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First Term: Getting to know English newspapers & reading hard news articles

Theme of textbook unit: Animals in danger

Objectives

Main tasks
  1. Getting acquainted with an English newspaper
  1. to learn different sections in a newspaper: news (international, national and local), opinions, lifestyle, entertainment, business, etc. and their different purposes (to inform, to entertain, to persuade, etc.)
  2. to use a loud voice and make eye contact with the audience when doing presentations

 
  1. Students conduct a discussion on the usual purposes people have for reading newspapers.
  2. They have a competition to name the different sections in newspapers.
  3. Students work in groups to match newspaper texts from different sections with their writing purposes.
  4. They work in groups to prepare a presentation to introduce the newspaper section they find most interesting to the class with the help of the provided framework.
  1. Learning different sections in English newspapers
  1. to learn the content and features of some sections in a newspaper
  2. to give a brief description of a newspaper section
  3. to use a loud voice and make eye contact with the audience when doing presentations

 
  1. Students do a group presentation about the newspaper section they find most interesting while their audience jot notes about their presentation.
  2. Students write a brief description of the newspaper section they find most interesting.

 
  1. Learning common types of texts in English newspapers
  1. to recognise different text types in newspapers (e.g.  news articles, feature articles, columns and letters to the editor) by their text features
  2. to use a loud voice and make eye contact with the audience when doing presentations
  1. Several students conduct an individual presentation & teachers’ feedback: A few students give a brief presentation on the section in the newspaper they find most interesting.
  2. Students work in groups to conduct a scavenger hunt to look for examples of different text types in newspaper.
  1. Discussing & summarising hard news articles
  1. to identify subjects of news articles from headlines
  2. to differentiate hard and soft news
  3. to summarise key information of news articles using 5Ws Organiser

 

 

  1. Students work in groups to read for and arrange key information of some news articles in their 5Ws Organisers.
  2. Students discover the text structure of news articles 
  3. Students work in group to summarise the content of a news story article.
  1. Inferring word meaning using linguistics & contextual clues
  1. to use linguistic and contextual clues to infer word meaning in context
  2. to recognise & pronounce vocabulary related to crimes and police investigation
  1. Students work in groups to infer meaning of unfamiliar words in an article.
  2. Students teach each other the meaning and pronunciation of an assigned new word creatively (e.g. drama, reading aloud, dance).
  1. Responding to a news story
  1. to use linguistic and contextual clues to infer word meaning in context
  2. to express reactions towards an event with adjectives about feelings
  3. to present views with suitable reasons
  4. to summarise and respond to a news event
  1. In pairs, students infer meaning of adjectives for describing feelings towards a news report in contexts.

  1. Students share their feelings towards the hard news article on “Man shot kitten”.

Second Term: Reading feature articles critically

Theme of textbook unit: Teenager problems: Bullying

Objectives

Main tasks
  1. Review features of hard news story & lead in to the theme “Bullying”
  1. to develop an understanding of a social issue (bullying): what it is and possible consequences
  2. to make prediction of a text using text features (headline, graphics and captions)
  3. to review the characteristics of hard news articles
  4. to summarse news articles using 5Ws organiser
  5. to make connection and respond to hard news articles on bullying
  6. to describe feelings towards a text/news
  1. Students participate in a competition to review knowledge & skills covered in previous module.

  1. Students use 5Ws Organiser to summarise key information in the hard news article ‘Bullied teen dies jumping in front of bus clutching suicide note’.
  2. They conduct a group discussion to evaluate the action taken by the victim in the news & share what they know about the theme “bullying”.
  1. Strategies for reading feature articles & dealing with more challenging texts
  1. to make predictions using text features of feature articles (e.g. headline, synopsis or “Stand Out/Write Off”, graphics & illustrations, text boxes or “Break Out Boxes”)
  2. to use fix-it strategies to make sense of challenging texts
  3. to use headings to learn about the organisation of feature articles
  4. to use linguistic and contextual clues to infer word meaning in context

 
  1. Students use common features (e.g. headings and text boxes) of feature articles to identify its theme and locate specific information.

 

  1. Students work in groups to infer the meaning of the unfamiliar words in the feature article.
  1. Critical thinking and identifying different aspects of a social issue
  1. to recognize the writer’s intention
  2. to make inferences based on evidence from texts
  3. to synthesise information from various texts to draw conclusion
  4. to define a social issue (cyber-bullying) and consider its causes, effects and solutions
  5. to develop critical thinking skills including:
    1. evaluating the writer’s intention and credibility of source
    2. considering an issue from different perspectives
  1. In groups, students identify the writer’s intention and evaluate the credibility of the source.
  2. Students sythesise information from the two articles on the causes, effects and solutions to the problem.
  3. Each group conduct a presentation on one aspect of the issue.

 

 

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