FOR ENGLISH A: LANGUAGE & LITERATURE EDUCATORS
A calm, click-by-click workflow for turning your own trusted sources into better lesson planning, analysis, revision and assessment preparation.
THE ONE-MINUTE VERSION
Think of it as a private research desk built around the sources you choose. You add materials, ask questions about them, and turn them into study and teaching outputs.
It is strongest when you want to find patterns across a set of texts, retrieve evidence quickly, test an interpretation against your sources, or create revision material without starting from a blank page.
Do not treat the answer as the authority. Treat the citation as the invitation to check. The literary judgment still belongs to you and your students.
Google describes Gemini Notebook as source-grounded research assistance with inline citations and Studio outputs such as notes, audio/video overviews, mind maps, reports, data tables, flashcards, quizzes, slide decks and infographics. [1][2]
SET UP · ABOUT 5 MINUTES
Sign in with the Google account you use for work. Choose Create new notebook.
Avoid “IB English Everything.” Use a name you can understand at a glance: DP1 · Chekhov, DP2 · Poetry + IO, or Paper 1 · Visual Texts.
Sources = what the notebook can read. Chat = where you ask. Studio = where you generate reusable outputs.
Start with 3–8 items. A smaller, intentional set makes it easier to see what the notebook is actually using.
Try: “Give me the five most important recurring concerns across these sources. Cite every point.” Then open two citations and check them.
SOURCES · THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISION
Lesson notes, your own annotations, unit plans, vocabulary banks, handouts you created, your own assessment-prep notes.
Public-domain works, openly licensed material, your own writing, permitted school resources, and webpages/media whose use is allowed.
Use only where your licence, institutional access and applicable rules permit processing in an AI service. When unsure, use your own notes rather than uploading the full work.
Do not upload or paste IB guides, markschemes, examiner materials or other IB-owned content into a generative-AI tool unless the IB has granted written permission.
The IB’s current intellectual-property rules state that IB copyrighted material may not be used as query or training data with generative-AI tools without written permission. [3]
Gemini Notebook supports common source types including PDFs, websites, YouTube, audio, Google Docs and Google Slides; available features and limits vary by account. [2]
ASK · BETTER QUESTIONS, BETTER OUTPUT
I teach IB English A: Language & Literature. Use only the selected sources. Identify 4–6 recurring concerns and authorial choices that could sustain close analysis. For each point, give a brief explanation, cite the source, and note one possible alternative interpretation. Do not invent quotations or page numbers.
“Analyze this poem.”
“Trace how imagery, syntax and shifts in speaker position build the poem’s attitude to sacrifice. Use quotations only if they appear in my sources; cite each claim and flag ambiguity.”
UNIT PLANNING · FROM SOURCES TO LESSONS
Ask for recurring themes, tensions, contexts and formal features.
Open the cited passages. Delete anything unsupported or shallow.
Turn the map into a teaching arc: notice → name → analyze → connect → evaluate.
Generate discussion questions at different cognitive levels.
Create a summary, quiz or mind map after teaching — not instead of teaching.
Your context notes · permitted story extracts/notes · your technique bank · critical articles you may process · lesson handouts.
“Across these Chekhov materials, map recurring tensions around class, self-deception, social performance and endings. Separate contextual facts from interpretive claims.”
“Design a 60-minute inquiry lesson from these sources. Students should discover the pattern themselves before I name it. Give me: a 5-minute entry task, 3 close-reading questions, one pair task, one misconception to watch for, and an exit ticket. Do not write model student answers.”
NON-LITERARY BODIES OF WORK
The notebook is especially useful when students need to stop treating one image as an isolated object and start seeing patterns across a creator’s body of work.
Build one notebook per creator (or one carefully labeled comparative research notebook). Add only images/notes you are permitted to process. Ask for patterns in motif, composition, juxtaposition, symbolism, framing, audience positioning, political/social context and the creator’s recurring concerns.
“Across the selected works, identify recurring visual and rhetorical choices. For each recurring choice, show where it appears, what effect it may create, and how the effect changes from one work to another. Separate observation from interpretation.”
