Using Dialogue Journal to Invite Students to Write: A Classroom Action Research

 Using Dialogue Journal to Invite Students to Write

In-service training

 The theme to be taken in the in-house training named ‘developing and revise the school-based curriculum’

As usual, many delayed and uncertainty spread around us. Then we were informed that the activity would be held in biology laboratory room. And from nowhere, a greeting sounded through a microphone. A lady in green mentioned that there will be a lot of activities by this fasting month. She stated date and the activities but I could not catch it well. One thing that attract my attention is the invitation of the principal (or perhaps her own idea) that in the morning all the school staff and students must perform duha pray. What a nuisance for me! why such a religious ceremonial should be done in a mass way. I believe that religious thing should come from their inner demand NOT from the force of others or superior power. Leave it alone, the agenda went to start at last.

The principal opened the agenda by saying Muslim’s greeting (sound stale to me). he did not talk much, perhaps he is too tired to talk as his mind full with the ideas how to secure his chair. I heard that this month there will be a rotation and mutation for the principal. He looked very sleepy and tired.

A man named Nana ( I heard it from the master ceremony) mentioned things that I could not catch well. Perhaps I have ear problem. He talk about white hair, then talk about success, new academic year, blablabla….

He added ‘see others’ mistake is easy but to find out own fault is difficult’. He compared the workshop as ‘gajah di pelupuk mata?” hahahaha… no he did not mean that. He said ‘start with ‘implengan’ what’s that? implengan is not a good source to create a good program. He suggested having a different evaluation in the level of regency to get good evaluation for the students. He gave an example that national examination used the same test item, it is not right, he said.

O gosh! He jumped from one idea to the other… I could not follow his speaking framework.

Sabak….

He compared the IQ the quality current students with the elders, he is very sure that the elders were cleverer than present students. really? I don’t think so.

He rejected national examination. He said that if there is no national examination the school-based curriculum will work. I cannot understand why he said so. This is in contradictory with the government’s plan to do evaluation on national level.

Apa sih perpustakaan?

 Kata ‘perpustakaan’ sangat akrab pada hampir setiap telinga, terutama bagi mereka yang kesehariannya berkecimpung dengan dunia sekolahan. Para guru adalah di antara mereka yang sangat akrab dengan dunia perpustakaan. Kehidupan keguruan mereka sangat bergantung kepada keberadaan perpustakaan. Setiap kali para guru menyampaikan materi ajar kepada para siswa,  sesunggunya yang mereka lakukan adalah berbagi hasil pustaka kepada siswa. Bisa disebut begitu karena para guru terlebih dahulu mengambil berbagai macam sumber bacaan dari perpustakaan (bisa jadi dari perpustakaan pribadi atau perpustakaan lain), kemudian mereka baca, cerna,  dan dengan kemampuan intelektual-pedagogisnya bacaan tersebut disintesakan. Kemudian, dibagikannyalah hasil sintesa bacaannya tersebut kepada para siswa secara cermat sehingga terjadilah perubahan pada pengetahuan dan sikap siswa.

Sedangkan bagi para siswa, perpustakaan menempati posisi yang lebih krusial (penting), karena perpusatakaan merupakan tempat rekreasi yang konstruktif-edukatif selain kelas. Melihat kedudukannya yang begitu penting, maka tidaklah heran jika para siswa merasa sangat sedih ketika mereka menemukan jam kunjung perpustakaan sangat pendek. Para siswa merasa bahagia jika jam kunjung perpustakaan dimulai dari jam 6.30 pagi dan belum tutup diatas jam 2 siang, agar memungkinkan untuk melakukan pinjaman atau membaca buku di luar jam pelajaran.

Sebelum mendeskripsikan lebih lanjut mengenai pentingnya perpustakaan. Mari kita akrabi terlebih dahulu, apa itu perpustakaan. Dalam konteks tradisional, perpustakaan diartikan sebagai kumpulan buku. Sedangkan pada masa kekinian, perpustakaan mengacu lebih dari sekedar kumpulan buku, tetapi “kumpulan informasi, sumber, dan layanan yang dikelola oleh lembaga masyarakat, institusi, atau perorangan” (Anaba Alemma, 2003).

