Topic 5: Analysing Information From The Media - English Notes Form II
ANALYSING INFORMATION FROM THE MEDIA
Define information
a) what is factual information
b) Explain characteristic of the factual information
a) What is non-factual information
b) Point out the characteristic of non factual information
Mention the different between factual information and non factual information
Information – are event, incidents, stories, about what is giving on the society which can be factual or nonfactual information is transmitted through the media such as Television Newspaper, Magazine, poster etc
1. Factual Information
Is the type of information which based on data has evidence, has the source of information, it is systematic argument reality
CHARACTERISTICS
Can be scientifically proved
It has source
It base on data
Argumentative reality
SystEmatic
No propagandas
Has evidence
Based on statistics
It is objective
TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCEDURES, ACTIVITIES AND GAMES
Guide the students to the full lesson procedures, activities and games for better understanding of the sub topic by following these activities:
ACTIVITY ONE:
Brainstorming.
The teacher has to brainstorm with the students on the sub topic/lesson's aspects through oral questions with answers, pair works, and group discussions of all important concepts to get students on track.
In this activity, the teacher has to use the materials prepared to brainstorm with students on the key concepts and areas of the topic.
The teacher has to brainstorm with students on the features of factual information (LINK) and how factual information from the media can be identified. These two aspects are important for students' understanding of the topic and its content.
In this stage, the teacher should also introduce students to the features of factual information such as:
Use of correct numbers and figures.
Use of percentages
Use of real people's names and places
Use of realistic terms and expressions such as due to, in fact, etc.
Use of quality and quantity adjectives like many, a lot, best, etc
Emotional and personal words such as, I think, I assume, I feel that etc are not used when presenting factual information.
Look at the following two examples:
Many students have failed English Test.
30 students out of 50 have failed English Test.
In these sentences, the first sentence expresses nonfactual information because it does not contain measurable facts like numbers. But the second sentence is factual because it contains facts; hence it clearly expresses the message.
All these characteristics characterise the language of factual information.
ACTIVITY TWO:
Teacher's Demonstration
The teacher applies his/models or examples so as to bring the topic/lesson and the students into the real or common sense of the topic/lesson.
In this activity, the teacher practically demonstrates the ways of identifying facts from several media. He/she can play the audio speech or read a short article from the newspaper and identify facts from it. The students should pay attention to the clues that are applied when analysing factual information from the media. The teacher can read the following text and demonstrate to students how to identify and analyse factual information from it:
The Text
The director for prevention in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Fadhili Mohamed, has said that the government has set a goal to eliminate cholera by 2027.
He said that they will have total cooperation from development partners like World Health Organization (WHO). He said the government through the Ministry of Health was committed to ending cholera in the islands for good through ongoing interventions mainly awareness and cleanliness of surroundings and improved sanitation.
Questions
Who is the director for prevention of cholera?
What development partner is the government going to cooperate with?
When does the Ministry of Health expect to end cholera?
Mention three ways the Ministry of Health is going to use to end cholera?
ACTIVITY THREE:
Students' Demonstration
The teacher guides students how they can apply a model like that of a teacher. The skills demonstrated by the teacher should now be demonstrated/applied by them.
Here students need to be guided on how to use given expressions, structures, vocabulary, and phrases or similar ones.
In this activity, the teacher will guide students to identify and analyse facts from selected texts/media. The teacher will give them the text to read and ask them some questions about the text:
The text:
Cholera is an infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, typically contracted from infected water supplies and causing severe vomiting and diarrhoea.
It is always linked to filthiness. Zanzibar was hit by a prolonged cholera since September 2015 to October 2016 in which more than three thousand people were infected resulting into about 60 deaths.
The problem prompted tough measures on observing health regulations which included closing down of all street snack cafés, food stalls, improved sanitation, and treatment of water, alongside mass awareness.
The government said that it will ensure increased resources and partners, strengthened health systems, and committed community participation.
The Development partners have reminded Tanzanians about hygiene including use of toilets, treated water through boiling, hand washing and keeping the environment clean.
Questions
1) Mention two pronounced symptoms of cholera.
