Making connections

Writing descriptions
Action list

Menulis deskripsi karakter-karakter:

In order to describe a puppet character, students must use simple vocabulary around body parts, adjectives, clothing.

http://balisource.com/kulit/kulitcharacters.html has excellent colour pictures of named wayang kulit characters.
 

Scaffold the writing of a simple description of wayang kulit characters, by working through the stages of the writing process:

1. Modelled writing: Write the description yourself on a whiteboard or overhead transparency, 'talking aloud' the language you use (in both English and Indonesian) and modelling the writing process to:

   • make corrections (eg word order or spelling)

   • make improvements to the language, eg

     • connecting short sentences using a variety of conjunctions

     • describing something in the negative for a change eg 'not tall' rather than 'short'

     • adding qualifiers like 'sekali' to qualify descriptions and vary the language used

     • perhaps adding their own opinion.

   Students simply observe.
    

2. Shared writing: Write the description yourself but with students suggesting what should be written (in both English and Indonesian as appropriate) for another character. Students participate but teacher retains control of what is actually written.
    

3. Guided writing: Have students work in pairs or threes to compose a description of another character, keeping its identity secret. They should have access to the two previous models, and any other lists of words that may be appropriate eg parts of the body, colours, clothes. Teacher guides, encourages, supplies extra language and corrects as necessary. You may choose to give students a copy of the assessment rubric (in Word or PDF) to self- or peer-assess their work.
   
   Line up the puppets (or pictures of puppets) used and have the students read out their description. Ask other students to identify which puppet is being described.
    

4. Individual writing - an optional assessment point: You may choose to ask students to do the above task independently for assessment. Consider telling students that they will be doing this task by themselves at an earlier stage (before the guided writing exercise), and give students the simple assessment rubric (in Word or PDF) so that they know what they must do to achieve success.
   
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Daftar gerakan:

Explain to students that in the learning object there is a monkey character (Si Monyet) that can do twenty different actions. However, to make the monkey perform an action, students must correctly type in the Indonesian word for that action.

Have students work in pairs using class dictionaries or the free online translation site http://www.toggletext.com/ to develop their own 'daftar gerakan' (in Word or PDF) of common action words. Students can compare lists with others. Compile a class list, allowing students to correct their own as necessary.

Use this list to play games to help students learn these words, for example charades or Simon says, or memory games where students must match the Indonesian words with its correct English meaning. NB: This list probably won't include all the actions that Si Monyet can do. You can provide extra words later.

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