The New Senior Secondary

Curriculum for Sierra Leone

Subject syllabus for Popular Literature Appreciation
Subject stream: Languages and Literature

This subject syllabus is based on the National Curriculum

Framework for Senior Secondary Education. It was prepared
by national curriculum specialists and subject experts.
Building Young Futures
MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

Curriculum elements for Popular Literature Appreciation – an everyday subject

Subject Description
The Popular Literature Appreciation syllabus explores a range of popular literary texts, both fictional and non-fictional, that are outside the domain of
classical literature. It draws on the historical, cultural, political and social perspectives that provide the foundation for appreciating and understanding the
three genres of literature through samples of popular prose, plays and poems. Exploration of the pressing contemporary issue of climate change is
reflected in some of the examples of texts and activities suggested.

General Learning Outcomes

Pupils are expected to be able to:
a. Demonstrate understanding of the distinguishing features and functions of the three genres of literature: prose, drama and poetry
b. Respond to literary texts and apply to their own life experiences
c. Apply literary appreciation skills in their reading of popular literary texts
d. Interpret and analyse texts from historical, cultural, political and social standpoints
e. Evaluate the messages of literary texts they encounter in their daily reading routines
f. Perform self-reliant interpretation and analysis of popular literature
g. Develop self-awareness and an understanding of society and other people
h. Engage imaginatively with the issue of climate change through reading, writing, speaking and listening to short fiction, poems, songs and
speeches.

Subject Content Outline by Themes and Topics

Pupils will appreciate:
• Definition and benefits/ relevance of literature
• Elements of literature
• Forms and features of prose, drama and poetry
• Functions of prose, drama and poetry
• Basic literary terms and their usage

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MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

Genres of literature
Fiction and non-fiction
• Appreciation of short stories, essays, speeches, biography, autobiography, etc.
• Interpreting and analysing the meaning of titles, themes, characterization, plot elements, point of view, figurative language, etc.

Popular drama
• Appreciation of screen drama/ films, short plays etc.
• Analysing titles, plot structure, character presentation
• Writing about filmed versions of plays

Appreciating poems and song lyrics

• Interpreting and analysing titles, imagery, figurative language, poetic elements, poetic techniques

Reading, writing, speaking and singing imaginatively about climate change

• Reading imaginative literature written to express experience and concerns of climate change
• Writing stories, poems and songs on the theme of climate change
• Reading and analysing the effect of speeches on climate change
• Writing and performing a play about climate change

Structure of the Syllabus Over the Three-Year Senior Secondary School Cycle
SSS 1 SSS 2 SSS 3

Genres of literature Popular drama Appreciating poetry and song lyrics

Fiction and non-fiction Reading, writing, speaking and singing

imaginatively about climate change

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MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

Teaching Syllabus
Senior Secondary Level 1
Topic/ Expected learning outcomes Recommended Suggested resources Assessment of learning outcomes
Theme/ Unit teaching methods
Genres of By the end of this topic, pupils • Direct and pupil An Introduction to Pupils will be assessed both formally and
literature will be able to: centered instruction Literature: Fiction, informally upon completing tasks relating
• Define and explain the • Group activities Poetry and Drama. to the learning outcomes as follows:
benefits of literature. • Think-Pair-Share Barnet, S., Burton, W., & • During lesson, pupils are randomly
• State and explain the • Questioning Cain, W. E. (2008). asked to define literature. At the end
elements of literature. • Class work/ Fifteenth Edition, of the lesson, pupils highlight the
• Explain the forms and Assignment Pearson/Longman. benefits of literature in their books and
features of prose, drama are randomly selected to explain their
and poetry. The Literary Analysis: answers to the whole class.
• State and explain the The Basics. Kush, C. • Pupils are required to list the elements
functions of prose, drama (2016). Routledge, New of literature (plot, character, theme,
and poetry. York. setting) in their books, and then
• Recognize the explain their answers to their elbow
distinguishing features of partners.
prose, drama and poetry. • Pupils respond to short answer and
• Identify and explain key essay questions on the forms,
literary terms. features and functions of prose,
drama and poetry. In addition, they
should be able to provide answers
that explain the differences between
each of the three genres.
• Pupils respond to multiple-choice
questions demanding them to identify
key literary terms in context e.g.,
irony, symbolism, point of view,
imagery, etc. Also, they are made to
explain the literary terms in writing or
with their peers