Merujuk kepada siapa pengelola perpustakaan, maka kita kenal berbagai jenis perpustakaan. Salahsatunya adalah perpustakaan sekolah yang tidak saja memberikan layanan pinjaman buku, tetapi juga menjadi pusat informasi, sumber belajar, sekaligus menjadi petunjuk keseriusan sekolah dalam memberikan layanan pendidikan bagi semua warga sekolah.

Perpustakaan pribadi adalah perpusatakaan milik seseorang dan biasanya tidak disiapkan untuk memberikan layanan kepada publik. Berlawanan dengan perpustakaan pribadi, perpustakaan umum malah melayani semua lapisan masyarakat. Perpustakaan umum disebut pula “Universitas Masyarakat” karena kehandalannya dalam melayani setiap individu untuk menjadi kaya pengetahuan, atau secara tidak langsung mempersenjatai anggota masyarakat dengan pengetahuan sesuai dengan kebutuhannya.

Sedangkan perpustakaan yang menyediakan layanan bagi mereka yang sedang menimba ilmu di tingkat universitas, ada perpustakaan universitas. Bagi sebuah universitas, perpustakaan disamakan posisinya sebagai jantungnya universitas. Hal ini didasarkan pada fungsi perpustakaan universitas sebagai pusat kegiatan universitas, mulai dari sebagai tempat dimana ditemukannya materi perkuliahan, tempat mengakses hasil-hasil penelitian, periodical (majalah dan jurnal ilmiah), dan manuscript (tulisan asli sebelum dipublikasikan).

Kini dikenal pula perpustakaan digital, yakni perpustakaan maya. Salah satu layanan perpustakaan digital adalah  Online Public Access, yaitu layanan yang dapat diakses siapa saja, dari mana saja, dan kapan saja, serta hebatnya mengenai apa saja, semuanya tersedia.

Selain menyediakan buku, perpustakaan juga menyediakan hal lain. Pada perpustakaan modern, perpusatakaan difungsikan pula sebagai tempat penyimpanan dan poin akses untuk peta, lukisan, dokumen atau hasil seni seperti mikrofilm, audio tapes, CD, LP, kaset, viodetape, dan DVD. Bahkan, dia dapat pula memberikan layanan bagi publik  untuk dapat mengakses ke CD-ROMs, masuk ke database, dan akses internet. Bagi perpustakaan modern, perpustakaan tidak lagi dibatasi oleh dinding untuk dapat mengakses informasi dalam berbagai format dari berbagai sumber.

Tetapi, sesederhana atau secanggih apapun sebuah perpustakaan, tidak ada gunanya jika semua layanan yang tersedia di dalamnya tidak ada yang memanfaatkan. Maka melalui tulisan ini, saya menghimbau untuk kembali mengingat apa sih perpustakaan dan sekaligus mengajak untuk kembali menghidupkan perpustakaan,  sehingga fungsi perpustakaan sebagai gudang ilmu, tempat menyimpan ilmu berubah menjadi tempat untuk melaksanakan self-education (mendidik diri sendiri). Dan, cara paling sederhana untuk mewujudkan self-education adalah dengan membaca. Ketika perpustakaan dipenuhi oleh individu-individu yang membaca, tidak diragukan lagi kemajuan sedang terjadi. Karena memang itulah tujuan dari perpustakaan ‘mengubah ke arah yang lebih baik melalui self-education dengan cara membaca’

Teacher’s Reflection on Teaching session 1

 The first meeting should be with grade 12 science-2, then science- 1, science- 3 and science-4 respectively. I sent one of the students a text to inform that I would teach them. As I expected; the students were surprised for my coming. I got myself surprised too. I thought that the students had prepared themselves to study. But I was wrong. The students probably thought, as the first three day of the week there is what so called on Orientation Session for grade 10, “the elders” class thought there would be no class.

