The Normal Lights

Volume 12, No. 2 (2018)

Literary Appreciation Skills

and Reading Performance
of University Students
Gilbert C. Magulod Jr.
[email protected]
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8385-683X
Cagayan State University at Lasam, Lasam, Cagayan, 3524, Philippines

Abstract: Reading literature is the best way to know

who we are, what we are, and what we used to be. Through
descriptive correlational research design, the study assessed
the literary appreciation skills and reading performance of
college students in learning literature, which may provide
input to innovative learning tasks in developing their
literary competence. Complete enumeration of the ninety
students enrolled in Philippine Literature subject from the
three college departments of one campus of a government
owned Higher Education in Region 02, Philippines were the
participants of the study. Findings reveal that the students
have a fair level of literary appreciation skills but have
relatively low literary appreciation skills along, recognition
of author’s point of view; ability to judge the text, recognition
of personal philosophy based on literary text read, and
relating the story to personal lives. Meanwhile, students
have a satisfactory performance in literature learning and
that literary appreciation skills and reading performance
of students differ when grouped according to their college
affiliations. Furthermore, there is a significant positive
relationship between the literary appreciation skills and
reading performance. Finally, this study proposes the use of
29 innovative learning tasks for literature classes.

Keywords: Literary appreciation skills, innovative learning

tasks, literature teaching, strategies

Suggested Citation: Magulod, G.C. (2018). Literary Appreciation Skills and Reading Performance of University
Students. The Normal Lights, 12(2), 168 – 195.
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Volume 12, No. 2 (2018)

Introduction
The advent of 21st-century learning demands innovations in the
teaching-learning process to attune to the needs and interest of
the present generation. When teachers use appropriate teaching
strategies to a specific subject, students become motivated to
actively participate.

In many universities around the world, the study of

literature is an indispensable component of the curriculum that
allows students to create significant contexts which are full with
descriptive language interpretation and interesting characters
(Van, 2009). Hence, teaching literature reading incorporates a
profound range of vocabulary learning, dialogues, and prose. It
enhances the genuine sense of students’ imagination, cultural
awareness, and critical thinking about plots, themes, and
characters.

In the Philippines, literature is a compulsory subject

in the general education curriculum of the senior high school
level and in universities and colleges particularly those
students who specialize in language and literature courses.
Literature offers students to learn other skills such as reading,
writing and speaking. Teaching literature is not only concerned
with the process of teaching students how to make literary
interpretation and analysis but also help students acquire and
develop sensitivity, self-awareness and greater understanding
of the world and other people.

This study assessed the literary appreciation and

reading performance of university students in one campus of
a state university in Region 2, Philippines. It will generally
helped literature teachers harness the country’s literary
resources, rise above themselves in their classroom teaching
through a variety of interactive and integrative methods in
literature teaching this study offers. This study may also help

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teachers to improve their literature appreciation skills by using

technological resources in the explanation and discussion of
many literature courses. The dearth of research literature on
the literary appreciation skills and reading performance of
students in the university level encouraged the researcher to
carry out the study.

Literary Competence and Literary Appreciation

Literature requires the necessary skills that differ

from reading comprehension text. One of the skills of literary
competence is literary appreciation. Fakoya and Ogunpitan
(2014) mentored that literary appreciation can be classified as
the process by which the reader of a work of literature acquires
a meaningful understanding of the theme and gains personal
insights which will help them realize the structure of the
literary work.

Developing literary competence is one of the most

important reasons of literature teaching. This refers to the
ability of the students to internalize the grammar of literature,
which would permit them to convert linguistic sequences into
literary structures and meanings. The essence of literature
offers an opportunity for the students to perceive and evaluate
their worth as an individual.

Innovative Learning Tasks

In fact, Nilsen and Donnellsen (2009) posit that

literary appreciation is the process by which one gauges
one’s interpretive response as a reader to a literary work.
Studies relating to literary appreciation skills and innovative
learning tasks of students have been conducted by numerous
researchers. Bunsom, Singhasiri and Vungthong (2011) found
out that employing literature-based learning activities in the
classroom stemmed from the teacher’s desire to see students
read texts that are familiar to them in order to stimulate their

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literary appreciation skills. Even Rita (2012) investigated the

effectiveness of innovative literary-based learning activity
to improve literary appreciation of students. Results showed
that using such learning activity, 95.3% students indicated a
positive attitude toward literary appreciation. The appreciation
conducted by the students makes them realize the importance
of responding to literary works to develop character.

