ENGLISH 2 Quarter 1 Week 7: An Analytical Learner

Subject: English

| Educational level: Year II

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Language: English

Content type: Lesson Plan

Provided by: DepEd and E-turo

Submitted by: jfelizardo

Last updated: September 10, 2009, 3:17 am

Date Posted: May 15, 2009, 5:36 am

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QUARTER 1 : LEARNING TO KNOW
Week 7 : An Analytical Learner

I. OBJECTIVES

A. Listening/Speaking
1. Listen to a text and take note of the similarities and differences in a character's

reaction to a proclamation.
2. State the role education plays in improving man's quality of life

B. Reading
Distinguish facts from opinions expressed in a given text

C. Writing

Write a letter to the school paper asking for action that will address a current school

problem or issue.

D. Grammar
Use noun clauses correctly in expressing opinions and taking a stand about a problem

or an issue

E. Literature
Assess the relevance of what they learn in school to their development as individuals

F. Values
Point out the importance of voicing out one's opinions and becoming instrumental to

instituting positive changes in the community

II. SUBJECT MATTER

      A. Selections
            1.   "A Country Boy Quits School" by Lao Hsiang
            2.    An excerpt from the 2002 Curriculum September 6, 2001
            3.   "Unwise DECS Curriculum Merger Plan" by Antonio Calipjo Go (Letter to the

Editor, Philippine Daily Inquirer, Nov. 2, 2001)

      B. Functions   -   Expressing opinions, taking a stand
            Form          -   Noun clauses in complex sentences.
            Output       -    A letter to the school paper editor

C. Instructional Aids
Newspapers from which current problems and issues may be identified (To be

provided by the teacher)

       D. References
             Laurente, Felipe T. 1976. Insights 2. Quezon City: JMC Press
             Tayao, Ma. Lourdes G., et al. 1999. Meeting My Needs for English II. Quezon City:

Rex Printing Company, Inc.
Wiener, Harvey S. and Charles Bazerman, 1991. Basic Reading Skills Handbook

(2nd Ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

E. Evaluation
Writing a letter to the editor stating one's opinions and stand on a school issue

or problem using noun clauses in complex sentences correctly.

III. PROCEDURE

Literature

A. Preparation

Were you able to guess what the story is about based on the two lines I read to

you yesterday? How did the title help you make the correct guess?

Let us check if you can recall some of the details about the story you read.

               Check-up Quiz (N.B. Expected answers are enclosed in parenthesis.)
                1.   How old was the country boy?
                2.   At what age were children required to go to school? (6 & above)
                3.   How many books did the boy bring home on his first day in school? (8)
                4.   How much did the books cost? ($1.20)
                5.   What were the first two lessons in the reader book? (This is mama
                6.   and This is papa)
                7.   What things did the teacher say the book contained (make believe things)
                8.   What did the boy and some of his classmates decide to hold? (a tea party)
                9. Who was the last of the boy's relatives who got so upset about the book's

contents? (the grandmother)
10. What was the final decision of the boy's father. (have the boy stop going to

school)

Motivation

              1.   In your notebook, list down at least three problems in our school.
              2.   Rank them in a scale of 1 to 3 where 1 is the most serious and 3 in the least serious problem.
              3.   Pair off in 5 minutes, share your answers with your partner and explain to                     him/her your ranking.

Speaking

B. Development

Activity 1. Group Discussion
1. Let us divide the class into 6 groups with each group representing a particular

character in the story.

2. In 10 minutes, discuss with your groupmates the character's reaction/s to the

proclamation as well as to the lessons and activities the students had in school.

(By drawing lots, the teacher will assign a character to each of the 6 groups. The

characters to be assigned are: the grandfather, the grandmother, the father, the

mother, the boy and the other schoolchildren as one, and the

relatives of the other schoolchildren also as one. Instruct students to assign

specific roles to each group member, e.g. facilitator, recorded, summarizer,

reporter, artists, etc.)

