Review of I'm All In SMKTTDI

It was a hazy Thursday morning in KL, when I arrived at SMK Taman Tun Dr. Ismail. Morning Assembly had begun and I introduced myself to the whole school. I was there for a one day event to motivate 100 plus Form 3 students in the use of English. It was designed in a fun way to review and synthesize the language to increase understanding. The lead teacher Nor Zahida had participated in an earlier USEKL event and she requested the program. Cikgu Shah was remarkably helpful in assisting me in the program as well.

Traditionally, these last weeks post PT3 (Form 3 national tests) are filled with increases in truancy and empathy. School's can experience 50% or higher truancy rates from Form 3 students during the end of the year. Teachers have finished their syllabi by this time so some students behave as if the term has ended. Having this fun English day was aimed at reversing this alarming trend and reward the students who do show up. The Co-Curricular Weeks at he end of school provide a great opportunity for teachers to explore a wide range of activities. If teacher's don't seize this time, the students become rudderless. I'm All In was a fun interactive program based on individual, paired and group work.

We met at the outdoor Dewan after assembly. We watched the I'm All In Powtoon to get everyone psyched and on the same page for the day's schedule. The students had to practice the battlecry ("I'm All In") a few times before we continued with the day's edutaiment. We then viewed a short inspirational video on Ibrahim Hamadtou. We concluded that learning English is easier than playing pingpong without any hands. By this time, this keen and clever group of students were all in. Next, we reviewed Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives. There were a few quick partner based tasks after the review of each part of speech. 

The next activity was Judge Jody. It began with a review what makes a complete sentence. Collectively we passed judgement on different samples whether it was a sentence or a fragment. Students had fun indicating their answers with a thumb gesture. It was a fun way to reinforce sentence structure based on a review.

Master Pone is a kung fu type panda. He is the main character in game we played called, Using Quotation in Dialogue. Before we started, we watched a funny commercial on "Never Say No To The Panda." The group got a kick out of it and were eager to follow the instruction of Master Pone. He taught us how to properly write the Pone First Form, Pone Last Form and Broken Pone form of using quotations in dialogues. This activity was essential to get all the students up to speed for station 2 The Living Sentence.

Douglas Black from the USEKL made a cameo appearance. Douglas is the one who spearheaded this project. The students were charged when he was asked, "Are you in?" He replied emphatically, "I'm all in!"

The highlight of the day was a 4 station rotation activity which broke the students into roughly 4 groups of 25 students. The first station was a speaking role play to encourage conversation with prompts. The second station was a game called The Living sentence. Students had to arrange words and quotation marks in the proper order. Each team was given a placards with one word or one punctuation mark on it. One placard per person, then must arrange themselves properly to make a correct sentence. Making thank you cards was the third station. A few students chose to make me cards, I was flattered. The final station was a small group activity of charades inspired game. Big thanks to all the fine teachers who help me the stations. 

The final activity was a parts of speech water balloon toss. Students paired off and lined up in the field. They were given a part of speech and a letter. For example, An adjective beginning with the letter 'b': big, blue, bouncy and etc. It was a lively way to review the day's main concepts. We were able to play a couple of rounds.  In short, the students were inspired to continue to learn in English in the Co-Curricular weeks and throughout their life's journey. We ended our day in the way we began it with the battlecry, "I'm all in!"