Teaching English for Junior High School Students
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Course Rationale
This course is designed for group of Junior High School students in grade 7. The majority of the
students are beginning English learners who never learn English outside the school. The course provides
them with the basic writing skill. The materials that would be given are various kinds of text, such as:
Interactional interpersonal texts (greetings), Transactional texts (asking and giving information) and
Descriptive text. All of those materials are taught in a simple way. To make the learners easier to
understand all the materials, the teacher use an appropriate method, for example jigsaw technique. This
course is to make the learners active in the course (students active learning). In addition, this course is
prepared to develop their writing skill in English.
Describing the entry and exit level
The term entry and exit criteria of this course are necessary to know by the learners and the
teacher before entering the language course. In order to describe the entry level and to find out how
much students understand the program, information about students’ proficiencies level is obtained from
the results of preliminary tests or specially designed tests may to be needed to determine the level of
students' language skills that covers the reading skill for junior high school students conducted by the
teacher. From the test results can be known how far the learners' skill of the English language especially
in reading. Then, the results are used as learners’ entry level. Having known the entry level of the
students, the target level of the program can be established. For the learners who do not understand much
about the English language and cannot shows high achievement in reading and analyzing various kind
of simple text from the materials should start from the beginning or basic or pre-intermediate level in
the course and determined as beginner. Then, for learners who already have an understanding of English
before encounter the course and have good skill at reading could continue into intermediate level. In this
course, the entry level of the students is when the course is started they only know descriptive and
narrative text.
After describing the entry level of the learners, it’s also necessary to know the exit level of the
learners. For this purpose, more detailed descriptions are needed of students’proficiency levels after they
enter a program and achieve targeted proficiency level at the end of the course. Information may be
available on students’ exit level from their results on proficiency tests taken from local test made by the
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teacher as the post-test to know the learners’ achievement at reading since the learner is never get any
English course outside the school. Information from the test will enable the target level of the program to
be assessed and may require adjustment of the course’s objectives if the course appears to be aimed at too
high or too low a level. So that, if the teacher want to test their learners’ proficiency at reading, the
teacher can conduct a post test by asking them to read and analyse some aspects in various kinds of text
that suitable for their level in the end of treatment or course. Then, the teacher compares the results with
their scores in pre-test using some standard testing score key. In addition, the post test conduct by the
teacher helps them to know the goal in the end of the course has been reached or not. The goal of in the
exit level here is the learners can shows the improvement of their reading skill (from the basic learner
into intermediate learner). The exit level in this course is students understand all the text that they have
learnt, such as descriptive text, narrative text, report text, recount text, procedure text, spoof text,
explanation text, discussion text, hortatory text, and analytical exposition text.
Galih
Learners’ need, environment, and principle as the basis of planning the program
1) Learners’ needs in reading
The learners have to know and understand various kinds of text. Besides, not only understand
the text but they have to understand the main idea, detail information, language features and all
aspects in the passages.
2) Learners’ environment in reading
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The class will consist of maximum 15 students.
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The facilities of the class are LCD, whiteboard, board marker, AC, course book and laptop.
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The time constraint is about 60 minutes.
3) Principles
Principles
 Strategies and Autonomy
 Teachability
 Motivation
 Learning styles
 Ongoing needs and environment
 Feedback
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The learning materials (general outline of syllabus)
The goals of a reading class are to cultivate students’ interest in reading and help students become
skilled readers in gaining information. The learning materials that will be use for teaching is various
kinds of text, such as: descriptive text, narrative text, report text, recount text, procedure text, spoof text,
explanation text, discussion text, hortatory text, and analytical exposition text. They will learn the
purpose, content, generic structure and language features of the text as well. Those materials will be
taught by using task-base syllabus. In a task-based teaching class, learners play the central role. Reading
tasks have specific goals, detailed procedures and methods for learners to follow. Task based syllabus
is about learners -centered and task-based. In the class where learners are provided with plenty of chance
to be engaged in activities. In addition, when the teacher is designing the learning materials, the teacher
should put the sequence in the course. The material shold be chronological and arranged from simple to
complex.