Most of the students of 12 ia 1 and 2 arrived, perhaps it was because the meeting started at the early time (before the break time) and the students were still at school. But not many with 12 ia 3 and 4, they said that they had already went home. Even one of the parents gave me a call informing her daughter had gone to Bandung to visit their grandparents to welcome fasting month together.

I gave copied article taken from The Jakarta Post entitled: Path to harmony: in search of responsible person by Jennie.

Before I started helping to make the article understood, I invited some questions from the students. Most of them were just sit still, no questions at the start. Then a student asked my hobby, my teaching motivation, my address. Considering this was my first meeting with the students, I could understand the ‘silence’ and ‘cold-look’ of my students. I tried to use mostly English. There are two reasons for this. First I wanted to show my students that they actually could understand English but they did not have the ability to use spoken English. Secondly, the spoken English I used is aimed to show them that Indonesian like me can speak English.

Then I started to help the students to understand the article. I translated them into Bahasa and told them what the writer tried to propose. I asked them some questions while reading the article such as:

–    After you read paragraph one, what is the main idea of this paragraph?

–    What words attract you?

–    Do you think that the writer is just an ordinary writer or she is very smart? Why you said so?

–    How did the writer translate the word ‘responsible”?

I also asked students to translate per line. Yet, they looked like very afraid of making mistake of translating. So I guided them again by helping them with new words.

Half of the article was understood. I asked the students to read the rest at home. Besides, I also asked them to be an active reader by giving response to the article. They may show their agreement or disagreement to the opinion provided by the writer.

I gave this assignment as they have four days to go without doing anything. I hope this task will help them to start become a good reader of English and at the same time I know their writing ability too.

I highlighted a question given by Rahmatillah (science-4). She came with a question like this: ‘How to be a good speaker without grammar?’

I kept quite for a moment I tried to find easy-understandable answer for that tricky question. For Indonesian as English learner and put English as a foreign language, the first thing the learner knows is grammar. It is like verb pattern. The learner must bear in mind if they want to say this or that, they must consider the tense. And this kind of learning, I do not really like (actually) as it often sends me into confusion and frustrated feeling.

But what burst from my mouth just, “just say whatever you want to say, do not think about grammar. People will understand anything you said.  Take an example –I go to Bandung yesterday-. That sentence is acceptable; you knew that the speaker went to Bandung the day before. So, just talk, ignore grammar’.

Perhaps what I said causes a little bit confusion as the students had fed up with the warning that ‘grammar is important and use grammar to make you speak good English’.

Theories of language (grammars) are a bit like the blind men’s experience of the elephant. à consider for a moment the experience of the six blind men meeting an elephant for the first time. One blind man felt the tail and declared that the elephant was like a rope; another felt the trunk and decided that an elephant was like a hose. Another, feeling the ear, felt and elephant was like an umbrella. Each blind man developed a theory of what elephants are like (Gerrot and Wignell, 1995: 4).

Why it is said a bit like the blind’s men experience the elephant. It is because each ended up with somewhat different perspective. And like the blind’s experience, theories of language or grammar are not inherently good or bad, right or wrong, true or false. Rather, grammars are validated by their usefulness in describing and explaining the phenomenon called language.

For the students, grammar helps to understand and produce texts, and grammar also shed light on how texts make meaning.

BASTIAN DAYS

 His appearance attracts all eyes.  With 2 meters and 2 centimeter height, he can steal all eyes to focus on his extraordinary tall-body.  This 24-year old Germany is Bastian completed with his dread-lock hair style. He said that he loves reggae music as it offers peace in its lyrics whereas this world full of war.

I met him for the first time at 08/08/2012 (Tuesday) when a friend of mine introduced him as a volunteer to teach at my class during his travel. My students and I welcomed him happily. The first class session was with Science-1. The topic was abortion. The students were given a prompt to share ideas their ideas on the pros and cons towards abortion.

I gave Bastian 15 minutes to take turn-taking with my students on his personal identity. My students were so curious about him. They asked a lot of questions.  And through the students’ questions I learned that Bastian is a professional software development in a small company in German, single at the moment, seeing Cianjur as a nice town with full-smile citizen and friendly people.  He made two statements that a bit shocked the class. The first was his statement that religion is not a must in German and abortion is legal until 14 weeks.

