Literature in Chung Cheng High (Main)

English Literature is offered at all four levels at Chung Cheng High and I am currently helping out with the Secondary Twos for English Literature.

Secondary One
The chosen text for Secondary One is The Clay Marble. There are three assignments in total for the entire year. Last year there were two written assignments and one project assignment. There is more emphasis on project assignments this year so the new system now has one written assignment and two project-based assignments. One of the teachers teaching Secondary One literature mentioned that this would help both students and teachers. The students are able to process more of the text when they have hands on activities and this also helps to reduce the teachers' workload. As far as I can tell, one of the projects includes a list of 9 activities to choose from. Some of these include designing a book cover for the text (and then explaining why it was created as such), conducting interviews with people and classmates as part of a 'talk show' programme or performing a short skit. This particular assignment has students working in groups.

Secondary Two
Secondary Twos are working with The Outsiders. They follow a system with alternating weeks for tutorials (odd weeks) and lectures (even weeks). Half of the entire cohort will attend the first lecture of the week and the second half will attend the second lecture. The lectures are used mostly to deliver content while tutorials are used for students and teachers to clarify concepts and techniques. This system came about with maximizing time for both teachers and students. Teachers take turns to conduct the lectures with each teacher taking a single week each to prevent a single teacher from being overloaded with work. Secondary Twos have both written and performance tasks (they are doing a sketch of the text at the moment).

Secondary Three & Four
Not too clear on the Lit syllabus for the Upper Secondary students but they are doing Romeo & Juliet, Things Fall Apart and unseen poetry for 'O' Levels. From what I know, they study two texts simultaneously; two different teachers for the two texts who come in once a week each and these two teachers will come in a third time to do unseen together with the class. Students are assessed using the usual methods such as essays, passage-based questions, exams etc. but are also graded (to a small extent, around 10%?) based on other means like journals, dramatizations and even poetry writing where they will organize a Poetry Slam for students.

Literature in Punggol Secondary School

Due to the lack of literature teachers (there is only 1 lit major in my school and that is my CT), my school is only offering literature to Secondary 1 students in semester 1 and Secondary 2 students in semester 2. They are considering of offering literature as ‘O’ level subject in 2014 as the current secondary 1 students are displaying a lot of potential and as well as due to lack of other humanities teachers. (:p)

The current Sec 1s are very outspoken and they enjoy literature lessons as it involves a lot of group work. My CT creates a safe environment for them to speak up. She uses a lot of questionings to get ideas from students. The students also do a lot of projects/research and presentations. They are also taught of the “PEEL” structure to write a paragraph instead of only answering literature test questions like comprehension questions.

There are 3 periods (50 minutes) allocated to literature each week and they follow the common structure of teaching novel, poems and drama. The Sec 1s are reading Sing to the Dawn this semester and the Sec 2s will be reading The Clay Marble.

Literature in Macpherson Secondary

In  Macpherson Secondary, Literature is taught twice a week, 40 minutes for each period. As such, there's not much time in teaching. After a quick survey, I find that the students here do not enjoy reading much (or at all). Generally, they prefer watching films and reading comics, so I might have to weave in those texts into my literature lessons somehow.

I think the structure for Sec 1 and Sec 2 are about the same - a focus on drama, poetry and novel. I understand the Sec 1s are doing Charlotte's Web. The Sec 2s are doing Mdm Doubtfire. They do not offer Literature for upper secondary classes.

I'm attached to the Sec 2 classes for literature. So, they’re doing Mdm Doubtfire now. Unfortunately, the text did not come in time and from what I understand, they had to rely on an audiobook version for most of the term. What I found interesting was how the students are assessed for this text. This was done through a portfolio over the course of 4 weeks where they would have to create a script based on several chapters of the text and finally, dramatize the script. Right now it's the assessment period, so I'm just watching the students write up and act out their scripts.

In the next term, they will be doing poetry with a focus on the theme of war and conflict, as a lead in to their next text (The Clay Marble). I think the focus here is getting the students to understand the poems. This basically means that the teacher will be going through the poem with them and get the students to uncover meaning from the poem. I understand that they have been exposed to literary devices (similes, metaphors, irony etc.) before but I am told to revisit and remind students of these devices once in a while during my lessons.

Literature in Jurong West Secondary School

I will be teaching literature to 3 seconday two express classes. The Sec 2s are doing The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, the Sec 1s are doing Charlotte's Web and the Sec 3s are doing Telltale: 11 Stories.

