SPEC 111-E – TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT OF LITERATURE STUDIES (Handout)

WHAT IS LITERATURE?
LITERATURE
 A total of preserved writings belonging to a given language or people.
 A reaction of original heart and mind upon life.
 A word derived from the Latin word litera which means letter.
 A piece of printed work related to the ideas and feelings of the people that may be true or just a product of the writer’s
imagination.

WHY DO WE TEACH LITERATURE?

The course in Literature: Scope & Problems
Scope Problems
 It is a medium of expression that English is of supreme  IT IS THE HARDEST TO TEACH.
importance.  Indeed, so great are its inherent difficulties that
 The ability to put the best words in the best order, there is a need to list them and take stock of them
with tongue or pen, is man’s greatest invention and frankly.
the most powerful force of the modern world.

 It is as literature that English is most fascinating.

 By means of the printed page to be able to share
the happiest, best, and wisest moments of the
happiest, best, and wisest of men – poets and
prose, past and present men – is a daily miracle of
privilege and pleasure
 There is no other course whose subject matter can
compare with literature in richness, depth, and
appeal.

According to a study by Jonathan P.A. Sell (2005), a welter of reasons for, or benefits of, teaching literature in the foreign language
classroom have been proffered by a variety of authors. For example, Parkinson and Reid Thomas (2000: 9-11) list, with more or less
approval, the following ten:
1. Cultural enrichment. Reading literature promotes cultural understanding and awareness.
2. Linguistic model. Literature provides examples of “good” writing, linguistic diversity, expressive ranges, and so on.
3. Mental training. Better than any other discipline, literature trains the mind and sensibility.
4. Extension of linguistic competence. Literature stretches the competences of learners who have mastered the linguistic
rudiments.
5. Authenticity. Literature is genuine linguistic material, not a linguistically contrived textbook.
6. Memorability. Because literature, especially poetry and songs, is memorable, it can be a memorized archive of linguistic usage.
7. Rhythmic resource. Poems assist the learner in assimilating the rhythms of a language.
8. Motivating material. Literature is more likely to engage with and motivate a learner than artificial teaching inputs because it is
generated by some genuine impulse on the part of the writer and deals with subjects and themes which may be of interest to the
learner.
9. Open to interpretation. Because literature is open to interpretation, it can serve as a basis for “genuine interaction” between
learners.
10. Convenience. Literature is a handy (photocopiable) resource.

WHAT DO WE WANT OUR STUDENTS TO LEARN IN LITERATURE?

Values of studying Literature

The study of literature can be an effective means for students to explore social and moral issues.

Aims of studying Literature:

a. Discover the joys of reading literature and become aware of new ways of perceiving the world around them.
b. Explore the elements of different genres via the study of literary texts and to understand how these function in enabling literary
works to achieve their desired ends.
c. Articulate perceptive and logical thinking when discussing and writing about literature.
d. Select and interpret relevant material judiciously and to express ideas in coherent and clear English.
e. Understand the importance of the contexts in which literary texts are written and understood.
f. Engage personality with texts, showing a strong intellectual and emotional awareness of themes, characters, settings and
contexts.
SPEC 111-E – TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT OF LITERATURE STUDIES (Handout)

SOCIAL
ISSUES
It encourages
Literary works
students to explore
provide an effective
literary contexts that
way for students to
promote an
comprehend values
awareness of social
and the way
factors that influence
humanity functions.
people.

MORAL
ISSUES

Reason #1
Reason #3
Students explore the Encourages an
human condition and understanding of moral
are able to better and ethical issues,
understand their own prompting students to
existence and values Reason #2 foster an awareness of
in relation to society Addresses a wide range of the world they live in.
psychological and
sociological issues. At the
heart of literary works are
issues of conflict and the
range of human desires that
contribute to such conflict.

