CHAPTER 6

ACTIVITIES IN
INTERDISCIPLINARY
TEACHING
 • News Analysis
A. QUICK
• Historical Pen Pal
AND EASY • Math Gym

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News Analysis
NEWS ANALYSIS
• A news analysis is an evaluation of a
news report that goes beyond the
represented facts and gives an
interpretation of the events based on
all data.

• Also refers to thе measurement оf thе

vаrіоuѕ qualitative and ԛuаntіtаtіvе
attributes of tеxtuаl (unstructured dаtа)
nеwѕ ѕtоrіеѕ. Sоmе оf thеѕе аttrіbutеѕ
аrе: sentiment, rеlеvаnсе, аnd nоvеltу.

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 PROCEDURE
a) Find a newspaper article that interests you. Give the title and date.
b) Summarise the main points of the article in your own words. (3-5
bullet points or sentences).
c) State the purpose of the article. Note that many articles may have
multiple purposes (e.g. to entertain and persuade). Identify what you
consider to be the main purpose, explaining your reasons in part d) if
necessary.
• To entertain
• To inform
• To persuade
• To examine/explore an issue
• To describe/report
• To instruct
d) Explain your choice of purpose by quoting word(s) or phrase(s)
from the article to support your answer to part.

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PROCEDURE
e) Identify the tone of the article.
f) Justify your choice of tone with evidence from the text.
g) Identify 3 techniques which have been employed by the
writer. Analyse each technique and explain its purpose or
effect.
h) Quote 3 words from the article that are unfamiliar to you.
Look up and provide their definitions from a dictionary or
www.dictionary.com. Many words have several definitions.
Be certain to only provide the definition appropriate to the
context in which the word is used in the passage.
i) Think about the ideas, opinions or issues involved in the
article you have read. Write a short personal response to the
article.

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EXAMPLES
OF TOPICS IN • Social Issues in the Philippines
SOCIAL • Philippine Political Culture and Governance
STUDIES • Contemporary Arts in the Philippines
THAT CAN BE • Environmental Issues
DONE IN A
NEWS
ANALYSIS

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QUICK AND EASY 8
HISTORICAL
PEN PAL
 •Pen Pal is a way for talking to
somebody using and learning a
foreign language. It is also often
HISTORICA used to improve literacy, to learn
more about other countries and
L PEN PAL life-styles, and to make
friendships.

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When Pen •Pen Pal started decades ago in school the web
site that pairs up pen pals was started by a
Pals Started? teacher back from 1936.

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ACTIVITIES
• While sometimes seen as an old-fashioned idea, the
routine of communicating with someone over writing
can be a great exercise in communication, relationship
building, and consistency. The following projects will
let your students maintain a pen-pal partnership with
someone else for an extended period. It will be up to
you and your school to set up the pen pals, so while
these projects will work best with people from other
places, they can be adapted to work with students
within the same school. Also, please note that while it
can be fun to make students write and send actual
letters, these projects can be completed via email and
digital communication as well.

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 A pen pal from another time and place!

For example, the topic was all about The

significance and contribution of Greek
ACTIVITY philosophers to language.

FOR At the culmination of each lesson within a topic,

each student becomes a character from that time
and place, develops a voice and back story, and
SUBTOPIC writes to their pen pal (in a different classroom)
describing key events and the impact on their
LANGUAGE life. Pen pals respond back and forth, considering
different perspectives, until the unit is complete
in this creative way to summarize learning and
empathize with others.

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 Write and Ask!
Set students up with a pen-pal partner who they are
going to spend several weeks (or longer) interviewing
via written communication. This can be a very fun
ACTIVITY project if you are able to set students up with
someone from an older generation (local senior
FOR centers will likely be happy to participate) but can be
done among peers as well. Students will start by

RELIGION producing a short list of questions for their pen pal to

answer. When they get their first reply, they will find
some things of interest and dig deeper into those parts
of their interviewee's life. Encourage students to
build up a conversational rapport after that first set of
questions, connecting to their pen pal's life with their
own experiences. Ultimately, students will write a
biography of their pen pal and present it to the class .

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MATH GYM
MATH GYM
• The Math Gym is a concept rather
than an actual place. It applies the
wisdom that practice is the key to
learning math well. It precipitates
the best practices of many excellent
instructors of foundational courses
from the Department of
Mathematics and Statistics.

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 • The students in the Math Gym start with
worksheets recommended by analyzing their
state of knowledge as they enter the class. As
they progress through the class, each quiz
shows the level of mastery (or lack thereof) at
that stage. If the mastery is not strong enough
to learn the follow-on material, a new set of
MATH GYM worksheets are recommended. Students are
invited to attend the Math Gym regularly to
work out on the extra problems assigned to
them based on what they specifically need to
work on. The continuous connect between
practice and class work is expected to keep
motivation at a high level.

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MATH GYM
• The Math Gym Loop starts with the instructor who creates QuizZero,
which leads to a personalized workout plan. The data base will then
track the student throughout the class from one quiz to the next by way
of work out sheets to reinforce the in-class lessons. Math Gym
incorporates the scalable aspects of many tried and successful ideas of
excellent teachers.

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 • MICHAEL MARTINEZ
THANK • ROLLY TACTAC
YOU • MARY JOY ASLOR
• VANESSA PILARTA

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