Literature in Manjusri Secondary

I will only be commenting on the Lower Secondary curriculum in my post as I have not been assigned to teach Upper Secondary literature so I can't really comment much on that.

For the lower secondary students, the Secondary Ones are currently doing short stories and poetry. Every week, they are given a short story to read through, after which, they have a literature journal which they are supposed to update, writing down anything from their thoughts and reflections to ideas and notes given out by the teacher in class. As the standard of English here is relatively low, the scheme of work is (SOW) structured by semester so as to monitor their progress and allow for changes if necessary. The students are also currently being exposed to the process of writing Literature essays. They are encouraged to follow the 'SEE' principle - Statement, Evidence, Explanation. Unfortunately, many of the students here students are still unable to grasp the concept and need a lot of guidance in this. This is where the journal once again comes in useful as it encourages them to pen down their thoughts and trains them to articulate themselves.

In Secondary 2, the students are exposed to studying novels. Currently, they are doing Animal Farm by George Orwell. The teachers here have to take it chapter by chapter, owing much to the fact that many of the students are not interested in reading and, as mentioned earlier, the standard of English here is relatively low so a lot of guidance and explanation of terms are needed. The students are also starting out on themes and literary techniques such as irony and satire. Most of the time, the students are given worksheets to do individually but group work is also encouraged from time to time in the form of poster designs and pamphlet making collaborations.

Finally, there is also a Drama skills programme for lower secondary Literature pupils. In this programme, the Sec 1s are taken through their first experience in dramatization before moving up to Sec 2s where they will begin learning elementary drama techniques and exploring their own potential in dramatization.