The goalsof reading activities are for learners to explore and experience language and develop
reading skills. In a task-based teaching class, the teacher design tasks from different angles and different
forms, which evoke students’ interest, and organize lessons in such a way that students can carry out the
reading tasks with quality and efficiency. Since the students are beginning English learner they will use
“Jigsaw technique and Opinion exchange tasks”. Jigsaw is a well-established method for encouraging
group sharing and learning of specific content. This technique can be used as an instructional activity
across several meetings and is best to use when there is a large amount of content to teach. By using
jigsaw technique and opinion exchange tasks., they acquire basic knowledge. Then, they apply that
knowledge in their expert groups to discuss the guiding questions. It also gives every student a chance
to be an expert. They are forced to synthesize their previous discussion into something meaningful.
Jigsaw also helps students learn cooperation as group members share responsibility for each other's
learning by using critical thinking and social skills to complete an assignment. Subsequently, this
strategy not onlyhelps to improve their reading skills, but also their listening skill, communication, and
problem-solving skills. Monitoring each student's participation within the groups provides teachers with
information about how much the students already know about the topic. This allows teachers to tailor
instruction accordingly.
Santi
The activities in the course
Reading comprehension skills that can be taught and applied to all reading situations include:
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Summarizing
Sequencing
Inferencing
Comparing and contrasting
Drawing conclusions
Self-questioning
Problem-solving
Relating background knowledge
Distinguishing between fact and opinion
Finding the main idea, important facts, and supporting details
These skills are particularly important for comprehending what is generally known as information
reading or expository reading.Most students demonstrate improved reading achievement when their
teachers incorporate the following components of effective comprehension instruction before, during,
and after reading
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purposeful and explicit teaching,
classroom interactions that support the understanding of content area texts,
instruction in the skills and strategies used by expert readers, and
content-area texts that are appropriately matched to students’ abilities and the specific strategy
being implemented.
These instructional practices usually can be implemented class-wide in any content area. In fact,
comprehension strategies work best when taught and practiced in meaningful contexts, so using
authentic material in core academic classes makes sense.
Because the course will teach a lot of materials to the learners, the teachers can use the following
steps when developing the jigsaw strategy for a class:
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Introduce the technique and the topic to be studied.
Assign each student to a "home group" of 3-5 students who reflect a range of reading abilities.
Determine a set of reading selections and assign one selection to each student.
Create "expert groups" that consist of students across "home groups" who will read the same
selection.
5. Give all students a framework for managing their time on the various parts of the jigsaw task.
6. Provide key questions to help the "expert groups" gather information in their particular area.
7. Provide materials and resources necessary for all students to learn about their topics and become
"experts".
8. Discuss the rules for reconvening into "home groups" and provide guidelines as each "expert"
reports the information learned.
9. Prepare a summary chart or graphic organizer for each "home group" as a guide for organizing
the experts' information report.
10. Remind students that "home group" members are responsible to learn all content from one
another.
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Note: It is important that students have experience with small group learning skills before participating
in the jigsaw strategy. It is also important that the reading material assigned is at appropriate instructional
levels.
Irvan
Use the strategy
Students are directed to read the selection of text assigned to them. When the reading has been
completed, the students meet for approximately 20 minutes with others assigned to the same topic. They
discuss the material, identify the most important learning points, and return to their "home groups" to
instruct the others about information in which they have become an "expert". Each student takes turns
teaching what he or she has learned to the other "home group" members.
During this process teachers should:
1. circulate to ensure that groups are on task and managing their work well;
2. ask groups to stop and think about how they are checking for everyone's understanding and
ensuring that everyone's voice is heard; and
3. monitor the comprehension of the group members by asking questions and rephrasing
information until it is clear that all group members understand the points.
If appropriate, have students fill out a graphic organizer in the "home group" to gather all the
information presented by each "expert". "Home groups" then present results to the entire class, or they
may participate in some assessment activity. Teachers may assign a team grade based upon academic
and cooperative performance.
Plan set of evaluation
There are many types of reading comprehension assessments. One type involves a student
reading a passage that is at an appropriate level for the student, and then having the student answer
factual questions about the text.
First assessment is Summative assessment and if the students didn’t reach the goal of the course
the teacher will give diagnostic assessment. Diagnostic assessments are used to aid teachers in
understanding the causesfor learners performance, i.e.the learning strengths and needs that underlie
student performance on a universal screening or other assessment. They help teachers identify where a
student’s understanding breaks down. This information is used to plan, modify and/or differentiate
instruction/intervention. Other tools thatprovide diagnostic information (e.g. analysis of student work,
teacher observations, and student/family interviews) are important to include in the diagnostic process
in order to triangulate data (analyze at least 3 different kinds of data). This helps educators determine
the accuracy of any one assessment.
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References
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