NAME: _________________________________________ SUBJECT:

______________
GRADE&SECTION: _____________ DATE: _______________
21 CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD
ST

(MODULE 6 WEEK 6 QUARTER 1)

What I Need to Know
This module is a standalone section that you can use based on your needs and interests to enhance your competency
on how to differentiate the various 21st century literary genres and the ones from the original genres, citing their elements,
structures and traditions.
Learning Competency:
(EN12Lit-Id-25) Differentiate the various 21st century literary genres and the ones from the original genres, periods
citing their elements, structures and traditions.
LESSON 6: CREATIVE NON-FICTION
Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students will be able to;
 Determine some of the earliest works written in the Philippines that can be considered essays.
 Contrast the said elements and conventions with Philippine essays from earlier periods.
 Respond critically to the essay and articulate through an audiovisual presentation.

What I know
PRE-TEST
DIRECTION: Identify what is being described in each item. Match column A to Column B.

COLUMN A COLUMN B
1. an account of a person, object, or event, that enables a. anecdotes
the reader to get a clear picture of what is being
described (e.g describing the various rooms in the
house, mixing the physical aspects with memories
of what these places mean to the narrator)

2. short stories based on true accounts; adds more b. insight

texture to the narrator's discussion of his home
3. the capacity to gain a deep understanding about c. characteristics
something; a product of reflection
4. give background to the story employs a literary d. creative non-fiction
voice
5. the mental, and moral qualities that makes someone e. description
distinctive

What’s New
ACTIVITY 1: I LOVE MY MOM
Do you believe in the saying that “mother’s knows best”? Explain your answer by citing an example situation.

What is it
CREATIVE NONFICTION is seen more as a category, or method of classification, to differentiate it from other type
of essays. Creative nonfiction is seen as a contentious term, because while it seems to be referring to a brand
new genre of writing, it is often used interchangeably with the term literary essay, and some still question
whether it is in fact a legitimate genre. Genres are classifications, or ways of differentiating one thing from one another.

1|21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD

 ESSAY is simply “a short piece of writing on a particular subject. Almost any type of writing can technically be considered
an essay, as long as it is short and about a subject. This can lead to misconception that essays are easy to write or of lesser
importance as a form of literature, which is not the case. The essay in the Philippine writing has a particular history or trajectory.
The first essays were written not by Filipinos themselves, but by the Spanish friars who arrived in the country and were tasked to
document it for those who remained in Spain.
 Essays that have clear narrative elements, or use fiction techniques such as dialogue or characterization, are classified as
creative nonfiction.

Some of the earliest works written in the Philippines that can be considered essays include;
 Artey reglas de las lengua tagala by Francisco Baltazar de San Jose, which was treatise on the Tagalog language.
 Limbag Pag-aaralan nang manga tagalog nang uicang Castila by Tomas Pinpin.
 Fr. Modesto de Castro’s Platicas Doctrines was considered a landmark work also known as “Filipino values.”
 The essay found its home in Philippine writing during the later years of Spanish rule, particularly during the rise of the
reformist movement.
 Personalities such as Fr. Jose Burgos, Pedro Paterno, Marcelo H. del Pilar, and Jose Rizal, all wrote to raise awareness of the
abuses of the colonial rulers of the time.
 During the revolution, Andres Bonifacio’s “Ang Dapat Mabatid ng Mga Tagalog” and Emilio Jacinto’s “Liwanag at Dilim”
were just some of the works being read by Filipinos in the country.
 Writers like Nick Joaquin, S.P. Lopez, Francisco Arcellana, N.V.M Gonzalez, Estralla Alfon, Kerima Polotan, and many
others covered a huge variety of subjects and styles in their essays.