In accordance with the above-cited studies, the focus is

on the use of innovative learning tasks in enhancing students’
literature appreciation and reading skill. The studies came to
support the teaching of literature with the use of innovative
learning task.

Teaching Literature

Teaching literature can become motivating and

interesting when appropriate teaching strategies are employed
by the teacher in the classroom. Very often, teachers either
lecture or use question-and-answer or recitation. Recitation
is often not appropriate because the question remains at the
level of who-what-when-where, but hardly ever how and
why. Li (2011) noted that teacher’s job is to nourish and
enhance students’ intelligence. In the conventional approach
to literature teaching, it is only focused on the linguistic
competence such as reading, recalling, and reciting the
literary works.

Revisiting the literary appreciation skills of the

students will make teachers become aware of the extent of
how they develop the literacy competence of their students.
Such information will further provide measures on how to
improve their teachings particularly by using innovative
learning tasks in their literature classroom. It is on this ground
that promoted the researcher to conduct this study to provide
empirical basis pertaining to the utilization of innovative
teaching strategies in literature teaching.

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In fact, Soltan (2010) found out that most of the

professors of literature in universities used lecture method.
Hence, many of the university students only depend on the
critical notes provided by their professors rather than reading
the authentic literary text. As a result, literature learning
becomes uninteresting.

Teaching literature to students requires creativity,

ingenuity, and innovativeness. It is through teaching literature
where literary appreciation skills of students are developed.
Teachers must be able to design effective learning tasks to help
learners learn literature the best possible ways. Ahmad (2009)
over-claimed that on the process of developing students’ literary
appreciation, teachers have a very significant role.

Concerning the aforementioned studies carried out

by Rita (2012), Bunsom, Singhasiri and Vungthong (2011),
and Shier, Soltan and Din-El Hilaly (2014) revealed that it
becomes imperative to use innovative teaching strategies
and techniques in literature teaching which are beneficial in
enhancing the literary reading appreciation and performance
of students. Hence, the researcher considers the research gap
regarding the limited literature teaching strategies employed
by the teacher in the classroom. There is a need to conduct a
study investigating the level of literary appreciation skills and
reading performance of university students in order to propose
a number of innovative teaching strategies to improve students’
literary appreciation skills.

The modern concept of education requires a lot of

innovations that should be introduced in the educational system
thus, the opportunity to educate 21st century individuals cannot
be taken for granted by any academic enterprise for the quality
of education it offers is measured by the quality of leadership
manifested by the teachers (Magulod, 2017).

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This paper assessed the level of literary appreciation

skills of students and by proposing number of innovative
learning tasks in the development of literary appreciation
skills of students in one campus of a state university in
Region 2, Philippines with the end goal of widening the scope
of teachings and strategies the literature teachers may adopt
to become more effective. As such, this study will support
effective utilization of innovative learning tasks to enhance
the literary appreciation skill of students.

Purposes of the Research

This study aimed to identify the level of literary appreciation
skills of students with the end view of proposing innovative
learning tasks to improve their literary appreciation skills
of students. Specifically, it aimed to:
1. Identify the students’ perceived level of literary
appreciation skills;
2. Determine the students’ performance in literature
reading;
3. Ascertain the difference between the students’
performance and level of literary appreciation
skills when grouped according to gender and
college departments;
4. Test the significant relationship between the
students’ performance in literature and their level
of literary appreciation skills;

Methodology
Research Design

Descriptive method using evaluative and correlational

research designs were employed in this study. It looked into the
level of students’ literary appreciation skills and their literary

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performance to provide inputs for more meaningful literary

learning.

Participants

The participants of the study included 90 third year

students from the College of Teacher Education, College
of Technology and College of Information and Computing
Sciences of one campus of a government owned Higher
Education Institution in Region 02, Philippines enrolled in
Philippine Literature course. Figure 1 presents that out of 90
participants there were 41 male and 49 female participants.
With a minimal population of the participants, complete count
was employed.

