Community College of Manito

Manito, Albay

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT OF LITERARY STUDIES – MC ELT 4
Teaching Prose

Name of Student/Group: __Cipres, Mabelle A. Course & Year: __BSED-2__

Major: _ ENGLISH_ Date: __January 25, 2022___

Activity 1: Prose and its Genres

Direction: Describe the following genres of Prose.

a. Biography
Biography is a kind of prose which is full of basic information to all the highs and lows in a
person’s life, including anecdotes and memoirs. A biography tells the tale of the person’s
personal experiences with life, relationships, work and all the other things. You are the major
lead of your biography and it tells your truth to the world. Biographies fall under the category of
non-fiction; when biography is written in-depth, we know it as legacy writing.

b. Autobiography
Autobiography is very similar to biography, except it is written by the same person whose story it
is about. For example, if I write the story of my life by myself completely, then it will be referred
to as an autobiography. The person can also seek guidance or help from another writer or hire a
ghostwriter if required.

c. Folktale
Folktale is popular or legendary stories, familiar to a specific group or culture reflecting their
values and ideas. Folktales are usually passed down verbally from one generation to another.
These stories carry a moral or lesson to be absorbed by the audience. Folktales have many
types like fables, tall tales, ghost stories or religious tales.

d. Myth
Myth is a traditional story or tale full of symbols. Myths superficially relate reality or actual events
and are especially associated with religious beliefs and traditions. The key figures in myths are
gods, demigods, or supernatural humans with unrealistic powers and talents entangled in
extraordinary events or circumstances in an unknown period.

e. Legend
The legend may be a traditional story or a group of stories with a sound message for the
audience. Also, legends are about a person or a place. Earlier, the term Legend was used for
telling a tale about a saint. Legends are quite similar to folktales in content; they may include
supernatural beings, elements of mythology, or explanations of natural phenomena, but they are
linked with a particular locality or person and are told as a matter of antiquity.

f. Fable
A fictional work of literature featuring inanimate objects or forces of nature, animals, plants or
legendary creatures having humanlike attributes. Fable is written in prose or verse, to highlight
human foolishness and flaws or mistakes. Fables have a moral or lesson weaved into the story
and often explicitly planned at the end as a concise maxim or saying.

g. Parable
 A parable is a brief, educational story, written in the form of prose or verse, that explains one or
more informative lessons or teachings. Parable differs from a fable as fables employ animals,
plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as key figures, whereas parables have human
characters. A parable is a kind of metaphorical analogy. Parables in literature impart a moral
lesson to the readers. A parable is excellent for teaching because stories are easier to recall
with clarity and interest.

h. Novel
A novel is a long literary fictional work, usually written in the form of prose. A novel is a book
telling a single tale penned creatively with human experience and exposure. The novel has
several chapters, each chapter is connected or linked to each other through a sequence of
events and has a specific setting and tone. We have a large number of genres of novels
available which has encompassed various styles and types, some of them are picaresque,
comedy, drama, romance, gothic, epistolary and many more.

i. Short Story
A short story is a fictional prose narrative which is shorter than a novel. A short story has only
one or few events and passages, has few characters and few to no chapters. The form
encourages conservation of setting, concise narrative, and the omission of a complex plot;
character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but is seldom fully developed.

j. Essay
A piece of writing that lets the author present his/her ideas and feelings or argument. An essay
doesn’t necessarily have to be formal or have a system to follow, it usually deals with its topic in
a more personal manner, putting out their point of view.

k. Diary
A form of autobiographical writing, a regularly kept record of the diarist's activities and
reflections. Written primarily for the writer's use alone, the diary has a frankness that is unlike
writing done for publication.

l. News
News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media:
word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the
testimony of observers and witnesses to events.

m. Journal
A journal is a scholarly publication containing articles written by researchers, professors and
other experts. Journals focus on a specific discipline or field of study. Unlike newspapers and
magazines, journals are intended for an academic or technical audience, not general readers.

n. Prose-Poem
It is written as prose, without the line breaks associated with poetry. However, it makes use of
poetic devices such as fragmentation, compression, repetition, rhyme, metaphor, and figures of
speech.

