During February, ETA Ammarah Rehman tried to incorporate as many examples of Black Americans in her lesson to celebrate Black History Month.

One of the most impactful lessons was talking about Muhammad Ali for the Heroes unit. To start class off, Ammarah had varied sentences around the room about Muhammad Ali. The student’s task was so to get into pairs and have one student-run around the room and read, memorize and report the sentence back to their parent. Once the pair had all the sentences, they had to rearrange the sentence into a paragraph. Afterward, Ammarah had the students come up to the board and write the sentences chronologically. As the students wrote the sentence, Ammarah elaborated about each sentence while her co-teacher Pak Anto translated or explained some of the vocabularies. Students then watched a short video about Muhammad Ali to practice their listening.

By the end of the class, students learned about the heavyweight champion and activist Muhammad Ali. Students were also introduced to the Nation Of Islam and Muhammad Ali’s relationship with the Nation. Additionally, students learned about the draft in the USA and the Vietnam war. By introducing Muhammad Ali to the class, students not only learned about Black America but also learned about American History and activism.

Ammarah Rehman is currently teaching at MAN 2 Bukittinggi, West Sumatra.