Indonesian Studies: Ms. Pipit

Indonesian Studies 6 has this lesson objective: to identify and interpret key and supporting actions in developmentally appropriate narratives such as personal anecdotes, familiar stories, daily lives and familiar narratives based on familiar themes.The class explores Indonesian children’s daily activities at school and at play. The last few weeks we have been discussing the uniforms worn in school and their philosophical meaning. Students drew four types of uniforms Indonesian students wear in public schools and explained the meanings behind their colors and special features.

Indonesian Studies 7 has this class goal: to report on learning experiences in other subjects that connect to activities in the language class and use skills taught in other disciplines. For this objective, students explored social and cultural relationships between different ethnic groups in Indonesia. For the lesson focused on the Betawi people of Jakarta, students learned a local song called “Si Jali-Jali” and translated its meaning into English. As of this week, we are studying about the cultural heritage of the Dayak people from Borneo.

Indonesian Studies 8 has this class goal: to use knowledge acquired in other settings and from other subject areas to comprehend spoken or written messages, texts or other media creations. Students are exposed to various sources of information about famous landmarks in Indonesia. They watched travel videos about each place, read reviews from tourists and historical accounts from locals. The current focus is on Alas Purwo National Park in the eastern part of Java island.  

See also: Secondary Scoop: Middle School IT and High School Music

Bahasa: Ms. Dita

In Bahasa Indonesia class, students are exposed to everyday situations around them with the hope that learning becomes more real and easy to understand. It starts with getting to know verbs and adjectives at a more advanced level. For example: naik: the word naik is used to go up to a higher place, such as going up a mountain or being in a vehicle. The verb naik to climb in a mountain situation can be substituted with mendaki, the sentence would be mendaki gunung. However, mendaki cannot be used in the situation of a person traveling by vehicle. In this situation, the correct verb would be menumpang. The sentence would be: Saya menumpang bus ke sekolah.  When you drive your own vehicle, it is called mengendarai. The sentence would be: Saya mengendarai motor ke sekolah. 

Grade 6 students are taught advanced verbs to enrich their vocabulary and are able to use these verbs in sentences with the right context. 

Eighth graders learn about adjectives that are more complex. They learn that the word for good, bagus has many synonyms which are used in different contexts. For example, to say “a good view,” there is a word that is more applicable which is indah or asri “Itu taman yang asri.” By using the right words and in context, it is hoped that students will be more flexible in expressing what they see and feel on a daily basis.

High School Theatre Arts: Ms. Leadbetter

At Surabaya Intercultural School, we continue to teach our students via the online platform. Despite, the challenges that arise with this style of teaching, the Senior Theatre Arts group have continued to embrace the subject positively and have been enthusiastically learning about
various elements of the subject. In our World Theatre unit, the class learned about chosen styles of western and non-western drama. Through research, students identified areas of interest within their theatre type; such as, features of the place where the theatre derives from, theatre conventions and traditions, acting style, technical elements: lighting, sound, use of props, staging, costume and make-up and any other special features of the theatre style. Students planned and delivered an individual presentation to an audience of their peers, in which they demonstrated their knowledge of the world theatre tradition of choice. This was followed by a unit on Scriptwriting, which enabled students the opportunity to learn
about the format of writing a script; inclusive of the use of a cast, opening stage directions to create the setting of the scene, the layout out of dialogue, and stage directions to show action, and the way lines could be spoken. In a multitude of activities, the group demonstrated their creativity with the creation of a storyline, characters, setting(s), themes and symbols for their
own script. Students produced an excellent array of scripts for the assessment, which was great to see. In our current performance based unit, students will act out monologues and duologues from their own scripts, and also from the work of others, with the focus on a chosen theatre practitioner to assist with the guiding of their acting work.