LITERATURE TEACHING IN THE PHILIPPINES

 De La Salle University literature, Prof. Shirley Lua, expounded, in the 2017 Philippine Center of International PEN (Poets,
Playwrights, Essayists and Novelists) Civil Society Program workshop, on survival tips in the teaching literature in a Philippine
classroom. She narrowed them down to three:
 Teach a few good poems, but teach them very well.
 Do not cover everything. Focus, focus, focus.
 Train students to be critical thinkers and readers.
 Lua defined close reading as “a slow reading and deliberate attempt to detach ourselves from the magical power of story-
telling and pay attention to language, imagery, allusion, inter-textuality, syntax and form.
 She advised the teachers to engage their students in focusing on passages/verses, examining details (e.g., grammatical
construction, punctuation, allusion and metaphor, etc.) to arrive at an interpretation.
 She also said that poetry does not have to be concerned with “high-faulting ideas. What’s important is what strikes you to the
core.” During close reading of poems, the teacher, she said, should guide the students to see and imagine or “sharpen their
metaphoric consciousness. This means linking unlike objects. What differentiates poetry from prose is indirectness and
suggestion.” In short, the abstract is concretized.
 She cited the country of Columbia which holds the International Poetry Festival in Medellin. Festival organizers believe that, she
said, “if a child knows poetry, he will not hold a gun in his hand.” (Columbia was once home to violent drug cartels.)
 Lua also listed the 21st-century themes and issues that the teacher can tackle:
 climate change
 identity like class, ethnicity and gender
 diaspora and globalization
SPEC 111-E – TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT OF LITERATURE STUDIES (Handout)
 current issues like extra-judicial killings, war and conflicts
 social media and technology.
 She explained the “poetics of pain,” quoting American poet Edward Hirsch who wrote, “We might say that the madness of any
country's brutality has often wounded its poets into poetry.” She said the Philippines could claim a “literature of pain” because
of its history of colonialism, imperialism, despotic regimes and natural disasters.
 She also said poetry “encourages students to reflect more in relation to their own selves.”
 Lua stressed that in a classroom setting, “poetry is not meant to be read silently with the eyes, but it is created to be heard or
performed.” Examples of how a poem can be performed are: choir recitation, audio-music suite, video, singing.

To further dramatize the verse/s verbally or non-verbally, she enumerated these ways:
 Physicalize the words;
 Enact selected verses;
 Recite accompanied by mime or dance;
 Take a snapshot or create a tableau;
 Transform the poem into a story and enact it in the form of a skit;
 Do verse echo to emphasize important lines;
 Translate and recite.

LITERATURE TEACHING IN THE 21ST CENTURY AND K-12

There aren’t textbooks or other sources to support this topic. Somehow, there’s an article in the internet entitled; 12 Strategies for
Teaching Literature in the 21st Century by Terry Heick.
(https://www.teachthought.com/literacy/12-strategies-for-teaching-literature-in-the-21st-century/)

Keep this question in mind: HOW ARE YOU GOING TO TEACH 21st CENTURY YOUNG ADULTS LITERATURE?

Here are the 12 strategies for teaching literature in the 21 st century by Terry Heick.
1. Use combinations of media–classic and modern together, leveraging one against the other.

2. Have students analyze diverse media forms for their strengths and weaknesses–and involve both classic and digital forms.

3. Have students turn essays into videos into podcasts into letters into simply-coded games into poems into apps.

4. Allow students to choose media while you choose themes and/or academic and/or quality standards.

5. When designing units, choose the media first, then the standards (yes, this likely goes against what you were taught–but give
it a try).

6. Insist all student work “leaves the classroom” and is published–then design units accordingly.

7. Use RAFT: Role, Audience, Format, and Topic/Tone/Theme. Then have them revise media in response to new roles, audiences,
formats, or topics, tones, or themes. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream Speech” in a new format (a video?), or to a new
audience (modern hip-hop artists?), or with a new tone (angry?). Students experimenting here are experimenting with media
design, which is exactly what authors do.

8. Use a thematic focus to design units, assessments, project-based learning–whatever activities students ‘touch.’ One of the
hallmark characteristics of classic literature is that it endures. This is, in part, due to timelessness of the human condition. Love
lost, coming of age, overcoming obstacles, civil rights, identity, and more are all at the core of the greatest of literary works.
The ability to the texts to nail these conditions gives them their ability to endure, so teach through that. The author (e.g.,
Shakespeare) or media form (e.g., a play) may not seem relevant to a student–and that’s okay. The author chose that form
based on prevailing local technology. Help them focus on what is being said and why–and how.

9. Use tools for digital text annotation on pdfs, note-sharing, and more to help students mark text, document questions and
insights, and revisit thinking or collaborate with others during the reading of classic texts.

10. Create social media-based reading clubs. Establish a hashtag that anchors year-long discussion of certain themes, authors,
text, or whatever other category/topic that makes sense for your curriculum.

11. Have students create and produce an ongoing podcast or YouTube channel on, as above, relevant themes, authors, texts,
etc.

12. Connect the old with the new in authentic ways to center the knowledge demands of modern readers.