When a story appears on the news pages of the Bangkok Post or any other English-language newspaper, the main idea is right at the top. The most important facts are in the headline and the first (lead) paragraph. The details follow. The story is not told in the order in which it took place.
But today, you’ll have a chance to read a rather unusual news story then retell and act it out in the order in which it happened – that’s called chronological order.
Teachers: This lesson gives you a chance to draw students’ attention to the style of news writing by focusing on the difference between the way the story is told as news and the sequence of events as they actually occur.
Let the students work in small groups first to list the events, characters and locations (see the student notes below). You will then have to coordinate with the whole class to plan the re-enactment.
Here are some suggestions: 1) You might want to let the students choose the actors for the various roles. 2) Rather than 50 recipients of the handouts, suggest a representative number depending on your class size. 3) You may want to choose a few students to write the necessary dialogue. If your students are not comfortable doing the re-enactment in English, let them do it in Thai. The important thing is that they read and understand in English.
After the enactment has taken place in your classroom, have students re-read the news story noting which part of their enactment was the main idea for news purposes. You will also want to check that students know who Robin Hood was and what he was famous for.
Students: Here’s what to do: Your teacher will give you an interesting news story to read. The steps below will lead you to a re-enactment of the story for some fun in your classroom.
- Once you have read and understood the story, work in a small group to list the events in the order in which they happened.
- Make a list of the people involved.
- List the various places where parts of the story happened.
- Then work with your whole class to write a scenario which will include: the various scenes (places); the characters and events in each scene; brief notes about what people will say.
Have fun bringing this story to life.
OUR STORY FROM THE BANGKOK POST
B9m windfall is Robin Hood's downfall
Manop Thip-osod
Preecha Jaiboon became instantly rich when he stumbled on two money bags containing 9.5 million baht in cash.
With a heart of gold, he gave away some of the money to the poor in his neighbourhood. Two days later, he and a friend landed behind bars when police paid a visit and informed them the money they found belong to a bank.
Mr Preecha, a security guard at a Thai-Chinese association, found two bags at the Suriwong expressway entrance as he was cycling on Monday. Opening them up, he was shocked to find they were stuffed with cash. He then took the bags to his friend Somchai Insuwan, also a security guard, for safe-keeping.
The two bags of money had fallen from a Securicor van without the knowledge of its driver, Uthen Wong-in. He told police the van's lock malfunctioned and the back door swung open.
Overwhelmed with the unexpected jackpot, Mr Preecha went to Wat Muang Khae the same day and gave 50,000 baht each to four monks. He also handed out cash, from 300 baht to 1,000 baht, to about 50 people he met at the temple.
“I donated some money to the temple because I used to stay there and lived on rice from the monks,” the 50-year-old Preecha said.
But while Mr Preecha and Mr Somchai were on their spending spree, Mr Uthen was languishing behind bars at Bang Rak police station on a charge that he stole the money.
The two security guards could have escaped arrest with the fortune had they not played Robin Hood. A Bang Rak police detective making routine rounds of Wat Muang Khae heard from the residents of a philanthropist who came to their community on Monday and handed out cash to everyone he met.
Inquiries by the officer led to the identification of the kind-hearted donor.
On Wednesday night, Bang Rak police came knocking on the door of Mr Somchai's home and asked to search it. They found 900,000 baht hidden in the bathroom and another 500,000 baht in the attic _ along with a gold necklace, a gold bracelet, a mobile phone and a DVD player, all brand new.
Faced with the evidence, both Mr Preecha and Mr Somchai confessed and were charged with theft.
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