THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ‘BALITAAN’ IN TEACHING CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

NOEMI CHARLYN C. BUTIU

The goal of every teacher in imparting knowledge to the learners is to effectively accomplish the daily objectives of their lesson. The outcome of their assessment and evaluation of the students in a particular lesson often disappoints them because less than 75% understand the lesson very well. This disappointment encourages the teachers to identify more effective strategies in teaching their lesson.

In the researcher’s school setting, Araling Panlipunan teachers commonly require students to conduct news reporting or balitaan before delivering the lesson proper. Balitaan is usually a five-minute sharing of current news which is associated to the lesson proper.

This activity is intended to serve as a way to make students aware of current events. Teaching through a current events lens enables teachers to cover a wide range of subjects and connect to all areas of the curriculum, developing informed citizens and lifelong news readers.

Additionally, incorporating current events into the curriculum helps students (Hoelz, 2012)

• build language, vocabulary, reading comprehension, critical thinking, problem solving, oral expression, and listening skills.

• understand the importance of people, events, and issues in the news.

• pay attention to the news they see and hear outside of school.

• see a “writing model” by which students can learn by imitating the clear, concise style of news writing.

Furthermore, teaching current events can open up communication between students and parents. The article states, “Students are often eager to emulate their parents’news reading behaviors, and talking about the news is one way for parents to engage students in adult conversation.”

For 21st century learners, teaching current events creates plenty of opportunities for cooperative learning, classroom discussions and debates, and purposeful follow-up writing that will make them busy and actively participate in the discussion. The fiveminute news reporting is hypothesized to help the students understand the lessons in Araling Panlipunan because they will develop a sense of awareness in the current local and national concerns of the country because they need to listen to the news every day. The learners are also expected to develop a positive attitude towards being a responsible citizen in involving themselves in critiquing the current issues and inculcate in their minds that for every government endeavor they can help in their own little way.

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The author is SST III at Pampanga High School