1. DESCRIBING THE METHOD OR TECHNIQUE
Talking
stick is a handy technique to use in a
group meeting to make sure that each person gets to have and finish their say
without being interrupted.
According to Dr. Locust (1998) says that
the talking stick has been used for centuries by many Indian tribes as a means
of just and impartial hearing. The talking stick was commonly used in council
circles to decide who had the right to speak. When matters of great concern
would come before the council, the leading elder would hold the talking stick,
and begin the discussion. When he would finish
what he had to say, he would hold out the talking stick, and whoever would
speak after him would take it. In this manner, the stick would be passed from
one individual to another until all who wanted to speak had done so. The stick
was then passed back to the elder for safe keeping.
Moreover, based on the talking stick is used today by many groups, especially in groups of children or adults who need help preventing discussions from degenerating into cacophonies. It can make sure that people listen to what is being said and can help keep an interesting discussion focused. In particular, it is used in talking circles. Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that talking stick was commonly used in a group of people to decide who had the right to speak. It gives a chance to everyone to speak so that the students need to consider what they hear and what they think before they speak.
2. SKILL THAT CAN BE TAUGHT
Skill that can be taught using
talking stick techniques, are listening and reading and speaking
3. LEVEL
THAT CAN BE TAUGHT
Level of the study which is
taught by using talking stick technique is for junior high school or senior
high school grade.
4. STEPS
IN TEACHING TALKING STICK TECHNIQUE
4.1 Listening
Students can acquire information
through effective listening and clearly convey their understanding with strong
speaking skills. By practicing the task of listening with your pupils, you can
assist them in honing their skills and prepare them to gather information with
their ears.
Here are steps in using talking stick for listening skill:
1. Complete a heads-down listening task with your students. By temporarily taking away the sense of sight, you can allow students to better attend to the task of listening. Ask your pupils to place their heads on their desks. Read them a story. At the story's end, ask them to lift up their heads and compose a summary of what you just read to them.
2. Encourage pupils to question as they listen by reading a non-fiction passage and asking them to compose questions as they listen. Instruct students to trade questions with classmates and answer each others' posed queries at the end of the passage.
3. Allow students to engage in dialogue and ask them to compose a summary of the topics covered at the conclusion of the conversation. Pair students up and provide them with a conversation topic, such as their favorite or least favorite things about school. Instruct students not to take notes during the conversation, but instead wait until the end to compose a summary of what their partner told them about the provided topic
4. Create
a list of things that good speakers do with students. Present students with
videos or audio of engaging speakers such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Maya
Angelou. After they view these examples, brainstorm a list of things that these
speakers did that made them so effective.
5. Pose
questions to students and ask them to compose impromptu spoken responses.
Prepare a list of questions prior to class, and move about the room, presenting
one student with each and asking them to immediately respond verbally to the
query.
6. Engage
students in the composition of formal speeches. Assign students how-to,
informative or persuasive speeches. Move through the writing process, guiding
them in outlining, drafting and ultimately composing their speeches. Allow each
student to present his speech to his classmates.
7. Ask students to critique their peers' speeches to improve their understanding of the qualities that make a good speaker. Create a rubric and provide it to students. Ask them to complete the rubric for each peer. Factor these student-given scores into the speakers' overall assignment score.
5.1 Reading
There
are some steps in the process of learning using talking stick, those are:
1.
Students make a group in five
2.
Teacher prepares
the stick (around 20 cm)
3.
Teacher states
the material and gives the students a chance to read and to understand the
material on their book
4.
Students discuss the material on group
5. After they read the material, students have to
close their book
6.
Teacher gives
the stick to one member, then gives a question related with the material
7.
The students who
get the stick have to answer the question. The stick is passed until all the
students get the rank to answer the questions
8.
The other
students may help if their member get difficulty to answer the question
9. Teacher
makes a conclusion
5.2 Speaking
There
are steps using talking stick in speaking :
1. Pick
a small to be used as the talking stick. A stick, small bakk, beanbag, stuffed
animal. Something small that is easily tossed and caught and wont break
anything
2. Lay
the item on a place in the middle of the group
3. The
person who wants to talk first , picks up the talking stick and starts speaking
4. No
one interrupts the person who is holding the talking stick
5. If
the speaker needs some time to think before she/he is finished, then everyone
just waits until they’re ready
6. When
the speaker is finished she/he lays the talking stick back down in its place or
asks who wants it next and then tosses it to that person
7. The
next person talks until they’ve had their say, and so on until everyone had had
their turn
6. THE
STRENGTHS AND THE WEAKNESSES
6.1 Strengths
There are
several strengths of talking stick technique, those are:
1.
Keeps the students alert
2.
Helps the teacher realizes if the students are
listening and understanding or not
3.
Helps you find out what they already know
4.
It means more
student talking time (STT)/ cut down on teacher talking time (TTT)
5.
Helps students learn how to guess
6.
Students can
learn/ be exposed to useful incidental language during elicitation
7.
Can show the
students how to work things out for themselves
6.2 Weakness
Several
weaknesses that can also be found in talking stick technique, those are:
1.
Time consuming
2.
It doesn't
always lead to more STT
3.
One student can dominate answering your
elicitation questions
4. It
can be met by silence
6. CONCLUSION
The talking stick was commonly used in council circles to decide who had the right to speak, in addition, when matters of great concern would come before the council, the leading elder would hold the talking stick, and begin the discussion. When he would finish what he had to say, he would hold out the talking stick, and whoever would speak after him would take it. In this way, the stick would be passed from one individual to another until all who wanted to speak had done so. Then the stick was then passed back to the elder for safe keeping.
The talking stick was commonly used in council circles to decide who had the right to speak, in addition, when matters of great concern would come before the council, the leading elder would hold the talking stick, and begin the discussion. When he would finish what he had to say, he would hold out the talking stick, and whoever would speak after him would take it. In this way, the stick would be passed from one individual to another until all who wanted to speak had done so. Then the stick was then passed back to the elder for safe keeping.
There are some procedures in teaching listening using this technique such as: Complete a heads-down listening task with your students. Encourage pupils to question as they listen by reading a non-fiction passage and asking them to compose questions as they listen, etc. there are some procedures in teaching reading using this technique such as: Students make a group in five. Teacher prepares the stick (around 20 cm). Teacher states the material and gives the students a chance to read and to understand the material on their book. Students discuss the material on group. After they read the material, students have to close their book. Teacher gives the stick to one member, then gives a question related with the material. The students who get the stick have to answer the question. The stick is passed until all the students get the rank to answer the questions, etc.