BEST PRACTICE

Name              : HestiKurnianingsih, S. Pd

School              : MTsNSampit

Mapel              : BahasaInggris

STUDENTS CREATIVE SHOW!!!

It has become a wide knowledge that English is considered as one of the most difficult lesson in Indonesia. Many students are afraid of English and lack of enthusiasm whenever they get English lessons at school. This condition is also happening at my school, MTsN Sampit. I often saw they got sleepy, yawned and had that kind of  blank dreamy looks when I entered their classes. Their grades were also very low with minimum involvement in the lesson. Moreover, I have such a large number of students in a class, FORTY EIGHT STUDENTS!!! Can you imagine that? The class became so crowded and hot because there  is very little space for students and teacher to move, and the result is noisy , sweating, but little improving class.Another problem is about students’ ability in Speaking. They often get stuck in expressing their feelings and their vocabularies are very little. But the most dizzying one is how to make them active in my lessons.  It becomes my concern to increase students’ involvement in my lessons and to attract their interests in English without making them frightened. So, I invented my own way to make all of the class involved in the classroom activity without leaving any single student behind.

First, when we discussed about Advertisement, I told my students to make  examples of advertisement about a student show that had been stated as an exercise in the work book that we used. Then we chose the best advertisement and had discussion about what programs that could be very attractive for audiences. So, we made a list of activity that can be performed in a show. After that, we found that these programs could exist in an attractive student show, such as speeches, singing songs, fashion show and interviews. I said to my students, “ How  if we make this show into reality? “. They all said,” Bisa nggak ya Bu?”. “ Sure you can!”, I exclaimed. “ So, should we make  it into real show?, I’ll guide you what you should do”, I continued. “ YES, MA’AM!”

“Whatever happens next, that will be our responsible together, “I told them.The next thing, we arranged our show with new spirit. The first thing that we did was choosing the Master of Ceremony. We chose one male student and one female student to guide our show programs. I chose two with good Speaking  Skill and braver than the others because as a Master Ceremony, they would always stay on the stage. Next was about choosing who would give out speeches. I appointed four students to represent the headmaster, parents, OSIS chairman and from the students themselves. Later,  we singled out about 14 students as the group of choir that would sing an English song. The coordinator of the choir then discussed about what English song that they would perform on the show. The coordinator reported to me after their discussion that they had chosen “Baby” from Justin Bieber to be sung on the stage. The next step was, we talked about how to make a fashion show in the program and the clothes should be constructed from  recycled and used materials. It was the most fun part!!

“Okay, who wants to be models!!!”, I asked the class.

“Kaspul Anwar, Ma’am! Tiara Gadis, Ma’am! Bella! Satrio, Ma’am!”

“Hey… hey… why do you choose them?”, I said.

“Kaspul is cute, Ma’am”.

“ Huuuuuuuuuuu!!!  Firda naksir Kaspul, Maaaammmm!!”

“Okay, the coordinator for the fashion show is Tiara Gadis. She will be responsible for the success of the fashion show. Are you ready Tiara?”

“Yes, Ma’am.Saya coba ya Bu”

Then, we pointed out who would be the reporters that would interview the performers after the show.We had five people as reporters and news readers. The reporters’ duty was to make complete report about a performer that they chose., and the news readers would make a news as if they were on television. We decided to perform the show in the next meeting.

A week later, the students had arranged the tables at their class into a stage and the chairs around the stage for audiences. I borrowed a wireless microphone from one of my colleagues for the Master of Ceremony so the audiences could hear their voices clearly. Each coordinator made their final preparations and after everything was ready, they reported to me that the show was about to begin. Before the show, I played some famous  English and Korean songs such as from Justin Bieber,  2 PM “Hands Up”.

“Woooowwwww!!!!!”, almost all of the students especially the girls were screaming together upon hearing the songs. They were crazy about Justin Bieber and 2 PM, those handsome, fabulous and famous guys of the music world.

“Assalamualaikumwarahmatullahiwabarakatuh, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the first Students Creative Show from EIGHT ROOM ONE!!!”, the Master of Ceremonies started the program in that sunny and beautiful morning. “First of all, we would like to thank Allah SWT because of His Blessings we can make this show possible today”, Adinda, the first MC, spoke clearly and fluently that made my heart leaped into the sky because I never had thought that she could be that good. Later was the time for the speeches. Here, Putri Radila, a quiet girl, made her speech as the representative of the students. Her speech made me speechless because her words were clear and very understandable. Riswanda, the calmest  boy in class, acted as the Headmaster. Once again, I was surprised at his long and sophisticated speech. The students and me clasped our hands loudly after he was down from the stage.

Later on, it was the turn of the choir to sing their song, “Baby”. They sang very well and also did attractive movement to accompany their song. All other students sang along with the choir and most of them knew the lyrics very well. “Hoorraaaayyyy!!!!, we love Justin Bieber, Ma’am!!!”

But, it was when the fashion show performance, all the students became very excited and everybody stood up. I had told the students that prepared fashion show to make dresses from newspaper, plastic bag, used sacks or any other used materials to spread out the spirit of saving the Earth and to keep the environment green. The students had yelled  hysterically when the models walked on the stage and, WOW!!, they looked and moved like those real ones we saw on TV. The music was also very attractive, it was from 2NE1. At the end of the fashion show, the designers of the dresses came on the stage and explained to the audiences about the designs; the materials it was made, the length of time and hard time they had taken in  the process of making.

Although some designers had some difficulties in explaining about their work, lack of vocabularies and fluency, I felt quite satisfied because at least they were able and willing  to speak in front of their friends.  The last part was about interviewing the performers by the appointed reporters. Each reporter questioned one performer about his or her background and their feelings of taking part in the show. They conducted the interviews on the stage and some students acted like they were cameramen. Others were giggling at their seats and gave comments.  Finally, the Masters of Ceremonies announced that the show had came to an end  and asked the students to say  Hamdalah for the success of  show today.

“Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the end of our show today. Let’s say Hamdalah for the success that Allah Gives us. Thankyou very much for your participation.Wassalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.”  The applause was very deafening, many of the boys whistled very loudly and when I looked out of the window, I saw students from other classes had lined up in front of our class and  they  watched our show with great enthusiasm too. Before the end of the lesson, I asked my students of 8 Room 1 about their opinions of the show today. Some said that they were happy because to them, English was not so frightening anymore. Some told me that they were very nervous on the stage and forgot what they should have said, some even wanted to have another show in the future.  Then I told them that nothing is impossible if we  really try, all we need is courage and the will to go forward. After that, I played them songs from 2PM, Super Junior, MBLAQ  and Greenday. I was so glad to see they were laughing and no frowning faces like the other days before in my classroom.

Perhaps other teachers will consider that my way is not suitable to be used in class and a little out of the syllabus. But, here my main purpose is to make my students attracted to English, they feel that English is not that complicated  to learn and to erase the stigma of difficultness which circulates among students in all over Indonesia. In the end of the lesson, I could see that students who were rarely spoke in daily classes, showed that they actually could speak and act better than they used to be before.