Activity 2: Comprehending Prose!

Direction: Research and discuss the following:
a. Ways on how to comprehend prose
1. Read the passage reasonably fast to get the general idea.
2. Read again, little slowly, to know the details.
3. Study the questions thoroughly. Turn to the relevant portions of the passage.
4. Use keywords from the text.

b. Strategies in Teaching Prose: Silent Reading, Prose Performances, Dramatic Performances

A prose lesson is not for memorization of questions and answers but for learning a
language. The prose lesson contains structure, vocabulary, grammar, views and
ideas for comprehension. The students read prose with comprehension and write
sentences about the lesson using the correct structures and content words.

The steps for teaching of prose may be summed up as follows.

1. Introducing the prose lesson.

Introduction of a lesson is to fulfill two purposes.
They are;
a) To recollect the past knowledge.
b) To win student’s attention to the new subject.

Teachers should try to motivate the students to study the new lesson. The various efforts
made by the teacher to create interest or to attract the attention of the students is known as
preparation of the lesson. The teacher introduces the lesson by asking appropriate
questions. He uses models or pictures. The questions arouse the interest for the new
lesson. The teacher tests the previous knowledge of the students and links it to the
subject.

2. Teaching structures:
A new structural item is presented by the teacher to enable the students to identify the
new structures. In introducing structures, substitution table is of great help. It highlights the
elements of the pattern and their order and nature.

Secondly, the teacher presents the structure in readily understandable situations. It

helps the students to cleat its meaning and use. This helps them not only to understand the
meaning of the new item but also its use in different contexts. Opportunities are provided to
the students to use the structures themselves.

3. Dividing the text into smaller units:

Reading long passages of a text may be tiresome for the teacher. So, the text will have
to be split up into smaller, more manageable units or sections. This will facilitate the teacher
to present the lesson interestingly and efficiently.

4. Teaching vocabulary:
The teacher uses an object, a model or a picture to give clear ideas about new words
and their meaning.

5. Model Reading by the Teacher:

 The teacher reads the selected passage aloud. He should be careful about
pronunciation, words, phrases & intonation in his reading before the students. His reading is
observed by the learners and imitated. This model reading by the teachers helps the
students for aural comprehension. The teacher gives instructions regarding postures and
attention. The teacher should not be completely absorbed in his reading.

6. Silent Reading by the students:

The teacher gives time for the students to read the passage silently. Silent reading is
helpful for rapid reading, learning of new words and a quick understanding of meaning. A
short time of five to ten minutes for silent reading is followed in every session.

7. Testing Comprehension:
To check the students’ comprehension ability, the teacher asks questions to the
students. The questions are from the taught passage. The question should be direct, short
and objective based. The same procedure i.e. steps 4, 5, 6 & 7 can be followed for the other
units of the lesson.

8. Testing application:
The aim of application test is to evaluate the achievement of the learners. The questions
may be of oral or written type. After teaching of structure or vocabulary, the teacher normally
asks the students to do the exercises given at the end of the lesson.

9. Loud reading by the students:

The teacher asks the students to read the taught units loudly in the class one by one. To
develop clear pronunciation this loud reading is very much helpful. It improves the tone,
rhythm and fluency. Each student is asked to read a short passage. At the end of reading,
the errors of pronunciations are corrected.

10. Giving assignment:

Assignments to the students are given by the teacher for the following purposes.
a) To remember the meaning and spelling of new words.
b) To use the words in sentences.
c) To write the gist of the passage.
d) To answer the questions.
e) To do the exercises based on the taught units.

A. Reference/s
1. https://learn.podium.school/english/prose-types/
2. https://youtu.be/RhByS7ORqms