English Language and Literature

1. Department Staff

The English Language and Literature Department in Peirce Secondary School consists of a dynamic group of teachers who are committed to empowering our students to become confident and proficient users of the language, equipped with 21st CC skills. 

The department adopts varied pedagogical strategies to enhance our students’ language learning experiences. The lower secondary EL curriculum focuses on introducing meaningful, authentic and fun experiences to deepen students’ language proficiency in writing, reading, listening and speaking. To further deepen mastery of these skills, the upper secondary EL curriculum focuses on giving platforms and opportunities for students to put these skills to practice meaningfully while receiving feedback from both peers and teachers.

2. EL Department Programmes

Youth Readers Programme

The Youth Readers Programme promotes a vibrant reading culture and encourages students to develop the habit of reading for pleasure across a wide range of genres. It aims to nurture lifelong readers who are informed, reflective, and engaged with current affairs.

Reading is now also conducted during Home-Based Learning (HBL) days, where students pair up, select their own reading materials, and complete reflection tasks online. In doing so, they also develop essential digital collaboration skills—an increasingly important competency in today’s learning landscape and in preparation for tertiary education.

Students are further encouraged to explore the school library’s rich collection of books and magazines, which provide meaningful exposure to varied genres and topics. Many of these resources are accompanied by student-centred activities aligned with the EL syllabus to promote self-directed and engaged learning.

Blended and Self-Directed Learning through Ed-Tech

In line with MOE’s 21st Century Competencies, the EL department leverages educational technology to develop self-directed and digitally literate learners. Teachers incorporate platforms such as Padlet, Classkick, ClassPoint, Quizziz, SLS, and Google Classroom to create blended learning environments that are interactive, collaborative, and learner-centred.

These platforms support real-time feedback, assessment for learning (AfL), and provide opportunities for students to participate in peer discussions and collaborative tasks beyond the physical classroom. Flipped learning practices also enable students to take ownership of their progress by exploring content independently and coming prepared for deeper in-class engagement.

Signature Pedagogies

To actively engage students in their learning, the EL department adopts a set of signature pedagogical practices, including:

• Collaborative learning to promote peer interaction and co-construction of knowledge

• Self and peer assessment to build metacognition and responsibility for learning

• Feedforward strategies to guide students in applying feedback purposefully and improving future work

These approaches work in tandem to nurture confident communicators, critical thinkers, and reflective learners.

3. Literature

P.T. Barnum said, “Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity.” Our Lower Secondary students will learn to critically analysed text from all three literary genres (fiction, poetry and plays) and build up a strong foundation in the study of Literature.

During literature lessons, students are taught the PEE(E)L framework to 

(i) engage closely with texts

(ii) develop individual responses and a personal voice

Students also take part in interesting activities like

(i) Poetry Analysis Presentation

(ii) Author Research

(iii) Hot Seating

(iv) Mini Debates

(v) Alternative Assessment

(vi) Literature Trail (for Sec 1)

(vii) Watch a play / musical (for Sec 2)

These varied learning activities help students actively and creatively construct their understanding and interpretations of their literature texts as well as allow students to experience joy of learning.

Secondary One Literature texts:

(i) Percy Jack and the Lightning Thief – Rick Riordan

(ii) Little Things (Poetry Anthology) – edited by Loh Chin Ee, Angelia Poon and Esther Vincent

Secondary Two Literature texts:

(i) Little Ironies – Catherine Lim

(ii) Frankenstein (Play) – adapted by Philip Pullman

(iii) Little Things (Poetry Anthology) – edited by Loh Chin Ee, Angelia Poon and Esther Vincent

4. Photo Gallery