Similar to what Shalini has brought up, I'd like to explore how assessments in Literature can incorporate more creativity as part of alternative assessment. The creativity I'm thinking of is not so much in delivering creative lessons, though that is important, but is specifically in giving students the freedom and autonomy to create their own original and creative works they can have ownership of. It would also "allow students to translate what they learn in the Literature class into different modes of presentation and this act of translation in itself is a meaningful creative activity" (Sanar et al 2011: 5).
There are many reasons for the need for more creativity and more opportunities for creative growth not just in Literature but in the Singapore classroom as a whole. From what I know, budding writers in Singapore are given the chance to develop their writing under the Creative Arts Programme. However, there is a limited number of slots per year, and inevitably the students who are accepted are usually from the more "elite" schools. There are also schools which have creative projects as part of alternative assessment. In the TJC IP Language Arts programme, all Year 4 (Sec 4 equivalents) have 8 weeks in Term 3 free to pursue any creative project, whether it's a film, a play, a critical essay, or creative writing (prose or poetry). Some write anthologies of poems, some write and stage satirical plays, while some write chapbooks or short stories, for example. Part of the assessment included a justification for your choice of work, handing in drafts at certain checkpoints, and rubrics/minimum requirements for each kind of creative project, so there were appropriate boundaries and scaffolding. However, I am wondering if it is possible for non-Independent or non-Autonomous schools who are bound by the MOE syllabus and curriculum to incorporate such creative projects for their students while fulfilling the taxing requirements of gearing students for the 'O' Levels.
Perhaps as Loh and Lum suggest, "find opportunities to read or display creative works by others and by students" (Loh and Lum 2011: 7). For example, as part of lower secondary Literature covering poetry, students could perhaps be allowed to try their hand at writing their own creative poems after being exposed to various rich poems over the year; the best poems could be published together with other exemplary essays in the school's ubiquitous end-of-year good compositions publication, or could even be displayed around school the way the Art students' paintings are. In the TJC IP LA example given earlier, almost all works are displayed on Language Arts Night, when parents, teachers and friends are invited to watch the best of the films and plays done, and to read the creative writing at their own leisure. I think it is important for the students to display their creative works to an audience so they take even more pride in their work, and feel a sense of accomplishment.
However, there is a downside to creative alternative assessments. As Sanar et al note, "more creative tasks (demand) more subjective ways of marking". In their interviews with Singapore literature teachers Ken and Rachel, the former "emphasized the need for intuition", suggesting again that with alternative assessments, marking can be highly subjective (Sanar et al 2011: 5). With explicit rubrics given before the creative assignment though, there is at least some accountability that might offset the subjective nature of fixing number or letter grades to such creative projects.
In essence, for long-term learning, creativity as the topmost rung on Bloom's Taxonomy must be considered, in line with the cliche "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand".
Reading List:
Lee, Terence. "Industrializing Creativity and Innovation." Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture and Politics. Ed. Kenneth Paul Tan. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007. 45-67.
Loh, Chin Ee and Lum, Claryce. "Five Ideas for Creativity."enl*ght 1.2 (2011): 7. Web. Retrieved here.
Sanar Akhtar, Chai, Marcus and Tan, Russell. "Creativity in the English Classroom." enl*ght 1.2 (2011): 4-5. Web. Retrieved here.
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