MAKING NEWS: TEACH ALL ABOUT IT! Newspapers for an Integrated Curriculum

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHT

This unique one-day conference is specially designed for English and Literature, Mother Tongue, Sciences and Humanities teachers at primary, secondary and junior college levels.

This conference is conducted in response to the global challenge for schools to integrate language and content curricula with elements of print and digital mass-media.

The Press Foundation of Singapore (PFS) and the English Language & Literature Teachers Association of Singapore [ELLTA(S)] have joined forces to bring you this conference.

An essentially hands-on, interactive conference, experts from the field of education and journalism come together for the keynote address, panel discussion and workshop sessions on a wide range of topics.

OPENING ADDRESS

Associate Professor Lubna Alsagoff
Head, English Language & Literature Academic Group
National Institute of Education

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DISTINGUISHED KEYNOTE PANEL

Connecting the Classroom with the World through Newspapers

Chair

Associate Professor Kirpal Singh
English Literature, School of Economics & Social Sciences
Singapore Management University

Panelists

Ms Bertha Henson
Supervising Editor (Home), The Straits Times
Singapore Press Holdings

Bertha Henson joined The Straits Times in 1986 as a reporter. She became a correspondent in 1990 and went on to become Assistant Political Editor in 1994. She then went to The New Paper as Acting Deputy Editor before heading Project Eyeball as Editor from 1999 to 2001. She returned to The Straits Times as News Editor after Project Eyeball closed. Currently, she's Supervising Editor (Home) of The Straits Times.

Ms Lee Kuan Fung
Editor of Student Supplement Popcorn, Lianhe Zaobao
Singapore Press Holdings

Lee Kuan Fung is the Editor of the weekly student supplement, Popcorn, which is distributed every Wednesday in zbNOW of Lianhe Zaobao. Popcorn caters to the interests of students and is an excellent teaching material for teachers. Launched last year with only 2 pages, it has expanded to 6 pages this year. Besides editorial publications, Lee Kuan Fung is also in charge of coordinating and organising activities for students at Lianhe Zaobao.

Mr Mohd Zulkifli Rahmat
Deputy Editor, Berita Harian
Singapore Press Holdings

Mohd Zulkifli bin Rahmat has been in journalism for 25 years, the last 15 being with Berita Harian. He joined Berita Harian in 1990 as a Journalist and was promoted the next year to Executive Sub-Editor. In 1993, he became the Malay newspaper's Chief Sub-Editor. By 1999, he went to become the Assistant Editor and is today Berita Harian's Deputy Editor.

Mr Noor Mohd Abdul Aziz
Deputy Editor, Tamil Murasu
Singapore Press Holdings

Noor Mohd Abdul Aziz joined Tamil Murasu as a reporter in 1991 and has risen through the ranks from senior correspondent to News Editor to Deputy Editor today. He has covered all areas, from social, politics to sports. His daily duties include overseeing the reporters and other Editors, generating story ideas and assisting Editors in putting Tamil Murasu together.

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DISTINGUISHED KEYNOTE SPEAKER

The Sheherazade Impulse: Drawing Inspiration from the Newspaper

Dr Catherine Lim, celebrated Singapore author. She grew up in Malaysia and lives in Singapore. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and has published articles on sociolinguistics as well as on the problematics of writing fiction in Singaporean English. Before she became a full-time writer, she was a lecturer at the Regional Language Centre (RELC) in Singapore. Catherine Lim is the author of various collections of short stories as well as of four novels.

WORKSHOP SESSIONS

Workshop 1: Engaging Learners Critically through English Language and Vernacular Papers
This workshop will take teachers on an engaging and fun-filled journey of using the English and vernacular papers to enliven their language classrooms. Teachers will discover new ways of using the newspaper to equip students with the literacy skills required of the English Language Syllabus. Parents will find out how the newspaper can be a valuable resource link to their children's world of experiences and ideas and help create and sustain interesting communication lines.

Dr Maha Sripathy, currently with the National Institute of Education, is an experienced teacher educator who has worked with parents and teachers in Singapore and Australia in the area of literacy. She is regularly invited by schools to conduct critical and remedial reading and immersion writing workshops for teachers and to share creative ideas for nurturing thinking individuals. She is also known for her practical parent education workshops for schools and private organisations.

Workshop 2: Developing a Vocabulary for Composition Writing
Participants in this workshop will learn how to use newspaper stories to help their pupils develop an extensive vocabulary for writing school compositions. The workshop is suitable for upper primary and lower secondary teachers. They will have opportunities to work with newspaper stories and to develop examples for use in their classroom.

Cheah Yin Mee is a consultant in English language and teacher education. She has over 25 years teaching experience and obtained her post graduate qualifications from Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley.

