Teaching and Assessing the Unseen_Norani Hasan, PRCS

Just like Shelia, I am also from Pasir Ris Crest Secondary. Most of the current Sec 4 teachers in my school taught the unseen using the SPECS and SLIM which was mentioned in Shelia's post as an introduction to the unseen. I also find the textbook (`Mining for Meaning') which we are using really helpful not so much because I like the practice it provides the students but more because the students feel more `secure' that they actually have something to refer to. I usually like to teach the unseen by giving students various examples of texts which share the same theme. For example, I started off one of my earliest lessons on unseen poetry using Burns' `A red red Rose' because it is one of my favourite and perhaps its because I feel it is easier for my students to pick out the different literary features in the poem eg. rhyming pattern, use of hyperbole, symbolism. I then let them move on to Blake's `The Sick Rose' and let them try to compare and contrast the 2 poems in terms of meaning and literary devices used. To close the series of lessons on unseen poetry, I then showed them West Life's rendition of`The Rose' on youtube. However, so far I have not assessed my students formally as their assignments were mostly formative ones. Also because in Term 1 the Sec 4 teachers mostly concentrated on trying to cover as much ground for our short stories and have postponed the teaching of the unseen to Term 2. Thus, I feel this course that I am doing right now will help me gain more ideas on how to make teaching of the unseen more exciting and relevant to my students.