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.