How Literature is assessed at Bukit View Secondary

Formative assessment of students' learning comprises of:

(1)  Reader’s Theatre – they are assessed according to pronunciation and enunciation, volume and clarity, characterization as well as their engagement with the performance as spectators;

(2)  Vlog (or Video blog) where students assumed the role of a key character and fit into the time and setting of the prescribed text. They expressed their point of view towards an issue raised in the text with the use of improvised dialogue. They are assessed according to their facial expressions, characterization, visual aids, voice volume, intonation, articulation and script.

(3)  Common Test, which comprises of unseen poetry and questions at the literal and inferential level on the prescribed text

(4)  Dramatization of Sing to the Dawn where each group in each class will pick a scene from a chapter they are assigned to; they will explain its significance, come up with a script, and perform it on stage. Student engagement and reflective thinking are fostered; they are encouraged to draw on what they have learnt from the Reader’s Theatre program and to think of ‘missing scenes’ (or scenes that could have been incorporated by the author) that would further the reader’s knowledge and understanding of the text and increase engagement between the reader and the text. I observe that students have thus far been quite responsive to such an assessment approach (some groups in the normal academic stream even produced type-written scripts and submitted them way before the deadline). This assessment will form 30% of their CA marks.

Such assessments not only measure student progress but also encourage them to think on higher levels. Students in the normal academic stream receive the same tasks as those in the Express stream; they are complemented with differentiated instruction and scaffolding. There will be a summative assessment in the form of a mid-year exam.