3. Record the proceedings of your group discussion in the form of a reaction map.

Do this on a

Manila paper.

action 1 action 2

action 2, etc.

                     Legend:
                             Character    - the target character
                              Reaction     - a descriptive word or phrase specifying the character's

behavior or feeling.
Action - a phrase or brief statement stating an action taken as an

effect of a reaction.

Speaking/Listening

Activity 2. Group Presentation

Present your group output to the class.
(Instruct student to listen carefully to the presentations and to take note of similarities

and differences in the characters' reactions.)

        Activity 3. Synthesis and Processing of Group Activity
              1.   What is common in the reactions of the different characters?
              2.   Was it a normal reaction? Explain your answer.
        3.   Could the negative reaction of the characters have been avoided? How?
              4.   What could the government and the school teacher have done?
              5.    In what ways does education affect your life?
              6.   How do you maximize the use of the things you learn in school to develop

yourself?
7. The story talks about a serious problem in the educational system. In what

manner was this presented?
8. In a scale of 1 to 5 as the highest, how would you rate the anecdotes or the little

stories within the story that told us about the boy experiences, on the following

                    points: a. humor; b. exaggeration
               9. Is the story just frying to entertain the readers? What else is it trying to do?
             10. What do you call that type of story that actually talks of a serious topic presents

it in a light and humorous manner?

B. Closure
Let us make a graffiti of your ideas about school and education. Add your honest idea to either of the following:

1. School ____________________________________________________ e.g.

School can be boring.

2. Education __________________________________________________ e.g.

Education makes a nation.

(Teacher post a manila paper on the wall and asks students to do the graffiti during

their free time.)

Reading

A. Preparation
Distinguish Facts from Opinions

Following is a list of statements taken from the selection. Put a check (√) before

the items that tell what really happened, the facts; and a cross (x) before the items that

make statements of belief, judgment or feeling, an opinion. Underline the clue words in

the statement of opinions.

        1. On his first day at school the boy came back with eight books.
        2. The books cost a dollar and twenty cents.
        3. A boy in the country gets to be at least half as useful as a qrownup by the time he is 8

             or 9 years old.
        4. Classes don't start until nine. It's only five thirty.
        5. One book ought to be enough to start with.
        6. The books cost so much considering that there are only 3 to 4 characters on a page.
        7. The boy came back from school at three thirty just as his father was going back to

             work.
        8. The price of the books had a great deal to do with their temper.
        9. It couldn't be said that the boy was no diligent.
      10. He reviewed his lesson everyday after school.

B. Development
Read the following headlines and be able to tell which ones express a fact and

which ones express an opinion. Underline the words which signal that the headline is an

opinion.

1. a. RP's all out support US-led war pays off
b. RP support US-led war

2. a. House approves 2002 budget
b. House approves bloated 200s budget

        3. a. Washington Basilica looks like Quiapo
             b. Faithful
             c. Flock at Washington Basilica

4. a. Business should take a look at itself
b. Business grows by 5%

5. a. GMA reports to the nation
b. GMA gives positive report to the nation

REMEMBER

Facts are statements that tell what really happened or what really is the case. It is

based on direct evidence and known by actual experience or observation.

Opinions are statements of belief, judgment or feeling. They show what someone

thinks about a subject. They are somebody's views and are not facts.

Some words give an opinion by evaluating or making a judgment, eg. safe, clever, good, dangerous
Some expressions clearly state that an opinion will follow; I believe, I think, In my opinion, I feel, I suggest, etc.
Some words show that some doubt may exist about a statement. They show that statement is not always true or that other opinions are possible, e.g. probably, likely, sometimes, etc.

Activity 2. Distinguishing Facts from Opinions in a text

Read Texts A and B. In your notebook, list down the facts and the opinions

expressed in both. Write only key ideas. Follow this format.

