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UNIT 3: TEACHING LITERATURE

3.0 Intended Learning Outcomes

a. Determine the various strategies and techniques in teaching literature.
b. Present appropriate concepts and information through a heightened awareness of
how literature works in different situations.
c. Create reading opportunities for students through activities around children’s literature.

3.1 Introduction
Literature, in its own self, possesses rich heritage, social, political, philosophical, and economi-
cal reflection of an era. It has long been used to depict various circumstances, sound social critiques
on a particular condition, reflect characteristics of an age, portray culture of a society, and reveal con-
spiracy in a country. Literature is widely learned and discussed in schools. Reading literature re-
mains at the heart not only of the language arts curriculum but of the cultural debate and the educat-
ed public sphere of imaginative and experiential reflection in general. Across the world, educational
systems invest heavily in the expectation that literary reading in the classroom may teach students a
number of social, human, and cultural values. Good education is of high importance for raising labor
force with qualifications needed for the contemporary century. Raising individuals who think, come
up with new ideas, learn and express things they learn in a correct way and use their knowledge ac-
tively in life is among the main goals of education and improving language skill makes it possible to
reach these important goals. Literature is produced from language and represents one of the most
recurrent uses of language (Cruz, I.R., 2018).

3.2 Topics

3.2.1 The Teacher of Literature: Requisites and Demands

Literature is constituted by language and it represents one of the most re-

current uses of language. Teachers are the link between learners and
knowledge. Teachers are the facilitators of learning and the authority to enable
students to increase their independent learning capabilities. Teachers are im-
portant actors in the process of learning and they should encourage students to
discuss, imagine, read and retell the stories in order to increase their motivation and appreciation of
literature. Information, such as what a teacher may find on the internet, enriches both the teacher and
learner, allowing both to become better equipped before dealing with a topic. For this reason, teach-
ers and institutions must broaden their perspective and vision. They must take a new approach and
demonstrate a readiness to change so that teaching and learning can become easy, interesting and
fruitful (Ambon, F., et al, 2016).

Literary competence

The teacher of literature must not only be literature literate, but more importantly literary com-
petent himself/herself. He/She is the one who mediates between the literary text and the students.

Broad reading background

A teacher of literature must not be just one paragraph or one book ahead of his/her students.
He/She must have read a lot of literature before even venturing to teach it.
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Love for literature

The students must sense that their teacher in literature oozes with love for literature in the
way he/she discusses literary texts, gives ready examples, quotes lines of poetry or passages
from fiction or drama, or talks about the authors.

Emotional maturity and experience

Certain topics and themes in literature need to be handled carefully and tactfully without
moralizing or pontificating or passing judgment on people, their religion, race, gender, or class.
He/She must remember that the object is to liberate the students’ minds from prejudices, bias-
es, or narrow mindedness.

Knowledge of different methods, strategies and techniques

The teacher of literature constantly finds ways to make the teaching of literature meaning-
ful, interesting, enjoyable, and even unforgettable for his/her students. Teaching with only one
method and using the same strategy and technique will only bore the students and make them
hate it.

Knowledge of students’ reading ability, language ability, and interests

The teacher must know where the students are coming from – their ability level, what they
have read, if they like acting, singing, writing, or debating, what hobbies and habits they have,
etc.

Considerations in Choosing Methods, Strategies, and Techniques

in Teaching Literature

The literature component in English is aimed at enhancing students’

language proficiency, and it is also geared for the purpose of generating the
aesthetic part of the language that is personal response from students. Litera-
ture in Education is aimed at developing the potential of students in holistic,
balanced and integrated manner encompassing the intellectual, spiritual,
emotional and physical aspects in order to create balanced and harmonious
human being with high social standards (Maramba, R., et al, 2015).

Teacher-centered vs. Student-centered Classroom

Traditionally literature is taught through lecture and straight recitation. The teacher is the
fountainhead of knowledge and sole authority of the correct interpretation of literary texts. In
such a teacher-centered classroom, the students become passive recipients of knowledge. This
set-up, although convenient for the teacher, could prove to be boring, unchallenging, and mo-
notonous.

