Matching current issues (newspaper headlines) with the type of federal, concurrent, and state responsibilities

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

Learning standards:

3.1.3 Guess the meaning of unfamiliar words from clues provided by other words and by context on a wide range of familiar topics

3.2.1 Read a variety of suitable print and digital texts to investigate and analyse national issues

4.1.1 Explain information from (i) diagrams, (ii) charts (iii) tables (iv) graphs or other visuals

 

Materials: Federal, concurrent, state list, glue, cut-up of newspaper headlines, mahjong paper, marker pen, worksheet, dictionary, (newspaper headlines teacher's copy with answers)

*For the newspaper headlines, for current issues under the state list, it is suggested for teachers from other states (this lesson is Sabah-centric) to look for newspaper headlines that are relevant to the current issues that are present in their state

Lesson objectives:

1. Students will be able to match the issue correctly with the responsibilities of the different levels of government.

2. Students will be able to identify which representative they should complain to regarding their community issues.

Pre-lesson: 

1. Teacher writes 'clogged drain' on the board and asks students if this happens who they should complain to.

2. Elicit responses from students and write their responses on the board. 

3. Teacher tells students that they're going to learn about which community issues are under which responsibilities of which level of government.

Lesson development

1. Teacher distributes the list of federal, concurrent, and state list to the students.

2. Teacher briefly teaches students that different issues are under different responsibilities of the federal and state government. For federal and concurrent list, it is under the responsibility of the Member of Parliament. For the state list, it is under the responsibility of the State Assemblyperson.

3. Teacher divides students into groups of 5 and distributes cut-up of newspaper headlines, mahjong paper, marker pen, and glue.

4. Students work in groups and match (paste) the newspaper headlines under the correct column.

5. After completing the task, every group switches their mahjong paper with another group and gets the other group to do peer correction. The teacher reminds students to refer to the list.

6. Teacher does final answer-checking with everyone.

Post-lesson

1. In their group, instruct each and everyone to list down the issues that surround their community on the worksheet given by the teacher.

2. Referring to the list of government responsibilities, students label which issue is under whose responsibility - Member of Parliament or State Assemblyperson.

Reflection: I taught this lesson to low-intermediate proficiency students so the dictionary is a vital tool for them in order for them to understand the headlines and match them with the correct government responsibilities. If they understood the keyword on the headline and government responsibilities, it's easy for them to do the matching activity. So, It is preferable to choose headlines that have keywords that can be directly linked to the type of government responsibilities. Other than that, they do not know what 'state works' is so I had to briefly explain to them that it involves road management. 

*Please inform me if there are any errors. Email me at zell_kris@yahoo.com.

** Please use this lesson plan only for personal usage. Therefore, the materials here are not to be sold. Include the link when sharing.