Teaching Literature – An Overview
EL 19: TEACHING AND ASSESMENT OF LITERATURE STUDIES
What pops in
your mind when
you hear the word
VALUE?
What do you look
for in a
relationship?
WHAT IS VALUE?
Values of literature
 Qualities of poems, stories, novels, etc. that make them
worthwhile to read.
 If we feel our time reading is well spent, we can say that a
work has value for us.
 If reading the work was a complete waste, then we might
say it has no value for us.
And there is a spectrum between the two extremes.
VALUES OF LITERATURE
Entertainment value
Literature has entertainment value if
reading it gives occasion to enjoy
yourself.
Cultural value
Literature has cultural value if reading it gives
occasion to think about the place and time of the
author at the time the work was written.
Political value
Literature has political value if reading it
gives occasion to change how a person
thinks or acts.
Historical value
Literature has historical value if reading it gives
occasion to think about the past, how things
changes overtime, and how the world has evolved
into what it is today.
Artistic value
Literature has artistic value if reading it
gives occasion to contemplate the
nature of beauty and human creativity.
Philosophical value
Literature has philosophical value if reading it gives
occasion to explore the nature of human
knowledge, how we know and what we can know.
VALUES OF LITERATURE
Moral value
If a story or poem TEACHES us how to live, or attempts to teach us, then it has a
moral dimension. Is the work still valuable if we do not like the lesson it teaches?
Ethical value
Literature has ethical value if reading it gives occasion to think about ethical questions.
If a story dramatizes conflicts and dilemmas, it is not necessarily teaching us how to
live, but it encourages us to contemplate the codes that the characters live by.
FACTORS
AFFECTING
INTERESTS IN
LITERATURE
When/Why do
you read books?
FACTORS AFFECTING INTERESTS IN LITERATURE
 Motivation
 Ability to Relate to Students
 Choice vs. Requirement
 Teacher Preference
 Administration, parent and Community
 Literary Merit
LITERARY MERIT
Literary merit is the quality of the literature that makes it valuable enough.
Barry Gilmore "complex and sophisticated literature":
1. Entertains the reader and is interesting to read.
2. Does not merely conform to the expectations of a single genre or formula.
3. Has been judged to have artistic quality by the literary community (teachers,
students, librarians, critics, other writers, the reading public).
4. Has stood the test of time in some way, regardless of the date of publication
5.Shows thematic depth
LITERARY MERIT
6. Demonstrates innovation in style, voice, structure, characterization, plot, and/or
description.
7. May have social, political, or ideological impact on society during the lifetime of the
author or afterward.
8. Does not fall into the traps of "pulp" fiction such as cliched or derivative
descriptions and plot devices, or sentimentality rather than "earned" emotion.
9. Is intended by the author to communicate in an artistic manner.
10. Is universal in its appeal (i.e., the themes and insights are not only accessible to one
culture or time period)" (2013, p. 144).
CHOOSING BOOKS AND READING MATERIALS
When searching for books for whole novel studies, consider the merits of each
title in five key dimensions by asking myself these questions:
Development
Identification / Diversity
How does the content of the novel
connect to my students’
developmental stage?
Why do I think this book is
appropriate for my age group?
How do the book’s content and setting
relate to the life experiences of my students?
Are they mirrors (familiar) or windows
(unfamiliar)? Directly or indirectly
connected?
How does this title contribute to an overall
balance of diverse characters and authors
throughout the year?
CHOOSING BOOKS AND READING MATERIALS
Thematic connections
How does this book connect thematically or structurally to
what came before it and what will come later in our
curriculum?
How does it connect to the books students have been choosing
and loving most for their independent reading?
To issues students care about in the world?
CHOOSING BOOKS AND READING MATERIALS
Reading level
Literary strengths
What is the reading level of this book in
relation to the reading levels of my
students?
Is this book accessible for all, half, or just
some of my students?
Is it good for the beginning, middle, or
end of the year?
Which literary elements are
strongest in this work?
What opportunities does it
provide to focus on the author’s
craft?
Models and
approaches of
Teaching
Literature
Cultural Model
 stress the value of literature in encapsulating the accumulated wisdom,
the best that had been thought and felt within a culture
 enables students to understand and appreciate cultures and ideologies
different from their own in time and space
 associated with a more teacher-centered, transmissive pedagogic mode,
which focuses on the text as a product about which students learn to
acquire information
INFORMATION-BASED APPROACH
It is teacher-centred and demands a lot of teacher’s input in giving
students various contents of literary text like on historical,
political, cultural and social background.
Knowledge of literature is delivered as a source of information to
students.
ACTIVITIES
It includes reading from the criticism or notes, explanations and lectures given by teacher for examinations sake
(Hwang & Embi, 2007).
LANGUAGE MODEL
 It integrates language and literature as a source to improve student’s language proficiency while learning the
language (Hwang & Embi, 2007).
 It uses literature in teaching different functions of language like grammar, vocabulary, and language structures from
the literary texts to students (Aydin, 2013).
 It helps to attain literature aesthetic aspect solely via expression and communication quality of literature (Khatib,
Rezaei & Derakhshan, 2011).
Paraphrastic Approach
Paraphrastic approach is primarily paraphrasing and rewording the text to simpler language or use other languages
to translate it. Teachers use simple words or less complex sentence structure to make the original text easy to
understand (Divsar, 2014).It is teacher-centred and does not contribute much interesting activities towards
students (Hwang & Embi, 2007).