TEXT FACTS OPINIONS SUPPORTING IDEAS
a. paragraph 1

            paragraph 2
       b. paragraph 1
            paragraph 2
            paragraph 3
            paragraph 4

Text A: "An Excerpt from the 2002 Curriculum"

1. The Revised Philippine Development Plan of 2004 mandates the Department of

Education, Culture and Sports to institute changes that will make the curriculum more

relevant to student's needs. These reforms are meant to address three objectives:

a. to make the curriculum more learner-centered;
b. to make it more responsive to developments in the field of education as well as to

the demands of the market; and
c. to ensure continuing evaluation

2. The 2002 curriculum includes only five subjects: Mathematics, Science, Filipino,

English and Makabayan which includes, Sining, Kultura, Musika, Physical Education,

Produktibong Pamumuhay, Edukasyong Pantahanan at Pangka-buhayan, Heograpiya,

Kasaysayan, Sibika, Araling Panlipunan, Technology and Home Economics, Health,

and Character Education.

Text B: "Unwise DECS Curriculum Merger Plan"

Antonio Calipjo Go

1. The Department of Education, Culture and Sports plan to merge three non-core subjects

into one in its New Basic Education Curriculum slated for implementation next year is

both unwise and impractical. Relegating the teaching of values to what seems to be a

token concession or a mere afterthought, at a tide when it really needs to be reinforces

and emphasized, sends the wrong message to our students that character and morality

are not that important after all. We have the disastrous effect of too much learning in

people without the concomitant tempering balm of compassion – they become

politicians, they become corrupt, and then they become mad.

2. There is in fact a greater need to lengthen the time a student who is supposed to being

school, both in terms of extending the daily schedule and of changing, for example, the

present four-year high school course to five years. The solution really lies in the judicious

management of the little time that is allotted to the student in the school.

3. What is more important is the need to institute immediate and meaningful reforms in the

area of textbooks, a large percentage of which I have discovered to be substantially

defective. Faulty textbooks institutionalize mental mediocrity by teaching what are false or

incorrect.

4. The subject Values Education assumes the guiding and counseling role, which many of

today's parents have relegated to the schools. It is the one redeeming factor in the present

curriculum, which tends to promote the ascendancy of mind over heart, mental acuity

over spiritual fortitude. Keeping in mind that character is the end of life, we must lobby

for the retention of Values Education as a full-time sovereign subject. We should also

demand that reforms be made in the system of textbook development, evaluation and

selections to ensure quality education for all schoolchildren.

   Comprehension Questions
   1. What is the topic of Text A? of Text B?
   2. Which of the two texts is factual?
   3. Which one expresses opinion?
   4. What is the stand of the writer on the issue?
   5. What is the objective of the letter to the editor?
   6. What technique did he use to meet his objective?
   7. Does the series of causes and effects help the writer in proving his point? Explain your

answer.
8. What other techniques can help you express and support your opinions?

Language
There is a way by which opinions or ideas about a certain topic can be expressedly

indicated. You can do this by following a pattern of putting together words in a sentence as

shown in these activities.

Activity 1. Expressing personal views using opinions, clue words and expressions.

1. Go back to the sentences identified as Opinions in Activity 1 of the Reading Lesson.
2. Expand those sentences by adding clause that will:

2.1 specify the person/s who has/have particular opinion; and
2.2 use appropriate opinion clue words or expressions, which you can get from our

generalization on pp. 5 and 6. Example: A boy in the country gets to be at least

half as useful as a grownup by the time he is 8 or 9 years old.
Answer: The elders believed that the boy gets to be at least half as useful as a

grownup by the time he is 8 or 9 years old.

          What did we add to the original statement?
            What pattern did we use to express an opinion?
                   S   +   V   +   that   +   Noun clause

            Using the same sample sentence, we can also say:
            I believe that a boy ... 8 or 9 years old.
            The family thought that a boy. . . 8 or 9 years old
            Grandmother's opinion is that a boy ... 8 or 9 years old.