Figure 1. Frequency Distribution of Participants on sex and

college affiliation

Participation of the students is voluntary. The

respondents were informed that the data will be gathered
from them will be treated with utmost confidentiality. In like
manner, drawing of student-participants was done in intact
groups as not to disturb the students in their other class
schedules. The study is only limited to the third year college
students of one campus.

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Research Instruments

The study utilized two sets of research instruments.

First, a 14-item survey questionnaire was used to measure the
literary appreciation skills. For its internal consistency, the
instrument was pre-tested and a Cronbach Alpha at .83 was
computed. Second, a 30-item literary test was constructed
by the researcher. The instruments were subjected to item
analysis and a reliability of 0.76 was obtained using the Kuder-
Richardson Formula 20.

Data Analysis

Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard

deviation, frequency, and percentage were used to analyze
the data on the level of students’ performance and their
literary appreciation skills. Inferential statistics such as
independent sample t-test and one way ANOVA were used
to test any significant difference on the level of performance
and literary appreciation skills when grouped according to
selected variables. Finally, to note the relationship between
the level of performance and literary appreciation skills of the
participants, Pearson Product Moment Correlation was used.

Results and Discussion

Students’ Level of Literary Appreciation Skills

This part presents the participants’ level of attainment

on the 14 literary appreciation skills. The succeeding results
show how the participants perceived themselves to appreciate
literary texts, and understand themes of literature, imagery
expression, and other literary devices. Table 1 discloses the
level of literary appreciation skills of the participants.

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Table 1. Level of Literary Appreciation Skills

Literary Appreciation Skills Mean S.D.
1. Recognize the point of view used by the author 2.28 0.62
2. Recognize imagery employed by the author 2.80 0.74
3. Recognize how the characters are introduced 2.79 0.61
4. Recognize the prime scheme used by the author 2.39 0.67
5. Recognize the purpose of the title 2.40 0.68
6. Recognize the parts of the Plot 3.90 0.75
7. Determine the tone, mood, and style of the author 3.28 0.67
8. Judge the text in which generalizations,
assumptions, hypotheses, theories, and arguments 2.21 0.81
are formed
9. Recognize evidenced proving a universal truth or
2.79 0.76
philosophy
10. Relate the story to their lives 2.30 0.77
11. Find answers to a question or a solution to a
2.79 0.74
lifetime problem.
12. Recognize personal philosophy based on the
2.29 0.77
theme of the solution.
13. Come up with enrichment activities like artworks,
creative dramatics, story writing, puppetry, and the 3.17 1.22
like based on the selection read.
14. Concretize the imagery of language used by the
2.30 0.77
author in the story.
Grand Mean 2.69 0.57
Legend; 4.20-5.00- Very High (VH); 3.40-4.19- High (H); 3.60-2.39- Neutral (N); 1.80-2.59- Low

(L); 1.00- 1.79- Very Low (VL)

The participants generally have a fair level of literary

appreciation skills as evidenced with the grand mean of 2.67
with a descriptive interpretation of neutral. These data imply
that the participants have not yet developed a high level of
literary competence which will allow them to internalize the
concord of literature as well as to permit them to visualize the
images in the literary works.

Furthermore, the participants have not yet developed

the skill to read literary genres and texts in a delightful and

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enjoyable manner. Thus, in nurturing the literary appreciation

skills of these students, the design of effective learning tasks
based on the actual findings of this study may be considered by
the teachers to help these students appreciate literature the best
possible ways.

Among the 14 identified literary appreciation skills, the

highest rated item was “recognition of the parts of the plot”
which implies that the participants have the ability to identify
the sequence of events in a literary masterpiece which may be
necessary for the development if literary appreciation skills of
students (Magulod, 2017).

Meanwhile, there were three literary appreciation skills

rated with low level by the participants. These are recognition of
the point of view used by the author (M=2.28); ability to judge
the text in which generalizations, assumptions, hypotheses,
theories, and arguments are formed (M=2.21); recognition
of personal philosophy based on the theme of the solution
(M=2.29); and relating the story to personal lives (M=2.30).
These findings suggest that most of the participants lack skills
in manifesting the ability to value the essence of literature
learning towards creative dimension and valuing application.
Since these skills are considered essential in the development
of the character of the students with the appeal of literature
there is a serious need to facilitate necessary interventions to
develop these skills

Recognizing authors’ point of view in literature reading

is necessary to be developed as literary appreciation skill of
students since it will allow them to understand the author’s
purpose of writing which can be stated explicitly or implicitly
in a literary text. Meanwhile, the ability of the students
to judge the text in which generalizations, assumptions,
hypotheses, theories, and arguments are formed is another
important literary appreciation skill that should be enhanced

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by the teacher. The arguments, claims or lines of reasoning

forwarded by the author or writer should clearly be understood
by the students so that they could simply offer their stand and
provided reasons for the claims.