LOCATE
Read the excerpt of the essay:

FIVE BROTHERS, ONE MOTHER

From “Many Mansions”
Exie Abola
Manila

Taurus St., Cinco Hermanos, Marikina

The Marikina house wasn’t finished yet, but with an ultimatum hanging over our heads, we had no choice but to move in.
Just how unfinished the house became bruisingly clear on our first night. There was no electricity yet, and the windows didn’t have
screens. There were mosquitoes. I couldn’t sleep the whole night. My sister slept on a cot out in the upstairs hall instead of her room
downstairs, maybe because it was cooler here. Every so often she would toss and turn, waving bugs away with half-asleep hands. I sat
beside her and fanned her. She had work the next day. In the morning someone went out and bought boxes and boxes of Katol.
Work on the house would continue, but it remains unfinished eight years later. All the interiors, after a few years of
intermittent work, are done. But the exterior remains unpainted, still the same cement gray as the day we moved in, though grimier
now. Marikina’s factories aren’t too far away. The garden remains ungreened; earth, stones, weeds, and leaves are where I suppose
bermuda grass will be put down someday.
In my eyes the Marikina house is an attempt to return to the successful Greenmeadows plan, but with more modest means at
one’s disposal. The living room of the Cinco Hermanos house features much of the same furniture, a similar look. The sofa and wing
chairs seem at ease again. My mother’s growing collection of angel figurines is the new twist. But there is less space in this room, as
in most of the rooms in the Marikina house, since it is a smaller house on a smaller lot.
The kitchen is carefully planned, as was the earlier one, the cooking and eating areas clearly demarcated. There is again a
formal dining room, and the new one seems to have been designed for the long narra dining table, a lovely Designs Ligna item,
perhaps the one most beautiful piece of furniture we have, bought on the cheap from relatives leaving the country in a hurry when we
still were on Heron Street.
Upstairs are the boys’ rooms. The beds were the ones custom-made for the Greenmeadows house, the same ones we’d slept
in since then. It was a loft or an attic, my mother insisted, which is why the stairs had such narrow steps. But this "attic," curiously
enough, had two big bedrooms as well as a wide hall. To those of us who actually inhabited these rooms, the curiosity was an
annoyance. There was no bathroom, so if you had to go to the toilet in the middle of the night you had to go down the stairs and come
back up again, by which time you were at least half awake.
Perhaps there was no difference between the two houses more basic, and more dramatic, than their location. This part of
Marikina is not quite the same as the swanky part of Ortigas we inhabited for five years. Cinco Hermanos is split by a road, cutting it
into two phases,that leads on one end to Major Santos Dizon, which connects Marcos Highway with Katipunan Avenue. The other end
of the road stops at Olandes, a dense community of pedicabs, narrow streets, and poverty. The noise – from the tricycles, the
chattering on the street, the trucks hurtling down Marcos Highway in the distance, the blaring of the loudspeaker at our street corner
put there by eager-beaver baranggay officials – dispels any illusions one might harbor of having returned to a state of bliss.
***
The first floor is designed to create a clear separation between the family and guest areas, so one can entertain outsiders
without disturbing the house’s inhabitants. This principle owes probably more to my mother than my father. After all, she is the
entertainer, the host. The living room, patio, and dining room – the places where guests might be entertained – must be clean and neat,
things in their places. She keeps the kitchen achingly well-organized, which is why there are lots of cabinets and a deep cupboard.
And she put them to good use. According to Titus, the fourth, who accompanied her recently while grocery shopping, she
buys groceries as if all of us still lived there. I don’t recall the cupboard ever being empty.
That became her way of mothering. As we grew older and drifted farther and farther away from her grasp, defining our own
lives outside of the house, my mother must have felt that she was losing us to friends, jobs, loves – forces beyond her control. Perhaps
2|21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD
she figured that food, and a clean place to stay, was what we still needed from her. So over the last ten years or so she has become
more involved in her cooking, more attentive, better. She also became fussier about meals, asking if you’ll be there for lunch or dinner
so she knows how much to cook, reprimanding the one who didn’t call to say he wasn’t coming home for dinner after all, or the
person who brought guests home without warning. There was more to it than just knowing how much rice to cook.
I know it gives her joy to have relatives over during the regular Christmas and New Year get-togethers, which have been held
in our house for the past half-decade or so. She brings out the special dishes, cups and saucers, platters, glasses, bowls, coasters and
doilies she herself crocheted. Perhaps I understand better why her Christmas decor has grown more lavish each year.
After seeing off the last guests after the most recent gathering, she sighed, "Ang kalat ng bahay!" I didn’t see her face, but I
could hear her smiling. My father replied, "Masaya ka naman." It wasn’t a secret.
Sundays we come over to the house, everyone who has moved out, and have lunch together. Sunday lunches were always
differently esteemed in our household. Now that some of us have left, I sense that my siblings try harder than they ever did to be there.
I know I do. I try not to deprive my mother the chance to do what she does best.