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Fiction and By the end of this topic, pupils Pupils read the texts, Short Stories: • Pupils are given a short story or essay
Non-Fiction will be able to: discuss in class, write the Civil Peace by Chinua and asked to discuss their
• Explain the purpose/ response to questions Achebe understanding of the purpose or
meaning of the title of a and essay indicated in meaning of its title.
short story or essay. the assessment section. Falang by Philip Foday • Pupils read a short story, essay or
• Recognize and explain the Teacher guides the class Y. Thulla in speech to determine its key idea or
theme of a short story/ and individual pupils Contemporary Fireside theme. They write or discuss what
essay/ speech through the process as Stories. publisher: Sierra they think the main idea or theme of
• Recognize and explain the the class progresses Leone Writers Series the text is.
role of characters in short through the topic. • Pupils talk about the role of characters
stories. The Thing Around Your and the plot elements in a selected
• Identify and explain the plot Neck by Chimamanda short story.
elements of a story. Ngozi Adichie • Pupils are given the chance to write
• Relate the short story, an essay or discuss to express their
essay, biography, or Everyday Use by Alice ideas about the text and its bearing to
autobiography to their Walker their lives and experiences.
personal lives or • Pupils talk about the author’s point of
experiences. Autobiographies: view and purpose in groups.
• Recognize the message or The Story of My Life, • Pupils respond to essay questions on
idea conveyed in a short Helen Keller the socio-cultural or historical factors
story, essay, speech, or informing the contents of texts.
travelogue. The Autobiography of • Pupils respond to multiple-choice
• Identify the author’s Benjamin Franklin, questions on the use of imagery and
purpose and point of view Benjamin Franklin figurative language such as simile,
in a short story, essay, metaphor, personification, hyperbole,
speech, biography or Incidents in the Life of a allusion, etc.
autobiography. Slave Girl, Harriet
Jacobs
• Recognize the socio-
cultural and historical
Biographies:
contexts of short stories or
Unbowed - Wangari
essays
Maathai
• Recognize the use of
figurative language and

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Building Young Futures
MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

imagery in short stories, There was a Country -

essays, speeches, Chinua Achebe
autobiographies, or
biographies. Long Walk to Freedom -
Nelson Mandela

Speeches:
Nobel Acceptance
Speech, Albert Camus

I Have a Dream, Martin

Luther King Jr

Essays:
Letter from Birmingham
Jail, Martin Luther King
Jr

Shooting an Elephant,
George Orwell

A Valediction of the
Rights of Women, Mary
Wollstonecraft

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Building Young Futures
MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

Senior Secondary Level 2

Topic/ Expected learning outcomes Recommended Suggested resources Assessment of learning outcomes
Theme/ Unit teaching methods
Popular By the end of this topic, pupils • Direct and pupil Script of screen plays/films • Pupils answer essay questions or
Drama will be able to: centered instruction talk about the plot structure of a
• Recognize and explain the • Dramatization One Act plays/ short plays short play or screen drama/ film
plot structure of a short • Role play (exposition, rising action, climax,
play or screen drama/ film. • Simulations Short plays by African falling action, and resolution).
• Explain the purpose/ • Group activities/ playwrights • Pupils respond to short answer
meaning of the title of a Think-Pair-Share questions on the purpose and
short play or screen drama • Demonstration meaning of the title of a short play
/film. • Questioning or screen drama/film.
• Recognize and explain the • Class work/ • Pupils respond to short answer
theme of a short play or Assignment questions and identify words that
screen drama/ film. represent the main ideas portrayed
• Recognize and explain the by the short play or screen drama/
role of characters in a short film.
play or screen drama/ film. • Pupils role-play characters and
• Relate the story of the explain their roles in the short play
short play or screen drama/ or screen drama/ film.
film to their personal lives • Pupils dramatize an episode of the
or experiences. short play or screen drama/film
• Recognize the socio- and explain how it relates to their
cultural and historical personal lives or experience.
contexts of the short play • Pupils respond to a range of
or screen drama/ film questions and write an essay in
which they explain their
understanding of the socio-cultural
or political context of the short play
of screen drama/ film.

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Building Young Futures
MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