The secondary one students are doing a dramatised piece of the text. I think they are having fun doing that. As for the sec 2s, they have started writing in essay style format (P.E.E.L and all), which is very impressive. After the end of term two, the students will be reading Little Ironies. There are only 2 periods (60 minutes) dedicated to literature every week.

This is the first year that the school is offering literature as an O'level subject to secondary 3 students. I have not observed any upper sec lit classes. I heard that it is a small cohort of less than 20 students.

How Literature is being taught in NHHS

The English Department in Nan Hua High School is keen to encourage more students to take Literature in Upper Secondary. Secondary 2 students deal with Shakespeare for 3 lessons (55 minutes per lesson) every 2 weeks (the school operates on a 2-week cycle). Each Upper Secondary Literature class has 6 lessons per cycle, with 2 for set texts and 1 for Unseen each week. A teacher who teaches set text does not teach Unseen, and vice versa. Specialisation helps teachers to concentrate on preparing students for each 'O' Level paper.
Students are introduced to essay-writing skills in Secondary 1. The PEDAL structure (Point, Evidence, Device, Analysis, Link) is reinforced every lesson. A typical lesson would start with the teacher going through the text to help students, who tend to be weaker in English due to their Chinese-speaking family backgrounds, understand the content before letting them apply the PEDAL structure to answer structured questions. After students are done with their PEDAL exercises, the teacher will get individuals to present their answers in full sentences on the whiteboard, to simulate an actual essay-writing experience. Teachers use students' mistakes to teach the class, and an open and safe environment is created.

State of Literature in Practicum School

The secondary 1 students in NCHS are embarking on the school's new language arts programme, and are studying the novel Malgudi Schooldays by R K Narayan. The programme follows a modular system where each module sees specific English Language skills being taught through literature/ creative writing. This is as much as I know right now, as I will only be more involved in the curriculum during or after the March holidays. The previous batch of secondary 1 students used the textbook Flights of Fancy: A Journey through Poetry, Prose and Drama. Teachers focused on teaching close reading, characterisation, plot and themes through prose, and taught them the PEEL technique in answering questions.

The secondary 2 students focused on unseen poetry in the first term of 2012. As there are only 3 single-periods allocated to Literature every 2 weeks, the students were only exposed to 2 poems before their common test on unseen poetry at the end of the first term--some said they felt unprepared and didn't know what was going on--they understand and can identify poetic techniques, but they do not know how to approach a poem and how to answer questions. The 2 poems are: William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" and Nissim Ezekiel's "Night of the Scorpion". The common test required them to analyse Wilfred Owen's "Dulce Et Decorum Est".

They will be focusing on The Boy in the Striped Pajamas for the rest of the year. There is a coordinator who sourced for and collated online resources, and who drew up an SOW. These resources are shared with all Literature teachers, but teachers are given the autonomy to pick and choose what to teach and what resources to use during lessons. All teachers are also to come up with a one-page worksheet for every 3 chapters, which will be used across the level. There is a blog where teachers can upload resources and students can post questions--it has just started and there is currently only one post by a teacher there.

The upper secondary students are studying Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and Journey's End. From what I've heard, there is only a small cohort of less than 20 students studying Literature at upper secondary level.

Most students at NCHS are inclined towards Korean pop culture, and English Literature bores them. Still, some are very insightful and contribute meaningful answers during class discussions. Although they get excited when learning about the historical context and background of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas , many of them do not have the patience to sit through the first 10 chapters. They need much visual and audio stimulation.

The State of Literature at Coral Secondary School

Upper secondary: 1 Sec 4 core Lit class (11 students), 1 Sec 4 elective Lit class, and 1 Sec 3 core Lit class (9 students). Reasons for such a small group: lack of interest, not a practical subject, too hard to do. Texts: The Crucible and The Chrysalids. There is only one teacher teaching the upper secondary Lit cohort, and the small group makes learning conducive.

Lower secondary: Sec 1s are currently engaged in Reader's Theatre with an external vendor, while the Sec 2s are studying Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I am involved in teaching the Sec 2s. For term 1, they have covered the plot and the character of Mrs. Frisby. Next term, they will cover themes like animal experimentation and agrarian life. The way the text is taught varies across the classes. There are only 3 periods (2hr 15min) every two weeks, which is very little.

It is going to be a challenge to teach Lit as the Sec 2 students are mostly disinterested and some of them have not even started reading the text. Many of them see no use in studying for it since they are not going to be taking it at upper secondary anyway.