Sabah's digital divide (jigsaw reading & writing a mock letter to MPs)

*Based on Manual Kesedaran Sivik Sekolah Menengah - Tajuk: Persahabatan Merentasi Sempadan

Learning standard:

3.1.1 Understand the main points in extended texts 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

4.1.2 Explain causes and consequences of (i) actions (ii) events or (iii) simple processes

4.1.4 Express and respond to opinions and common feelings such as amusement, anger and regret

Objective:

1) Students will be able to describe the articles to their classmates.

2) Students will be able to identify the levels of consequences in certain aspects if there is no internet connectivity.

2) Students will be able to write a short message to policymakers regarding the situation.

Materials: Articles (link to the articles), mahjong paper, marker pens, dictionary

Activity:

Pre-reading:

1. Teacher asks the students if they had any internet problems at home. The teacher asks them to raise their hands.

2. The teacher tells them that they will look at Sabah's internet connectivity situation.

Activity 1:

1. The teacher instructs students to get into groups of 5 and gives different articles to every group.

2. Students read and discuss the content of the article. (15 minutes)

3. In their current group setting, regroup the students into groups of 5. So the new group will consist of students that had read different articles.

4. Students share with each other what they read and write the main idea of each article in the form of a mind map. (20 minutes)

Activity 2:

1. Teacher distributes mahjong papers and marker pens to each group and instructs every team to draw a consequences wheel.

2. Explain to the students that they need to discuss the consequences of lack of internet connectivity in several aspects of people's lives - education, relationships, entertainment, transport (social), business (economic), and country (political).

Post-reading ( If time permits):

1. Students write a short message to the Member of Parliament. (Describe briefly what a 'Member of Parliament' is)

Short message prompts:

a) What did you learn from today's newspaper reading? How do you feel about this?

b) What solutions can you provide to your Member of Parliament?

Sample short message:

Dear [name of Member of Parliament],

we are __________________ and we are students of [name of school]. Today we read about _________________. We feel/think _______________________ because ______________________. Therefore, we would like to suggest that _____________________because ______________________________________________________________________________. We hope that you will bring this issue to the Parliament.

2. Students paste their work on the board and the teacher checks the grammar.

Reflection: I implemented this in a low-intermediate English proficiency class. For the first activity, in order for them to grab the main ideas, instruct them to find the main ideas based on 5W1H technique. Explain to them that the main idea is a summary of one sentence for the whole article. For the second activity, due to time constraints, each group only managed to think of the consequences for one aspect in people's lives instead of all 6. The purpose of this activity is to let them be aware of community level issues. Activity 1 is focused more on having them to understand the articles. As for activity 2, it is the critical thinking part of the lesson.