Sharing on SKSS and SFSS Sec 4 Poetry Debate for Enl*ght Publication

by Mr Edward Cheong, Seng Kang Secondary School (SKSS)

& Mr Jenson Chen, Springfield Secondary School (SFSS)

When we first received the news that NSLF was cancelled this year, we and our students were disappointed about not being able to attend such a vibrant and engaging annual event. Nonetheless we strove to carry on the torch by trying to conduct an inter-school Poetry Debate for our Secondary 4 Express students during the circuit-breaker period. This was an initiative we had in mind since December last year, based on Jenson’s prior experiences in conducting inter-school Literature debates outside of the NSLF. Given the cancellation of NSLF 2020, we felt it was even more important for us to collaborate and provide our students an opportunity to interact with their peers from other schools.

It was rather tricky to plan for an online Poetry debate during the HBL period given the circumstances and constraints. For example, we could not find any common lesson slot in our school-assigned HBL timetables. To make things easier for ourselves, we decided to adapt the NSLF debate format and use an Unseen Poetry debate motion from NSLF 2019. We eventually conducted the debate over two weeks in April.

[Debate Motion C: THBT the persona in Poem 1 (‘Sore’ by Pooja Nansi) copes better with pain than the persona in Poem 2 (‘A Dream Within A Dream’ by Edgar Allan Poe). ]

13-17 April

• The 1^st and 2^nd Speakers from both schools prepared and filmed their respective debate speeches individually. The videos were subsequently shared with students from both schools to review and prepare for the Rebuttal and Conclusion round.

• Jenson used Zoom to view the debate videos with his students during ‘live’ lessons, and facilitated his students’ online discussions. On the other hand, Edward went with an asynchronous approach by using Google Classroom for his students to watch the videos, and Padlet for them to share their views and feedback on the debate.

20-23 April

• The 3^rd Speakers from both schools prepared and filmed their respective rebuttals and conclusions. The videos were again shared with students via our selected ICT platforms.

24 April and Post-Debate

• We conducted a synchronous Zoom session on the afternoon of 24 April for all students from both schools, outside of our school-assigned HBL timetables.

• During the ‘live’ session, we analysed the selected poems by using Microsoft OneNote to provide ‘live’ annotations, addressed students’ questions and provided feedback on the debate. Our students also shared their feedback and appreciation for one another.

• We initially opted not to name a winner of the debate, as we wanted to emphasise the comparative merits and areas for improvement instead. However, our students were unsatisfied. We eventually had another friend, Andrea from Geylang Methodist Secondary, to judge the debate as a neutral third-party and pick a winning side.

Conclusion

One thing that went well was that we were able to conduct this debate at our pace and delve deeper in the post-debate to provide a more meaningful learning experience for all involved. There was more time for teachers and students from both schools to interact with one another, whereas we might not be able to do during NSLF. Although we missed the excitement and nervousness of having a ‘live’ debate and face-to-face interactions, the ability to rehearse and record speeches helped to reduce our students’ anxiety and they were generally able to express themselves more clearly. In addition, since we were not limited by the number of participants, our entire classes could go online to watch and support their friends. It was also very informative and interesting for students to get insights from two teachers on the poems. In contrast to a traditional classroom where one teacher provides a singular voice of authority, our virtual classroom allowed us to explore different approaches to reading the poems, which gave our students more insights and perspectives to consider. This contributed to a more enriching and livelier discussion.

Looking forward, we can perhaps have a “live” online debate to recreate the thrill of ‘live’ debating. We definitely hope to involve more schools to spread the joy of exploring Literature online, and we welcome suggestions to teach/explore literature in other creative ways!