Selecting Reading can assist student increasing their ability

Writing Professional Context 2


“Selecting Reading can assist student increasing their ability”.






Created by :

Meita Septiani
07211210085
University of Ibn Khaldun Bogor
Faculty of Teaching and Science Education
English Educational

Introduction


Learning is a change process of knowledge, skill, values and behavior as the result of experience and training motivation. Principally learning acts are directed to achieve the objective education; this process is done through several medium, which make that change possible. Learning English language it is very important, especially English language constitute of international. Now days sophisticated because selecting reading more than use in the learning of English language. However, to achieve those objectives, every element that concerned in education process, directly or not, have to each other support one another. and also every tool which is used in education process a ways have to adjusted with the real need, until those tools are still suitable to be used in achieving the education objectives. In recent years, the needs for studying English get improved, this requirement along with the student objectives study English, namely, to obtain the work, to get the information. From these basic skills, according to the writer, reading skills is the important one in this era, because much information can be reached by reading, and most of information today is available in a text form. Learning is the most vitally key term in every act education.





Theoretical background.

Unfortunately not all reading is just for pleasure. When you are reading a textbook or manual, or report or other material that have to read for school or work, you may need to underline, take notes, and read some parts over again, in order to retain what you are reading. However, if you have developed the habit of reading for pleasure, you will find that the cognitive techniques you need will come naturally, and that you will understand a lot better than before. According to the reader response theory, the readers bring their interests, personal backgrounds, and prior experiences to the reading process. Research related to self-selection of reading materials shows that through this shift in power, learners take greater ownership in their learning process and their motivation to read increases. In this study, learner perceptions of such shift in decision-making power were examined among teacher education students.
It was found that this shift in power contributed to their professional development to become a more critical reader. One form of this decision-making power is to provide students the opportunity to select their own reading and learning materials. According to reader response theorists, the readers bring their interests, personal backgrounds, and prior experiences to the reading process. Based on the readers' purposes of reading, the reading strategies they employ may vary. Schema theorists also suggest that different readers have different prior experiences and knowledge and the readers' schemata will determine how the readers construct their understanding of the reading materials. Thus, in order to relate students with varied backgrounds to the reading materials and to motivate them to read and construct meaning, the students should have choices or are allowed to select their own reading materials. Research related to self-selection of reading materials, such as reading workshops where students read self-selected literature during sustained silent reading and later share what they read with their peers, showed that through this shift in power, students take greater ownership in their learning process and their motivation to read increases. From the problems dealing with English with reading text above, will try to make a research on reading teaching with the title: “Selecting Reading can assist student increasing their ability”.

a. The understanding of Reading

Therefore, learning language is not learning vocabulary and grammar as knowledge only, but to apply this knowledge in communication activities. One of the communication activities is reading books. Reading is a complex information process in which the readers interact with text in order to recreate a meaningful discourse. Reading is also one of the most supportive factors in English learning process. The understanding of reading is a process of making out the meaning of written language reading is an active process related to problem solving. Reading is a form of communication, information an ideas, which are exchanged between the writer and reader in the act of communicating. Too much new information in a story makes it difficult to read, regardless of the interest level; a passage that contains relatively little new information can be boring. Part of the effort to find a suitable interesting of reading passages, that the teacher attempt to discover if the passage will: Tell the students things they don’t already know, Introduce them to new and relevant ideas, make them think about things before they haven’t thought, Help them to understand the way other people feel or think (e.g., people with different backgrounds, problems, or attitudes from their won), Make them want to read for themselves (to continue a story, find out more about a subject, and soon). The survey data were initially analyzed and organized by the assessment tool available in Blackboard. Blackboard calculated percentages of answers of multiple answer items and generated a report that listed all responses to each open-ended item. Then, these data were re-organized into three categories: (a) positive, (b) neutral, no response or not applicable and (c) negative by the researchers. Generally speaking, positive responses referred to responses that supported the research critique assignment and negative responses referred to responses that disagreed with the components or administration of the research critique assignment.
Motivation to Read, when the students selected research articles to read, "the topic of the article" was the most important criterion. This was consistent with the responses of other items related to students' preference of having the opportunity to select their own research articles or being assigned a particular research article. Clearly, students felt that it was important that the article/reading materials were specifically related to their own practices or areas of interests. Contributions to Professional Growth. The results of the survey also indicated that the students did recognize the connections between the research critique assignment and their professional growth. In addition, most of the students commented that reading current research was a good way to build their theoretical knowledge, improve their practices, encourage preliminary thoughts on their master's projects, or help them be more informed consumers of research studies. Encouraging continual professional growth is notably an important goal of teacher education programs. As indicated by the findings of this study, relating reading materials and learning to students' lives, experiences and interests is highly valued and critical to extend learning beyond the classroom. Learning becomes more meaningful when the materials are relevant and owned by the learner. With shared decision-making described in this study, the learners had the power to apply and extend their newly acquired knowledge. While teacher educators try to convey this notion/principle to present and future teachers, it is helpful to model it in their own practices. Although small in scope, it is hoped that the results of this study may provide useful information for course improvement as well as program design.

