Amala's Reflection 4

I am currently at North View Secondary School for my Practicum II. Like many other schools, the passion for Literature is very much encouraged in this school as well. There is a constant revamp of the teaching methods and strategies of Literature here so as to suit the students' learning styles and to make Literature an interesting subject for them. As much as reading is being cultivated as a habit which each and every student in the school must possess, as seen in their silent reading programme, writing is given a lot of emphasis too especially for the lower secondary students so as to prepare them for their upper secondary Literature. Even though they do not write a full essay all the time, they are given at least two questions to answer in short prose forms ensuring that they have the required points in their answers. Through this, their content knowledge of the text is very much built upon by assigning those questions for students to identify the points and write. The principal is also very supportive of the English Department such that he sits in for the department meetings and he even gives us articles to share with our students. He is giving his utmost support in building Literature as one of the core subjects for students.

At North View Secondary School, I am teaching Secondary 2 Literature for students in the Normal academic stream and they are dealing with Stella Kon's 9 Classroom Plays. Last week I discussed with them Stella Kon's play, 'Birds of a Feather', and the students were very much interested in the discussion when they were asked questions like 'Do you like the ending of the story?' and 'If given an opportunity, how will you change the ending of the play?' I also related the story to Singapore by linking it with how we view foreigners in our country and about whether we often have different perceptions about them. I can see that the students have a high level of interest in Literature but at the end of the day, it all depends on whether they are able to understand and relate to the story. In this case, Stella Kon’s 9 classroom plays succeeds in gaining the attention of my students as she deals with the harsh reality rather than an idealistic ending itself. Thus I can see that despite being in the Normal Academic Stream, the students make an attempt to read the play knowing that they will be asked to give out their answers for the summary handout that they are required to complete. However, they are also enthusiastic when they are sharing their answers and I can see that it is possible to motivate them to develop more interest in Literature.

On the contrary, I am worried about the state of Literature as a whole considering that there was an article released about a big drop in the number of students taking Literature. I personally feel that Literature should be made a compulsory subject for the upper secondary students at least for some time. It is undeniable that Literature teaches students values such as compassion, sympathy and empathy. It also brings out the humanity in them which is possible only through Literature. I personally feel that Literature is a very important subject for every student to learn and develop an interest in it because the values that they eventually pick out from the subject are lifelong values which will follow them throughout their lives. Also, if Literature is going to be taken out as a subject, it will create an impression that Literature is indeed not an important students thus it is being removed from the school curriculum. So, I strongly feel that Literature must be taken up by all students at least for some time.