Resources
Reading List for Teachers
Adler, Thomas P. A Streetcar Named Desire: The Moth and the Lantern. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990. This book is especially intriguing because Adler defends an original viewpoint, providing a strong argument that the main character of the play is not Stanley Kowalski but Blanche DuBois.
International Baccalaureate. “Group 1 English A: Literature; English A: Language and Literature Specimen Papers (First Exams 2013).” Online Curriculum Centre. Accessed July 19, 2016. http://occ.ibo.org/ibis/occ/Utils/getFile2.cfm?source=/ibis/occ/home/subjectHome.cfm&filename=dp%2Fgr1%2Flanguage_a1_english%2Fd_1_a1eng_spp_1305_2_e%2Epdf. Teachers will have to log into the IB Online Curriculum Centre (OCC) to download this resource for students. This resource contains specimen Papers 1 and 2 and marking notes. Teachers will need to guide students through this document or share excerpts from the document; it contains work for two different IB Language A courses (Language and Literature is one course, and Literature is another course unto itself) as well as prompts for Standard Level and Higher Level. To simply matters, teachers can direct students to pages 11 and 16 of this resource since they contain the sample questions and marking notes specific to the genre of drama in order to avoid confusion between courses, course levels, and Papers 1 and 2. This source is invaluable for IB teachers as we work toward preparing our students for the exams; it provides a true mentor text to share with students so that they will be familiar with the format of the exam and the criteria involved in marking the essays.
Mendelsohn, Daniel Adam. “Victims on Broadway II.” In How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken, 41-52. New York: Harper, 2008. This work is useful because Mendelsohn makes a compelling argument around how an actress must approach the role of Blanche as both monster and victim in order for Williams’ intent to be carried out effectively.
Price, Lindsay. “Spotlight: E-News from Theatrefolk—Issue 47—Analysis and Exercise—A Streetcar Named Desire.” Theatrefolk. Accessed July 19, 2016. https://www.theatrefolk.com/spotlights/analysis-and-exercise-a-streetcar-named-desire. This resource contains a wealth of material for teachers including questions and activities for classroom use.
Reading List for Students
sameera95. “Compilation of Past IB Drama Questions for English SL & HL.” IB Survival (forum). April 6, 2014. Accessed July 19, 2016. http://www.ibsurvival.com/topic/28688-compilation-of-past-ib-drama-questions-for-english-sl-hl/. Although this page is a forum entry on a message board, it contains over 40 drama-related prompts used in the past for Paper 2 exams. Students can use this list to get a sense of the types of prompts found in Paper 2.
Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. New York: New Directions, 2004. This version is the one in my school’s inventory and which my students will use. In case it might be helpful, the ISBN is 9780811216029.
Materials for Classroom Use
A Streetcar Named Desire. Directed by Elia Kazan. 1951. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2002. DVD. This DVD is the original film version of the play starring Marlon Brando as Stanley, Kim Hunter as Stella, and Vivien Leigh as Blanche.
Weschler, Raymond. “A Streetcar Named Desire.” ESL Notes. 2004. Accessed July 19, 2016. http://www.eslnotes.com/movies/pdf/a-streetcar-named-desire.pdf. This resource contains language direction for students who need vocabulary support; it is intended by the author to be used in conjunction with the 1951 film listed above.
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