2) What is always linked to cholera?
3) What is the meaning of 'prolonged cholera'?
4) When was Zanzibar hit by cholera?
5) How many people were infected?
6) How many people died?
7) What tough measures were taken to prevent cholera?
8) What things were ensured by the government?
9) What things were reminded to Tanzanians by development partners?
MORE TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCEDURES, ACTIVITIES & GAMES
Step One: Brainstorming and understanding the meaning of ‘information’, ‘facts’, factual’, and ‘factual’.
The teacher brainstorms with students on these terms so that the students can understand what they are going to cover in the particular topic.
Fact, by definition, is a statement that can be proved if it is true or false. The students should be reminded that not all printed, televised, or recorded materials are factual. Any given facts can either be true or false.
Step Two: How to prove that the particular information from the media is factual.
Students should be guided by the teacher on how to identify the factual information from the media. A teacher should guide the students to the understanding of the skills of identifying this factual information from the media.
Examples of Factual Information:
The words, phrases, and items that can be identified in the text with factual information:
- Statistics
- Numbers
- Names
- Dates
- Places
- Times
- Percentages
A student can prove if the information in the media is factual by asking himself/herself the following questions:
Can I prove this information?
Is the source of this information reliable or scientific proved?
Can I check it in a reference book?
All in all, factual information does not include any individual feelings or emotions.
Step Three: Introducing students to some examples of facts from a text or media.
After learning some processes, skills and ways of identifying from various texts or media, now a teacher can introduce students to the some examples of facts from a text or media:
At our school, 23 students joined ‘A’ Level Studies.
The President leaves for Mozambique tomorrow.
Our school has 650 students.
Fifty children were born on Christmas day.
I was the fifth student in my last exam.
At our school, more than 60% are from the villages.
50% of patients in hospitals are HIV positive.
Discuss with the students the vocabularies from common life aspects that will be commonly applied in this sub topic. Most vocabularies to be used are those contexts- related such as HIV/AIDS, gender, environment, child labour, President, etc.
Step Four: Provide a text and allow students to identify facts from it.
As a teacher, write a text on the blackboard and allow students to identify facts from it.
Ask the students to read the following passage.
Tanzania: The Home of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Tanzania is a country that is located in Eastern Africa. It is the home of Africa’s highest mountain peak, Mount Kilimanjaro. In the East, it is bordered by an Indian Ocean.
The country has over 45 million people. More than 90% of the Tanzanians speak Kiswahili, their national language. This country got its independence in 1961 with Mwalimu Julius Nyerere as the first Prime Minister and the President of the nation.
He is famously referred to as ‘Baba wa Taifa’ (Father of the Nation).
Comprehension Questions
After the text, students should now identify facts from the text in oral and written form. Or a teacher can provide some guiding questions like these below:
When did Tanzania get independence?
How many Tanzanians speak Kiswahili?
What is the current population of the country?
The country is bordered by ____________ in the East.
What is the nickname of the country?
Step Five: Supply various texts in groups.
To provide students with various texts on various topics. Newspapers in English language can be used because they contain various facts. They can be in groups and the texts being given in groups for discussion.
After reading the given texts, the teacher should guide students to write down facts found in selected texts. A teacher may set a limit to a number of facts they should provide per each text of a particular group.
The groups should now present the facts they have identified before the class for discussion and for other students to give their opinions. The teacher to lead this type of class discussion and guide students to the conclusion.
Step Six: Application of facts in various media.
A teacher to play a media he/she has chosen. It may be an audio media or video media. Then, students in groups can point out facts from the media the teacher has played for them. The other media to be applied can be newspapers, brochures, and magazines. A teacher is insisted to follow the appropriate steps of presenting a media.
A teacher can play a video or audio speech or even news bulletin and allow students to identify the facts from such media sources.
REFLECTION.
Ask students to reflect on the sub topic. Ask them according to what they have learnt where they can apply these reading and presentation skills. Guide them to discuss how they read news in the newspapers and they that can find out facts and opinions in them.
ASSESSMENT.
Use a tape record, video or TV to let them listen the news in English, then has them form groups to write down the facts and opinions they have listened from the news.