A student-centered classroom gives students an opportunity to read and experience litera-

ture freely, without fear of being reprimanded for not being able to guess the teacher’s interpre-
tation. Students are encouraged to think on their own, to trust themselves, and to feel confident
about their own reading of literature.
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Teacher talk vs. Student talk

A literature teacher’s choice of method, strategies, and

techniques should consider giving the students more opportu-
nities to talk and discuss among themselves. The students
must be allowed to confront a text as openly and as directly as
possible to help them find their own unique responses to liter-
ature. The literature classroom must be a place where students
can test their ideas, reshape their visions of the world, and re-
think their own beliefs and practices.

Supplementing the Printed Page

If not properly guided and motivated, students could easily be turned off by literature on
the printed page. The long narration or description in fiction could prove to be boring and the
figurative lines of poetry could prove to be taxing. The choice of methods, strategies, and tech-
niques should take into account the inclusion of activities that would require students to work
with their hands, to perform, to create, and the like.

Variety

Students have different interests,

needs, preferences, learning styles, and
abilities. A teacher of literature needs to ad-
dress this fact about his/her students. They
do not learn in the same way and they do
not grasp the same things. A variety of
methods, strategies, and techniques could
address different needs at different times.
The teacher cannot insist on using the same
method, strategy, and technique all the
time.

Multiple Intelligences

The teaching of literature can very well be integrated with developing multiple intelli-
gences. The choice of activities or tasks should consider the development of multiple intelli-
gences.

Higher-Order Thinking Skills

The questions we ask should reflect our emphasis on develop-

ing higher-order thinking skills. The teacher should not limit his/her
questions to: what is the title of the selection, where is the setting,
who are the characters, who can summarize the story. In teaching lit-
erature, the questions for discussion should engage the students in
making self-reflection, in formulating their own questions, in interro-
gating the text itself.
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Considerations in Interpreting Literary Texts

Reading and understanding literature does not necessarily have to be an individual act.
Every reader brings his or her experiences to the understanding of the text and thereby a text
can have multiple alternative interpretations considering the amount of readers. Reading litera-
ture is generally seen to be an individual act, where students sit one by one, reading different
books, completely unaware and independent of each other. Literary text can be used not only as
a way to escape reality but also to emotionally be influenced and to share other people’s per-
sonal reflections on the literary text (Cruz, I.R., 2018).

 Meaning-making vs. Meaning spotting

Does the meaning of a text reside in the

text waiting to be found by the readers? Or
meaning is negotiated by the readers?

 Meaning vs. Significance

Meaning refers to what the author really

intended (if the teacher knows it for a fact –
like he/she talked with the author or read
somewhere what the author said about his/
her work). Significance is what readers read
in the text and the result of their reading re-
gardless of what the author really means.

 Using literary approaches and theories

The way a teacher guides his/her stu-

dents to read, interpret and analyze literary
texts will have more focus and direction if
literary approaches and theories (American
New Criticism, Psychoanalytical, Mythologi-
cal/Archetypal, and the like) are employed.

 Reader and the text

Who is the reader? How will the reader relate and respond to the text?

 Reader and Other Readers

After reading the text how will the readers compare or contrast their responses? How will
the readers enhance their understanding of the text by sharing their ideas with other readers?

 Text and other Texts

How can a text be compared with other texts? How can reading other texts enhance one’s
reading or a particular text?
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Considerations in Choosing Literary Texts

 Students’ language ability

Discussing and responding to literature written in English will

come easier if students have at least average language ability. If the
class has low language ability, the text to be chosen should have
low frequency of difficult words or glossary should be provided.

 Students’ reading ability

Success in reading and understanding literature written in English depends on the stu-
dents’ ability to comprehend. The teacher should start with shorter texts for a class with low
reading ability.

