Throughout the month of March, Fulbright ETA Gordon “Peter” Bensen, and his 10^th-grade co-teacher taught a three-part (three weeks) lesson on the story of Hansel and Gretel as part of the Narrative Text unit.

First, the students watched a short YouTube video on MAN 1 Kota Payakumbuh’s most trusted projector. The video was a virtual reading of the story with pictures, text, and a voice over. Next, groups of students were given envelopes with 10 individual pictures and 10 individual strips of paper with text on the inside. The pictures and text mirrored those from the video but were not identical. Groups of students were tasked with mapping out the story on their desks by matching sentences with pictures.

In later meetings, students had to categorize events from the story into the six main parts of a narrative text, study new vocabulary from the text, create and answer questions about the story, and eventually, narrate/perform the story in front of the class. The activities were much more engaging than expected. Peter believes students’ interest in the story came from a desire to learn an American fairytale, a love for working with one’s hands and physically moving pictures and text around, and of course the gripping nature of a screen and images. Finally, Peter commented that teaching vocabulary became much easier and more successful when the students had a context to put all the words in. Peter and his co-teacher hope to do a similar activity with their English Club!

Gordon “Peter” Bensen is currently teaching at  MAN 1 Payakumbuh, West Sumatra