Also give them newspapers in English and assign them to read and find out facts and opinions in the articles or news they have read.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION.
The world we live in is not only made of facts only. The world is also full of opinions. Thus, it is important to learn these skills of identifying facts from various societal and international media. Without having these skills, people may be misled or misinformed.
Good readers use facts to determine if what they are reading is valid or logically correct. The students should be encouraged to develop abilities to read between and beyond the lines.
This is critical reading that can helps student to have high level of comprehension and problem solving skills. This type of reading also improves the students’ ability to analyse and evaluate what is read and ability to distinguish the facts from the opinions.
2. Non-factual information
Is the type of information which does not base on data, cannot be proved scientifically their no source
CHARACTERISTICS
Subjective
it does not have a source
Cannot be provided
It is not systematic
Cannot be researched
It based on propaganda
Cannot be researched
It is marked by words e.g. Perhaps, I think, maybe
The student should be able to identify non-factual information from the media. The student should be equipped with the knowledge of identifying factual and non-factual information in various contexts by using different media sources.
PREPARATION STAGE
This stage is about the preparation of the teacher before undertaking the lessons of the particular sub topic. These are all activities, procedures, materials, teaching aids, and games prepared by the teacher for teaching a sub topic:
Putting heads together.
Introducing the topic/lesson properly. Organising how students will be able to get to know what is the topic/lesson about.
It is where teacher makes sure that students are going to be in his/her train. It includes brainstorming and familiarisation of the topic/lesson with the students.
This makes students stay together with the teacher. It is at this stage students can understand what is going to be discussed in the particular topic.
Preparation of Materials.
A teacher has to decide on the teaching/learning materials he/she is going to use. A teacher should have prepared the teaching materials such as: newspapers (and other texts, of course), radio, and TV.
These materials are the teaching media that should be carefully and efficiently applied to the students as they try to find out non-factual information from them.
Target Practice.
Show them/Guide them to the practice of the functions of the sub topic. A teacher has to show or guide students to the target practice of the grammatical functions of the sub topic. He/she has to prepare a text on both factual and non-factual information as his/her model.
Then the teacher provides his/her model text and guide students to study it and point out opinions.
TEXT (Patterns and structures)
A teacher should have prepared the sample examples of the sentences that show how statements with factual and non-factual information are formed and how do they look like, that's, the acceptable sentence structures and expressions such as: Many Tanzanians might participate in the coming elections and All students will probably pass the exam next year.
Context-Based Practice.
A teacher leads students to the discussion on how the target grammatical functions practised earlier can be applied or integrated into the contexts and situations.
The students are guided by the teacher to apply the learnt skills in relevant contexts and situations like school, home, in the news like newspapers, radio, and TV.
Vocabulary Building Practice.
At this time, teacher discusses with the students on the vocabularies and phrases to apply in the already mentioned contexts and situations. In this sub topic/lesson the most commonly applied vocabularies are: View, might, probably, may, possibly, opinion, and likely.
TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCEDURES, ACTIVITIES AND GAMES
Guide the students to the full lesson procedures, activities and games for better understanding of the sub topic by following these activities:
Activity One:
In this activity, the teacher introduces the topic and the words, phrases, and expressions that show non-factual information or opinions. These are the expressions that make it easy to identify non-factual information.
While a fact is a statement that can be proven true of false, untrue fact is a statement that cannot be proven or that can be proven untrue or false.
Non-factual information is sometimes called opinion statement in which someone tries to convince someone else.
Examples:
Tanzania is the largest country in East Africa (true fact - can be proven true by checking the reference books or maps)
Tanzania is probably the poorest country in East Africa (untrue fact - can be proven false, that's, no reference will show that fact)
Yams are possibly bad for breakfast (untrue fact- can be proven false. There's an opinion signal word 'possibly' to show that the information given is not factual but based on speaker's or writer's opinion)
In my opinion, Tanzania is the best country in Africa (untrue fact as it is introduced by an opinion signal 'in my opinion')
Discussion of the Opinion Signal Words.