Senior Secondary Level 3

Topic/ Expected learning outcomes Recommended teaching Suggested resources Assessment of learning
Theme/ Unit methods outcomes
Appreciating By the end of this topic, pupils • Direct and pupil centered A collection of both local • Write an essay in which pupils
Poetry and will be able to: instruction and international song justify the title of the poem.
Song Lyrics • Recognize and explain the • Conversation lyrics. • Write an essay in which they
purpose /meaning of a • Visualization discuss the significance of
poem or song lyrics. • Illustration Collection of lyrical and imagery in the poem.
• Recognize the use of • Warmers narrative poems such as: • Pupils explain the use of
imagery in poems and song • Recitation To the Nile, John Keats figurative language (e.g.,
lyrics. • Demonstration simile, metaphor, hyperbole,
• Identify and explain the use • Group activities
Telephone Conversation, idiom, personification, pun,
of figurative language. Wole Soyinka etc.) in poems and song lyrics.
• Explain the message of • Write an essay in which they
poems and song lyrics. Love Cycle, Chinua Achebe relate the message of a
• Relate the emotions narrative/lyrical poem or song
conveyed by a lyrical poem Caliban, Syl Cheney-Coker, lyric to their personal lives or
or song lyric to their experiences.
personal lives or • Respond to an essay question
experiences. in which they relate the
• Identify and explain poetic emotions conveyed in a lyrical
elements as used in both poem or song lyric to their
poems and song lyrics. own lives.
• Recognize and explain the • Pupils write an essay in which
techniques used by a poet they discuss the use of poetic
or songwriter. elements in both poems and
• Compare the elements of a song lyrics.
lyrical poem to a song lyric. • An assignment is given to
pupils to write an essay on the
techniques used by the poet.

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Building Young Futures
MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

Reading, By the end of this topic, pupils • Open discussion on the Poems • Completion of individual
writing, will have: topic of climate change. writing tasks.
speaking • Read imaginative literature Ask pupils first to reflect A Poem to my Daughter, • Participation in group
and singing which was written to and to write down dear matafele peinam, by discussions.
Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (read at
imaginatively express experience and individually in class
opening ceremony of UN • Written creative poems or
about concerns of climate change (maximum 5 minutes) Climate Summit, 2014) short stories, or speech.
climate • Written stories, poems and what they feel about https://www.kathyjetnilkijine • Contribution to group drama –
change songs on the theme of climate change, and any r.com/united-nations- in planning ideas, writing,
climate change fears they may have climate-summit-opening- production, acting or other
• Read and analysed the about it. ceremony-my-poem-to-my- supporting roles
effect of speeches on • Then ask pupils to daughter/
climate change discuss in pairs what
• Written and performed a they feel about climate 17 Poems About Climate
play about climate change change, and what they Change Awareness
each wrote. (familyfriendpoems.com)
• From pairs, discuss in https://www.familyfriendpoe
ms.com/collection/climate-
plenary, steering the
change/
discussion away from
technical knowledge, to Short story
the feelings, fears and
attitudes pupils associate The Beginning, by Radha
with the subject. Zutshi Opubor (a sixteen-
• Progressively as the year-old Nigerian girl in
class progress through Lagos, 2020)
the topic, expose the https://omenana.com/2020/
class to the suggested 08/30/the-beginning-radha-
zutshi-opubor/
resources (add or
substitute other
resources at will). Ask Speeches
the class to listen/read
each one; reflect silently 'You did not act in time':
and each pupil to write Greta Thunberg's full
down their own emotional speech to MPs | Greta
Thunberg | The Guardian

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Building Young Futures
MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

and imaginative (Greta Thunberg’s speech

response. Then, each to the UK Houses of
time, ask pupils to Parliament, 2019)
https://www.theguardian.co
discuss in pairs, then in
m/environment/2019/apr/23
whole class. /greta-thunberg-full-speech-
• Next, ask each pupil to to-mps-you-did-not-act-in-
write one or more poems, time
or a short story, or a
speech, on the theme of Speeches of Greta
climate change. (This Thunberg - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
may be homework or
/Speeches_of_Greta_Thun
partly in class time.) berg
• Review the stories and
poems. Pupils read out in Songs
groups and discuss one
another’s poems and CLIMATE CHANGE SONG
(The Time is Now) -
stories.
YouTube (Performed by
• Start with receptive British school children)
(listening and reading). https://www.youtube.com/w
Move on to productive atch?v=k3yL_1L85Mk
(writing, singing).
• As the final stage, 7 Songs About Climate
Change & the Environment
engage the class in
(nature.org)
groups to plan, write, https://www.nature.org/en-
produce and perform us/what-we-do/our-
short dramas on the priorities/tackle-climate-
subject of climate change/climate-change-
change. Each group stories/climate-change-
performs to the class in songs/
turn.
• At every stage,
encourage the pupils to
be open in their

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Building Young Futures
MBSSE’s Senior Secondary School Curriculum

imagination, free in their

expression, reflective and
critical in their reading
and listening, and to
share their reactions with
one another.
• Note to the class that in
creative arts, their views
are neither right nor
wrong: what matters is
that the pupils focus,
interrogate the texts or
songs intensely, and try
to express their own
imaginatively and
creatively.
• Explain that as a human
being, engaging through
imaginative or artistic
dimensions brings a
different kind of
intelligence and
understanding, which
complements rational,
factual knowledge.

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