An Exploratory Study on Students’ Perceptions of the 12th Grade Literature and Composition Course: The Proposition of Personalized Learning Strategies

This study aspires to theoretically and practically explore students’ perceptions of the 12th Grade Literature and Composition course in a personalized manner. The objective behind conducting this research is not to generate statistics, but rather to grant a well-grounded and research-based perspective on how students perceive and interact with the aforementioned course. This has ipso facto risen the researcher’s interest to thoroughly investigate and demystify, with unremitting ardor and devotion, the root causes of students’ dislike of literature. The data gathered by means of direct and non-participant observation, along with serving as a curriculum designer, teacher and evaluator, the researcher was able to establish an unobtrusive and unbiased research environment. The findings consistently show lack of students’ engagement and participation in the 12th Grade Literature and Composition Course. The personalized learning strategies proposed by the researcher were merely able to increase students’ thinking skills (The Means-Ends Diagram and Graphic Organizers). Nevertheless, they slightly motivated them to interact with literary texts. This is most probably due to the fact that the majority of students view the aforementioned course more as a graduation requirement, and not as a gateway to proficiency and scholarship.