NEVER having been exposed to Newspaper in Education before, about 100 boisterous Year 5 pupils of SK Taman Keramat 1, Kuala Lumpur, enjoyed their first taste of NiE recently.
The school had invited Star-NiE to give a student workshop and education reporter (and ex-English teachers) Lim Yuet Suan, who conducted the workshop, was pleasantly surprised at the level of student participation and eagerness.
With questions like “Teacher, is this what you want?” or “Teacher, is this alright?” the pupils were intent on getting things right.
The first activity was for the students to create a collage about themselves, cutting and pasting words and pictures reflecting their personalities.
However, getting acquainted with the thick newspaper took a little longer than expected. (For many, it was the first time they were holding an English newspaper).
Things moved quickly when there was a promise of a prize for the fastest collage. The winner was pint-sized Farhana who happened to be the best pupil in Year 5.
The next activity was to cut out a picture and label as many objects as possible in it. The pupils particularly liked this activity as their vocabulary, spelling skills and ability to pick out objects were put to the test. It was by no means an easy task as English is not widely used in the school.
At last it was time to clear up, and one particular group had everyone in stitches when it was found they had conveniently pushed all their cut-up newspapers under the table, which was covered with a tablecloth.
Boys will be boys.?
School head Ruhayah Abdul Rahman thanked Star-NiE for holding the workshop, saying that it was a treat for the pupils and a pleasant diversion from the norm.
Teacher Normala Zainuddin said that the students were now looking forward to more such lessons. “Our teachers will try to conduct NiE on a regular basis since the pupils have become motivated by the workshop,” she said. – BY Y.S. LIM
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