Workshop 3: Reconstruct and Integrate!
This workshop is specially designed to introduce strategies of integrated skills for language learning through a unique combination of dictogloss and cooperative learning techniques. Through hands-on activities, teachers will make use of newspaper articles and other print media to develop teaching strategies which can be used to help their students have a range of different learning styles in language acquisition.

Dr Anula Samuel has been actively involved in education for the past forty years in teaching, teacher-training and school administration. She has acquired a range of experience and understanding of the needs for effective teaching and learning techniques in different societies, mainly Singapore, Macau, Hong Kong and Indonesia. She incorporates counseling strategies and coping skills in her training programmes for teachers and students to develop strong and positive attitudes.

Workshop 4: Creative Writing through the Visual Arts
This interactive, interdisciplinary workshop will address different creative ways, ideas, techniques and possibilities to employ the art columns and art reviews in the newspapers and art magazines as stimulators in students' creative writing, and how to link certain genres in the visual arts with written genres, including poetry, narratives, short stories and myth.

Dr Batia P. Horsky is an art historian and an educator. She is a faculty member of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and has taught at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, the Nanyang Technological University as well as the Singapore Ministry of Education. Her research focuses on museum education, management of arts programs, curriculum development and creativity.

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Workshop 5: Guiding Gifted Learners: Reality and the Electronic Media
Gifted learners are well known to be avid readers. With the additional millions of books at Stanford and Oxford universities, the New York Public Library, and other libraries that Google intends to digitize, it will be exciting and confusing for the advanced learners to Google especially when conflicting evidence presents themselves. This seminar will discuss the various channels in which knowledge is obtained for a gifted learner in a secondary school, and the means by which the reality may be discerned. It will also discuss if learning for advanced learners is enhanced or limited by the electronic media.

Dr Teo Chua Tee's areas of research include self-knowledge and volition studies of gifted children; virtues development, creativity and wellness, consultation and relationship studies; and teacher education. She has trained teachers at the world's largest school, City Montessori School, India (1998), at the Unity in Diversity Foundation in Padang, Indonesia (2002); and at the Santitham Witthayakhom School in Yasothon, Thailand (2004).

Workshop 6: Fact to Fiction: Creating Story Grammars from Newspaper Articles
Newspaper articles reporting real life events embody structures that can be adapted for teaching the writing of fiction. At this workshop, participants will be made aware of the key features of these organisation features. They will then collaborate to design strategies to create story grammars for writing better narrative compositions in class or during examinations.

Shila C. Fernandez is a lecturer at the National Institute of Education, and works with primary and secondary teacher trainees. She incorporates her experience as a former HOD, journalist, and publisher in her tutorials and workshops. She is working on her doctorate thesis on critical thinking skills in language arts education.

Workshop 7: Teaching Factual Writing through the News
During the workshop, participants will be given a brief introduction to selected rhetorical patterns commonly required in the classroom. They will exploit newspaper articles for content, organisation and vocabulary. Utilising these components as both a resource and a scaffold they will become aware of the process by which students come to grips with the realities and complexities of non-fiction writing.

Sandra Segeram is currently lecturing at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) and working with various institutions conducting both Academic and Business English courses in addition to writing and editing. She has been active in the field of education for more than 25 years, and has spent the last one and a half decades working in the area of Genre Analysis. Her primary focus is the use of rhetorical patterns/structures in the language classroom.

Workshop 8: Merombak Kontrak Nikah? Analisis Teks Secara Kritis dan Kreatif
Bengkel ini mengajak peserta menganalisis satu rencana tentang AIDS dari Berita Harian secara yang kritis dan kreatif. Selain dari itu gerak-kerja bagi meningkatkan kemahiran membaca dan menulis para pelajar akan dibincang sama.

Profesor Madya Kamsiah Abdullah ialah Ketua Jabatan Bahasa dan Kebudayaan Melayu, Kumpulan Akademik Bahasa-bahasa dan Kebudayaan Asia di Institut Pendidikan Nasional Singapura. Beliau yang memperoleh ijazah Sarjana Pendidikan dari Universiti Malaya dan Doktor Falsafah dalam Jabatan Pendidikan Bandingan dan Antarabangsa dari Institut Pendidikan Universiti London pada tahun 1994 telah menulis beberapa buku tentang bahasa dan pendidikan Melayu dan kini giat membentang kertas kerja di dalam dan luar negara.

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Workshop 9: Akhbar Penggalak Panca Kecerdasan
Penggunaan akhbar dalam pengajaran bahasa Melayu di peringkat sekolah menengah. Bengkel ini juga menggalakkan penggunaan berfikir secara kritikal dan kreatif bersandarkan pendekatan panca kecerdasan yang mengutamakan kepelbagaian kemahiran pelajar.