What’s more
ACTIVITY 2: NAVIGATE
Respond critically to the following questions and worksheets to process the selection.
1. What was the essay all about?
2. What was the main impression Abola gives of the Marikina house?
3. List at least three descriptive terms which support your answer in number 2 in the space below.
4. Create a comparison listing down that the author makes between his current house and their previous house.
5. In the passage, “There was more to it than just knowing how much rice to cook,” what could the author mean?
Explain your answer in a short paragraph.
6. Explain the reason why the author’s mother would complain about the messiness of the house, and yet smile
after gatherings. What does this say about how she values family?

What can I do
ACTIVITY 3: SHARE IT!
For the final activity of this lesson, revisit the idea of the home and how the selected essay tackled it via a
combination of reflection and storytelling. Through a vlog presentation make a simple house tour. Share about four
things that you love about your house and the things you usually do.
Ask yourself this question and present your answer in a form of a short 5-minute audio-visual presentation:
How do you see your home thirty years from now? Send your vlog through the use of your Facebook messenger or
via email (rochmay24@gmail.com).
Assessment
ACTIIVTY 4: SPECULATE
DIRECTION: Answer the following questions. Write your essay in two to three paragraphs, using the techniques
picked up from Exie Abola’s article. (10 points)

What defines home to you? If you needed to leave where you were staying now, what would you do to “make
yourself at home” wherever you were staying?

What I can show

Which category in 21st Century skills do you think the core of our topic falls in? (Communication, collaboration, creativity,
critical thinking, productivity, leadership and technology literacy). Explain why.

Prepared by:
__________________________________
Mrs. Rochelle May G. Gayacan, LPT
SUBJECT TEACHER

3|21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD

 ANSWER SHEE
**THIS PORTION OF THE MODULE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BACK TO MA’AM ROCHELLE FOR CHECKING**

Name of Student: ________________________________________________ Grade/Strand: _________________

Present Address: _________________________________________________ Contact no.____________________
Subject Matter: 21ST Century Literature from the Philippines and the World
Topic: LESSON 6: CREATIVE NON-FICTION

WHAT I KNOW
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

WHAT’S NEW-I LOVE MY MOM

WHAT’S MORE

1.

2.
4|21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD
 3.

4.

5.

6.

WHAT I CAN DO-ACTIVITY 4: SHARE IT!

For the final activity of this lesson, revisit the idea of the home and how the selected essay tackled it via a combination of
reflection and storytelling. Through a vlog presentation make a simple house tour. Share about four things that you love about your
house and the things you usually do.
Ask yourself this question and present your answer in a form of a short 5-minute audio-visual presentation: How do you see
your home thirty years from now? Send your vlog through the use of your Facebook messenger or upload it in the provided Facebook
page.

ASSESSMENT- ACTIVITY 3: SPECULATE

WHAT I CAN SHOW

Which category in 21st Century skills do you think the core of our topic falls in? (Communication, collaboration, creativity, critical
thinking, productivity, leadership and technology literacy). Explain why.

5|21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD

 Prepared by:
________________________________
Ms. Rochelle May S. Gayacan, LPT
SUBJECT TEACHER

6|21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD