Al Haadi School organized its first ever Ilm Talk event on February 11th, 2022, a public speaking event in which students from grades 1 to 8 are expected to give a short presentation on any given topic of their choice. During Fridays Club Hours, students worked on brainstorming a topic and then were taught how to construct a speech. Students worked on a powerful introduction, main body, and conclusion over the next few weeks and were assisted by teachers throughout the process who helped them refine their talks. This event allows students to learn how to:
- Brainstorm and think independently & critically about a subject
- Research a topic in sufficient depth
- Summarize their research
- Effectively use body language
- Develop presentation and delivery skills
- Organize & structure a speech
- Learn how to project and modulate their voice
- Engage an audience and learn how to keep their attention
- Effectively use humour
Grades 4-8 students covered a variety of topics in their presentations, some of them as follows:
- The impact of the Covid pandemic on our school education.
- The perks of studying at an Islamic school.
- What teachers can do to get students to thrive in school.
- A personal travel experience outside of Canada and what they learned from it.
- What are the impacts (positive or negative) of too much screen time for elementary school students?
- What is it like to be a young Muslim girl in the 21st century?
- The phenomenon of bite-sized content (TikTok, Instagram etc.) and its negative impacts.
On February 25th, students from grades 1 to grades 3 will get an opportunity to present their speeches as well.
Some interesting excerpts from speeches of some of the students:
“Take another moment to imagine how the world would be if this Bite-Sized content did not exist, as in bite-sized content I mean Social media apps. Can you imagine the world without social media? For many people, it’s very hard to let go of apps like Tik Tok and Instagram. Well, if you could imagine the world without social media that means that you are not attached to social media. Surprisingly most people can not imagine the world without social media because they are too attached to it.” ~ Ramsha Abidi (Grade 7)
“One of the negative impacts is that we’re so used to watching movies that we have a problem with reading books. For elementary kids, they see one cartoon, they want to see another one, and then another…to the extent that they will become addicted. Even though the Quran tells us, Alhaakumut Takaathur – that vain acts are distracting you from the greater purpose of life. Many of these things are relatively vain, and Allah repeatedly warns us, that we are going to regret the time we waste.” ~ Alamdar Moosavi (Grade 7)