According to the reader response theory, the readers bring their interests, personal backgrounds, and prior experiences to the reading process. Research related to self-selection of reading materials shows that through this shift in power, learners take greater ownership in their learning process and their motivation to read increases. In this study, learner perceptions of such shift in decision-making power were examined among teacher education students. It was found that this shift in power contributed to their professional development to become a more critical reader. Most people would say the most critical task in education is teaching students how to read fluently. Since the best way to gain and practice this skill is to read more, the challenge then lies in selecting the right book for the right student at the right time. That was the challenge we were determined to meet when we implemented a new reading-materials selection system at Brush Middle school, located in the rural, northeast plains of Colorado. Serving 360 youngsters in grades six to eight, teachers at the school are in the midst of a district-wide, systemic staff development initiative that is focused on using student assessment data too effectively.

The topic of a reading article is an important factor to consider. Teacher may feel that a wide variety of topic would be helpful to maintain student to interest and motivation. Reading comprehension is the result of the interaction between the perception of graphic symbols that represent language and the reader language skills and knowledge of the word. Reading comprehension is not an easy thing to achieve, it depends on the factors that can influence the student. There is some degree in reading comprehension, to divide: Discerning is the ability to find or recognize fact and ideas or bits of information, in printed materials depends on their perceptual skills, because it made possible by the ability of eyes to take in printed symbols which can then be associated with their intended meaning. The mind functions analyze words meaning, and decide whether they represent in idea that should be remembered. The second Relating it is involves associating information with past experiences. It is the ability to relate the information with the past experiences which essential to the development all abilities in reading to make a comparison among ideas and to answer the questions based the material. The third Interpreting It is concerns with evaluating its significance in terms of reader’s current needs.
The fourth Retaining is the ability to keep information in mind, when the students are reading a passage, they are looking for some information, and then they locate them in their mind. The fifth Recalling Is the ability to think of the facts, ideas or other information learned in the past. When the information is needed, the students remember it, and they can express in their explanation. The sixth Organizing Is the ability to put facts or ideas into relevant order, the effective readers recognizes the purpose of the text as a whole and understands the relation among sentences. The seventh Expressing is the ability to communicate the facts of ideas through speech and writing, its ultimate objectives in comprehension. In reading comprehension process, the students are asked to find facts or ideas, and the teachers ask them to explain in speech or writing.
Strategies for reading improvement:

1. Read about things that interest you. If you are interested in what you are reading about, the words will come alive, and you will be motivated to understand. You will feel satisfaction in accomplishing a task that you enjoy, and which you consider meaningful. The more you read, the better you will become at reading. Just get started and it will become a habit, as long as you are interested in what you are reading.
2. Read material that is at your level or just a little difficult for you. Read material that you find easy to read, or just a little challenging. Looking up many unknown words in a conventional dictionary is tedious, and the results of the dictionary search quickly forgotten. It is better to stay within your comfort zone and keep reading. Soon you will be able to take on more difficult content.
3. Learn to read in depth, stay on the same subject for a while. If you are familiar with the subject you are reading about, you will understand better. Do not just read short articles. Commit to books. Stay with one author for at least one book. If the subject matter is new to you, you should even try to read a few different books or articles about the same subject, before you move on. This way you will meet the same vocabulary and ideas often, helping you to learn. You will also be able to get deeper into the subject and your reading confidence will grow.
4. If you have trouble reading, listen first. Many great works of literature were written to be read out loud. Learn to appreciate the art of the narrator. Listen to audio books or audio files of the material that you are reading. This will help make difficult content seem more familiar. If you can hear the new words and phrases that you are reading, you will have an easier time understanding and remembering them. Hearing the rhythm of someone reading a text will help your own reading.
5. Let your imagination get involved. Good readers get engrossed in their reading and let it trigger their imagination. Learn to enjoy your reading without asking too many questions or analyzing too much. It will just spoil the sensual enjoyment of the reading experience. You do not need to predict or analyze. Just enjoy and look forward to absorbing the information, ideas and thoughts expressed by the writer.
6. Don’t worry about what you don’t understand. Most of your reading should be for pleasure. You can enjoy reading without understanding all of what you read. You may even understand some things in your own personal way. Neither you nor a teacher needs to “monitor” your understanding. Learn to enjoy reading, even while feeling that you do not fully understand or remember what you have read.
7. Recognize that the key is to read a lot. You may develop a system for keeping track of new words that you encounter in your reading, using lists, or Flash Cards, or other memory systems available on the Internet or elsewhere. However, the main growth in your vocabulary and reading skill will come just from reading as much as you can. So learn to enjoy reading and read a lot. Keep reading, and you will become a better reader.
Unfortunately not all reading is just for pleasure. When you are reading a textbook or manual, or report or other material that have to read for school or work, you may need to underline, take notes, and read some parts over again, in order to retain what you are reading. However, if you have developed the habit of reading for pleasure, you will find that the cognitive techniques you need will come naturally, and that you will understand a lot better than before.