 Students’ cognitive ability

Students with high cognitive ability show more success in studying literature. For a class
with low cognitive ability, the teacher may opt to start with texts that have more familiar sub-
ject matter so students can make use of their schema or previous knowledge.

 Culture load

The culture load of the text may pose difficulty to the students. The texts to be chosen
should not have heavy culture load. If it cannot helped, then more background information
about the text should be provided by the teacher.

3.2.2 Strategies and Techniques in Teaching Literature

Literature is creative writing of recognized artistic value or it is the art of written works.
But since there are so many written works such as novels, prose and stories which are adapted
into film or even the play which is performed by the performers, so literature is also broadly
defined as any written or spoken material that refers to creative works. English teachers will
have to try one or more strategies to make their classroom work. The same strategy may not
work from year to year, and teachers may find that while one strategy works for one teacher, it
does not work in their classroom. English teachers who are flexible and willing to experiment
with teaching strategies are sure to find a winning formula (Ambon, F., et al, 2016).

 Using the title and cover design

The teacher motivates the students by showing them an interesting or intriguing cover de-
sign of a novel. Students are asked to guess or infer what the book is about from the title and
cover design. Another way to use this is to ask students to make their own title and cover de-
sign for a novel, a short story, or a drama.

 Getting in the Mood

This is a king of guided fantasy. The teacher asks students to make a mental picture of par-
ticular scenes in the story or a scene depicted in a poem. Then the class is invited to inhabit the
scene in their minds. Once they have done this, students are asked what they felt, saw, etc.
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 Biographical Montage

This is a good activity to use to talk about the au-

thor before taking up his/her work. Students collect or
make photos, objects, things, pictures of places, etc. rele-
vant to the author’s life. These are mounted on a cartoli-
na or illustration board, even a simple folder, and ar-
ranged or laid out creatively.

 Graphic Representation

Students are asked to make a visual representation of the plot, characters, or setting. Cray-
ons, water color, pencil or the like can be used as drawing materials.

 Creative Conversation Writing

Writing dialogues is a way for students to explore their views about the characters or the
story itself. Students may be asked to take some scenes from the story in which there is no dia-
logue, and they imagine the conversation that took place.

 Thought Bubbles

Students are asked to write the “inner” dialogue that parallels the “outer” dialogue in the
literary work. They may even draw the thought balloons and write the dialogues inside them.

 Movie Poster

Students are asked to imagine the story as a movie. They will make a movie poster just
like the ones they see in movie theaters to advertise films. They choose the actors and to play
the characters in the story, the place where the movie will be shot to reflect the setting of the
story, a design to reflect something of the plot, and
Activity an ad blurb to reflect the theme of the story.

Answer the questions which will be counted  Movie Trailer

towards your class participation. (15 pts)
1. As a student, what are your strategies
and techniques in studying literature?
2. What is the importance of teaching
literature among the 21st century stu-
dents?
3. Enumerate the advantages and disad-
vantages of studying literature to stu-
dents especially those who are experi-
encing the online classes/new normal
way of teaching-learning processes.
Students prepare a 1-minute teaser about the
story as if it is a film. There is a voice-over an-
nouncer to narrate something about the story. The
other students in the group act out the chosen
scenes for the trailer.
 Worksheets
To encourage students to read on their own,
worksheets can be made. These worksheets can be
in the form of an agree/disagree worksheet, true/
false worksheet, values worksheet, or a completion
worksheet.
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3.2.3 Paradigm Shift in Teaching Literature

Language arts teachers are devising new ways of presenting learning contents to learners,
who are adjudged to have disconnected with the act of reading and the like. In this era of glob-
alization and development in information technology, a large volume of information is made
available on daily basis through various media, however, students lack the reading skills re-
quired to access and benefit from this quantum of information. The negative attitude to reading
witnessed among students in such magnitude pose serious problems for those who study litera-
ture in English in the second language classroom (Maramba, R., et al, 2015).

