[Sec] Lit!amins

Written by: The Secondary Literature SLS team

How the innovation came about

Since the launch of the SLS platform in 2018, it has been the goal of the Secondary Literature SLS team to ensure that SLS resources provide teachers and students with an experience of the excitement, rigour and beauty of the subject. With the increased use of the SLS platform and resources since Full Home-Based Learning in 2020, the resources have been further diversified in order to support the range of learning experiences in a blended learning context.

This year, other than our bread-and-butter of resources focusing on literary concepts and skills, Student-Initiated Learning (SIL) lessons were also designed and produced for schools’ use on HBL days and beyond. We hope that this inaugural set of resources become a springboard for both teachers and students: for teachers to spark curiosity and share their love of the subject with their students, and for students to explore their interests in areas related to, but not confined to their study of Literature. That will hopefully set us on a path to developing a lifelong passion for Literature among students.

The innovation: Lit!amins

“Lit!amins” is a newly developed and ongoing series of lessons to support and strengthen our students’ development into self-directed learners, with an appreciation for words and stories and a lifelong love for Literature. Through these resources that go beyond the secondary Literature syllabus, we hope to reignite in students their sense of curiosity, light a growing/glowing passion for Literature, and provide a healthy dose of whimsy for a balanced diet of study and play.

“Lit!amins” is also a platform for the Literature SLS team to touch base with our own secret hobbies and penchants, and share them with teachers and students through these resources. As we take learning beyond the classroom, we hope to demonstrate to teachers and students how the connections we make between texts, our experiences, people around us, and the world can enrich our perspectives. Learning then happens seamlessly as students notice what they experience more keenly, reflect upon them, and connect them to what they hear in subject classrooms.

Example lessons from Lit!amins

	O frabjous day! Appreciating nonsense poetry: This SIL resource introduces students to nonsense poetry such as Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” and Edward Lear’s “There was an Old Man with a Beard”, invites them to consider the intent behind and features of such poetry before providing them with resources to write their own nonsense poem.
Poetry & Art: This SIL resource demonstrates to students how the two mediums, poetry and art, are more interconnected than we may expect them to be. In this lesson resource, students will explore the connections between visual forms of art and poetry.
	Anti-Heroes: This SIL resource introduces to students how writers create realistic and relatable characters. In this lesson resource, students delve deeper into some of our favourite heroes and anti-heroes of all-time, to better understand the writer's craft and intention behind the creation of such characters.

How we innovated

• Used standardised Lit!amins templates with different colour options on Canva to support the visual coherence and branding of Lit!amins lessons.

• Used Lit!amins prototype to guide the design thinking behind each resource.

• Made available more space to propose and prototype. Unlike our usual process of resource development where we break down a KSD analytically, for Lit!amins, we could dig up our old dreams of fun things to do in the Lit classroom and make them come alive again.

• Offered space for individuality: part of SIL is also to help students discover more about themselves and explore possible areas of interests--we modelled that first and each came up with something we’re interested and personally invested in.

Our reflection

The challenges we faced:

• Clarifying as a team what SIL is and entails, with considerations about what would be most useful for teachers and students.

• Deciding on how we could best support schools in enacting SIL lessons.

How we overcame these challenges:

• Through team conversations and iterative processes of prototyping.

Words of advice for other officers/learning points:

• To understand the spirit of the law first, then dig deep within ourselves to see what resonates. Only when we enjoy the process of resource development can we create something engaging and effective. Play is a big part of innovation!