Poems to Music and Band Parade

In the Bahasa Indonesia curriculum for 9th grade students, there is a basic competency on singing poems which have been set to music and assessing the suitability of the content of poetry, mood and rhythm. Baren Barnabas, a teacher at SMPN 2 Cikajang, Garut, developed a strategy to teach this competence. He did it through an activity called Band Parade, which stretched over three sessions.

LEARNING poetry set to music can be a golden opportunity to create active, innovative, creative, effective, and joyful learning. Most students enjoy music and singing and have their music idols. Teachers can take advantage of students' interest in music and songs to achieve the basic competency of performing poems to music. A song usually consists of lyrics, and lyrics consist of words, just like poems. We can say that a song is a poem with music added and performed with musical instruments.

There is a very close relationship between poetry and songs. Therefore, I decided to ask my students to perform musical poems in the form of a democratic band parade. This event was from the students, by the students and for the students. The first session focused on understanding the purpose of the activity. I explained everything in detail to my students and I also gave an example of a song called ' Saat Terakhir ' (Last Moment) by ST 12, a well known band. Then we discussed the song: the lyrics, the music and how the band performed the song.

After that, I asked the students to work in groups consisting of 4-6 students. I gave them a worksheet, a poem called ' Buat Saudara Kandung ' (For my Brother or Sister) by Harojo Andangdjaja (in the worksheet there were also some questions). I asked my students to analyze the poem, focusing on the mood and some key words. The next step was to determine the assessment rubric for the group presentations. All the work was then displayed on the wall and the students could see the work done by their classmates. They also wrote their comments. The first session ended with students writing their reflections.

The second session started with me asking questions related to the poem, the mood, the music and how students put them together to create a musical poem. After that, each group was given time to prepare their musical poem for performance. To make it more interesting and fun, I asked my students to give their bands appropriate names. The name had to be original, decent, commercial, meaningful, memorable and have a positive connotation.

The assessment rubric was developed together in this second session and we drew straws to decide which group would perform first and so on. When a group was performing, the others gave their appraisals and wrote it in the assessment rubric. Later on, each group presented their appraisal of the other groups, which they then gave to those groups. The second session also ended with a reflection and an agreement about the third session. It was agreed that each group was free to choose any poem for their performance. The poems could be somebody else's or their own creation.

To motivate my students to perform to the best of their ability, I told them that the best group would perform on the graduation night. Besides that, they would also be given a photo of their performance at the band parade. For the third session all the bands were ready for the performance. They brought various musical instruments. They wanted to make their best shot in this contest.

I started the session by asking them about the problems they had faced during the preparation and how they coped with them. I told them to introduce the band members and what instruments they played: lead guitar, rhythm guitar, vocal, backing vocal, bass and others. The assessment system focused on the poem, the music, the harmony and the creativity of the groups in performing their musical poems.

Viewed as a whole, the students found the performance in a musical band parade very exciting. Of course, there were some problems such as a shortage of musical instruments (for example, drums). But we managed to find a substitute for drums. We used tambourines, large gallon water bottles and even desks. I allowed my students, who were frightened of forgetting the words, to write the lyrics on a piece of paper and take it on the stage, while they were performing, just in case they forgot the poems or lyrics. They were also given freedom in selecting their groups.