       Activity 2.
       1. Pair off.
       2. Study and compare your lists of opinions in the table you did in Activity 2 of Reading

Lesson.
3. Using the key ideas you listed down, construct sentences expressing opinions just like

what you did in the previous activity. Try to vary the opinion clue words or

expressions you use.

Pre-writing

Activity 3. Expressing Opinions about a School Issue

1. Form groups of four.
2. Get your notebook and go back to the list of problems and issues in our school

which you identified and ranked before our discussion of the selection “A Country

            Boy Quits School."
       3. Share the ideas in your respective lists.
       4. Choose one and brainstorm on it. Be sure to take down notes as you discuss.
       5. Take turns in giving your personal views and opinions about your chosen issue or

problem. Then make suggestions as to how the issue may be effectively addressed.

Writing
In the previous activities, we were able to do several things.
(N.B. Teacher should elicit the following from the students.)

       1. We went over and studied a sample letter to the editor.
       2. We distinguished facts from opinions.
       3. We studies a way of effectively expressing our opinions.
       4. We identified school issues, expressed our opinions about them, and suggested ways

by which those issues may be addressed.

     Activity 4.
       1. What is presented in the opening sentence of paragraph one?
       2. What do the other sentences in the paragraph express?
       3. What does the writer do in the 3 paragraph?
       4. How does he bring his letter to a close in the 4 paragraph?

      Activity 5. Writing a letter to the school paper editor
     1. Break your or group into 2 pairs.
       2. Work cooperative with your partners. Use the notes you took down in the previous

activity (Activity 3 of the Language Lesson) to develop a 3 or 4 paragraph letter to

            the editor of your school paper.
       3. Keep the following in mind.
            3.1 The issue or problem must be clearly presented in your opening paragraph
            3.2 Your opinions, strongly supported by facts, should all address the issue your

presented.
3.3 The development of your thoughts must be logical and clear. You can ensure this

by using certain writing techniques lie: giving example. Giving supporting details,

showing cause-effect relations, etc.

IV. EVALUATION

         1. Exchange works with the other pair in your original group.
           2. Read and rate their work according to the following criteria.
                                                                                                         POINTS
        Issue is clearly presented.                                                                   3
        Opinions are clear and supported by facts.                                          5
         Ideas are developed one at a time in a logical manner.                  5
        Use of the English language is correct and effective.                             5
        Work follows the conventions of a letter to the editor.                          2
        (There's no address, no date, no opening greetings nor closing,     (20 points)
        but the name and address of the letter writer are provided.)

A Country Boy Quits School
Lao Hsiang
(Translated by Chi-Chen Wang)

A boy in the country gets to be at least half as useful as a grownup by the time he is eight or nine years old. He can weed in the spring or ti7e up harvest bundles in summer: he is able to pass bricks when a house is built or open and shut the furrows to the irrigation ditches. This, being the case, who'd want to send him to school? But an official proclamation had been issued in the city to the effect that unless a boy over six years of age.

When they found the cause of her distress, Father said, "We'll have the boy ask his teacher whose mama this really is. Maybe it is the teacher's mama."

The next morning before dawn, Mother woke up her son and made him go to school and ask the teacher for a solution to the problem that had bothered her all night. Arriving at school, the boy found that it was Sunday and that there would be no school. Moreover, the teacher had drunk more wine than was good for him the night before and was still sound asleep. The boy told Mother the circumstances, which made her curse the institution of Sunday.

At general assembly on Monday, the teacher said gently to his charges, "One who wants to learn must not be afraid to ask questions. Anyone who has any question should raise it at once, to his teacher at school or to his parents at home." Thereupon our hero stood up and asked, (the reader says) "This is Mama." Whose is she, really?” The teacher answered even more gently than before. "It is the mama of anyone who happens to read the book, do you understand now?"

"No," the boy said. This embarrassed the teacher a little but he said patiently, "Why don't you understand?"

