for analytical and investigative essays)
• Using citation tools, either Noodle Tools or ZBib, to track citations
• How to write quality reflections (a required component of the EE)

 This past Tuesday we had an EE Parent Coffee Morning. For those who missed it, here is the link to our Extended Essay Libguide. The EE Presentation for Parents is on the home page of this guide. The password is aisl2019. Please contact either Ms. Murphy or Ms. Maguire with any questions!

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Class of 2020 DP Senior, Scout, shares her Language & Literature EE findings with Class of 2021 students.