News Commentary Worksheets
Hong Kong Dollar Commemorative Banknote
Teacher guideline
A. Aims:
Through this activity, students can:
1. organize news content systematically.
2. apply related economic concepts to news issue and daily observation.
3. go further for inquiry.
B. Learning Process:
After finishing the activity, teachers should:
1.
2.
3.
4.
assess students’ work.
evaluate students’ performance.
give feedback: discuss/analyze students’ work, point out how students can
improve.
modulate the worksheets according to students’ progress.
C. Use of worksheet:
Designed worksheet is only for reference, teachers can modulate the content of
the worksheets according to students’ progress. Besides, teachers should
emphasize more on the “issue inquiry” part and make sure students have
enough time to finish this part.
D. Citation and References
Teachers should emphasize on the importance of citation. Students are
required to cite every reference at the end of each piece of news commentary.
News Commentary Worksheet_Banknotes- Teacher Guideline
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E. News Summary
News
： Banknote rush hits a sour note
Source
: The Standards
Date
: July 15, 2008
Abstract
: People queued outside Bank of China branches
for buying
commemorative banknotes bearing the Olympic logo.
Related concept
： Opportunity Cost (Incl. full cost)
No. of Lesson
： Two consecutive lessons
required
Target students
： Students who have little or even no experience in writing news
commentary before.
Remarks
： This piece of news is quite simple, only a few economic concepts
are involved. This commentary can serve as a stepping stone for
economic analysis and inquiry.
F. Teaching Procedures:
1.
Before the lesson:
Students are strongly recommended to study the news beforehand. They can
highlight some crucial words that are related to economics or they have come
across in economics (e.g. queue/limited supply etc.) when they are reading the
news article. This helps students prepare for the economic analysis.
2.
During the lesson:
Use of worksheet
Part
A. Comprehension
Q. no.
(1-3)
Reminder/Aims

Through some simple Q&A questions, students
can focus on the main ideas of this piece of
news.
B. Economic Analysis
(4-6)

Students are required to use the concept of
“opportunity cost” in analyzing the news. This
helps students apply economic concepts to the
daily observation.
C. Issue Inquiry
(7-9)

This part includes three inquiry skills:

Q.7: Making assumption

The hypothetical situations/examples can
consolidate
their
discussion
in
the
economic analysis.
News Commentary Worksheet_Banknotes- Teacher Guideline
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
Q.8 Sharing experience

This part encourages students’
participation. This helps students recall
their economic reasoning in making
decision.

Q.9 Suggesting solution & pros and cons
 This part encourages students to suggest
some possible ways to solve the problem.
They are also required to think of the pros
and cons of the methods they recommend.

Teachers should remind students to provide
reasons on Economic basis
3.
After the lesson：

A guideline on writing a news commentary is prepared for students.


Teachers can make use of this worksheet if necessary. Please refer to
Annex I in teachers’ version.
Students need to prepare a 300-word news commentary with reference to
the worksheets. (The number of words required is subject to the ability of
the students.)
Teachers can assess students’ work and give feedbacks to facilitate students’
improvement.
News Commentary Worksheet_Banknotes- Teacher Guideline
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