"Baldy is also reading this, but his mama is not like this lady," the boy said. "Baldy's mother is lame in one arm and has only one eye," Hsiao Li said.

"And you have no mama at all. She died a long time ago," Baldy said in self-defense.

"Don't talk among yourselves" the teacher said, knocking on the blackboard with his ferule. "We are going to have the lesson plan today: This is Papa. Look, everyone. This is Papa, the man with spectacles and patted hair."

After school, Mother was still warned about who the picture woman was, but when she heard her son reiterating "this is Papa," she did not dare to pursue the question, being afraid that her husband might want to know when she'd found a new papa for their son. She was puzzled more than ever and wondered why the book insisted on presenting people with papas and mamas when they had them already.

A few days later, the boy learned two new sentences: "The ox tends the fire; the horse eats noodles." He read the text over thousands of times but he could not get over the feeling that there was something queer about the assertions. They had an ox and a horse and he had himself taken them out to tend the hills, but he had never once seen a horse eat noodles and he was sure that their ox could not tend the fire. But could the book be wrong? Since he could not answer these questions, he obeyed his teacher's injunction of the week before and asked his father about it. Father said, "I once went to a foreign circus in the city and saw a horse that could ring a bell and fire a gun. Perhaps the book is talking about such horses and oxen." It in our circumstances. You' 11 be very ungrateful if you don't study hard and learn something."

The boy took his father's instructions to heart and set out for school the next day at dawn. When he got there, however, the porter said to him in a low voice, "Classes don't start till nine. It's now only five thirty. You are too early. The teacher is asleep and the classroom isn't unlocked. You had better go home now." The boy looked around the yard and found that he was indeed the only student there; he listened outside the teacher's window and heard him snoring; he walked around the lecture room and found no open door. There was nothing for him to do but run back home. Grandfather was sweeping the yard when he suddenly caught sight of the boy. He threw down his broom and said. "What is the use of trying to make a scholar of a boy whom Heaven and Earth intended for the hoe? Look at him. it's only the second day and he is playing truant already!" The boy was just about to explain when his mother gave him two resounding slaps and made him tend the fire for breakfast. Needless to say, the price of the books that they had to buy had a great deal to do with their temper.

When the boy went to school again after breakfast, the teacher was already on the platform and was holding forth on the subject of being late to school. To illustrate his point, he told a story about a little fairy that waited by the wayside with a bag of gold to reward the earliest boy. Our boy was enchanted with the story and the words "fairy" gold" but he could not figure out just what was meant by "earliest."
In the afternoon, our young hero came back from school at three thirty, just as his father was going back to work after his midday nap. Luckily his father happened to see the other boys also coming home from school and the teaching laking a stroll with his “dog stick," and concluded that his son was not playing truant. He kept wondering, however, about the strange ways of these foreign schools.

The first six days of school were taken up with the first lesson in the reader, with the text. “This is mama." It couldn't be said that the boy was not diligent He reviewed his lesson every day after school, reading over and over again "This is Mama," until dusk. With his left hand holding the book open and his right following the characters, he read on faithfully and conscientiously if afraid that the characters would fly away if he did not fix his entire attention on them.

But every time he reads "This is Mama," his mother's heart would jump. On the sixth day of school she could stand it no longer. She snatched the book from him and said, “Let me see who your mama is!" Thinking that his mother was really eager to learn, the boy pointed to the accompanying picture and said, This is Mama- the lady with leather shoes, bobbed hair, and long dress." One glance at the picture and Mother burst out crying. Grandfather, Grandmother, and Father were frightened, thinking that she might have become possessed by some evil spirits. At first, she only cried and would not say anything when they asked her what the matter was, but when they persisted, she said. “Where did the boy get that vampire-like mama?"