The table also presents that the literary appreciation

skills of the students which were rated uncertain or neutral by
the participants. These are: Determining the tone, mood and
style of the author (M=3.28); Recognizing how the characters
are introduced M=(2.79); Recognizing the purpose of the
title (M=2.40); Finding answers to a question or a solution
to a lifetime problem (M=2.79); Coming up with enrichment
activities like art works, creative dramatics, story writing,
puppetry, and the like based on the selection read (M=3.17);
Concretizing the imagery of language used by the author in the
story (M=2.30); Recognizing the prime scheme used by the
author (M=2.79); and Recognizing imagery employed by the
author (M=2.28).

These result imply that the participants have a fair or

moderate level in exhibiting these literature appreciation skills
which need nurturance by the teacher by way of designing
an effective learning plan for them to become interested to
engage in literature reading which will develop their literary
appreciation skills. This finding construes with Abusafi (2015)
that majority of student lack confidence in literary appreciation
skills, especially in criticizing literature aspects such as theme,
plot, character, setting, style, irony, and point of view.

Students’ Performance in Literary Reading Appreciation

Analysis

This section provides the results of the investigation of

level of literary appreciation skills of the participants through
reading selected literary works and answering critical, creative
and valuing-application questions.

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Table 2. Literary Reading Performance

Range Frequency Percentage D. V.

25-30 0 0 Outstanding
26 Very
19-24 23
Satisfactory
13-18 40 44 Satisfactory
7-12 27 30 Fair
1-6 0 0 Poor
Total 90 100
16.14
Mean (Satisfactory)
SD= 4.64

Data clearly shows that the mean score of the

participants. This means that the level of performance of the
participants is “satisfactory”. This level of performance may be
attributed to the uncertainty of the students to answer correctly
the literary appreciation skills questions.

The table also presents that most of the participants

obtained 13-18 score bracket with a frequency of 40 while no
students obtained 1-6 and 25-30 score brackets. This further
means that the students have not yet fully mastered the literary
appreciation skills conveyed in the text particularly the critical
questions asks for answers on the judgment about the styles of
the authors in the text they read. Students can give criticism
on the styles of authors in developing their pieces but not to
the high extent. Likewise, the students have not fully mastered
the skill in relating to their lives the concepts they got from the
literacy pieces they read. Hence, the use of innovative learning
tasks to further enhance the literary appreciation skills of the
participants may be necessary. In the previous study of Cabasan
(2011) she found out that majority of the entering college
students were on the low level of reading comprehension

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skills, hence they should be equipped with the required skills

in reading comprehension to be able to cope with academic
reading to succeed in their college endeavors.

Difference between the Students’ Performance and

Literary Appreciation Skills

The significant differences in the students’ reading

performance and literary appreciation skills, when taken
according to selected personal variables, provides better
insights on what specific innovative learning tasks are suited
to the different groups of participants. Result in Table 3 shows
the test of the difference between the students’ level of literary
appreciation skills when grouped according to gender and
degree programs.

Table 3. Difference between students’ level of literary

appreciation skills along gender and college affiliation
Profile Variables Category Mean t-value/ P-value

f-value
Gender Male 2.54
-1.850 0.067
Female 2.77
Degree Programs COT 2.37
CTEd 3.02 11.996 0.000*
CICS 2.67
*Significant at .01

It can be deduced from that table that gender showed

no significant difference in the literary appreciation skill of the
participants while compared to college department grouping.

The result of the independent sample t-test showed

that students’ literary appreciation skill of students do
not differ when gender is concerned. The finding supports

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Asgarabadi and Rouhi (2015) who found no significant

difference between the male and female learners on literary
reading comprehension. It can be inferred from the study that
both male and female students have the same level of literary
reading appreciation skills.

