Teaching Methods
Teachers in MTS Muhammadiyah Purwokerto make use of the Scientific Method as an approach to teaching the students.
At first, they do motivation activities to keep the class energized. These motivation activities do not have to be inline with the topic.
Next, they present a material that will stimulate the students’ curiosity. Either the students will ask questions or the teacher will ask questions in order for the material to relate to the lesson. When the students understand what the teacher is trying to present, the teacher will then move on to a discussion.
The discussion is not just the teacher talking. The teachers usually ask the students to be the one to give their own example after explaining part-by-part.
Afterwards, they explore the topic further by doing group activities.
Then, there is a short assessment on students learning through individual work.
Lastly, before the session ends, the students summarize the topic and give their reflections on their learning.
Learning Materials and Innovations
The teachers base their topic in the textbooks that are provided and most of their materials are taken from there. However, the teachers reinforce their topics with materials such as videos, songs, pictures, news articles, stories and charts to make the lesson more relevant to the students. As the grade level progresses, different materials are used in order for it to be inline with the students’ interest, the level of difficulty of the topics and etc. The teachers also try to make learning as concrete as possible. They would usually use gestures or dynamically discuss topics at the same time use concrete examples and experiences for learning to be reinforced better.
Sources of Learning and Technology
Teachers in MTS Muhammadiyah Purwokerto have their own teacher’s guide and students’ guide in terms of their textbook. In the teacher’s guide there are ways on how one can present the lesson most effectively in terms of the skill that they want to target. With that, they can also modify and make their own materials to suit the learner’s needs through looking for articles, videos, songs and etc. to reinforce learning. Technology-wise, they use LCD to present audio-visual activities that will make the class interactive.
Authentic Assessment
Aside from the usual paper and pen activities or evaluation, teachers in MTS Muhammadiyah Purwokerto also use other methods to assess student’s skills. In English class for example are not limited to book works. They make sure that the activities that they provide target certain skills such as reading, speaking, and writing. Depending on the topic and the most appropriate skill needed to be enhanced by this topic, they design activities such as games, conversations, composition and reading comprehension. With this, they use evaluation materials such as rubrics, rating scales, point system and etc. so they can assess the application of the lesson and the skill that they develop in the students.