Grandmother, however, did not agree with father's explanation. She said, "The ox must be the Ox-Head Devil King and the horse must also be a demon. Don't you see that all wear human clothing? They haven't changed their heads if human heads yet, but that alone will take to live hundred a years." The old lady then went on to tell stories about demons that could command the wing and summon rain; the result was that the boy dreamed that night of being seized by a winged-wolf demon and woke up crying.

The following day, the boy asked his teacher "Is this ox that can tend the fire a foreign ox ?"

The teacher laughed and said, "You are too literal! The book has only made those things up. It is not true that oxen can really tend the fire or that horses really eat noodles."

The explanation cleared up at one stroke many things in the book that had puzzled the boy. He had read about such things as bread, milk, park, ball, and the like, which he had never seen and which had made him wonder, it dawned upon him that the book dealt only with make believe things.

One day, the boy and his schoolmates decided that they would play tea party as they had read about it in their reading. They agreed that each would contribute twenty cents so that they could send to the city for oranges, apples, chocolates, and things. Our boy knew, of course, that he would be only inviting a beating to ask money for buying sweetmeats. Grandmother always mumbled that school would bankrupt them yet, whenever he had to buy a sheet of writing paper. But be could not resist the glowing picture that his book gave of the tea party, and decided to help himself to the money that his mother had just got from selling more of her jewels and which she had set aside for buying cabbage seedlings.

Grandfather had been suffering for a long time from a chronic cough, and someone had hold him that orange peels would give him relief. He kept on asking what orange peels were like and where they could be gotten. Thinking that this was a chance for him to ingratiate himself into his grandfather's favor, the boy said, "We are getting some oranges?" Grandfather asked. "What are you getting oranges for?"

We want to hold a tea party," the boy said.

"What is a tea party?"

"It means to get together and eat things and drink tea," the boy said. "It is in the book

"What kind of book is this that is either making animals talk or tea people to eat and play? No wonder the boys have become lazy and choosy about their food since they went to school" Grandmother said.

"And it is always about foreign food. There doesn't seem to be any corn stew or bean curd with onions in it." Grandfather said.

"Remember, son, to bring back some orange peels for your grandfather's cough," said Mother.

"Where did you get the money to buy oranges?" asked Father.

"The teacher - "but before the boy could finish making up his story, they heard Badly, who live in the next dwelling to the east, suddenly begin to cry. Then they heard his father shout, "We can't even afford salt, and yet you want to buy candy."

This was followed by the voice of Hsiao Lin's uncle, who live in the west. "I let you buy books with my earned-money because it is for your good, but I haven't any money for you to buy sweetmeats. You can ask whoever you want to hold tea parties for it."

The truth came out. The boy's father aimed a kick at him, but fortunately the table intervened. He only upset the table and broke a few rice bowls. Grandfather was of the opinion th at it might be better to take the boy out of school, but Grandmother did not want her son to go to jail. After long arguments, it was decided that they would let him try school for a few more days.

After this Humiliation, our young scholar vowed to study harder and to recover his lost prestige in the family. Everyday after school, he read without stopping until it was dark. He did not realize that the source of his troubles lay in the textbook itself.

Grandmother had been feeling that her son was no longer as close to her as before his
marriage and that her position in the family had been gradually slipping. Now as she
listened to the boy reading aloud his latest lessons, she heard him say, "In my family I have a papa, a mama, a brother, and a sister," but nothing about Grandfather and Grandmother. She became very indignant and shouted. "So this house is now all yours and I have no longer a share in it!" She was mad with fury. She picked up a brick and broke their iron pot into pieces.

“Don't be angry any more!" the boy's father said. "We won't let him read this kind of book any longer. I would rather go to jail."

And so the next day, Father discharged a day laborer and the teacher marked the boy's absence in the record book at school.

VOCABULARY

       Give the meaning of the italicized words.
       1.   shut the furrows
       2.   playing truant
       3.   to ingratiate himself
       4.   after his humiliation

DISCUSSION
1. Describe the setting of the story
2. What prompted the country boy to go to school?

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