These are words that show the reader that the information conveyed is not factual or is just an opinion. They are:
Believe
Possibly/probably
Least/most
Feel
My point of view
Always/never/ none
In my opinion
Other words are:
Advice/suggest
Think
My impression is...
Best/worst
Should/should not
May/may not
Activity Two:
This is an activity in which the teacher provides a text for the students to read. A teacher writes a text on the board that include factual and non-factual information with above opinion signal words included and at the end students should be asked to identify statements (with signal words) that convey non-factual information and those with factual information.
A Text:
My Country
Tanzania is the coolest country on African continent. In my point of view, all European tourists come to Tanzania to experience the best sceneries and other unbelievable tourist attractions.
It's one of the countries in East African Community which has 5 member States including Tanzania. I believe no tourist can regret visiting Tanzania.
Tanzanians should always feel proud of their best country on earth! The visitors are strongly advised to visit this country.
After the above teacher’s model, students in groups or pairs are required to identify non-factual information from the text studied.
This activity may depend on the choice of the teacher on how he/she is going to arrange and guide students to perform it.
For example, one group can identify factual statements and the other identifies non-factual statements from the same text (the above text- a teacher’s model). Each group should discuss and list five statements.
A teacher can draw a table like this below to help students work properly:
GROUP A | GROUP B |
| Factual opinions | Non-factual opinions |
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) | (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) |
After identifying factual and non-factual opinions from the text, students can finish up their works by checking their answers.
Activity Three:
Presentation of factual and non-factual information found in the given text. The teacher now has to guide his/her students to present their group works (their findings and answers) for the class discussion.
Here the tasks may be to underline or pick the words, phrases, expressions or statements that show that the information conveyed is factual or non-factual one.
The group works may be presented in two ways. One, the groups may present their works by putting them on the school/classroom noticeboard for others to see.
Or they can present their works orally before the class for other students to contribute and comment on their works.
Activity Four
Identifying factual and non-factual information from the Audio-visual media. These teaching media are carefully selected by the teacher.
These materials are like newspapers, recorded audio and video speeches, news broadcast from radio and TV, and video tapes. Then, students are assigned to point out factual and non-factual information from these particular media.
It is a good idea if these media are not entirely texts so that they engage students in another media form apart from the text.
REFLECTION
Factual information and non-factual information are available in our societies. Ask students how they find or experience factual and non-factual information at their home, neighbourhood or in the society in general.
Ask them to tell when they came across factual information or non-factual information in their society, is it from their friends, classmates or parents?
ASSESSMENT
A teacher uses or applies the various assessment tools such as oral questions and answers, assignments and exercises in order to check if the student is able to identify non-factual information from the media.
Assessment 1: Give students a text or audio-visual recorded tape
As a teacher, give students a short text or various texts and ask them to identify the words, phrases, or expressions that give out non-factual information in the text.
A teacher may also play an audio or video and ask students to respond to the questions asked by the teacher by using that particular media.
Assessment 2: Conduct a Debate-Like Discussion
Write a topic on the board. For example, a topic may be like this "Early marriages".
Guide students to form two groups. First group write the facts about the topic and the second group write the untrue facts about the topic. Allow them to discuss and share the opinions in groups. Draw a chart like this below. Allow then to contribute a debate.
FIRST GROUP | SECOND GROUP |
Assessment 3: Let students Play a Game
Guide students to form groups and tell them that they are going to determine which statement is factual or non-factual (or opinion). Prepare 10 sentences; 5 sentences are about facts, and other 5 are about opinions. Mix these sentences.
Throw a coin to get a starting group. Write the first statement on the board and allow the starting group to respond. There will be a winning group or draw.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
Ask students how they get rid of non-factual information they encounter in their society. Guide them to discuss the ways to make sure the non-factual information they get is properly handled without misleading others. In short, a teacher can discuss with students on how to prove any information they receive and prove if they are either factual or non-factual one.
NOTE:
These stages explained above are not necessarily covered in a single lesson of single or double period.
Remember that this is the guide for teaching the whole sub topic which has periods ranging from 6 to 20.
So, the teacher's task is to divide these stages according to the total number of periods for a particular sub topic.