INDIVIDUAL ORAL · TEACHER WORKFLOW
IB examiner instructions state that the IO is not a comparative task. Students explore how the selected extracts and their work / body of work address the global issue. [5]
For a Rupert Brooke or Wilfred Owen notebook, ask the tool to trace how several poems construct ideas such as nationalism, sacrifice, masculinity, memory, death or disillusionment. In a separate Banksy or Hani Abbas notebook, trace the same focused issue through several works. The student still selects, interprets and speaks.
“I am testing the global issue: [write it here]. Using only these sources, show me where this issue is genuinely sustained across the work/body of work. Give me evidence for and against the fit. Do not write an IO script or thesis for the student.”
PAPER 1 + PAPER 2
Use your own or permitted practice texts to generate:
Use your literary-unit notebooks to build:
The IB’s current Language A materials list Paper 1, Paper 2, the Individual Oral and, for HL, the Higher Level Essay. Current IB course information describes Paper 1 as unseen non-literary analysis for Language & Literature and Paper 2 as a comparative response based on two literary works. [5][6]
STUDIO · TURN NOTES INTO REVISION
Best for seeing themes, concepts and connections before deeper analysis.
Best for retrieval practice: terminology, context and source knowledge.
Best for key terms, quotations already in permitted notes, and concepts.
Best for a recap before class or revision on the move — always verify claims.
Best for reorganizing a source pack into a readable revision document.
Best for a visual summary — useful as a draft, not automatically a finished lesson.
Google currently lists mind maps, reports, flashcards, quizzes, Audio/Video Overviews, slide decks, infographics, notes and data tables in Studio. [1]
PROMPT BANK · COPY, PASTE, ADAPT
“Build a concise context brief from these sources. Separate verified historical facts from interpretive claims, and cite each factual point.”
“Identify recurring authorial choices across these texts. Group them by diction, imagery, structure, voice, syntax and form. Do not call everything ‘imagery.’”
“For the theme [X], show me the strongest supporting evidence in these sources and the strongest evidence that complicates the theme.”
“Ask me one close-reading question at a time. Wait for my answer, then challenge me to connect technique to effect and meaning.”
“Give me two plausible readings of this passage that are both defensible from the sources. Show what evidence each reading privileges.”
“What are five likely misconceptions students could form from these materials? Explain how I could surface each misconception in class.”
“Write six discussion questions: two noticing, two analytical, one evaluative and one that invites disagreement without becoming vague.”
“Rewrite these discussion questions at three levels of scaffolding without simplifying the intellectual goal.”
“Create a guided textual-analysis practice sequence. Make students notice choices first; do not provide a model answer.”
“Create a comparison matrix for [Work A] and [Work B] using only my sources. Rows: idea, authorial choice, evidence, effect, useful contrast, limitation.”
“Test whether [global issue] is sufficiently focused and genuinely sustained across these materials. Explain weak spots; do not write the oral.”
“Write a 3-minute exit ticket that reveals whether students can connect authorial choice → effect → larger idea.”
AI + IB · KEEP HUMAN THINKING VISIBLE
Finding patterns in permitted sources · retrieving evidence · generating questions · checking understanding · creating revision formats · testing an interpretation.
Literary interpretation · contextual claims · model paragraphs · feedback · summaries. Verify the sources and ensure the student still does the intellectual work.
Generating a student’s final assessed response, script or submission and presenting it as the student’s own work. Follow school policy and IB academic-integrity requirements.
The IB supports appropriate use of AI in learning, while emphasizing critical review, bias awareness and transparency. AI-generated material included in assessed work must be credited in the text and appropriately referenced. [4]
ONE-PAGE CHEAT SHEET
One unit, creator, assessment skill or coherent problem.
Your own notes are often the safest and most useful starting point.
State the class, task, evidence requirement and desired output.
Open them. Check the wording. Reject weak claims.
Especially for historical context and creator intention.
Turn learned material into a quiz, map, audio recap or study guide.
AI can support learning; it should not invisibly author what is being assessed.
The notebook retrieves and reorganizes. You decide what matters.
GOOD NOTEBOOKING IS NOT ABOUT USING MORE AI.
SOURCES + NOTES
Independent resource. This guide is not approved or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization. International Baccalaureate, Baccalauréat International, Bachillerato Internacional and IB are registered trademarks owned by the International Baccalaureate Organization.
Prepared September 2026 · Interface labels and product limits may change.