Literature Assessment at SOTA

This might come as a surprise but literature assessment at SOTA is fairly conventional! At all levels, assessment consists of a written test conducted each term, with a fairly small portfolio component.

For the year 1s, the test currently focuses on identifying similes, metaphors, personification and alliteration. The test follows the unseen format, but instead of writing an essay the students are given short-answer questions to test understanding and identification of these literary details, and are expected to explain its effect.

One interesting variation in the test that the year 1s have is that instead of an unseen poem, they also have a seen poem component. Students are given the poem before the test itself, without the questions, and are encouraged to discuss it with their classmates or to search online. To offset this advantage, the poem is often quite difficult: Term 1's test was The Jaguar by Ted Hughes, for example.

The portfolio component involves a long list of creative activities that exhibit knowledge of these devices. Students are encouraged to write a poem that has one of the above devices, or to experiment with existing poems, such as turning it into prose and vice versa. Students are free to choose which activities they would like to do, as long as they meet a minimum requirement.

The 2nd years are currently doing local short stories. The previous assessment was similar to the Year 1 examination, but as they are now doing prose the assessment has escalated to passage-based questions, and an essay. The former still keeps the focus on close-reading, while the latter adopts a more thematic approach to the story involving the PEEL structure.

For their portfolio component, they are conducting this activity called SCAVENGER, which basically involves finding a variety of emotions in different books, and copying those quotes down. Students will present in whatever manner they deem fit.