I am proud of having a chance as a participant of this workshop which is held today, on Saturday, July 18, 2020. This two days workshop began since yesterday. There were about 28 people who registered in this activity. It was divided into 2 parts, all participants joined in online workshop for the first day and offline one for the last day. Because of this COVID 19 pandemic & considering everybody's health, so the committee limited only 12 participants who can attend in the second day. It was funny when we had to list our names so quickly in order to be able to follow the next workshop.
For the first meeting, the presenters were Mrs.Dr. Mirjam Anugerahwati, M.A and Mrs. Furaidah. Both of them were my lecturers when I was still a student of Institute of Teacher & Training Education, specially for English Department. After many years I've never met them, I just found them as young as before. It might be because they are very interested in their profession. It makes them eager to share their knowledge and contribute all of their life in education.
In her presentation, Mrs. Miry (Dr. Mirjam' s nickname) asked all participants to define what the meaning of reading is. She continued that reading involves writer's side and reader's side. While the writer's side includes purposes, motives, feelings, agendas, apart from language,background, and rhetorical knowledge; the reader's side includes experiences, interests, expectations, apart from language, background, and rhetorical knowledge.
She reminds us to be familiar with reading levels such as Literal Reading, Inference Reading, and Evaluative/Critical Reading. Specially for Critical Reading, it will influence the readers to have a critical thinking as well. Based on Bloom Taxonomy, the activity of analyzing,evaluating, and creating are belongs to High Order Thinking levels. On the other hand, the activity of memorizing, understanding, and applying are categorized in Low Order Thinking levels.
According to her, a critical reader does not believe everything he/she reads. They will question everything which do not make sense and question something even though it do make sense to them. A critical reader will reread when he/she thinks may have missed something. The last one, they consider the type of materials that they will read before deciding how much weight to give to it.
They admit that the effect on them of what the author says because of the author's style of writing. A critical reader always analyzes the arguments and disregards arguments based on faulty reasoning. They have good reasons for believing some thing or disbelieving others. In other words, they have a reason to be agree or disagree with some authors. In her last presentation, Dr. Miry gave a conclusion that good readers ask questions to understand what they read. Reading is not only for school but for life.
Mrs. Furaidah, the second presenter in this workshop introduced to us about Literature Cycle Strategy. First, she gave a definition of Literature Cycle as a book club or reading club in which people or readers gather to talk about a book they have read. Literature Cycle Strategy is essential because it provides opportunity for practicing reading, writing, listening, and speaking. This strategy was known ten years ago before our country implement it today. ( It may be better to be late rather than never practice it at all. )
There are 4 student roles in this case. They are word/vocabulary finder, question asker/writer, story mapper, and summarizer. The word finder/vocabulary extender identify and discuss unique/interesting/difficult words (at least 3 words). They quote the sentence where the words are found and write the appropriate meanings based on the text. Besides, they can pronounce the words and extend to finding other interesting words. A question asker/writer will provoke the members to talk about the text by giving them some questions. They should encourage the member to share or give their ideas, prepare the answers, and show the parts of the text can be used as the basis for the answers.
The job of story mapper is maps the story using graphic organizer (can be provided by the teacher by giving a worksheet that should be completed). Then, they share the story map with the group. They should ask the members to input and make addition/correction to the worksheet/ graphic organizer as needed. A summarizer then make a summary about what happened in the text/book. They share with the group for inputs to check whether important events / information are already included. Compare this summary with the story map. The practice of the Literature Cycle Strategy will be applied for the next day.
In the session of discussing, I was very happy when Mrs Furaidah gave a respond to my questions. At the time, she explained that reading is a habit. How to grow the habit of reading in the family? It is a duty of school to facilitate them by lending books to students. Another, she reminds that reading must be a command for us specially for moslems. At the end of her answer she said that it seems I am an enthusiastic teacher who makes the students happy. Thank you very much, Mom. It is supposed to a kind of motivation words to me.
by. Heni Pristianingsih, SDN Tunjungsekar 4 Malang
