Motivating Class VIII Students to Read Books

This research shows how to encourage students to inculcate reading habits beyond the classroom through various interventions like Reading Aloud, maintaining a reading portfolio, and Book Talk. Reading makes men perfect in speaking and writing. It is very important to motivate our students constantly and reinforce them. Reading is not only meant for students but everyone because it helps to improve language both in speaking and writing. This research was conducted to examine how to encourage students to be active readers in the classroom as well as anywhere they required. Students were given various platforms to practice their reading inside the classroom and maintaining records of their readings too. My research was carried out with class VIII students of Chali Lower Secondary School. Data was mainly gathered through mixed methods, that is qualitative and quantitative questionnaires. Students were observed during the usual class hour. The observations were made by recording their reading using criteria. They were observed without informing to get authentic observable responses. In the end, the result was known, why the students usually neglect reading. It helped to understand why students lack reading and what are strategies teachers need to apply to overcome these challenges?

METODE BOOK TALK UNTUK MENUMBUHKAN KETERAMPILAN BERPIKIR KRITIS DAN KOMUNIKASI EKSPRESIF VERBAL PADA ANAK USIA 3-4 TAHUN

The 21st century learning trends carry several skills that need to be developed, one of which is critical thinking. The purpose of this study was to analyze the use of the Book Talk method in order to foster critical thinking skills and communicate verbally expressive students aged 3-4 years using Indonesian-themed animal books. This Classroom Action Research was conducted in the Nursery class of Rainbow Victory Plus Bekasi school with the number of research subjects as many as 14 students. Data collection was carried out in 3 cycles held in May 2018. The results of this study showed tha Book Talk method was able to increase critical thinking skills and verbal expressive communication of students. However, it was also found that Book Talk was not suitable for certain types of students. Pembelajaran abad ke-21 menuntut keterampilan berpikir kritis dan melakukan komunikasi efektif sebagai syarat keberhasilan. Kemampuan ini perlu dilatih dan diajarkan sejak usia dini. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis penggunaan metode Book Talk dalam rangka menumbuhkan keterampilan berpikir kritis dan berkomunikasi ekspresif verbal siswa usia 3-4 tahun dengan menggunakan buku cerita berbahasa Indonesia bertema hewan. Penelitian Tindakan Kelas ini dilakukan di kelas Nursery Rainbow sekolah Victory Plus Bekasi dengan jumlah subjek penelitian 14 siswa. Pengambilan data dilakukan dalam 3 siklus yang dilakukan pada Mei 2018. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa metode Book Talk dapat meningkatkan keterampilan berpikir kritis dan berkomunikasi ekspresif verbal siswa. Meskipun demikian, ditemukan juga bahwa Book Talk kurang cocok untuk beberapa tipe siswa tertentu.

METODE BOOK TALK UNTUK MENUMBUHKAN KETERAMPILAN BERPIKIR KRITIS DAN KOMUNIKASI EKSPRESIF VERBAL PADA ANAK USIA 3-4 TAHUN

The 21st century learning trends carry several skills that need to be developed, one of which is critical thinking. The purpose of this study was to analyze the use of the Book Talk method in order to foster critical thinking skills and communicate verbally expressive students aged 3-4 years using Indonesian-themed animal books. This Classroom Action Research was conducted in the Nursery class of Rainbow Victory Plus Bekasi school with the number of research subjects as many as 14 students. Data collection was carried out in 3 cycles held in May 2018. The results of this study showed tha Book Talk method was able to increase critical thinking skills and verbal expressive communication of students. However, it was also found that Book Talk was not suitable for certain types of students. Pembelajaran abad ke-21 menuntut keterampilan berpikir kritis dan melakukan komunikasi efektif sebagai syarat keberhasilan. Kemampuan ini perlu dilatih dan diajarkan sejak usia dini. Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menganalisis penggunaan metode Book Talk dalam rangka menumbuhkan keterampilan berpikir kritis dan berkomunikasi ekspresif verbal siswa usia 3-4 tahun dengan menggunakan buku cerita berbahasa Indonesia bertema hewan. Penelitian Tindakan Kelas ini dilakukan di kelas Nursery Rainbow sekolah Victory Plus Bekasi dengan jumlah subjek penelitian 14 siswa. Pengambilan data dilakukan dalam 3 siklus yang dilakukan pada Mei 2018. Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa metode Book Talk dapat meningkatkan keterampilan berpikir kritis dan berkomunikasi ekspresif verbal siswa. Meskipun demikian, ditemukan juga bahwa Book Talk kurang cocok untuk beberapa tipe siswa tertentu.

