How Literature is taught in Whitley

Literature is taught only at lower secondary and elective level Whitley. The teaching of Literature is seemingly very exam oriented. Therefore, what students learn in class is very much structured around the Point, Evidence and Analysis structure. However, this may be due to how we came in to the school right before the common test period.

In class, questions are mainly broken down for the students and explained before students are given the question paper. This is to ensure that the students would be able to handle the work that is given them, and they have a specific direction they may follow.

Currently, Sec 1 students are studying The Lion, The Witch and The Wardobe of the Narnia series, and the Sec 2 express students are studying The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Secondary 2 normal academic students are reading The Outsiders by S. E Hinton.

Because I was given this range of classes, I was able to experiment with the different ways to teach. For secondary 1, they are able to grasp more abstract concepts, and I may use videos to engage their interest. While with the secondary 2 normal academic, I would steer them towards a particular direction and guide them more so that they would be able to understand what the key points of the text is.

The students would be taught poetry at the beginning of term 2, and the SOW for poetry is focused on teaching the students the various devices frequently seen in poetry.