Saturday 4 June 2011

Teacher Talk (18): Literature PMR and SPM

An email I received recently (published with permission).


From: 
To: "rahmahs@yahoo.com"
Sent: Thursday, June 2, 2011 10:28 AM
Subject: Questions regarding New English Literature Component


Dear Pn. Rahmah,

First and foremost, allow me to introduce myself. My name is *** and I am a private school educator from Penang. I just chanced upon your blog recently, and find it really informative. To be honest, I am totally impressed with your selfless attitude to share good practices and also your ICT-savvy skills. I am a young teacher who has been with the school for a few years and been assigned to teach PMR & SPM English.

When I first started, I was not too familiar with the old literature poems, short stories and novels back then. After spending a few years getting used to the texts and teaching methodology, the implementation of new literature components was a setback to me as I had to go back to square one. Nevertheless, I welcomed the change as the new texts were a breath of fresh air and students found it to be more interesting and responsive.

With your vast experience in the subject, I hope you won't mind to help me with a few areas of uncertainty.

#1 PMR Literature 
F1- The River, Mr Nobody and Flipping Fantastic
F2 - I Wonder, Heir Conditioning, All is One and All Alone, and Rumpelstiltskin
F3 - A Fighter's Lines & Leisure

Are the above texts correct in terms of year to be covered? This year, I still have the last batch of 5 students sitting for PMR using the old texts. 

#2 SPM Literature
F4 - In the Midst of Hardship, He Had Such Quiet Eyes, QWERTYUIOP, The Fruitcake Special and "Gulp and Gasp"
F5 - Nature and Are You Still Playing Your Flute?

I read from another blog that there is a change in Paper 2 Section D. Instead of 25 marks, it has been reduced to 20. The teacher said (5) for poems and (15) for novels. I wonder what happened to the F4 short stories? Won't it come out in the exam? If not, what is the point of studying them, I am slightly confused. Can you please advise?

Sincerely hope you can find some time to help me with the questions. Thank you in advance.

Regards,
***


My Response

thanks for your questions and comments.

1. for the literature texts for form 3 go to:
http://engoasis.blogspot.com/2010/01/literature-component-2010.html
2. for the latest on assessment go to :
http://engoasis.blogspot.com/2011/03/assessment-for-spm-literature-component.html
3.yes, you're right, short stories are not tested. I'm baffled too.

I hope I've been of some help. Would you allow me to publish this email in my 'teacher talk' section? Others may be able to respond too. Let me know.
 
 
 
 

6 comments:

sintaicharles said...

Rahmah,

I am an English teacher from Miri, Sarawak. I have a doubt waiting to be clarified. Will the literary texts of Form Two be tested in PMR Paper Two? They are One Is One and All Alone and Rumpelstiltskin.

Rahmah said...

hello sintaicharles,
i'm afraid i don't have any information regarding your questions. i think the pmr format may be released soon. let's wait.

Anonymous said...

The latest (which hasn't been confirmed since we haven't received the circular) news that I have is that the PMR will follow the same format as SPM; i.e. Leisure, A Fighter's Line and one of the three novels that will be released at the end of this year. Due to certain circumstances, I cannot say what novels will be used. But the stories are definitely interesting, to put it mildly.

Rahmah said...

dear anonymous,
thanks. i hope ur response is useful for the person who asked.

zubaidah said...

i know your blog from teacher.i is low in english.my teacher is sukasih.her is good teacher.so,what i have to do?

Rahmah said...

dear zubaidah, your teacher's name sound familiar! it's good that you're brave enough to post here in English. Don't despair. Where there is a will, there is a way! you can start by reading the newspapers and choose a section that you like. it's fun to read current issues. have a vocabulary book for the interesting words or phrases you find and find their meanings.. the road to success begins with one little step :) all the best!