Domestic Violence

Prepared by MA Anne

Unit Summary:
These two lessons aim to develop students' skills in sitting for the Use of English (UE) papers in the AS level examination by using newspapers as a resource for learning English. The teacher introduces the topic “Domestic Violence” and makes use of different texts from the newspaper, e.g. extracts of news report, data of survey findings, letters, articles, to give students practice in summarising news reports, analysing and describing data, identifying writers' attitude and presenting views from different perspectives. The activities are full of variety and the interaction pattern in the class ranges from teacher interaction with the class to student-to-student interaction. Towards the end of the lesson, students are assigned to read two more pieces of newspaper writing as homework with a focus on an objective presentation of views and on the use of cohesive device respectively. Students are asked to write about the topic in subsequent lessons.

Total Number of Lessons (40 mins each):
Two in one session

Background:
This is a S.6 Science class in a CMI school. The students' English level is average. Their oral ability is not strong, but their learning attitude is very positive. The students, some girls in particular, are eager to learn and to improve their English. They sometimes keep asking questions even after class to seek clarification. 98% of them submit assignments (self-learning work at home such as TV reports) punctually.

Lesson Highlights:
Use of newspaper as teaching/learning material
Newspapers make very useful material for English lessons as they are authentic, inexpensive, easily accessible, much more current than coursebooks and contain much information and many text types (reports, stories, letters, advertisements ….) which can serve as excellent springboards for lessons. Many practitioners have complied detailed and level-appropriate lists of adapted activities using newspapers as texts (Toben, 1987; Chandler, 1990; Sanderson, 1999). The teacher in these two lessons made use of different newspaper texts on a current topic, “Domestic Violence”, and designed a series of activities to help students understand the issues involved as well as raise their awareness of the special language use in different texts. It is worth noting that the texts were not always used as they appeared. They were sometimes adapted for different teaching purposes. For instance, the PowerPoint materials of Appendix I and Appendix II were extracted and adapted from news reports to focus on key issues and special language points.

Developing UE skills through skilful design of activities
The S6 students in this class were to sit for the UE exam in a year's time and they were keen to improve their English. Instead of teaching the lessons with past papers, the teacher designed a series of activities which were relevant to the students as members of society and at the same time focused on the language skills needed for the various UE papers. For instance the topic “Domestic Violence” was the topic of the city at the time of the lessons because of a tragic incident to a family reported in the news. The teacher's survey of the class opinion on a few related questions was, therefore, something they could relate to. Through presenting the results of the police response to a similar survey and showing some more data on overall cases of battered spouses in Hong Kong, the teacher helped students understand more about the seriousness of the situation and drew students' attention to the words and expressions used for summarizing survey reports and describing data. Practical skills assessed in Section E of AS-UE examination like data analysis and presentation, are therefore skilfully integrated in the teacher-led survey and the follow-up data analysis. The controversial results of the police survey also linked well to the next activity which involved the reading of four letters to the “Talkback” column of the newspaper. The letters expressed strong views on the responsibilities of the police in handling cases of domestic violence. Students were guided to identify words and expressions in the letters showing such views. The skills for understanding a writer's attitude as assessed in Section C of AS-UE, were therefore practised in this activity. After reading letters, the teacher drew students' attention to the role of other parties in such cases. Three pairs of students were invited to role-play the different government officials and they had to answer questions put forward by the rest of the class who represented the public. The forum provided practice for developing critical thinking, confidence and oral fluency which are useful for Section D of AS-UE. After the forum, students were introduced to another letter which presented more objective and balanced views on the role of different parties in these incidents. Students were asked to read the text and present the views graphically through a concept map. This helped to consolidate the students' understanding.

Lots of examples and support to facilitate students' learning
As the English standard of the class was average, the teacher used lots of examples to illustrate her teaching points. For instance, to build up students' data analysis skills, the teacher provided examples of simple statements summarising survey results and describing data shown in the input texts. Some key words in the statements were left out to enable students to think of suitable words for the gaps. When the teacher did text analysis with students, she highlighted examples of word choice to help students understand the writers' attitude. During the forum, both the students who played the roles of government officials and the rest of the class who represented the general public were given time to think and prepare for their parts. The former were also given guidelines with language cues to facilitate their formulation of responses to questions from the floor. To develop an overall picture of the views presented in an article, students were later taught to use a concept map to present the arguments in the text graphically. The examples and guidance provided in the learning activities were useful in developing students' ability to interpret data and texts and to present views and data analysis both orally and in writing.

