Teaching Literature As A Significant Human Experience

Teaching Literature as a
Significant Human Experience

“Literature is a living thing, something that moves the soul, makes it sing in wonder
and awe. The text, walks you through all the passion, despair, feelings, anger,
love, hatred, and joy a human can experience. It’s almost like being in the right
committed relationship; you’re caught up in it, and it feels like… magic.”
– Tiago Marcelo, 2015

Literature Definitions by Famous Authors
“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who
have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.”
– Virginia Woolf
“Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it
but molds it to its purpose.” – Oscar Wilde
“Literature is an imitation of a sequence of events. It
can be categorized and thereby, understood
according to the method of operation and execution
of each category.” – Aristotle
“Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through
which we learn about the world and pass on values from
one generation to the next. Books save lives.”
– Laurie Anderson
“Literature is where I go to explore the highest and
lowest places in human society and in the human spirit,
where I hope to find not absolute truth but the truth of the
tale, of the imagination and of the heart.”
– Salmon Rushdie
Purposes, Values and Benefits of Teaching Literature
Lynch-Brown and Tomlinson(2005) in their book “Essentials of Children’s Literature” recognized
that reading literature will gain personal and academic value for our learners:
Personal Value
- Enjoyment
- Imagination and inspiration
- Vicarious experience
- Understanding and empathy
- Cultural heritage
- Moral reasoning
- Literary and artistic preference
Academic Value
- Improving reading skills
- Developing writing style
- Learning content-area knowledge
- Promoting art appreciation

Parkinson and Thomas (2000) in Sell (2005) has listed benefits of teaching
literature in the language classroom as collected from various authors and
research studies. Here is their list:
1. Cultural enrichment - promote cultural understanding and awareness
2. Linguistic model - provide examples of "good" writing, linguistic diversity,

expressive ranges
3. Mental training - train the mind and sensibility
4. Extension of linguistic competence - stretch the competencies of learners who

have mastered linguistic rudiments
5. Authenticity - literature is a genuine linguistic material to be studied and read
6. Memorability - can be a memorized archive of linguistic usage
7. Rhythmic resource - assimilate the rhythms of language

8. Motivating material - engage with and motivate a learner to deal with subjects
and themes of interest to the learner
9. Open to interpretation - serve as a basis for "genuine interaction" between

learners
10. Convenience - literature is a handy resource

Frameworks to Consider in Teaching Literature
* Literary Criticism Theories
These literary theories are schools of thought or style of analysis that gives the
readers or scholars with another lens in viewing or in critiquing the literary text as
a work of art and a product of the author.
* Genres, Branches, and Authors
Literature, in a structural and stylistic perspective, can be divided and subdivided

into branches and genres.
* Cultural and Historical Contexts
Literary context is essential in studying literature because it describes the

relevance of the text to the moods, attitudes, conditions, and acceptable norms
which existed in a particular person, period (history), society, group of people
(culture), religion, gender, or technology.
* Models and Approaches in Teaching Literature
The Teaching Literature Models are approaches teachers may employ when
teaching and learning literary texts.
* Comprehension Levels in Reading Literature
The levels of comprehension framework in reading literary texts guides teachers to

extract comprehension from learners according to the analysis of multi-level
questions from easy to complex.
Philippine Literature
● Bonsai (Edith L. Tiempo)
● Letter to Pedro, U.S. Citizen, Also Called Pete (Rene Estella Amper)
● Dead Stars (Paz Marquez Benitez)
● The Bread of Salt (NVM Gonzales)
● Magnificence (Estrella D. Alfon)
● Love in the Cornhusks (Aida Rivera-Ford)
● The Virgin (Kerima Polotan)
● How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife (Manuel Arguilla
● The World is an Apple (Alberto Florentino)
● May Day Eve (Nick Joaquin)
Philippine Literature
● Wedding Dance (Amador T. Daguio)
● Footnote to Youth (Jose Garcia Villa)
● Biag ni Lam-ang (Pedro Bukaneg)
●
Afro-Asian Literature
● Africa (David Diop)
● Once Upon a Time (Gabriel Okara)
● Anticipation (Mabel Dove-Danquah)
● To Whom Should I Speak Today? (T. Eric Peet)
● The Lady and Her Five Suitors (The Arabian Nights)
● Simon Who Was Called Peter (Kahlil Gibran)
● The Greedy Jackal
● The Mahabharata
● The Ramayana
● The Story of Joseph
Afro-Asian Literature
● The Story of Joseph
● The Story of Ruth
● Rubaiyat (Omar Khayyam)
Anglo-American Literature
● Beowulf
● Canterbury Tales (G. Chaucer)
● Shakespearean Sonnets
● I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (W. Wordsworth)
● Of Studies (Francis Bacon)
● How Do I Love Thee (Elizabeth Browning)
Greek Mythology
● Orpheus and Eurydice
● Pyramus and Thisbe
● Philemon and Baucis
● Cupid and Psyche
● Pygmalion and Galatea
World Literature
● The Mandarin and the Flower Festival (Pham Duy Kiem)
● The Incident (Lu Hsun)
● The Horse Breaker (J. de Viana)
● A Letter to God (Gregorio Lopez y Fuentes)
● The Autopsy (G. Heym)
●

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Teaching Literature as a

Significant Human Experience

– Tiago Marcelo, 2015

- Improving reading skills

- Developing writing style

- Learning content-area knowledge

- Promoting art appreciation

1. Cultural enrichment - promote cultural understanding and awareness

2. Linguistic model - provide examples of "good" writing, linguistic diversity,

4. Extension of linguistic competence - stretch the competencies of learners who

5. Authenticity - literature is a genuine linguistic material to be studied and read

6. Memorability - can be a memorized archive of linguistic usage

7. Rhythmic resource - assimilate the rhythms of language

9. Open to interpretation - serve as a basis for "genuine interaction" between

10. Convenience - literature is a handy resource

Literature, in a structural and stylistic perspective, can be divided and subdivided

* Cultural and Historical Contexts

Literary context is essential in studying literature because it describes the

* Comprehension Levels in Reading Literature

The levels of comprehension framework in reading literary texts guides teachers to

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