In like manner, the finding of the study contradicts

Linn and Mik (2009) who investigated on the sex differences
in reading achievement and found out that girls have higher
achievement in reading attributed to their deeper engagement
in language-related activities. Likewise, Logan and
Johnston (2009) also found out that girls had better reading
comprehension, read more frequently and had a more positive
attitude to reading than boys.

Meanwhile, the result of the analysis of variance

showed that the literary appreciation skills of the participants
when grouped according to their college departments incurred
significant difference.

As evidenced by the computed means, the College of

Teacher Education scored significantly higher compared to the
other college departments. This finding may be attributed to
the intended program learning outcomes of the three colleges
where the college of teacher education had to put emphasis
on the development of future teachers who are linguistic and
literary competent while the College of Technology and College
of Information and Computer Science have to put premium to
the tactual and kinesthetic skills of students since these are
technical skill-oriented college departments.

Difference between the Students’ Performance in Literary

Appreciation Reading

Table 4 also shows that difference between the students

level of literary reading analysis performance when grouped
according to gender and college departments.

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Table 4. Difference between students’ level of literary

appreciation skills along gender and college affiliation
Profile Variables Category Mean t-value/ p-value

f-value
Gender Male 15.50
-0.977 0.330 ns
Female 16.50
Degree Programs COT 13.50
CTEd 19.40 16.987 .000*
CICS 15.53
*Significant at .05

This study reveals there is no significant difference

between the literary reading performance of the participants
when grouped according to gender while the difference is
spelled when the participants were grouped according to
college departments. This means that the participants have
almost the same level of performance regardless of gender.
Accordingly, analysis of variance also revealed that the
computed f-value is 16.987 with the p-value of.00 suggested
that the null hypothesis of this study is rejected. Promoting
a significant difference between the participants’ literary
reading appreciation analysis when grouped according to
college departments in favor of the College of Teacher
Education. This means that participants who are education
students showed higher performance in literary reading
analysis test. Which might again be attributed to the intended
learning outcomes of the three college departments.

The Relationship between Literary Appreciation Skills and

Literary Reading Performance

Table 5 shows the correlation between the literary

reading performance and literary appreciation skills of the
participants. The study found out that there is a significant
relationship between the literary reading analysis performance

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and literary appreciation skills of the participants. Therefore,

the null hypothesis which states that there is no significant
relationship between the two variables was rejected.

Table 5. The relationship between student performance and

literary appreciation skills
Variables R r2 p-value
Literary Reading performance
0.380 0.144 0.000*
*Literary appreciation skills
*Significant at .05

This result implies that the literary reading performance

of the participants is related to their literary appreciation skills.
Hence, there is a need to enhance the literary appreciation
skills of the students with the use of interesting learning
tasks, strategies and methods to improve their literary reading
performance. This would also mean that if reading experience
is remembered in a delightfully enjoyable manner, students
will be encouraged to read more, and will be inspired to look
forward to more literary encounters in class and ultimately will
improve their literary reading analysis performance. The finding
concurs Adejimola's and Ojoulape's (2013) findings that there is
a significant relationship between English reading performance
and literary appreciation skills of students.

Conclusion
This study assessed the level of literary appreciation skills and
literary reading performance of students with the end view of
proposing innovative learning tasks to improve their literary
appreciation skills. The study revealed that the students have
a fair level of literary appreciation skills and a satisfactory
level of performance in literary reading. College affiliation
spelled significant difference on the literary appreciation skills
and literary reading analysis performance of the students.
Finally, there is a significant positive relationship between the

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performance and literary appreciation skills of the participants.

To enhance the literary appreciation skills of the participants,
29 learning activities were proposed (Appendix A).

The findings of the study generally imply that literary

reading performance of students is dependent on their literary
appreciation skills. Hence, when literary appreciation skills
are enhanced, the better the students manifest the higher level
of knowledge in literature reading. This will allow students
to understand better the human emotions, insights, themes,
and ideas, and significant human experiences conveyed in the
different literary text. Therefore, the utilization of innovative
learning tasks may make teaching and reading literature
interesting.

