Lets Perform: Making Literature Education Alive

1
Lets Perform Making Literature Education Alive

• Huzaina Abdul Halim
• Malaysian Imperial Doctoral Programme (MIDP)
• huzaina_at_um.edu.my

2
Reading literature should be a source of pleasure
and a stimulus to personal development.

• Carter and Long (1991)

3
Most students do not appreciate the reading of
literary texts and they build an emotional and
critical distance towards literary texts.

• Carvalho and Coutinho (2001)

4
CHALLENGES for teachers

• To find new ways for students to explore,
  experience analyze literature
• To develop stimulating literary experiences to
  create divergent and critical thinkers
• To expose students to different literature-based
  activities
• To activate meaning making with various
  interpretation of the texts

5
A working model of the text as products
processes
(Rob Pope, 2002)

• Relationships to the rest of
  the world
• (Texts are
  about things)
• 
  Process
• Text as
  Products
• (notes, drafts, publications,
  performances, etc.)
• (Texts are things)
• Process Process
• Producers Receivers
• (author, artist, director, performer)
  (readers, audiences, viewers)
• (Texts are made) (Texts are responded to)

6
Effective teaching of literature must be based on
better understanding of the process of the
readers response.

• Miall (1990)

7
Reader Response Theory(Rosenbalt 1982)

• Stresses the importance of the readers role in
  interpreting texts.
• Individual creates his or her own meaning through
  a transaction with the text based on personal
  associations.
• All readers bring their own emotions, concerns,
  life experiences and knowledge to their reading.

8
(No Transcript)
9
Literary Texts

• Objects of beauty
• Sources of pleasure
• Conveyers of messages and information
• Allow readers to bring in their personal
  experience as they read the texts
• Create meaningful interpretation of the texts
• (Carter Long 1991, Wilhelm
  1997)

10
Effective instructors select alternative
strategies that involve students as active
participants in the learning process.

• Silberman (1996)Bradford Peck(1997)
  Becker(1997) Hake (1998) McKeachie, Pintrich
  (2002)

11
Why use Performance???

• Enhances students vocal-physical expressive
  skill, imaginative abilities critical thinking
• Helps students understand appreciate literature
  in a special way
• Allows students to communicate with and
  understand others in new ways

12
The future of our nation depend on our ability
to create and to be creative. During the coming
decades our most important national resources
will be human resource. If our nation is to
continue to meet the challenges of the future,
todays schools need to develop creative leaders.

• From Performing together The Arts and Education,
  The American Association of School
  Administrators, The Alliance for Education and
  The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing
  Arts (1985)

13
Sebesta, Monson Senn (1995)

• Students merely required an outlet to display
  their knowledge and capabilities
• What the students crucially needed were the
  opportunities that enabled them to display their
  latent potential

14
Types of Performance

• Readers theatre
• Coral reading
• Jazz chants
• Puppetry
• Dramatization
• Story telling
• Role-play etc.

15
Basic Ingredients in Theatrical Performance

• Inherent dramatic appeal
• Degree of action
• Quality of visual images
• Catalogues of attitudes, actions or mood
• Nature of the language
• Sequence of events incidents
• Three-dimentional character potrait

16
The background of the Study

• Trainee teachers who came back from their
  practicum found out that students in the
  secondary schools encounter difficulties in
  comprehending the content of the literary text.
• There is a need to find ways to help them to
  comprehend and visualize the content of the
  literary texts and assist them to overcome this
  problem.

17
Objective of the Study

• To clarify the trainee teachers experience and
  perception on the use of performance to enhance
  the understanding of the literary texts in the
  literature classes

18
Other Aims

• To give awareness to the participants of the
  benefits of using performance in the literature
  classes
• To enable the participants to explore a range of
  possible meanings and interpretations of the
  literary texts
• To exercise freedom and spontaneity in their
  response
• To enhance their vocal-physical expressive skill,
  imaginative abilities, and critical creative
  thinking

19
Research Design

• Qualitative approach
• ? Observations
• ? Interviews
• Methodological triangulation
• Multiple data gathering procedures (Brown
  Rogers, 2003)

20
Implications

• Define their personal aesthetic of performance in
  literature
• Use creative dramatic exercises to regain the
  spirit of childhood enhance imagination
• Perform different genres of literature to reach,
  stimulate excite children adult
• Increase knowledge of performance appreciate
  literature more

21
The Participants Feedback

• More persuasive in their communications
• More empathy tolerance to others
• More positive with confident self image
• Listen to others accept different viewpoints
• Enhance their motivation to go back to school
  assist students to overcome barriers in learning
  English Literature

22
Conclusion

• The findings generated insights on the use of
  performance to enhance students understanding of
  literary texts
• The idea of opportunity emerged repeatedly
  suggesting that students needed the opportunity
  to think learn independently
• Performance can work as a catalyst of thinking
  appreciating literary texts

23
THANK YOU