Tenth graders at MAN 2 Malang were able to practice expressing their opinions and their future plans through playing verbal ‘tug-of-war’ and writing speeches. For the verbal ‘tug-of-war’ activity, ETA Shanze “Aisha” Tahir and her English co-teachers would write a statement on the board that would be placed in the middle of a line. Then, students would take time to assess if they agreed or disagreed with the statement.
After, they would take a post-it note and write their opinion and their explanation for their opinion. Students would then place the post-it note on the whiteboard on the corresponding side, with one end representing agreement with the statement and the other end representing disagreement. The first few statements were chosen by the teachers, while the students were able to decide the rest of the statements to be written on the board.
Afterward, students watched an inspirational TedTalk where a speaker discussed their hopes and plans for the future. Aisha and her co-teachers debriefed with the students regarding what had made the speech effective. Students were then given time to write their own speeches which outlined their future plans. In the end, the students were asked to present their speeches. The classes had a great time reading and hearing about their peers’ opinions on a broad range of topics, as well as learning more about their friends’ hopes and dreams for the future.
Shanze “Aisha” Tahir is currently teaching at MAN 2 Malang, East Java.
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