Saeda Buang bertugas sebagai pensyarah di Kumpulan Akademik Bahasa dan Budaya Asia (Melayu), Institut Pendidikan Nasional, Universiti Teknologi Nanyang. Pernah bertugas sebagai guru dan Ketua Jabatan di sekolah menengah dan maktab rendah. Berkelulusan Sarjana dari Universiti Nasional Singapura dan kini mengikuti kursus di peringkat Doktor Falsafah di Universiti Teknologi Nanyang.

Workshop 10: 网上教学
本工作坊将演示在中学如何运用互联网开展华文教学。 参会者将观摩一些华文网上教学课件并讨论网上教学在理论与实践方面的若干问题和方法。

张眉锁 -- 莱佛士书院华文教师。热衷于教学改革，努力深索如何利用资讯科技及现代化教学手段激发学生学习华文的兴趣与动力，希望与同仁交流并分享这方面的心得和体会。

Workshop 11: 从素材到教材--报章新闻的阅读教学计划
报章新闻经过专业加工，可以成为目的性强、有系统的阅读教材。把素材加工成为教材的原则乃建立在以学生能力为导向的阅读教学目标和活动之上。

陈亚凤 (Tan Ah Hong) -- 国立教育学院、亚洲语言文化学部讲师，从事教育工作二十五年。曾任职中学华文教师、中学母语部门主任、教育部课程发展署德育教材编写员、教育部教育科技署高级组长。积累多年的教学经验，深信阅读是语言学习的关键技能，故提出了以报章新闻作为阅读材料的计划。

Workshop 12: Making News Relevant to Education
This is a panel discussion on how news is made in the Asean region and how it impacts and affects principles and practices in the classroom.

Distinguished scholars from the ASEAN region. The panel will comprise distinguished representatives from the Malaysian English Language Teachers Association (MELTA); the Japan Association of Language Teachers (JALT); Thai Tesol; English Teachers Association -- Taiwan; and the Korean Teachers Association (KOTESL); and last but not least, the China English Language Teachers Association.

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Workshop 13: Newspapers as an Historical Resource
History is constructed from available evidence. This workshop invites teachers to explore the use of newspapers as historical evidence and to encourage the planning of lessons which allow students to "do" history. The session is suitable for teachers at the secondary level.

Chee Min Fui is a lecturer in the Humanities & Social Studies Education Academic Group, National Institute of Education. She taught History and English in a secondary school. She is interested in the links between English language development and the development of historical understanding in students.

Workshop 14: Using Newspapers to Teach in Classroom
A 10-year-old girl saved more than 100 lives during the tsunami disaster on Boxing Day because she applied what she had learnt in a geography lesson. The newspaper report of her account taught us many things -- some warning signs of tsunamis, and some geographical principles of currents. In addition, newspaper articles can be used to teach many things - from science and mathematics to the style or writing effectively on any subject.

Hedwig Alfred is a science graduate from the University of Singapore who worked as a teacher in junior college and secondary school before joining The Straits Times as a reporter. She covered several beats in her years at the paper, specialising in education and schools. She was News Editor of The New Paper when she decided to go back to teaching, in an independent school. After having two children, she stopped fulltime work and now combines her two careers by teaching journalism and editing educational publications.

Workshop 15: E-Fiction or 'Faction': Making Reading Come Alive with IT
Newspapers and storybooks can be made to come alive for expressive reading & multiple ancillary activities with a computer. The computer's strengths can be used to enhance and not replace the process, of enjoying a good old read of newspaper articles or fictional works. Workshop participants will be introduced to ways to make reading in the class a fun and multi-faceted activity.

Janet Goerge has been in the field of education for the past 25 years, designing and conducting teaching and training programmes to meet a wide range of professional and personal needs. She is a part-time lecturer and associate trainer in communication at tertiary institutions and training organisations. Her research interests are effective communication, multi-literacy and children's literature.

Workshop 16: NEWSBASH-Integrated Science Teaching with the Newspaper
Participants will gain an insight into how the newspaper can be harnessed to develop an integrated lesson in a primary science classroom. Using a selection of newspaper texts, the session will model teaching a science lesson and connecting it with other disciplines. Following the modeling, participants will be given the opportunity to develop an integrated lesson using given newspaper articles.

Monica Sharma Menon is an experienced teacher at Stamford Primary with a keen interest in experimenting with novel ideas in her classroom. Her lessons are aimed at capturing the interests of her learners and extending their learning potential in a meaningful, practical and engaging manner. Her research interests are in the area of supported learning, literacy development and discourse analysis.

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ABOUT PRESS FOUNDATION OF SINGAPORE

The Press Foundation of Singapore, a registered charity and an Institution of Public Character, was set up in January 2003 to help build a lifelong learning community that embraces language enrichment, creativity, diversity, healthy living and sports. The first contribution of $20 million to the Foundation came from media group Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. For more information about the Foundation, please visit its website at www.pressfoundation.org.sg.