Stylistic Approach
Stylistic approach implies literary critics and linguistic analysis. It is for students to appreciate and understand in a
deeper manner of the literary text. It helps students to interpret the text meaningfully and develops language
awareness and knowledge (Thunnithet, 2011). It analyzes the language prior to the elements of literary text (Aydin,
2013).
Language-Based Approach
Language-based approach helps students pay attention to the way the language is used when studying literature. It
is student-centred and activity-based for productive use of language. It improves students’ language proficiency, and
incorporates literature and language skills among the students (Dhillon & Mogan, 2014). It engages students more
on experiences and responses (Aydin, 2013). Role play, cloze, poetry recital, discussions, forum and debate, dramatic
activities, making prediction, brainstorming, rewriting stories ending and summarizing are practised in this approach
(Divsar, 2014).
PERSONAL GROWTH MODEL
 enables students to develop their language, character and emotions
by connecting and responding the issues and themes to their lives
(Hwang & Embi, 2007).
 It encourages students to love and enjoy reading literature for
personal development as well as to relate their relationships to the
environment (Aydin, 2013).
PERSONAL-RESPONSE APPROACH
 encourages students to make sense of their experiences and personal lives with text themes.
 It also promotes students to associate the subject matters of the reading texts with personal life experiences.
It engages individual in literary text reading as personal fulfilment and pleasure can be met while developing the
language and literary competency.

ACTIVITIES
 Brainstorming,
 small group discussions,
 journal writing,
 interpreting opinions,
 and generating views from a text are practised in this approach
MORAL-PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH
 Learners seek moral values from a particular literary text while reading it.
 It helps students to be aware of values of moral and philosophical and identify them that lies in their reading.
 Students need to go beyond the text for moral and philosophical inference. With this approach, teachers are able
to direct students to achieve self-realization as well as self- understanding while interpreting literary works.
BEGINNING READERS NEED BOOKS AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
DESIGNED FOR THEIR SKILL LEVELS. CHALLENGING OR COMPLEX TEXTS
CAN INTIMIDATE STUDENTS AND DISCOURAGE THEIR PRACTICE. WHEN
SEARCHING FOR BOOKS FOR WHOLE NOVEL STUDIES, CONSIDER THE
MERITS OF EACH TITLE IN FIVE KEY DIMENSIONS BY ASKING MYSELF THESE
QUESTIONS:
4. CHOOSING BOOKS AND READING MATERIALS
1.
Development.
How does the content of the novel connect to my students’ developmental stage?
Why do I think this book is appropriate for my age group?
2. Identification / Diversity.
How do the book’s content and setting relate to the life experiences of my students?
Are they mirrors (familiar) or windows (unfamiliar)?
Directly or indirectly connected?
How does this title contribute to an overall balance of diverse characters and authors throughout the
year?
3. Reading level.
What is the reading level of this book in relation to the reading levels of my students?
Is this book accessible for all, half, or just some of my students?
Is it good for the beginning, middle, or end of the year?
4. Thematic connections.
How does this book connect thematically or structurally to what came before it
and what will come later in our curriculum?
How does it connect to the books students have been choosing and loving most
for their independent reading?
To issues students care about in the world?
5. Literary strengths.
Which literary elements are strongest in this work?
What opportunities does it provide to focus on the author’s craft?
LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
Comprehension is understanding what is being said or read. When it comes to reading, It is an active process that
must be developed if a learner is to become a proficient reader. Effective reading skill development is further
accomplished when the learner becomes proficient in literal, inferential and critical comprehensive reading
FIRST LEVEL LITERAL COMPREHENSION
= what the author is actually saying.
The first level, literal comprehension, is the most obvious. Comprehension
at this level involves surface meanings. At this level, teachers can ask
students to find information and ideas that are explicitly stated in the text.
In addition, it is also appropriate to test vocabulary. "being able to read for
literal meanings is stated ideas is influenced by one's mastery of word
meanings in context'.
The reader needs to understand ideas and information explicitly stated in the reading material. Some of this information is
in the form of recognizing and recalling facts, identifying the main idea, supporting details, categorizing, outlining, and
summarizing.
What words state the main idea of the story?
How does the author summarize what she/he is saying?
Outlining the first paragraph of the story.
What happened first, second and last?
How are these things alike? How are they different?
What things belong together?
What happened? What are important dates?
What are the stated facts?
SECOND LEVEL. INFERENTIAL\INTERPRETIVE
COMPREHENSION
= What the author means by what is said.
The second level or strand is interpretive or referential comprehension. At this level, students go beyond what is said
and read for deeper meanings. They must be able to read critically and analyze carefully what they have read. Students
need to be able to see relationships among ideas, for example how ideas go together and also see the implied
meanings of these ideas.
At this level, teachers can ask more challenging questions such as
asking students to do the following:
 Re-arrange the ideas or topics discussed in the text.
 Explain the author's purpose of writing the text.
 Summarize the main idea when this is not explicitly stated in the
Text.
The following questions are usually asked:
 What does the author value? What is the theme?
 What effect does this character/event have on the story? How do you think this story will end?
3.THIRD LEVEL. CRITICAL\APPLIED COMPREHENSION
 This high level of comprehension requires the reader to use some external criteria from his/her own experience
in order to evaluate the quality, values of the writing, the author’s reasoning, simplifications, and generalizations.
 The reader will react emotionally and intellectually with the material. Because everyone's life experiences are
varied, answers to some of the following questions will vary:
 Could this possibly happen? Is this argument logical?
 What alternatives are there? Is this a fact or an opinion?
 Do you agree or disagree with the author? What is the best solution to this problem?