Teaching Preposition of Time ‘In/On/At’ to Seventh Graders (Classroom Activity)

By Irfan Nugroho
Teaching preposition of time ‘in/on/at’ would be much more interesting if the amount of the students within a class is less than 40. And it was my unfortunate that I teach more than 30 pupils for the seventh grade, and 40 pupils for either eight or ninth grades.

It is because I divided the class into three large groups, in which each group is named after each preposition – in/on/at. It means that if a group consists of large students, then the effectivity of the activity I used here would be less achieved.

Here is my complete procedure of teaching preposition of time ‘in/on/at. (I modified this classroom activity from a book “Play Games with English 3”).

A. Aim
Students are able to:
- Understand and properly use preposition of time ‘in/on/at.
- Understand and properly use ‘simple past tense, simple present tense, and simple future tense.’
- Understand and properly use ‘WH-question’ especially ‘when.’

B. Activities
- Presentation Stage on preposition of time ‘in/on/at’
- Presentation Stage on WH-Question of ‘when’
- Practice Stage in the form of quiz

C. Procedure
- Presentation Stage
I started the lesson by asking them, “When did you do your homeworks?” Some of them rightly answered it, but the rest kept silent saying nothing because indeed, the level of students’ knowledge vary significantly.

Then, I told them that there is only one preposition of time in Bahasa Indonesia, that of ‘pada.’ Indonesians say, “Pada tahun 1997” (In 1997), “Pada hari Ahad” (On Sunday), and “Pada pukul tujuh malam” (At 7 pm).

Some students will find it hard to properly used them. For that reason, I wrote on the board about the use of ‘in/on/at.’

Since then, I wrote on the board about WH-Question sentence pattern, especially on ‘when.’ Here is what I wrote on the board.

- Practice Stage
I then prepared three cards written ‘in,’ ‘on,’ and ‘at.’ I then divided the class into three groups in. I distributed the cards to each group.

I told the students that I would recite some questions using WH-question when. As they have had their preposition cards, one representative of each group must answer my question based on the cards they were holding.

I set the score as such:
Three points: for the group that could answer the fastest.
Two points: for the group that answer the second fastest.
One point: for the last-answering group.

I did emphasize their answers on the proper use of preposition of time. Likewise, I put concern on the right use of simple past tense, simple present tense, and simple future tense. 

READ MORE - Teaching Preposition of Time ‘In/On/At’ to Seventh Graders (Classroom Activity)

Teaching “Countable and Uncountable Nouns/ How Much and How Many” to Ninth Grader Students (Speaking Classroom Activity)

By Irfan Nugroho
I did not even predict before that teaching ‘countable and uncountable nouns’ would be very interesting and engaging. Here is my complete procedure in teaching ‘countable and uncountable nouns’ and ‘how much and how many.’

A.    Aim
Students are able to:
-    Understand and further recognize countable and uncountable nouns
-    Understand and further use ‘how much and how many’ in the real life
-    Think about entrepreneurship

B.    Activities
-    Grouping students into 10, each consists of four students
-    Getting them to think of an entrepreneur business
-    Getting them to make a list of; (1) ingredients and (2) equipments they need to have to start the business
-    Getting them to identify which belongs to countable and uncountable
-    Using ‘how much and how many,’ getting them to buy those equipments and ingredients from teacher – acting as a seller.

C.    Procedures
-    Warming up
I did begin the class asking students, “How many students did pass the the tryout examination?” You’re right! They had just done a national examination tryout. Unfortunately, about 50% of them did not pass it.

That is why; I suggested them to be an entrepreneur just in case they cannot continue their study because of national examination failure. I then made a list of 10 most economically promising business.

I then grouped them into ten, and therefore each group must consist of four students. I got them to choose one business I have written on the board. After that, I had them make a list of things they need to have to run their business.

The list must include equipments and ingredients. While the students were busy listing the equipments and ingredients, I wrote “Countable and Uncountable Nouns” on the board with a table of countable and uncountable nouns.

Soon after the students had finished their work, I turned their head to me as I would tell them about “countable and uncountable nouns.”

-    Presentation Stage
I told the students about what countable and uncountable nouns are. I then got them to identify their lists, which belongs to countable and uncountable nouns. It worked very well, most of them could easily notice that ingredients tend to be uncountable while equipments countable.

After that, I started telling them about “how much and how many.” As we know together, “How many” is used for countable noun – even though it can also be used for uncountable noun, I did not telling them about this because the national curriculum does not suggest.

I put greater emphasize on the use of “how much” for asking the quantity of uncountable noun, and “how much” for asking price.

-    Practice/Production Stage
For that reason, I wrote a speaking chart that would be used to ‘buy’ those thing from me – from this I could then gather the students’ speaking score.

READ MORE - Teaching “Countable and Uncountable Nouns/ How Much and How Many” to Ninth Grader Students (Speaking Classroom Activity)