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.

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Teaching Comparative/Superlative Adjectives (Classroom Activities and Powerpoint Presentation)

By Irfan Nugroho
As of three hours prior to the class began, I kept thinking what the best activity to teach “Comparative/Superlative Adjectives” to the ninth graders. All of sudden, the word “debate” struck my mind, and thus asked myself, “Why not?”

Teaching “Comparative/Superlative Adjectives” is about ‘educating’ students to compare hence there would be a debatable argument on any statement using these kinds of adjective. That is why, I put a great agenda that my students should be trained to think critically.

“Debate competition” I called this classroom activity. After explaining students what “comparative/superlative adjectives” are, I did conduct a small-scale debate amongst the students in my class. The emphasize of the debate is on the use of “comparative/superlative” in real communication.

Here is a complete procedures of “teaching comparative/superlative adjectives” to the ninth graders.

A.    Aims
Students are able to:
-    Understand what “comparative/superlative adjectives” are
-    Differentiate when to use “comparative adjectives” and when to use “superlative adjectives”
-    Use it in real communication
-    Think critically

B.    Activities
-    Mentioning kinds of kata sifat (adjectives) in Bahasa Indonesia and in English
-    Powerpoint presentation
-    Introducing the rules of the debate
-    Debate competition

C.    Procedures (80 minutes)
-    Warming Up (5 minutes)
I started the class by throwing some questions such as “Kenapa orang-oang barat cenderung lebih pintar daripada orang Indonesia?” (Why are Westerners considered smarter than Indonesians?).

“Bagaimana kita merubah pendapat tersebut sehingga semua orang akan berpikir bahwa orang Indonesia adalah manusia terpintar di dunia?” (How do we changed that opinion, thus people would admit that Indonesia is the smartest people on earth?)

Too much exaggerated I think but it’s OK as I was trying to boost up their motivation to study more and more. Since then, I did highlight the use of “lebih pintar” (smarter) and “paling pintar” (the smartest) then started the “Presentation Stage.”

(In another class I used questions like, “Who is the richest man in Indonesia?” and “Can you find someone richer than M. President?”)

-    Explanation – Presentation Stage (25 minutes)
I used the included herein Powerpoint to explain the students about “Comparative/Superlative Adjectives.” You may download it for free.

The first and second slides of the powerpoint read “Adjectives (kata sifat)” and “What is adjective?” As I have finished telling them the definition of adjective, I got each student to mention one adjective in Bahasa Indonesia. I gave them one point to those who can also mention adjectives in English.

There would be about 40 adjectives at the end of that stage. Since then, I continued explaining about “Positive Adjective,” “Comparative Adjective,” and “Superlative Adjectives.” Two table were displayed thus they could see how an adjective can change in such ways thus results in Comparative/ Superlative Adjectives.

The presentation stage is over, continued with introduction to the rules of a debate.

-    Practice Stage (10 minutes)
I began this stage by giving a statement, “I am the most handsome man in this room!” Spontaneously, students reacted in various ways – expressing that they disagreed to what I had just said.

Then, I asked them, “Do you agree with that statement?” and they loudly answered, “ No, we don’t.” If that so, I then introduced them to “I disagree with you,” or “I agree with you” to express an agreement or disagreement.

As they disagreed, I asked them once more, “What are you reasons?” They answered in various ways – unfortunately they did still use Bahasa Indonesia – and therefore I got them to compare me to the one who is “more handsome than” me. I wanted them to express the reason using “Comparative Adjectives.”

Since then, one of them said, “I am more handsome than you!” Once again, all of students laughed at the boy. Another student followed the debate while saying “I am more handsome than you (me) and him.”

-    Production Stage (35 minutes)
I did as such for three statements – or you may adjust to the situation – until the students have understand the rules of the debate. Since then, I wanted one student to deliver a statement using “Superlative Adjectives” and the others responded it in disagreement as saying “I disagree with....” and using “Comparative Adjectives.”

Scoring system was set for those who can deliver statement and responded to the statement appropriately. Two points for them.

Download Powerpoint Presentation of Teaching Comparative/Superlative Adjectives

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