Old Paradigm New Paradigm

Objectives Stated in terms of literary Stated in terms of what
knowledge learners should know and
be able to do.
Content Limited to the literary text/ Includes interdisciplinary
genre and cultural connections

Skills Limited to low order think- Extended the literary skills

ing skills – recall, memoriz- to developing, critical think-
ing, literal dimension, sum- ing, higher order thinking
marizing, valuing skills, multiple intelligences

The Learner Mostly passive recipients of Actively engaged in learning

knowledge and its given opportunities
to explore his/her own crea-
tive responses to literature;
encouraged to have more
original thoughts

The Teacher The fountainhead of Facilitates instruction, en-

knowledge; the center of in- courages cooperative learn-
struction ing, designs student-
oriented activities

Materials Textbook/text as primary Textbook as one of the mate-

material rials; include authentic ma-
terials, visuals, materials
from other disciplines,
world wide web, films

Assessment of Learners Evaluates students’ achieve- Assesses students’

ment; primarily paper and
pencil test
knowledge and performance
through portfolio assess-
ment not only through pa-
per and pencil tests; uses ru-
brics to evaluate students’
outputs.
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ASSESSMENT
A. List down on the outer circles any word that you associate with the strategies and tech-
niques in teaching literature. (15 pts.)

Strategies and
Techniques in
Teaching Literature

B. In the box below, draw an image that best describes a special memory you hold with your
mother.
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C. Read the story below and answer the questions that follow.

MORSELS OF MEMORY
by Charlotte Aninion-De Guzman

They came, almost everyday, at different times of the day, pilgrims of my mother’s
cooking. They did not knock, because everyone knew that our door was never locked. And
she welcomed them with a smile, a warm coffee and with the delicious smell of food that
was slowly cooking on our stove.

There was Aling Nita who seemed to be always fretting about one thing or another,
that her once straight hair suddenly turned curly and white overnight. Then the group of
glorious gay men working at a nearby beauty parlor who can shake our house with their
laughter. And poor little lost Ada who was always playing hide-and-seek with love, while
her sister Maya dreamed of flying to distant lands and seas where she said her life waits for
her, and I could not help but wonder how she can walk and talk without the breath of life in
her languid sinewy body. But they were not the only ones, there were countless others who
sat in our small round kitchen table while my mother fed their hunger. Perhaps that was my
mother’s tragedy, like the stew that was always cooking on her stove, her nose was too soft
and her heart too open.
https://saintcharlotte.wordpress.com

1. Whose image does the story center on? From what period of time in the author’s life are the
memories recalled? (5 pts.)
2. What is the tone of Morsels of Memory? What words and images in the text create this
tone? (5 pts.)
3. What does the last line, “perhaps that was my mother’s tragedy, like the stew that was al-
ways cooking on her stove, her nose was too soft and her heart too open,” mean?
4. Complete the chart that follows:

Person Description/Image What does the description

suggest? What kind of
person do you imagine them
to be?
Aling Nita ...seemed to be always fret-
ting about one thing or anoth-
er, that her once straight hair
suddenly turned curly and
white overnight...

Ada ...poor little lost Ada who was

always playing hide-and-seek
with love...
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Maya ...dreamed of flying to distant

lands and seas where she said
her life waits for her, and I
could not help but wonder
how she can walk and talk
without the breath of life in
her languid sinewy body...
Gay men ...working at a nearby beauty
parlor who can shake our
house with their laughter...

The author as little girl ...dreaming of a distant future

where she was all grown up
and she could do what she
wanted without anyone tell-
ing her otherwise.

The author’s mother ...like the stew that was al-

ways cooking on her stove,
her nose was too soft and her
heart too open.

Criteria:

Relevance 30%
Originality 30%
Creativity 25%
Impact 15%
Total: 100%

3.3 References

Cruz, I.R. (2018). Teaching Literature: A Manual of Readings. REX Book Store.
Ambon, F.M., et al (2016). 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World.
Mutya Publishing House, Inc.
Maramba, R.E., et al (2015). Elements of Literature. REX Book Store.

3.4 Acknowledgment

The images, tables, figures and information contained in this module were taken from the
references cited above.