“Class Discussion”
Second day in school and it is the second time for me to witness a day in the life of a student in MTS Muhammadiyah Purwokerto. It was another experience of seeing the similarities and differences of the educational system in Indonesia and in the Philippines. During this day we sat in one of the classes taught by Ibu Neny in Grade 9. The atmosphere of the classroom was quite similar in the Philippines. There were students who were listening intently to the discussion, while there were those who were very noisy at the back. Some students were also very curious about us and kept glancing at us from time to time.
The class discussion was all about report text. Their application of real life events and the topic is one of the many things that amaze me here in Indonesia. Usually, in the Philippines we forget to integrate our culture, our traditions and our society into the lesson for the children to be aware of these things. The report that Ibu showed the class was about drugs. They had a whole class discussion with questioning as their formative assessment and comprehension activities to further deepen their understanding about the topic and about English. During the time that they were answering, some students would look at us and would say, “Miss help” in a small voice. It was funny to see how they want us to answer their exercise for them.
We did not get to observe other classes during this day because Ibu Neny only had one class. But even though we only got to see one class, we saw how they always start with an introduction and the lesson plan flow follows the Scientific Method approach. They start the class with a prayer and the roll call and would usually present the topic and get the students to be curious about the lesson by preparing pictures or articles about it. Then the students will ask questions or answer the teacher’s questions before they proceed to the lesson proper. After the lesson, they usually answer a comprehension test about the lesson by group then proceed to answer another one individually before closing the lesson.