On the basis of the conclusions, the researcher

recommends the following: (1) results of this study should be
a basis for literature teachers to consider the use of innovative
and interactive teaching strategies in their literature classes; (2)
students should be encouraged by their teachers to personally
enhance their literary appreciation skills to improve their literary
reading performance; (3) college deans should encourage
language and literature teachers to attend professional
development seminars and conduct researches pertaining to
the use of innovative and interactive teaching strategies; (4)
language and literature teachers of the three colleges should
consider the use of differentiated teaching method appropriate
to the program learning outcomes of the colleges.

This paper only limits its scope on literary appreciation

skills and the reading performance of the students through self-
assessment and objective testing, a question whether there is a
significant effect of the proposed innovative learning tasks in
teaching literature should be considered for future investigations
using true experimental research designs.

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Recommendations
Proposed Strategies to Enhance the Literary
Appreciation Skills

Based on the actual findings of this study, series

teaching strategies were introduced in this paper as
interventions to enhance the literary appreciation skills of the
students. These strategies are premised on the major findings
of this study. The relatively low literary appreciation skills of
students along: recognition author’s point of view; judging
the text in which generalizations, assumptions, hypotheses,
theories, and arguments are formed; recognition of personal
philosophy; and relating the story to personal lives are
indicative that there is a need to enhance them that may
eventually affect their performance in literature learning.

Other literary appreciation skills rated by the

participants with fair level may be enhanced with the use of
innovative learning tasks. Likewise, the study also found out
a relatively uncertain level of the students on recognizing
imagery, characters, and prime scheme, the purpose of the
title, and, determining author’s tone and style.

The innovative learning tasks should be implemented

by literature teachers to directly benefit the students who are
struggling in their literature classes. Appendix A presents
twenty-eight innovative and interesting learning activities
that may be used by the teachers to enhance the literary
appreciation skills of the students.
…

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JMR-2017.5.4.10.pdf.

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Apendix A
Proposed Learning Activities to Improve the Literary
Appreciation Skills of Students

Teaching Genres Literary Brief Description of

Strategies Appreciation Strategy
Skill/s to be
enhanced

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1. Movie Trailer Short Recognizing Asking students to pretend

Making stories/ the plot, they are making a movie,
Activity Novels/ setting, conflict, invent a title and choose
Fictions characters, the real-life actors to portray the
point of views, story.
and theme of the
story
2. Movie Poster Short Recognizing
Making stories characters, prime
Activity Novels/ scheme and
Fictions themes of the
story
3. Character Short Recognizing Students will make a mental
Montage stories and characters, prime picture of the characters of
fiction scheme, and the story by creating montage
other literary describing the qualities and
elements personalities of the characters
in the literary text.
4. Jingle Rap Poems Interpreting Students will read a poem
Method poems in jingle rap method. It
effectively makes the students read
the text word by word and
it convinces students to
interpret literary text with
different meanings.
5. Literary Map Short Identifying Allowing the students to
Activity stories/ the location in map out the sequence of the
fiction which the story story/fiction. This strategy
takes place. It allows the students to have
gives a chance better interpretation and
for students appreciation of the story.
participate
to literature
independently
and to trust their
ideas
6. Timeline time Concretize the Allowing the students to
Method elements time and weather adopt the text to other period
of short conditions in the or genre
story/ story
drama/
fiction/
novels
7. Mock-Author literary Recognition Students take turns at playing
Interview authors of the point of the role of the author/ writer
view used by the to answer questions about the
author author/ writer’s life, works,
and beliefs.
8. Mock-Author literary Recognition of
Character characters the point of view
Interview of the characters

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9. Character Short Identifying

Line stories author/
Interpretation character’s Asking the students to
Method purpose and interpret sampling random
point of views lines or passages from the
text.
10. Pick Up Line Short determining
Making Stories/ tone and style of
Poems/ authors
novels/
Essays
11. Journal Short Relating the Students will respond to the
Writing/ Stories/ story to personal text through journal writing
Blogging Poems/ lives and blogging.
novels
12. Photograph Short Determining Presenting several
Study Stories/ the qualities of photographs and students
Poems the characters will express their reactions,
and the mood observations, and attitude
or atmosphere towards the photographs
created in the related to the literary texts.
literary text