b. Teaching Learning Process

In English teaching learning process, there is an interaction between teacher and students, students and students, and also student an environment. The teaching learning process usually run well, except when some components that related to teaching learning process such the motivation of the students, the interesting material, the clear explanation from the teacher and others are not present. The English teaching learning process is intended to develop students’ language skills in communication process. In reading teaching, the teacher gives the meaning of the difficult vocabulary that related to topic to stimulate student’s knowledge, and sometimes the teacher choose some students to read loudly and the other students listening. After that, the teacher asks to the students to read the whole topic silently to comprehend the topic. Focused only on the speaking skill and denied the others there are some reading tasks but this tasks also in dialogue form and is not focused on make the students have a reading skill, namely to comprehend the reading materials.


c. Selecting Reading Passage for Student

The purpose of selecting reading passage is to achieve reading comprehension. Reading comprehension can be defined a process through of thought which readers become aware of an idea understand in the term of their experiential background and interprets in relation to their own needs in purpose. In English teaching process, The objective of this curriculum is not only to make the students know about English, but also to enable them to use English as language for communication.
In teaching Reading skill, for example the teacher have to give student a supplementary reading material outside the English texts book used. This could happen because the lack of reading material and also inappropriate reading material for students. Example:

Supplementary Reading 1
I have two hands. Both are right hand and left hand. Each hand has five fingers, they are: thumb, index/fore/point finger, middle finger, ring finger and little finger. Index finger is between thumb and middle finger. I put a ring on the ring finger. I take and write some thing with the right hand. The right hand is stronger than the left hand. The left hand is weaker than the right hand.

Supplementary Reading 2
PARTS OF THE BODY
The head is on the shoulders. The hair is on the head. My hair is black. I have black hair. Your hair is fair. You have fair hair. The eyes are in the head. We have two eyes and two ears. This is the right eye and this is the left one and we have two shoulders. The nose is between the mouth and the eyes. The mouth is below the nose. The nose is above the mouth. The neck is between the head and the shoulders. The back is behind, between the two shoulders. The chest is in front.

Supplementary Reading 3
BOROBUDUR
Borobudur is one of the largest and most beautiful monuments are Asia. Constructed during the golden age of the Calendar dynasty in the eight century and dedicated to the glory of Buddha it combined the influences of many rich cultures. After century of neglect a large part of the moment has overgrowth with lichen. And Borobudur has in danger of disappearing altogether. Is structure was beginning to crumble because of the tropical climates, earthquakes and landslide. For the Indonesia people Borobudur is not only a temple. Is is very advanced civilization a long time ago. Indonesia will continue to develop the environment of the temples for the purpose of education; the temple, the archaeology garden, museum and the library will draw more attention from scientist and researches as well as tourist.

Supplementary Reading 4
THE YEAR

There are twenty fours in a day. A week contains seven days, which are Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Thirty or thirty-one days make a month. 365 make year. The year begins on the 1” of January and ends on the 31* of December. If you want to see which day of the week or which day of the month it is, you loo9k at the calendar. We work six days a week, one day each week, on Sunday, we do not work because it is a day of rest or we usually call it as holiday. We all like the holidays because we can go to the country or the sea-side and have a rest a way from of our usually work


From the reading comprehension above the writer concludes that the English teachers have tried to give their students a good supplementary reading. But the supplementary reading above did not include all selection factors as the expert has suggested. From those supplementary reading, according to the writer, the writer, the first, the second and the third tittles are the most appropriate supplementary reading for student. Because, it almost includes all selection factors of reading passage even, in the third tittles (Parts of the Body) the exploitability factor is not present. Even this reading passage has the interest, culture suability and good topic inside.








CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

The English teaching process the student runs well. But the English textbooks used of student do not accommodate the whole of English basic skills. Big part of this book is speaking skill and only a little part intended to reading, listening and writing skills. The English teachers in senior high school have selected the reading passage that given to the student, but the selection factors used by the teachers. All the selecting reading factors as suggested by the linguist. In fact, this selecting reading factor is very important to help the student to improve reading skill in English. To the English teacher of the student, the teachers not only have to more creative in teaching process but also more selective give the teaching material complements for reading skill the teacher should pay their attention to selection factors as noted by linguist, for the selecting reading passage is very important to make the student easier comprehend the reading of material.












Reference


1. Dorothy J. Mc. Ginnis E Smith, Analyzing and Treating Reading for Academic Purpose, Mass ; Addison Wesley
2. Harris, Albert J. and sipay, Edward R, How to Increase Reading Ability, New York; Longman Inc.
3. Kennedy, C. Eddy, Methods In Teaching Developmental Reading: New York; F.E. peacock publisher Inc.
4. Nuttal, Christine, Teaching Reading Skill in Foreign Language, London; Heinemann educational books.