Teaching Literature

CONTENTS:
OBJECTIVES: I. Importance of Literature
At the end of this session, students II. Factors Affecting Interests in Literature

will be able to… III. Choosing Books and Reading Materials

IV. Models of Teaching Literature
1. recognize important concepts in
teaching literature in English;
2. identify appropriate methods and
approaches to teach literature; and
3. discuss the right books, reading
materials, and comprehension
questions in teaching literature
December 1
 I. Value of Literature
“Literature (Importance of Literature)
educates th
e
whole perso
n”
a. Literature improves your
command of language.
b. It teaches you about the life,
cultures and experiences of
people in other parts of the
world.
c. It gives you information about
other parts of the world which
you may never be able to visit
in your lifetime.
d. It entertains you and provides
useful occupation in your free
time.
 I. Value of Literature f. It helps you compare your own
(Importance of Literature) experiences with the experience of other
people.
e. It makes you a wiser and more
experience person by forcing you to
judge, sympathize with, or criticize g. It gives information which may be useful
the characters you read about.
in other subjects for example in Geography,
Science, History, Social Studies, and so on.
 II. Factors Affecting B. ABILITY TO RELATE TO STUDENTS
Interests in Literature Finding texts that relate to students’ lives
emerged as another factor influencing
interest in literature. Students are more
engaged in their learning if they find it
interesting or relatable.

. M O T IV AT ION C. THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

A
a ti o n is th e key in When asked how much students’ thoughts
Motiv
o ti n g a lo ve of and feelings influence the literature selected
prom
dren. 79.2% of teachers either agreed or strongly
literacy in chil
agreed.

D. LITERARY MERIT
Literary merit is the quality of the literature
E. Entertains the reader and is interesting
• Shows thematic depth: the themes merit
to read
revisiting and study because they are complex and
•Does not merely conform to the
nuanced
expectations of a single genre or formula
• Demonstrates innovation in style, voice,
• Has been judged to have artistic quality
structure, characterization, plot and description.
by the Literary community (teachers,
• May have social, political or ideological impact on
students, librarians, critics, other writers,
society during the lifetime of the author afterward
the reading public)
• Does not fall into the traps of “pulp” fiction such
• Has stood the test
as cliched or derivative descriptions and plot
of time in some way,
devices or sentimentality rather than earned
regardless of the date of
emotion.
publication
• Is intended by the author to communicate in an
artistic manner
•Is universal in its appeal
 CHOICE VS. TEACHER PREFERENCE
NT
REQUIREME These may be the texts that teachers are most
th e r to make knowledgeable about or have devoted the most
Decidin g w h e
time to teaching.
r e q u ir e d r e a ding or
a novel ADMINISTRATION, PARENTS AND
d e n ts a c h o ice of COMMUNITY
give stu
a s fre q u e ntly parents have a large impact on children’s lives.
option s w
Parents have the ability to control what their
s e d b y te a c h ers as children does, where they go and potentially what
discus
r in fl u e n c in g their they read.
a facto
selection
 Visual accessibility- Illustrations done for
III. Choosing Books and aesthetic appeal are not sunstantive enough
Reading Materias to aid the English learner.
FICTION

Cultural accessibility- Finding books that

Content accessibility- books with subjects such as
are culturally connected to the lives of
time and money, school, colors, days of the week,
students is an important variable in building a
months of the year, signs and symbols, foods,
weather, clothing, family, homes, occupations, and beginning library that is both reassuring and

animals comprise essential initial reading material. relevant for English learners.

Language accessibility- in terms of simple language

that students can deal with as beginning language
learners, Eric Carle’s books are excellent examples.
B. Nonfiction

Visual accessibility – Visuals are critical,

Content accessibility – If this is an especially for the difficult conceptual and
introduction to new content area vocabulary load of the content areas.
concepts, the book should be very basic Visuals can iclude graphic organizers,
with only a few concepts and terms labeled illustration, diagrams, maps, and
presented in clear, simple language. timelines.
Accessibility through accuracy and

Language accessibility – New content organization – Obviously, one needs to

area vocabulary should should be choose nonfiction books that reflect

highlighted in boldface type or brightly up-to-date information.

colored type, sidebar explanation,

explicit visuals, and so on.
 a. Cultural Model
• stress the value of literature in
encapsulating the accumulated
wisdom, the best that had been thought
and felt within a culture
IV. Models of Teaching Literature • enables students to understand and
appreciate cultures and ideologies
The reasons for teaching literature necessarily
different from their own in time and
transcend the particular circumstances, places,
space
and contexts in which literature is taught. Three
• associated with a more
main reasons for the teaching of literature have
teacher-centered, transmissive
been consistently advanced. Each embraces a
pedagogic mode, which focuses on the
particular set of learning objectives for the
text as a product about which students
student of literature. These are:
learn to acquire information
b. Language Model
• language is the literary medium, that
literature is made from language and that
the more students can read in and
through language, the better they will be
to come to terms with a literary text as
literature
• supply many linguistic opportunities to the
language teacher and allow many of the
most valuable exercises of language
learning to be based on material capable
of stimulating greater interest and
involvement that can be the case with
many language teaching text.
c. Personal Growth Model
• Help students achieve a
engagement with the reading of
literary texts; the test of the teacher’s
success in teaching literature is the
extent to which students carry with
them beyond the classroom and
enjoyment and love for literature
• The teacher has to stimulate and
anliven students in the literature
class by selecting texts to which
students can respond, and in which
they can participate imaginatively.
 Approaches in
c. Moral-Philosophical Approach
Teaching Literature
– read a particular literary text;
search for moral values; awareness
a. Language Approach –
of values; assist students to
incorporates language and literature
understand themes in future
syllabus; by studying the language
readings.
b. Paraphrastic Approach – surfaces d. Stylistic Approach – closer
meaning of text; paraphrase; understanding, appreciation of
re-word the story in simpler literary text * combination of
language; translating it into another linguistic analysis * and literary
language;beginners of target critic (Lazar, 1993)
language
 INFERENTIAL
Builds on facts in text:
Levels of • Prediction using
Comprehension facts from text
• Sequence
• Traits and setting