13. Four Pics one Short

Character Stories/
Poems/
essays

14. Letter Short Relating the Allowing students to respond

Writing Stories/ story to personal to the author/ writer’s idea by
Poems/ lives expressing their reaction to
novels letter writing.
15. Panel Forum Short Identifying Students will talk about the
Stories/ author’s purpose point of views of the author
Poems and point of in a group. This encourages
views students to read the literary
text more closely.
16. Christmas/ Short determining Students will be given
Valentine’s Stories/ tone and style of the opportunity to think
Card Making Poems authors dependently and to respond
to literature more critically by
making cards.
17. Writing Last short Relating the Students will be given the
Will and stories/ story to personal chance to write a last will and
Testament poems/ lives testament in order to express
fiction their ideas about the literary
text

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18. Making short Recognize Serves to help students

Plaque of stories/ evidenced achieve a deeper appreciation
Appreciation poems/ proving for and interest in the
fiction universal truth or literary text read, interpreted
philosophy and analyzed in the class
by making a plaque of
appreciation.
19. Drawing on short Describing the Allowing the students to
Story Floor stories/ setting and mood create a mental picture of
Plan Setting fiction of the literary the place, time, weather
works conditions, social conditions,
and mood or atmosphere of
the literary text
20. Concept To short Recognizing Allowing the students to
Cartoon stories/ personal draw cartoons from the text
fiction philosophy based in which they are required
on the theme to read.
21. Song Short Appreciating Allowing students to listen to
Analysis and Stories/ the theme of the the song related to the literary
Interpretation Poems story works and they will explain
the relationship of the song
with the theme of the text.
22. A Living short Relating the Allowing the students
Sculpture stories/ story to personal to perform or act out the
fiction lives important scene the literary
text.
23. Group All Appreciating Allowing students to
Mural literary literary works respondent creatively to a
genres literary text
24. Painting the Poems Find answers Allowing students to give
Poem to a question or form to imaginative content
a solution to a
lifetime problem.

25. Designing Short Relating the Serves to help students

Coat of Arms stories/ story to personal achieve a deeper appreciation
fiction lives for and interest in the literary
text read, interpreted and
26. Symbolism Short Judge the text in
analyzed in the class by
Stories/ which arguments
designing a coat of arms in
Poems. are formed
which they can relate the
Essays
literary text to their lives.
27. Leaflet/ Short recognition Allowing the students to
Brochure Stories/ of personal make a meaningful and
Making Poems/ philosophy based relevant brochure or leaflets
essays/ on the theme about the moral of the text or
novels/ literary work read.

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28. Comic Strips Short Identifying Allowing the students to

Stories/ how the author draw fictional characters of
Poems/ arranges events the text in order to have the
essays in the literary better appreciation of the
text. plot.

Appendix B

Table of Specifications of the

Literary Appreciation Reading Test Items

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Literal Interpretative Applied/ Total No.

Level Questions Appreciation of items
Questions Questions
(Who, (Why, What (In What
Literary Works What, If) Ways, If
When, You Were, If
Where) These Were,
What would
you feel, )
1.  My Brother’s 1 3 6 6
Peculiar Chicken 2 4
5
2.  Miss Phatupat 7 9 12 6
  8 10
11
3.  The Small Key 13 14 16 4
15
4.  A Sigh in the 17 19 21 5
Dark 18 20
5.  Sonnet 1 22 24 26 5
23 25
6.  Like the Molave
28 28 30 4
29
Total Number of 10 14 6 30
Items

Appendix C

Literary Appreciation Skills Questionnaire

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Very High

Uncertain

Very Low
High

Low
Literary Appreciation Skills

1. Recognize the point of view used by

the author
2. Recognize imagery employed by the
author
3. Recognize how the characters are
introduced
4. Recognize the prime scheme used by
the author
5. Recognize the purpose of the title
6. Recognize the parts of the Plot
7. Determine the tone, mood, and style
of the author
8. Judge the text in which generalizations,
assumptions, hypotheses, theories,
and arguments are formed
9. Recognize evidenced proving a
universal truth or philosophy
10. Relate the story to their lives
11. Find answers to a question or a
solution to a lifetime problem.
12. Recognize personal philosophy based
on the theme of the solution.
13. Come up with enrichment activities
like artworks, creative dramatics,
story writing, puppetry, and the like
based on the selection read.
14. Concretize the imagery of language
used by the author in the story.

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