Literature For All: Lesson Plan for Cultural Based Approach

What is Cultural Studies Approach?

Cultural studies or cultural criticism is related to New Historicism but with a particular and cross-disciplinary emphasis on taking seriously those works traditionally marginalized by the aesthetic ideology of white European. It examines social, economic, and political conditions that effect institutions and products such as literature. Therefore, it analyses the habitual privileging of race, class, and gender, as well as subverts the standard distinctions between "high art" and low. Cultural studies will focus on how literary tradition has built models to identify the oppressed groups, how these groups have created oppositional literary identities, and how different communities of readers might interpret the same text differently due to varied value systems.

This approach represents the traditional approach to teaching literature. Cultural studies approach requires the students to explore and interpret the culture, social, political, power, identity and historical context of a particular text. By using this model or approach to teach literature, teachers are not only reveal the universality of such thoughts and ideas, but encourage students to understand different cultures and ideologies on their own. According to Raymond Williams, the word culture can be the meaning of a whole way of life – the common meanings, and it can also means the arts and learning – the special process of discovery and effort.

Cultural studies will concentrate on how particular cultural practices relate to systems of power associated with or operating through ideology, class structures, national formations, ethnicity, sexuality and/or gender, rather than merely describing cultural practices. Cultural studies approach will foster critical thinking and activism as it wrestles with how we perceive ourselves and others in the process of understanding and acting in the society (Allen Carey- Webb, 2001). He added that bringing cultural studies approach in teaching literature from earlier historical periods involves exploring and thinking critically about the past. According to Ziauddin Sardar (1994), cultural studies attempt to expose and reconcile the division of knowledge, to overcome the split between implicit forms of knowledge (cultural) and objective forms of knowledge (universal). The focuses of the cultural studies approach are to examine the cultural practices and their own relation to power, to understand culture in all complex forms and analyzing the social and political context in which culture manifests itself.

What is its importance?

According to S. Ganakumaran (2003), in reference to the syllabus of the literature component in Malaysian schools:

“The aim of the (literature) component (in Malaysian schools) highlights the intentions to enhance students’ proficiency in English language through the study of prescribed literary texts, contribute to personal development and character building, and broaden students’ outlook through reading about other cultures and worldviews.”

He goes on to say that the aims and objectives of the syllabus are specifically to:

enable and empower students to do the following:

· Give personal response to texts

· Show an awareness of how language is used to achieve a particular purpose.

· Reflect upon and draw valuable moral lessons from issues and concerns of life as portrayed in the literary works; and

· Understand and appreciate other cultures.

Form : 4

Time/Duration : 80 minutes (double period)

Proficiency level : High intermediate.

Objective : By the end of the lesson, students will be able to;

1) Brainstorm ideas related to the issues on current social status.

2) Present the story creatively based on their ideas according to the issues on society and culture.

Moral values : Respect and cooperation

Teaching aid(s) :

Video
Props (used for the mini role-play)
Song (as the example for the post-reading activity).

Pre-Reading Stage (10 minutes):

Teacher asks the students whether they have finished reading the short story.
Teacher plays a short video clip on the drama “The Ugly Betty” and the teacher asks the students to focus on the characteristics and social setting of the video shown.
Teacher asks what they have identified from the video.
In pairs, teacher asks the students about the similarities that they found between the characters in the video shown and the characters in the short story.

Source -

(Duration : 05:35- 09:55)

Rationales of the activity:

To ensure whether the students have finished reading the short story.
To develop students’ interest in the reading material

While-reading Stage (60 minutes):

Activity 1:

Teacher asks the students to form 6 groups.
Each group will be given a scene from the short story. Every two groups will be doing the same scene. (Each of the scene will focus on the social class between the two main characters). - Scene 1 : page 31 - 37, Scene 2 : page 39 – 46, Scene 3 : page 52 - 58
Teacher gives 5 minutes for the students to discuss and practice on the mini role-play.
Once the groups are ready, they have to act out in front of the class according to the story but some modifications are acceptable. The turn to present the role-play will be done according to the storyline of the short story.

Rationales of the activity:

To encourage students work in a group.
To increase students confidence level.
To ensure each students focus on other groups plays (when there are only two groups will be presenting the same scene).

Activity 2 (Comprehension):

The main characters of the short story were came from the different family background. Give 2 evidences for each character to support this statement.
Provide two symbols and what they represents in relation to the difference of social status in the short story.
“Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Explain this idiom by referring to the related characters in the short story.
How is the theme “true love vs. superficial love” being conveyed in the short story?

Rationale of the activity:

To test students’ understanding about the story.

Post-reading Stage (10 minutes):

In the same group of students, look for a song which deals with the difference of social distance or social class in a community.
Teacher will let the students listen to a song as the example.
The students need to do a presentation on the song within 5 minutes and the presentation should include:

Title of the song, singer and lyrics.
Indicate which words or phrases that show it is a song about the difference of social class in a community.
State if the song describes a positive or negative attributes of a community. Use lines from the lyrics to support your answers.