Integrating play with study
An element of play was built in when the teacher gave students paper to fold paper planes on which they could write their questions to be directed to different government officials. These planes were flown to the relevant officials when the forum began. The play element brought fun and helped liven up the atmosphere of the class at the point after the class had done some serious work on data and text analysis. The writing of questions on paper planes also encouraged greater participation from all students instead of leaving the questioning to be done only by a few more out-spoken students.

Discussion Questions:
1. Newspapers seem to be used more widely among upper secondary English lessons. Are newspapers more suitable for upper secondary students or could they be equally useful for lower secondary students? Elaborate on your views.

2. On what occasions should authentic texts from newspapers be adapted for teaching?

3. Could you suggest some ways in which resources from the newspaper could be kept in a systematic way so that they could be retrieved for use whenever necessary?

4. Do you think public examination classes should be more focused on developing students' examination skills? Do you think these two lessons have maintained a good balance between developing students' language skills for examination and their other knowledge and learning?

5. If you were to teach this class, would you give other language support / input to students? If so, what kind of support / input do you have in mind?

6. Are there any other parts of the lesson that you would like to change? Why?

7. What could the teacher do in the follow-up lessons to build on the knowledge and skills that the students have learned in these lessons?

8. What do you think of the quality of interaction between the teacher and the class? Is there anything you can learn from it?

References

Chandler, C.E. (1990). Using newspapers in the ESL literacy classroom. In ERIC Digest. Washington DC: adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education for Limited-English-Proficient Adults (Eric Identifier: ED 3216109).
Sanderson, Paul. (1999). Using newspapers in the classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Toben, (1987). Using the newspaper in the classroom: A check list for intermediate and advanced classes. In English Teachers Journal, 35, 79-82.

