The first time I taught the Unseen, it was quite the struggle because it is THE UNSEEN. The uncertainty that comes with the paper doesn’t just plague the student. So I started off with the text “Mining for Meaning” and “Mastering the Unseen: Prose and Poetry”. I taught the different skills like conflict, characters etc. I also introduced students to literary terms. Now the difficulty came in the application of these skills into analyzing the text. This would only make sense after all the teaching was done. So we left 6 months to analyse questions and poems and prose. We practiced on past year papers regularly. We analysed the rubrics so that students are clear on the expectations and demands of the paper. I also held dialogues outside curriculum for students who were weaker or less confident. After all that, I think the most important thing is to allay student's fear of poetry. I spend some time convincing them to look very closely at both their options before selecting their choice.
Edward Veronica Elias
NHHS
