Over the last month, the English classrooms at SMAN 2 Tanjung Pandan have been filled with lessons about adjective phrases, annotation notes, recount texts, and storyboard race games. Recently, ETA Adeena Ali and her co-teachers have been opening the class with a few challenging rounds of Telephone, a game that always leaves her students giggling at the outcome. (The first sentence is spoken: “Pak Deny likes to drink coffee.” Last sentence result: “Iced coffee.”)

After the students are warmed up, English classes usually begin with an introduction to the week’s focus: recount texts. For the last two weeks, students have concentrated on the different types of recount texts: imaginative, personal, and factual. The students impressively created comic strips for personal recounts based on the “A Day in My Life” theme and presented their work to the rest of the class. They shared their recounts about getting ready for school, their weekend plans, and making pancakes—only to mistakenly use salt instead of sugar.

Adeena and her co-teachers have learned that the students’ engagement increases with various activities between presentations. In this unit, the students enjoyed rearranging stories like “The Hare and the Tortoise” and creating storyboards for “Cinderella,” both examples of imaginative recount texts. Adeena continues to be amazed by her students’ artistic skills showcased in their comic strips.

Adeena Ali is currently teaching at SMAN 2 Tanjungpandan, Kepulauan Bangka Belitung.