School Culture
CHIJ Katong Convent puts a lot of focus on the Literary arts. The school
traditionally emphasizes the merits of reading books with activities organized
ever so often to target readers and budding poets. Students here are also given
a choice of Core or Sub-Literature when they go up to Upper Secondary.
Unfortunately, polling a class of 40 Secondary 2 Express stream students, only
8-10 would seem certain about taking Literature in the Upper Secondary levels.
Most of the students end up taking Sub-Literature instead when they go up to
Secondary 3, despite their passion for the subject.
The students are
exposed to Shakespeare in Lower Secondary through the Merchant of Venice. Beyond that, students in the Lower Secondary
look at poetry focusing on Singaporean Poets as well as poetry from an
Australian book, Poetry for Pleasure.
They can better grasp the Literary techniques that writers use through the
analysis of poetry as they are more likely to be exposed to more elements of
poetry depending on what poems are studied in class. Furthermore, the school
allows creativity through Literature in the Lower Secondary and students
undertake tasks like writing poems on their everyday life as a student. These
poems will be displayed at various school events giving students further
incentive to perform well when writing it. The Upper Secondary classes are
currently doing texts such as Romeo and
Juliet and The Crucible. The former, being rich in dramatic and
literary devices, gives the students more to learn. They are taken through a
wide spectrum of techniques through one book alone and the only complain you
would get from the students is on the language. Students struggle to decode the
Shakespearean English when they study his texts. A students in one of the
classes I observed even remarked, “I do not understand what Merchant of Venice
is all about but I know someone in the book is super racist” a week before it
was to be taught in class.
Assessments
The assessment
methods are fairly similar with traditional essays often in the forefront.
Students undertake peer assessment in classroom from time to time as well when
they formulate thesis statements and “mark” their work by exchanging scripts. One other interesting form of assessment
which serves as a diagnostic test is an MCQ assessment. Students are given
questions such as “What do you think the persona in the poem is trying to say
in this poem?” followed by 5 suggested answers. Students think through these
questions and complete it. Some of the options are fairly deceiving and can
throw the student off into giving the wrong answer. Sometimes, however, the
teacher may accept two answers for the same question as there can be
alternative readings by the students. The problem with MCQs is that the student
cannot elaborate on their choices and it should only be done on the “Superficial
reading” stage. This assessment served well in ensuring the students scrutinize
the poem well before the lesson proper. It also allowed them to tune into the
lesson better while serving as a form of data collection for the teacher who
can monitor who is improving in their basic understandings of a poem and who
isn’t. I also noticed that across all levels, final assessment/essay questions
play a big role in the lesson plan. Teachers outline the expectations of
summative assessments as an objective that students are to be able to reach.
Key Principles
One of the key
principles of teaching Literature I have gathered is that students must be
allowed a good safe platform to express themselves in a dialogical classroom.
Students must not be ashamed or scared to participate in in-class discussions
and there are a lot of responses generated from the students. The teacher takes
on the role of a learned tourist who poses questions to the tour guides (the
students) with the hope of good answers. The teacher then takes on the role of
the tour guide head when it is needed. Also, the school acknowledges a flaw in
the PEEL system and seeks to move away from it. Students who write using this
format tend to not really understand what they are writing about. Instead, they
should always remember to add another component and maybe undertake the PECIL
framework (it is like PEEL only with a Comment section). Students can comment
here on why their point is valid in regards to a holistic view of the text or
poem. It allows the student to address shortcoming in answering questions and
be able to evaluate their points on the spot. Not being able to show why your
point is justifiable may put you into the trap of giving responses that seem
rehearsed and do not take into consideration the other key points of the text.
Students thinking about the “C” component begin to ask themselves if their
point is even worth penning down since they know that in order to do well for
the assessment, they would have to give a strong case in “C”. Another key
principle would be to ensure that all our lessons are framed with a good
question in mind. Students are “scaffolded” towards answers for assessments
daily and as teachers analysing any text, we must always have one eye on the
examinations and summative assessments as we go about planning our scheme of
work.
Final thoughts
It is sad to hear
the latest results of the population of Literature learners in Upper Secondary.
As a Literature and Drama teacher, and with less schools offering Drama as
well, I have made it a point to spend 20 minutes a day practicing skills such
as mopping, sweeping and making chappathis in order to keep up with the time
for when my qualifications will not be of any significance and I will need a
new career option. However, on a more serious note, the reluctance of students
to take Literature is appalling. I do agree that the implementation of Social
Studies plays a big role in lessening the numbers of Pure Literature students
since some of my students have told me that they enjoyed Literature but were
forced into Sub-Literature by other factors (I am guessing parental and
Societal pressures). However, I had a good
laugh at the fact that there are suggestions that giving students the options
of subjects like Drama in the school takes away from the Literature learning
population. The joke lies in the fact that most of the Secondary 4 Drama girls
in KC are indeed Pure Literature students. After all, the links are obvious. To
quote the most used term on Wikipedia, when it comes down to the claim that
giving students more subject choices leads them away from Literature, all I
have to say is “Citation Needed”.
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