Literature at SOTA

SOTA currently adopts the IB programme, so this is a 6 year course for the students. Bearing that in mind, lower secondary and upper secondary (Years 1 - 4) have more time to experiment and explore, instead of buckling down for examination in the 4th year.

Currently, the Year 1 and 2s are adopting a genre approach, with the first term focusing on poetry. Close reading, with a strong emphasis on identifying literary devices and explaining their effect, is the approach taken. The content includes a general selection from local authors, alongside more canonical works, such as Daffodils by Wordsworth and other English poems often used to describe basic poetic devices. The attempt at contextualization is often extremely successful: students are able to immediately identify with the local poems, and this serves as a springboard for comparison to launch into the less accessible poems.

Term 2 will see them move into short stories. The approach they adopt to prose segues into more macro concerns. Although close reading is still employed, the approach is used to explore things like characterization and theme.