LITERAL APPRECIATIVE
Stated facts in text: Response to text based on:
• Data • Personal reaction and
• Specifics reflection (places reader in a
• Dates story)
• Traits and setting • Author’s purpose
 • Looks at the world view that the text
brings up
CRITIQUE
• Applies the themesto today’s world
Response to text based on:
• Author’s use of language
EVALUATIVE
• Reaction to author’s ideas
Judgment of text based on:
• Reaction to author’s values,
• Fact or Opinion
imagery and executrion
• Validity
ESSENTIAL
• Appropriateness
Response to text based
• Worth: acceptable, desirable ideas
on:
• Comparisons
• Drawn from entire text
• Cause-Effect
• Looks at the Big Ideas
and Themes from text
 Why should we test literature?
Assessment Strategies in to develop literary competence;
Teaching Literature to bring a literary piece of art to students'
intellectual and emotional baggages;
to develop decision-making and
meaning-making
Examples of Literature Assessment

1. Testing Literal Comprehension

-Includes recall of details, main ideas,
sequence, comparisons, cause and effect
relationships and character traits

a. Objective Type
• Recall of details: Identify the characters
who said the following lines in the story.
• Sequence: Rearrange the order of
events below as they happened in the story.
 . E s s a y Type h a t are
b rison s : W
• Compa contrastin
g
b. Essay Type
the o f the
istics • Outlining: Construct a topic outline
character a n d the
of the essay providing at least three
ist
protagon d e s c r ib ed by
t as main heads and a number of
antagonis sub-heads.
r?
the autho r tr a it s : Cite
• Summarizing: Write a
cte
• Chara t h e s t ory that
in one-paragraph summary of the plot
incidents st rained
the of the story.
show b e t w een the
relati2. ship
onTesting Reorganization 3. Testing Inference
le .
coupentails classifying, outlining, Inferential tests require students to
summarizing, and synthesizing ideas use information explicitly stated in
a. Objective Type the text along with personal
• Classifying: Select the item that experience and knowledge in order
does not belong to the group. to conjecture and to form hypothesis.
• Synthesizing: From the choices Tests include:
given, select the statement that • inferring supporting details
expresses the theme of each of the • main idea
following selections. • sequence
• comparisons
• cause-and-effect relationships
• character traits
• author's organization
• predicting outcomes
• interpreting figurative language
a. Objective Type
• Interpreting figurative
language:
Choose the best
interpretations of the
following figurative lines
within the context of the
poem.
• Inferring character
traits: Match the adjectives
that best describe the traits
of the character as shown
by his/her actions.
4. Testing Evaluation
Evaluation tests require students to
compare information and ideas in a text with
material presented by the instructor or other
authorities and with the student's own
knowledge and experience in order to form
judgements of various kinds. Tests include
judgements of:
• reality and fantasy
• fact or opinion
• adequacy and validity
• appropriateness
• worth
• desirability
• acceptability
a. Objective Type
• Judgment of fact or opinion: Write O if
the following statement expresses an
opinion of a reader on the story, F is the
statement is stated by the author in the
story.

a. Essay Type
• Judgments of reality and
fantasy: Do the events in the story
depict real-life situations or are
they just product of the author's
imagination? Explain.
• Judgment of acceptability: Are
the actions of the hero acceptable
from the moral point of view? Why
or why not?
5. Testing Appreciation
Appreciation tests require
students to articulate emotional and
aesthetic responses to the text based
on personal and professional
standards of literary forms, styles,
genres, theories, critical
approaches.
Tests include:
• giving emotional response to the text
• identifying with characters or incidents
• reacting to author's or speaker's
connotative and denotative use of
language
• reacting to imagery
a. Objective Type
• Reacting to author's connotative use of
language: Select the best connotative
meaning of the underlined word in each
statement lifted from the story.
a. Essay Type
• Identifying with character or incidents:
Which character in the story can you
identify most? What are your similarities?
• Responding emotionally to the text:
How do you feel towards Hamlet? Do you
sympathize with him? Why or why not?

6. Evaluating Literature Tests
Objective Type
• easy to evaluate because there are
ready answer keys to the questions.
Essay Type
• difficult to assess because the
evaluation focuses on both content
(substance of the response) and
form (language of the response).
7. Literal Comprehension &
Inference Test Evaluation and
Appreciation Tests
• Content should be assigned more
weight than form.
• Assessment should be based on its
consistency with the literary text.
• Assessment should consider
grammar and diction.
• Depends on the student's ability to
expound his/her ideas; the more
proficient in language the student is,
the more chances he/she has of
getting good ratings.