KGSB Provides Teachers With Read Aloud Methods, Teacher Literacy Has A Big Impact On Students

Literacy Illustration (Photo: Pexels)

JAKARTA - Education is the main road towards improving human resources for a better future. Quality education certainly cannot be separated from the literacy skills of its students. This literacy includes the ability to absorb information, analyze, comment, and think critically about the information it gets.

Unfortunately, the level of reading literacy in Indonesia is relatively low. Launching from the Kemendikbud.go.id page, based on the results of the 2018 PISA study released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) shows that the ability of Indonesian students to read, achieved an average score of 371, below the average score The OECD is 487. The study conducted in 2018 was followed by 15-year-old students from 79 countries around the world.

Concern about this condition motivated the Satkaara Sharing Teacher Community (KGSB) and the BK Teacher House (RGBK) to hold the KGSB Webinar Increasing Reading Interest in Students Through Read Aloud on Saturday, 11 June 2022. In this webinar, KGSB and RGBK collaborated with the Read Aloud Indonesia community (RAI) as the initiator of the read aloud method in Indonesia.

Attended by hundreds of teachers and lecturers from PAUD to Universities in Indonesia and Timor Leste, this webinar presented two resource persons who are experts in the read aloud method, namely the Founder of Reading Bugs and Advisor of RAI, Roosie Setiawan, Driver of Reading Bugs and Advisor of RAI, Ihdinal Hikmatin. Tajdidah, Ss and Founder of the BK Teacher's House and Widyaiswara Kemendikbud, Research and Technology RI, Ana Susanti, M.Pd. CEP, CHt.

The founder of KGSB, Ruth Andriani said that it is very important to foster interest in reading in children from an early age. One of the efforts made is through read aloud.

“Through the KGSB Webinar regarding the read aloud technique, we hope that teachers and educators have sufficient understanding and can apply it to students. Hopefully, this aloud reading education can contribute to improving reading literacy in Indonesia," said Ruth.

Founder of Reading Bugs and Advisor of RAI, Roosie Setiawan explained that speaking is a natural process, while reading requires a learning process. The ability to read proficiently must be prepared as early as possible because 90% of critical brain development occurs in the first five years of life.

Hollis Scarborough, American psychologist and literacy expert introduced the concept of the Reading Rope. This concept explains that reading requires two skills, namely word recognition and phonics and understanding.

Teachers have an important role in increasing interest in reading and building a literacy culture in the school environment. The Interactive Read Aloud (IRA) method is an instructional tool for students' language development. The IRA structure is divided into five sections including Introduce Text, Read Text, Discuss Text, Review Text (Optional), Respond to Text (Optional).

“The teacher reads aloud the books that the students like. This read aloud method can also be used for students learning to read, even those who like to read. In addition, read aloud also trains listening skills and builds closeness with students,” said Roosie.

The driving force behind Reading Bugs and RAI Advisor, Ihdinal Hikmatin Tajdidah, Ss explained that in order to master the read aloud method, there are three stages that teachers must pay attention to, namely preparation, when starting and during the activity, and after.

The preparation stage involves four things, namely setting reading objectives, selecting reading materials, rereading, and planning responses. Then the second stage is when and during the activity, starting with reading background information, paying attention to intonation, speed, and word emphasis, as well as interacting with gestures. The last stage, namely after, was closed with discussion activities with listeners.

“Preparation is the most important stage in practicing the read aloud method. For example, the length of the text and the reading material that is comfortable for us to read are important considerations in choosing reading materials,” said Dina.

Founder of the BK Teacher's House and Widyaiswara Kemendikbud, Research, and Technology RI, Ana Susanti added, as a role model, educators need to have awareness that reading is the key to successful learning and becoming a culture. In addition, teachers must have the courage to initiate joint activities to increase interest in reading. Finally, there needs to be real action in the form of an example of campaigning for reading-related books in schools and sharing good practices.

"Let's together socialize the read aloud method to the school environment and the closest environment to increase interest in reading, and foster a good literacy culture," said Ana.