As literature is not an examinable subject, even for the lower secondary students, skills taught in literature classes have to be geared towards those that can be used to answer comprehension questions or write essays. The deliverables (SA) for each term, however, are rather fun activities like haiku- and glog-creations. In a way, the more 'important' (comprehension answering) skills are not formally tested during Literature assessments. This could be good, thought, as students can exercise their creativity in literature lessons.
What this means for literature teachers here is that a good balance between encouraging creativity and the teaching of examinable skills have to be struck. Students have to be made aware that their literature lessons are not just play time, but that there are also important skills to be learned.
"Students have to be made aware that their literature lessons are not just play time, but that there are also important skills to be learned." - how can they take it seriously if it is not an examinable subject? Some of them maybe, but not all of them?
ReplyDeleteI try to show them how learning what similes/metaphors/personification/literary terms can help them answer comprehension questions that require the student to think about why a certain phrase is used, or to what effect. What makes this difficult is that although the school is geared towards a lang. arts style of EL teaching/learning, the lit and EL teachers are usually different. This makes it hard to coordinate what students are learning in both classes.
ReplyDelete