Every February, students have to make the difficult decision of which classes they will pick for the following year. Will they take honors or core? Will they choose art or weightlifting? This year, Portage Northern juniors will have another decision to make: which of the four available English classes to take.

For the first time, PPS is offering an IB standard level (SL) English course in addition to the current higher level (HL) class, but it’s not just the levels that are different; the SL course is Language and Literature, while the HL class is only Literature. IB Language and Literature SL, though typically a year long course, will be taught over the span of both junior and senior year and will teach about all different kinds of media. Current IB English teacher Dr. Amanda Thorpe, who is set to teach the course, explains, “We currently offer HL Literature, which focuses only on college-level literary analysis. SL Language and Literature is geared toward more high school level capabilities, and it opens up anything that communicates meaning to be analyzed as a text.” 

This is a key difference between the two courses: while Literature focuses on traditional text types like novels and poems, Language and Literature allows for the study of anything that communicates meaning, including movies, murals, editorial cartoons, music videos, social media posts, magazine covers, and more. “I think it’s the way that the world is just changing and I think school has to change as well. There’s just so many more things that teenagers interact with on a daily basis that communicate meaning, other than just traditional books and poetry,” Thorpe explains. 

In addition to the course expanding across multiple types of media, the SL course will allow all students to be exposed to IB approaches to teaching and learning, which tend to be more individualized and global in scope than traditional methods. In terms of the level of difficulty, IB Language and Literature will serve as the equivalent of a core English class, while IB Literature HL will remain the honors alternative. While there will only be one or two sections of the course offered next year, if the class is successful, it could replace the current E11 and E12 classes in the future, which is actually an initiative that is supported by the IB organization on the international level.

Portage Northern IB coordinator Rick Searing explains IB’s push to get more students into IB classes: “A couple of years ago, we found out about a pilot that IB started all over the world,” he said. “What they’re trying to do is to take schools like ours, that have a good number of students involved in IB and figure out ways that we can get everybody the opportunity to be part of IB.” Thorpe shares a similar sentiment and view of IB as a program: “One of the things that we have in the district that we’re trying to overcome is this idea that IB is only for certain kinds of kids, because IB doesn’t see itself that way,” she said. “There are some schools across America and across the world where only IB classes are offered, and they’re accessible to everybody, but in Portage, we’ve used IB as a replacement for honors level classes, when there exists this whole world of core or SL IB class experiences. Bringing in those core classes, it gives every single student access to the IB curriculum.” 

To determine the extent to which the current ELA curriculum prepared students for the exam, five seniors that were enrolled in English 12 (the core senior English class) took the IB Language and Literature test last year. Alumni Brayden Shimp, who earned a passing score, shared his experience with the testing pilot. “I feel that IB SL is more attuned to students discovering who they are/want to be and what they believe,” he said. “As a future educator myself, I think the purpose of school is more than education — it’s finding yourself. IB SL leans students in that direction.” 

While the SL course is not universally granted college credit across the state, this is something that Searing is actively working on. “I am part of a leadership team for IB Schools of Michigan which will be introducing legislation in March to ask our Michigan public and private colleges and universities to create equity in the credit awarded to IB and AP students,” he said. “Our big day of action will be a day in Lansing on March 4 where IB educators, students, parents, alumni, admin and other stakeholders will be having a rally and hopefully watching the house and senate vote on our resolution,” noting that PPS is hoping to send PN and PC IB diploma students on a bus to the capitol that day. 

Overall, students are excited for the new addition, and enough students have already signed up to run two sections of the course for next year. “I am very excited for all of the different activities I got told that we would learn,” said sophomore Kaia Swanson. Her classmate Joselyn Fischhaber agreed, sharing, “I am excited to take English SL to develop critical thinking and other life long skills!” Students interested in taking IB SL Language and Literature should talk to their counselors during scheduling for more information.