Literature in St. Anthony Canossian Sec Sch

The school adopts the P.E.E.L structure religiously in teaching the students how to write their answers, not just in Literature but in other subjects as well. The Secondary 3 students are using The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, whereas the Secondary 4 students, who are sitting for their O-Levels this year, are reading Things Fall Apart. 

I’ve been given the Secondary 3 Elective Literature classes, as part of my TP. Even though I’m not assigned to the Pure Literature classes, I managed to get the permission from my CT, to sit in for his pure Lit classes. What I have observed is that, the teachers go through chapter by chapter, telling students the important lines/quotes to highlight. The teachers usually skip introducing the background information of the book (author’s biography, setting of the novel etc) and they will go straight to giving an overview summary of the book before starting on Chapter One. For poetry, the teachers focus on helping students how to write proper paragraphs, because most of them have difficulties expressing themselves. As part of their Continual Assessment, the students are given a Poetry Project, in which they are asked to select a poem and present the poem through the use of visuals (videos, images) and music.

I didn’t get a chance to sit in for any of the Lower Secondary classes yet, but I found out from one of the Literature teachers that they are using textbooks to teach Literature to the Lower Secondary students. They used to teach Animal Farm, but due to time constraint, they couldn’t finish teaching the book. So this year, the department decided to just stick to textbooks, and they are doing drama at the moment.

All the best everyone! :)