Reaching Out to Public Libraries to Help Reduce Cancer Information Disparity

In light of growing interest in people taking more proactive roles in managing the course of long term illnesses, ensuring ready access to cancer information supporting programs has become one of the paramount mandates, for many national cancer control programs. In Japan, the Center for Cancer Control and Information Services, a division of the National Cancer Center Japan (NCC-CIS), is tasked with dissemination of reliable and comprehensive cancer information for all citizens including patients and their families. NCC-CIS compiled cancer information has long been delivered via both dedicated portal “Ganjoho (Cancer Information) Service” ( https://ganjoho.jp ) as well as brochures. As majority of cancer patients and their carers tend to be seniors who are not net-savvy, the portal has its limitations as dissemination channel. A more personalized support is provided by a nationwide network of Cancer Information and Support Centers (CISCs), collocated within 434 state-designated cancer hospitals. CISCs offer both information and counseling support to anyone who has cancer related issues, even if they have never been treated at the given facility. While CISC is a public service, subsidized with national and prefectural funding, many of those in need, remain unaware of the CISCs - at least in part, due to its very location, within a hectic acute care settings. To reach a wider audience, NCC-CIS and CISCs have started to collaborate with public libraries which have traditionally been a neighborhood source of reference information for both the young and old, and clearly more approachable than medical professionals in large hospitals. We have begun by disseminating a “starter-kit” of NCC-CIS publications to public libraries that have signed up with “Cancer Information Gift” project, a donor funded effort launched last summer. To date, almost 60 libraries have taken up this opportunity to either launch a new “Cancer Information Corner”. We have also brought the participating libraries and local CISCs together in regional workshops settings, to explore ways to mutually complement the information services offered by both parties. Collaborative initiatives that have come out of such explorations include “Book Talk on Disease in Library”, an interactive session in relaxed settings, where participants can feel more at ease, raising a wide range of personal concerns, around an issue highlighted in a given book, with both librarians and cancer counselors mediating the discussion. Referrals to CISCs from libraries are also beginning though in low volumes. While the “Cancer Information Gift” project, and its related initiatives are still very much at a nascent stage, we believe this collaboration could potentially go a lot further, to make reliable cancer information (and CISCs) more accessible to a wider segment of those in need, and in the process, help reduce the cancer disparity across the nation.

Book-Talk: An Activity to Motivate Learners to Read Autonomously in a Foreign Language

In the last decade, extensive reading (ER) had been incorporated into English as a foreign language (EFL) education in various Japanese institutions. It restored the once broken balance of accuracy and fluency in traditional English education, and assisted reluctant EFL learners to start reading. However, ER required rather longer term for elementary learners to enjoy its benefits and the learners needed an extra encouragement to continue ER for the longer term. Book-talk was such an activity to encourage learners to read voluntary and to improve their language skills additionally. In a book-talk, several learners sat around a table, introduced the books they had read during the week, and accepted questions and comments from the others in turn. It also fitted well in lessons because 3-minute talks and 2-minute Q&A of six members took only 30 minutes. We will report how the activity motivated elder students, who had three or more years’ experience of ER, to continue their reading outside the class, and how it encouraged autonomous ER of adult EFL learners, who were reading English books borrowing from the college library. A combination of few talks and many readings worked well in EFL settings.