2022 Johor state election : Johor youths decide (Reading comprehension)

*Based on Manual Kesedaran Sivik Sekolah Menengah - Tajuk: Sistem Demokrasi

Main skill:

Reading - 3.1 Understand a variety of texts by using a range of appropriate reading strategies to construct meaning

Complementary skill:

Writing - 4.1 Communicate information, ideas, opinions and feelings intelligibly on familiar topics

Teaching materials: Newspaper article, KWL chart, squared cut-up pieces of paper, dictionary, question handouts (cut into 7 parts), stopwatch

Objective:

1. Answer 7 questions based on the newspaper article.

2. Write what they learned about the 2022 Johor state election.

Pre-lesson

· Teacher writes the word ‘election’ on the board and asks students what they understand about the word.

Teacher asks students if they know that Johor just had an election.
Teacher distributes the cut-up pieces of paper and asks the students to write ‘what do they know about it and ‘what do they want to know about it’.
For 'want', prompt them to use 5W1H to form questions.
Paste the papers on the KWL chart on the board.
Teacher reads through the responses and picks out ones that are related to the article.

Lesson development

1) Teacher passes a newspaper article (appendix 1) to every student and instructs them to read silently for 15 minutes. Remind them to read the glossary.

2) Game-based activity (20 minutes):

A) Divide the students into groups of 5.

B) Give the paper that consists of 7 questions (appendix 2) to every group. Each group gets one copy. (The questions have been cut up into 7 parts so that it's easier for the students to submit the answers one by one)

C) Teacher tells the students the rules of the game:

The first group to submit the answer will get 1 extra point.
The group that answers correctly gets 5 points.
The group that answers wrongly gets 0 points.
The group didn't get to submit on time will get 0 points.
Students are given 2 minutes to answer the question.

D) Teacher goes through each question with the students.

E) The students discuss the answers for 2 minutes

F) Representative from each group submits answer to the teacher.

Post-lesson

Students write ‘what they learned’ and paste it on the KWL chart.

For this stage, provide students with sentence starters such as 'I learned that...', 'I learned about...', 'Now I know that...'.

Follow-up activity: Construct sentences based on the glossary given below the article.

Reflection: It's a lesson I did with my Form 4 students (16 year olds). Before reading the article, it is expected that they don't know anything about the election. So, the activity is an opportunity for them to get exposed to the issue. The outcome of the lesson is an interesting one and I was surprised (but proud lol) myself at some of the responses.

Language may be a barrier for some of them (why I always provide them with dictionaries in my classroom) but it does not mean that they're not able to think about the issue.