Aiming to promote more than just skill acquisition, The SISC English Club (SEC) and the school's English Department spearheaded its second online English Fortnight with a focus on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from January 24 to February 22, 2022.
Grades 6-12 Monarchs competed in virtual intra-level competitions centering around the theme, “Promoting the SDGs through the English language with Grit, Growth Mindset, and Academic Rigor.” Each event centered around an assigned set of goals from the 17 established by the United Nations. The English Department planned this year’s Fortnight to be a way of spreading advocacy in addition to teaching different English language skills.
“We want [the SDGs] to be explicitly integrated. We want it to be explicitly taught to the students in a way that we still have the activities [and] we still have the competitions, but the students are able to learn [the SDGs] as well,” SEC Moderator and SISC English Department Subject Area Head Sir Alvin Rey Caña said.
An entirely student-led organization, SEC planned Fortnight 2022’s promotion, presentations, and ceremonies. The English Department on the other hand plotted out the competitions aligned with each level’s curriculum and their corresponding SDGs.
‘Meaningful’
Previously referred to as English Festival during its birth as an annual three-month-long event in 2016, the English Fortnight was re-christened in 2019 to sustain maximum student engagement while performing all the activities. After its first online iteration in 2021, the English Department originally planned this year’s Fortnight to be co-organized by its other organization, the SISC Debate Club. However, not wanting to overlap the club’s goals of spreading debate culture, the English Department had the recently-reborn SEC take its place.
SEC had its origins as an interest club brought up every school year without a standardized organizational structure. The launching of the SISC Debate Club last 2019 prompted Sir Rey to push for the establishment of a regular English Club to propagate informed English speakers and to make Fortnight a student-led event. Since its reformation as a student-led club last August of 2021, its moderators and officers have been publishing weekly social media content through Instagram posts called Grammar Nuggets, Word of The Week, and Trivia.
“I was thinking and reflecting on what could be an advocacy I can actually share to the department and the school,” Sir Rey said. Following his time in the Global Schools, the English Head embarked on bringing the SDGs—a set of 17 targets of sustainability laid by the United Nations—to classroom activities and student-led initiatives. This first came to fruition in SEC’s first major school-wide event, the SDGs Awareness Month from November 8-29, 2021.
Following this, Sir Rey decided to continue his advocacy by integrating it into English Fortnight.
“I told myself that this year, we should be intentional with our English Fortnight with our activities because the activities that we have is actually a very good way for us to be aware of the SDGs . . . So this time, [this year’s theme] was more of an advocacy, [with the] intention to teach students using the English language [to learn the SDGs].”
Sir Rey was delighted that SEC successfully co-organized this year’s event, and hoped for future Fortnights to eventually become completely student-led. The English Head remarked, “It’s actually very meaningful [because] it’s the first time that the SEC was so engaged. This time, it was more of the students who prepared everything.”
‘A large-scale event’
Notwithstanding the two-week delay brought by the January COVID-19 health break, SEC officially launched English Fortnight 2022 on the morning assemblies of JHS and SHS as the club officers presented their major goals. SEC Head of Membership Enzo Saulog — who was a host in the Opening Ceremony — said, “I’m very excited for what will happen in this year’s English Fortnight since our club was only formed this year and it’s my first time being part of planning a large-scale event like this in SISC.”
All competitions happened simultaneously throughout the Fortnight. In each, elimination rounds happened per class followed by the final rounds pitting all class winners against each other. The competitions acted as the Midterm and Performance Task requirements for the English subject in second term.
The graduating sixth graders took part in a plethora of competitions that incorporated the themes of SDGs 1 and 3. These included the Short Story Writing, Spelling Bee, Spoken Word Poetry, and Visual Interpretation competitions.
Grade 7 went through the Dramatic Script Reading competition. Teams drafted, read, and performed their scripts that focused on SDG 6 or 7. Member of the champion group Blair De Los Santos from 7-Gratitude remarked that he was “really happy . . . because we really prepared ourselves for this task and to be announced as a winner was a big accomplishment for me and my teammates.”
Eighth graders competed in Creative Dubbing, where they selected a video to voice over in line with SDGs 14 and 15. 8-Integrity’s Mattea Moreno, a member of the winning team, looked back on their performance, saying, “We went all out with our voice acting and editing, and we did our best. We even made a script and presentation to introduce our group when it wasn't required.”
Those in Grade 9 reminisced on the past and wrote Personal Recounts of their life that related to either SDGs 2 or 4. Ryza Boco from 9-Compassion was the champion, and she said that she “felt super excited to have a chance to write a recount especially about receiving quality education amidst the pandemic . . . I tried to see this more as a reflective and learning opportunity rather than just an inter-batch competition.”
Grade 10 students looked forward to drafting Campaign Speeches that focused on SDGs 8, 10, or 13, later performing them in an argumentative manner. “Though I was in front of a screen, I was still nervous as if I were on a stage in front of a lot of people. I like how passionate all of the students are in participating in this event,” said 10-Conviction’s Yoeiza Garcia, the grade level champion.
Eleventh graders studied SDGs 5, 9, and 12 to draft Advocacy Speeches that supported a specific cause these SDGs stood for. Just like the Campaign Speeches, they were initially written in essays before being spoken aloud. Champion Leigh Sindac from 11-Competence (STEM), reflected and said, “In a way, I think I kind of manifested [my speech] because . . . speaking in front of people was something I liked to do.”
Grade 12 students performed Extemporaneous Speeches that involve performing a speech right after seeing three images that each relate to SDGs 11, 16, or 17. The batch champion, Nicola Kare of 12-Rigor (GAS), shared, “I researched loads regarding the SDGs and how they relate to our world today. I researched a lot regarding issues in today’s society and how the SDGs could aid and possibly solve these problems.”
The graduating seniors also took part in class debates in Asian Parliamentary Style with SDG-related motions.
For all Monarchs, Read Theory completion awards were given to those who achieved their required Lexile levels. ESL Students, on the other hand, took part in Poetry Recitation activities.
According to the competition champions, this Fortnight did not fail to offer a comprehensive understanding of the SDGs, as was Sir Rey’s vision behind this event. Some commented that the competitions have made them more knowledgeable of current problems, while others realized the importance of having global targets like the SDGs. The champions also expressed sincere gratitude to their level English teachers who guided and tutored them throughout their winning journey.
As for SEC, Fortnight 2022 was just the beginning of many more school-wide events the brand-new club aims to accomplish. Next, SEC is planning to host seminars on detecting misinformation and combatting disinformation in partnership with Philippine digital media company Rappler. They hope to achieve this milestone collaboration by April of this year, with officers and moderators hoping for the club to continually expand even from its still fresh start.
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