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SDN Cacaban 4 Magelang: PAKEM in Grade 1
"Don't Think Grade 1 Children Aren't Important"
That was the comment of one of the parents of a grade 1 child at SDN Cacaban 4 after she had taken part in several MBE training sessions. It's not just the children in the higher classes who can do good writing activities.
For the children in grade 1 at SDN Cacaban 4, writing has become part of their daily diet. The students have already got used to writing things about things in their environment, which helps them to understand what the teacher is teaching them.
Grade 1 is taught by Ibu Dwi Handayani, S.Pd, who is also a district facilitator for the early grades. She designs her PAKEM lessons on a thematic basis and the results are delightful. This is shown by the students' writing. They can, for example, make up and answer questions in all subjects. You can see an example in the picture below.
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Examples of questions and answers in mathematics which a group of grade 1 students have made up themselves.
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The Environment as a Learning Resource
It is true that lessons don't have to always take place inside the classroom, they can be done in the schoolyard. The grade 1 children at SDN Cacaban 4 were invited to work out the distance between objects in the schoolyard.
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Above: Students measuring the distance to the flagpole using paces..
Below: An example of the grade 1 students' measurements
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They were asked to measure the distance between objects using paces. The children were very enthusiastic pacing out and counting the distance between such things as the flagpole and the place they had been standing.
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Through these activities the children learned several lessons at once:
Bahasa Indonesia, by describing the objects they observed
Physical education, the children were counting while they were pacing across the yard
Mathematics, measuring distance using paces
Science, experiencing the natural environment
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JAKARTA: Training the Partner Schools
Most of the teachers, principals and committee members of the seven partner schools in Central Jakarta were trained last February in school based management (SBM), community participation and PAKEM. The rest of the teachers, who had not yet been trained, received their PAKEM training at the start of May.
This is very important so that all the teachers in each school know about and have a similar perception about the model of teaching which is going to be developed in their school. Above and below Grade 5 students at SD Gondangdia 05 are seen experimenting with sound during the practical teaching component of the PAKEM training.
Students experimented with a variety of materials to learn about how sound is transmitted through various materials. Using buckets of water, cups, string and clocks, students explored the properties of sound and constructed simple telephones.
As well as constructing and playing with the materials, lessons should develop students' thinking. Ask them to predict what might happen, then test their prediction to see if they were correct. Ask the students to explain why they think the string telephones work when the string is tight, but not when the string is loose.
If the students predict and explain, it uses their observations and prior knowledge to build their understanding. This is much better than the teacher just telling the students. Active learning also involves active thinking
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