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Prepared by MA Anne
Unit Summary: These two lessons aim to develop students' skills in sitting for the Use of English (UE) papers in the AS level examination by using newspapers as a resource for learning English. The teacher introduces the topic “Domestic Violence” and makes use of different texts from the newspaper, e.g. extracts of news report, data of survey findings, letters, articles, to give students practice in summarising news reports, analysing and describing data, identifying writers' attitude and presenting views from different perspectives. The activities are full of variety and the interaction pattern in the class ranges from teacher interaction with the class to student-to-student interaction. Towards the end of the lesson, students are assigned to read two more pieces of newspaper writing as homework with a focus on an objective presentation of views and on the use of cohesive device respectively. Students are asked to write about the topic in subsequent lessons.
Total Number of Lessons (40 mins each): Two in one session
Background: This is a S.6 Science class in a CMI school. The students' English level is average. Their oral ability is not strong, but their learning attitude is very positive. The students, some girls in particular, are eager to learn and to improve their English. They sometimes keep asking questions even after class to seek clarification. 98% of them submit assignments (self-learning work at home such as TV reports) punctually.
Lesson Highlights: Use of newspaper as teaching/learning material Newspapers make very useful material for English lessons as they are authentic, inexpensive, easily accessible, much more current than coursebooks and contain much information and many text types (reports, stories, letters, advertisements ….) which can serve as excellent springboards for lessons. Many practitioners have complied detailed and level-appropriate lists of adapted activities using newspapers as texts (Toben, 1987; Chandler, 1990; Sanderson, 1999). The teacher in these two lessons made use of different newspaper texts on a current topic, “Domestic Violence”, and designed a series of activities to help students understand the issues involved as well as raise their awareness of the special language use in different texts. It is worth noting that the texts were not always used as they appeared. They were sometimes adapted for different teaching purposes. For instance, the PowerPoint materials of Appendix I and Appendix II were extracted and adapted from news reports to focus on key issues and special language points. Developing UE skills through skilful design of activities The S6 students in this class were to sit for the UE exam in a year's time and they were keen to improve their English. Instead of teaching the lessons with past papers, the teacher designed a series of activities which were relevant to the students as members of society and at the same time focused on the language skills needed for the various UE papers. For instance the topic “Domestic Violence” was the topic of the city at the time of the lessons because of a tragic incident to a family reported in the news. The teacher's survey of the class opinion on a few related questions was, therefore, something they could relate to. Through presenting the results of the police response to a similar survey and showing some more data on overall cases of battered spouses in Hong Kong, the teacher helped students understand more about the seriousness of the situation and drew students' attention to the words and expressions used for summarizing survey reports and describing data. Practical skills assessed in Section E of AS-UE examination like data analysis and presentation, are therefore skilfully integrated in the teacher-led survey and the follow-up data analysis. The controversial results of the police survey also linked well to the next activity which involved the reading of four letters to the “Talkback” column of the newspaper. The letters expressed strong views on the responsibilities of the police in handling cases of domestic violence. Students were guided to identify words and expressions in the letters showing such views. The skills for understanding a writer's attitude as assessed in Section C of AS-UE, were therefore practised in this activity. After reading letters, the teacher drew students' attention to the role of other parties in such cases. Three pairs of students were invited to role-play the different government officials and they had to answer questions put forward by the rest of the class who represented the public. The forum provided practice for developing critical thinking, confidence and oral fluency which are useful for Section D of AS-UE. After the forum, students were introduced to another letter which presented more objective and balanced views on the role of different parties in these incidents. Students were asked to read the text and present the views graphically through a concept map. This helped to consolidate the students' understanding. Lots of examples and support to facilitate students' learning As the English standard of the class was average, the teacher used lots of examples to illustrate her teaching points. For instance, to build up students' data analysis skills, the teacher provided examples of simple statements summarising survey results and describing data shown in the input texts. Some key words in the statements were left out to enable students to think of suitable words for the gaps. When the teacher did text analysis with students, she highlighted examples of word choice to help students understand the writers' attitude. During the forum, both the students who played the roles of government officials and the rest of the class who represented the general public were given time to think and prepare for their parts. The former were also given guidelines with language cues to facilitate their formulation of responses to questions from the floor. To develop an overall picture of the views presented in an article, students were later taught to use a concept map to present the arguments in the text graphically. The examples and guidance provided in the learning activities were useful in developing students' ability to interpret data and texts and to present views and data analysis both orally and in writing. Integrating play with study An element of play was built in when the teacher gave students paper to fold paper planes on which they could write their questions to be directed to different government officials. These planes were flown to the relevant officials when the forum began. The play element brought fun and helped liven up the atmosphere of the class at the point after the class had done some serious work on data and text analysis. The writing of questions on paper planes also encouraged greater participation from all students instead of leaving the questioning to be done only by a few more out-spoken students.
Discussion Questions: 1. Newspapers seem to be used more widely among upper secondary English lessons. Are newspapers more suitable for upper secondary students or could they be equally useful for lower secondary students? Elaborate on your views. 2. On what occasions should authentic texts from newspapers be adapted for teaching? 3. Could you suggest some ways in which resources from the newspaper could be kept in a systematic way so that they could be retrieved for use whenever necessary? 4. Do you think public examination classes should be more focused on developing students' examination skills? Do you think these two lessons have maintained a good balance between developing students' language skills for examination and their other knowledge and learning? 5. If you were to teach this class, would you give other language support / input to students? If so, what kind of support / input do you have in mind? 6. Are there any other parts of the lesson that you would like to change? Why? 7. What could the teacher do in the follow-up lessons to build on the knowledge and skills that the students have learned in these lessons? 8. What do you think of the quality of interaction between the teacher and the class? Is there anything you can learn from it?
References Chandler, C.E. (1990). Using newspapers in the ESL literacy classroom. In ERIC Digest. Washington DC: adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse on Literacy Education for Limited-English-Proficient Adults (Eric Identifier: ED 3216109). Sanderson, Paul. (1999). Using newspapers in the classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Toben, (1987). Using the newspaper in the classroom: A check list for intermediate and advanced classes. In English Teachers Journal, 35, 79-82.
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