The class session was closed by taking picture with him (taking picture with foreigner is something common in my countryJ, as it is a rare occasion for Indonesian to have foreigner around the classroom).

The second session was with Science-3. The topic was about good teacher. Bastian mentioned that there are good and terrible teachers.  He tried to recall his memory to his high school time, and then he said that, ‘Eight years ago, there were 50 % of good teachers”. He added that terrible teacher was also perhaps 50%, such as Chemistry teacher. This happened probably because a student had bad experience with the teacher like the first impression created a barrier in student’s mind and it is very hard to break that again and then do not see the teacher as new opportunity to learn something. He offered a solution by saying that student must accept his role as student and always try his best, keep calm, and be a good friend with the teacher. He ended by mentioning that he himself a shy student; he loves if the teacher accepts him just the way he is. As he is shy, he will not raise hand, and perhaps this will cause teacher not give him good grade since teacher want activity, and a student who does not raise hand means he has not any activity.

The last session was with Science-4. The topic was about the pros and cons towards censorship for imported film. The students and I learned a lot about the how Germany sees film as an art where no censorship is applied. The film is a film, and it is to be watched, any scenes there are not to be followed but to be enjoyed.

The first meeting with Bastian gave good impression on Germany and things relates to German. The students invited Bastian to have break-fasting together.

I can say something funny about the science classes, especially Science-4. Every time I teach them, they always remind me about the TIME. The president of the class always said, ’Ms, it is ten (or fifteen) minutes for English to over”. I wondered why he always did that. I thought it was because they studied in the Language Laboratory so that it would need some time to wear shoes and returned to the class. I was totally wrong! Thing that made the Science-4 left language laboratory as soon as possible, it is because the upcoming lesson in Bahasa Indonesia. I sometimes talked to my self, this Bahasa Indonesia teacher must be a GOOD teacher. The reason for this is very clear. She can make the student punctual with the time and sits in the class neatly waiting for her coming. She is also good teacher as she makes the students join her class in a serious way. I think, I cannot be like Bahasa Indonesia teacher. For me, teaching is an art. And as an art, it needs special touch and special way to deal with the students’ uniqueness. Furthermore, to tell you the truth, I cannot put serious (=rigid) face to my students, as I believe the students need fun and hope for teacher’s love. I will laugh at myself if I teach using serious faceJ.

The second time, I met Bastian was on August 10th, 2012. It was the school breakfasting-together agenda with whole teachers of Smanda. The agenda was a bit weird to me. As a part of Smanda teacher, I was not be informed what agenda would be. To my surprise, at around 4.30 in the afternoon, there were some 80 orphans came to the hall. I heard that they were the unfortunate children from somewhere around the rail station area. Again, to my surprise, as I sat with Bastian, I was asked to do impromptu activities, which were making the orphans entertained by us (Bastian and I). You can imagine how crazy it was for both Bastian and I, but we tried. Bastian said ‘uh… I am shy person; I give up if I must handle these 80 children”. I responded it by smiling since I also did not know what to say.

The orphans were given an envelope (money I guess), some snacks and another simple kid’s food. They were very cute.  They sang some Arabic words song that I did not understand, maybe the song was about praising Prophet Muhammad. They looked very happy. Inside my heart, I spoke to myself, the government should responsible for these cute children to give them good life and bright future. Unfortunately, where the government when they are needed, no one knows. What I know, these children must work very hard so that they can eat. I heard some of them selling plastic bags (keresek plastic-bag) to keep them alive. Of course they do not think about school; school probably will become a luxurious and expensive thing to be afforded by them. Get three thousand per day is enough for them. Some others take a job as shoe cleaner.

