b. Reflect on your teaching practicum so far: What have you learned from your experience during TP? What kinds of challenges do you foresee as you develop as a Literature teacher in your specific school context?
I am currently teaching at Northland Secondary School and I'm taking the entire Secondary One cohort for English Literature. The school does not offer English Literature at the upper secondary level. Students have 'traditional' exams in the middle and end of the academic year. Students are also graded through mini-assessments, with the bulk of them being take home essays.
1) PEEL Model - for Writing, for sharing.
The PEEL model is often criticized for being over rated and over emphasized by some Literature teachers. Often, they cry out that the PEEL model is a rigid format that prevents an essay from having a flow. However, at Northland Secondary School, most of the students are from the bottom tier of the PSLE cohort. This means that many of them are very weak in English. A number of them have issues with crafting sentences. I do not wish to turn my lesson into a grammar lesson, the least I could do is to introduce PEEL to them to help scaffold their thoughts and their output.
My entire term focused on teaching students how to develop a PEEL opinion. 3/4 of the term was crafting PEEL for essay writing, the remaining 1/4 was using PEEL to share opinions in class discussions. Such a proportion is justified because students are required to write essays for their Mid-Year Examinations (MYE) and I would be expecting them to craft at least one coherent paragraph using the PEEL framework. The remaining 1/4 is used to broaden student's horizons as they will be introduced to multiple perspectives about the texts.
Using the PEEL framework ensures that essays and class discussions are void of "fluff" because there is evidence and elaboration to substantiate the points. This is important because many students do not read the text and there is a chance that some of them might contribute "rubbish" - I once had a student who went on to invent his own story to the (not-so-funny) amusement of the class.
2) The economics of time
I only see my students for 45minutes, once a week. This means that I have to be very selective with the things I choose to teach my students. The only logical thing for me to did is to prepare them for their MYE. Apart from the PEEL framework, I have taught them:
- Annotation Skills --> To ensure that they are busy jotting down notes and not staring into blank space as I teach.
- Reading Skills --> I got them to re-make the story into a comic strip without much success. The students ended up drawing without reading the story. The better ones only included the first portion of the story. Many others were too preoccupied with drawing "what is correct."
3) Challenges
As a literature teacher, I would like to expand the notion of assessment in this school. Students should not be just graded on their ability to write essays. Other forms of assessments include:
- Story Reading - Getting students to read aloud in a dramatic manner.
- Comic Drawing - Retelling a story through drawings.
- Acting
- Poetry Slam
In order for such assessments to take place, more allocated time is needed. Firstly, students need more time with the teacher to 'work things out' to ensure that these form of assessments are executed in accordance to the expectations of the rubric. However, requesting for more allocated time is almost impossible, given the tight schedule.
Therefore, it would be a strategic move if English Literature can be positioned as a "multi-disciplinary" subject. For example, story reading and acting can replace traditional oral examinations for English. In fact, I think that if a student is able to do a dramatic reading of a passage or perform in front of an audience, he/she would not have a problem reading in front of a teacher in a traditional English oral examination. It is only then that more allocated time is justifiable.
Another challenge would be to get students to even read the text. A student once told me that reading a book with lots of words is his greatest nightmare, and a trip to the library is like going to hell. I believe that there are many students in Northland who have not discovered the joys of reading. It is only when students read the text that the teacher can do more 'fanciful' activities like class debates. I've still not found a solution to this. I've thought of replacing silent-reading sessions (because in reality, many students are just stoning) with activities such as story telling and poetry slam performances to spur students to read during their own free time.
1) PEEL Model - for Writing, for sharing.
The PEEL model is often criticized for being over rated and over emphasized by some Literature teachers. Often, they cry out that the PEEL model is a rigid format that prevents an essay from having a flow. However, at Northland Secondary School, most of the students are from the bottom tier of the PSLE cohort. This means that many of them are very weak in English. A number of them have issues with crafting sentences. I do not wish to turn my lesson into a grammar lesson, the least I could do is to introduce PEEL to them to help scaffold their thoughts and their output.
My entire term focused on teaching students how to develop a PEEL opinion. 3/4 of the term was crafting PEEL for essay writing, the remaining 1/4 was using PEEL to share opinions in class discussions. Such a proportion is justified because students are required to write essays for their Mid-Year Examinations (MYE) and I would be expecting them to craft at least one coherent paragraph using the PEEL framework. The remaining 1/4 is used to broaden student's horizons as they will be introduced to multiple perspectives about the texts.
Using the PEEL framework ensures that essays and class discussions are void of "fluff" because there is evidence and elaboration to substantiate the points. This is important because many students do not read the text and there is a chance that some of them might contribute "rubbish" - I once had a student who went on to invent his own story to the (not-so-funny) amusement of the class.
2) The economics of time
I only see my students for 45minutes, once a week. This means that I have to be very selective with the things I choose to teach my students. The only logical thing for me to did is to prepare them for their MYE. Apart from the PEEL framework, I have taught them:
- Annotation Skills --> To ensure that they are busy jotting down notes and not staring into blank space as I teach.
- Reading Skills --> I got them to re-make the story into a comic strip without much success. The students ended up drawing without reading the story. The better ones only included the first portion of the story. Many others were too preoccupied with drawing "what is correct."
3) Challenges
As a literature teacher, I would like to expand the notion of assessment in this school. Students should not be just graded on their ability to write essays. Other forms of assessments include:
- Story Reading - Getting students to read aloud in a dramatic manner.
- Comic Drawing - Retelling a story through drawings.
- Acting
- Poetry Slam
In order for such assessments to take place, more allocated time is needed. Firstly, students need more time with the teacher to 'work things out' to ensure that these form of assessments are executed in accordance to the expectations of the rubric. However, requesting for more allocated time is almost impossible, given the tight schedule.
Therefore, it would be a strategic move if English Literature can be positioned as a "multi-disciplinary" subject. For example, story reading and acting can replace traditional oral examinations for English. In fact, I think that if a student is able to do a dramatic reading of a passage or perform in front of an audience, he/she would not have a problem reading in front of a teacher in a traditional English oral examination. It is only then that more allocated time is justifiable.
Another challenge would be to get students to even read the text. A student once told me that reading a book with lots of words is his greatest nightmare, and a trip to the library is like going to hell. I believe that there are many students in Northland who have not discovered the joys of reading. It is only when students read the text that the teacher can do more 'fanciful' activities like class debates. I've still not found a solution to this. I've thought of replacing silent-reading sessions (because in reality, many students are just stoning) with activities such as story telling and poetry slam performances to spur students to read during their own free time.
Hi Christon, you make a very important point about literature being multidisciplinary. One area where we can get more lit into the curriculum is in the English curriculum - there can be wonderful English lessons that are actually literature lessons in disguise! Hope your school gives you the opportunities to try out your ideas with regard to building a reading culture!
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