152
153
THE ALLEYNIAN 709
THE UNION
LITSOC’S NARRATIVE
After a year of considerable uncertainty Dulwich College’s Literature Society, or LitSoc, began its 2020–21 calendar brimming with energy, enthusiasm and high hopes for what the society could achieve, writes William Lord (Year 12)
With a committee swiftly elected, attention turned to defining the nature of the society, and sketching out a plan for the year. LitSoc has been a long-running society in the College community, and so we were mindful of the importance of respecting its legacy whilst also driving it forward, growing it into something bigger and better. It was to be a place where the rich world of literature would be explored by pairs, or small teams, of teachers and students, who would then present their thoughts to those who attended the meetings, and open up the floor for wider discussion. Through this process, the Society would be able to enrich the minds and understanding of its attendees, allowing them to reap the benefits of the speakers’ penetrating research and acquired expertise, whilst also helping those students who chose to present to improve their knowledge and research skills, refining their public-speaking proficiency, and boosting their self-confidence. Next, the plan: to implement the new teacher–student pairing system. As this was before LitSoc’s first official meeting, we had not had the chance to entice people from around the school and pupil body, so we looked internally and selected from the pupil committee, as well as the core members of staff. Immediately, natural pairings emerged through relationships formed coming up through the school, with some already bonded by a shared affinity for a novel. One such pairing was that of Freddie Oxley and Mr Hawes, who presented on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun . Other talks delivered in just the first term of the year included: What is literature, anyway? given by the panellists
Mr Fisher, Mr Bryant and Dr Hutton-Williams; How Dickens created London , given by Samuel Lynn and Mr Fisher; In the confessional: Plath, poetry and the personal , given by Jamie Chong and Ms Akrill; and Francis Bacon and Literary Modernism , given by Sam Stewart and Dr Cocks. The key to the pairing system is that it gives students and teachers an opportunity to to collaborate, allowing them to research, prepare and present in tandem. Complete freedom was given to students and teachers regarding the topic on which they wished to present, and the choice of the person they wished to present with. This liberty allowed for strong pairings, as well as deeply personal and resonant topic choices, which were presented in a way that communicated the genuine love and appreciation the speakers had for their chosen works of literature. It also allowed for an invaluable diffusion of experience and wisdom from the teachers to the students, in a subtle and organic way, with the dynamic shifted to allow them to work as equals, researching and enjoying literature together. During this research process, the students were able to observe the teachers’ systems regarding research, information and organisation, and see how they structured things. They were then able to work with the teachers to achieve this research and organisation, putting their newly learned skills into practice whilst still being quietly guided by the teacher. I believe this was a particularly effective and seminal decision in the running of LitSoc this year, and I would like to elaborate on this by sharing my personal experience of the process.
AND LAUNCH OF THE PAIRING SYSTEM THE
AN INVALUABLE DIFFUSION OF EXPERIENCE AND WISDOM FROM THE TEACHERS TO THE STUDENTS
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online