For English and literature major Yeap Choon How, the power of words goes beyond text – and as far as your imagination takes you.
When he brought R.J. Palacio’s Wonder to his lower secondary literature class, the educator arrived armed with an interesting activity.
He got students to select one out of two characters in conflict and write a letter to the other discussing issues about friendship, acceptance and identity. Then, he told them to “post” their letters to a mailbox he had made, before they read those addressed to their chosen characters
“The whole experience was novel as most of them had never written nor posted a letter before,” Mr Yeap explains.
“In addition to developing letter-writing skills, it also helped them relate the events and themes of the story to their lived experiences.”
This is just one of the many ways the 32-year-old Ministry of Education (MOE) scholar makes learning literature fun and insightful. He helps his young students figure out how words affect them as readers and how narratives shape their views of the world.
“Literature is a part of life and does not have to be abstract,” he says.
“Studying it helps us understand the scope of human emotions and behaviour, and become better people in whatever ways we can.”
Passionate about the literary arts since his secondary school days, literature has never felt like a subject for Mr Yeap. Instead, reading texts became a way of “opening up windows and doors into the world” about the complexity of life.
He credits this to his literature teachers at his alma mater, Raffles Institution, who helped him explore the human condition through tragedy and comedy with diverse literary texts.
These spanned from the ancient Greek drama Oedipus Rex by Sophocles to Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which he was particularly fascinated by.
Although it was a demanding read, he grew to value Hamlet for its portrayal of the pensive and brooding protagonist. He then dived into its reimagined works, such as Tom Stoppard’s Dogg’s Hamlet and Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead; he wrote a dissertation on the latter and on two other Stoppard plays for H3 literature at A levels.
“There was a great deal of breadth and depth in our literary studies, which helped me appreciate literature as part of culture,” he says.
Guiding the next generation along their journey of literary exploration, he realised, would make a meaningful career path.
Under the MOE Teaching Scholarship, Mr Yeap pursued a bachelor’s degree in English at the University of York and a master of philosophy in education from the University of Cambridge, both in Britain.
When he returned in 2017, he took up a postgraduate diploma in education from the National Institute of Education to prepare for a career in teaching.
As a literature teacher at Xinmin Secondary School, where he also taught English, Mr Yeap explored different teaching methods to help his students experience literature like he did.
“It dawned upon me that I had made some lasting impact on the students and contributed to their appreciation for literature.”
– Mr Yeap Choon How, recipient of the MOE Teaching Scholarship
He brought texts to life through creative classroom activities, connecting stories to students’ everyday lives. Group discussions, role-playing and peer reading soon transformed reluctant readers into active participants, eager to share their thoughts on the books they had explored.
“Over time, most of the students had increased confidence in crafting and elaborating on their views. They would even race one another to snatch markers to write on the whiteboard,” he recounts. “I was very touched when one of my students gifted me a book of poetry at the end of her O levels – she had annotated some of her favourite poems in it.”
Reflecting on his career path as a teacher, he says: “It dawned upon me that I had made some lasting impact on the students and contributed to their appreciation for literature. This is exactly what I had set out to do.”
A key part of literature is to appreciate reading in various genres and forms, and Mr Yeap knows first-hand how challenging yet enriching it can be. While pursuing his bachelor’s degree in English, which also included a study of related literature, he took a module on French symbolist poetry.
“I was forced out of my reading comfort zone, and the process of translating French text into English led me to a deeper appreciation of the texts and the creative act of translation,” Mr Yeap explains.
It is through reading, he adds, that one can develop the ability to see different viewpoints and share informed opinions.
Since joining the MOE Headquarters’ Gifted Education Branch in 2023 as a gifted education officer, he finds himself building on these ideas as he contributes to the development of talented students in primary schools.
This role also helps him understand the primary education landscape, a perspective he sought after four years as a secondary school teacher.
A key area of his work is equipping teachers with the skills needed to engage stronger primary school readers in rich, open-ended conversations about the chosen texts, and foster a deeper appreciation and love of books among them.
“The study of literature requires a deeper understanding of the ways languages are used, as well as their contexts of use,” says Mr Yeap.
“A strong foundation in language ability would likely mean that students can go further with their exploration of literature as they progress to secondary school and beyond.”