Can you imagine if the young generations do not get education, a big problem will arise in the future? They are as old as your brothers and sisters. While your brothers and sisters go to school and study and weave a better future by getting good education. They go to the street, railway station, garbage dumping area, to search for food, they will not think about education, future, being a doctor, an engineer or another professional and stable job. They will grow with your brothers and sisters. Your brothers and sisters enjoy their teenager lives; these orphans also enjoy their teenagers’ lives, but perhaps by starting selling their bodies, selling their religion, stealing and other social pathologies activities. The worse, they perhaps trap your brothers and sisters with their tricky offer such as drugs.

My imagination above is too far. Don’t worry as I did. What I imagined will not come into existence if the government and ‘the have’ try to save these orphans. In the right hands, these children will grow as good part of this nation. Even, perhaps, they can exceed our brothers and sisters in their achievement. For now, just pray that they are in good hands and pray also, that you become rich people and can save another generations from damaging this nation.

In this picture, only some of the children did singing. I tried very hard to understand what they were singing, but alas, I could not understand. They sang Arabic (perhaps) song. Something came into my mind ‘how can they say something they did not understand?’ In my point of view, someone can say something if they really understand what they are being said. Remembering words without understand their meaning sounds a bit useless to me. Maybe my opinion surprises you. I guess, it will be perfect if we can say the words in any language and at the same time we understand what we are saying. Once, there was a stupid thing happened. In a big mosque, there was a group of santri (clerics) sang a song proudly using Arabic language. At that time, an Arab was one of the audiences. He was very surprised and felt a bit insulted. He said that the song being sung by the clerics were about something related to sexual activity. This is the danger of singing or saying something not in our own language. Once, I also experienced this kind of embarrassing situation. A puberty neighbor of mine sang an English song, in the middle of the day, when the sun shines brightly. He sang very loudly, and I think some Indonesian teenagers did this when they are in love (=do not care the environment and sang loudly without thinking others). He sang like this “I will make love to you, like you want me too bla…bla…bla” My ears red hearing this. ((I think you understand English, so you know what this lyric means)).

Then, August 11th, 2012. Bastian and I were invited to Pandu’s birthday party. It was in Teras Kita. It is near Tapal Kuda. Once, I went to Tapal Kuda to take my children swimming. But I know nothing about Teras Kita. The party was so big and crowded. Many policemen were everywhere. One of students informed me that Pandu’s father is a Kasatreskrim. Kasatreskrim has nothing to do with ice cream, and it will not appear in your test! I asked my husband what Kasatreskrim means, my husband laughed and said ‘how come you didn’t know such thing, it relates to criminal thing, blablabla!’ I just put SNAIL smile when I was listening to his explanation.

The Teras Kita building consists of two main buildings. The first is a restaurant where everyone can have meal and enjoy the scenery of turning big road and seeing vehicles run. Another one is karaoke building, where everyone can sing their favorite song. Unlucky me, I am not good at singing. Bastian said that he did not like pop song, so he said no to this karaoke singing chance.  And I almost forgot, at the back of the restaurant building there are some unfinished building, it is like a villa. There are about four and all of them face the east. There are many rich people recently who put their money on villa + restaurant + entertainment. This person also, put their money to build Teras Kita, and of course this business will attract Cianjuran peoples. But what comes to your mind when you hear the word karaoke in relation to Cianjur as gerbang marhamah town. Isn’t this a contradictory situation? On one side, Cianjur devotes to be good Muslim follower, meaning avoid worldly satisfaction, on the other side, Teras Kita provides Cianjurans with temptation and causes to get far from heavenly life.

When we arrived, the party has already started. A Kyai was preaching about something, I did not know what he was preaching, but the audiences were many. Some are men with policemen uniform and some others were ladies with Muslim’s outfits. Pandu’s mom welcomed us and asked us to join the preaching, but I chose to sit in the hut and enjoyed the evening. Preaching is suitable for elderly people, right? And I think, preaching is every where during Ramadan time. I always listen to Quraisy Syihab explanation on the Koran every 3 o’clock in morning. I think, what Pa Quraisy did is a very noble deed. He gave a very clear explanation on every verses of the holly Koran. The way he explaining also makes his audience smart and thinks cleverly. That’s what Indonesia needs now, a smart kyai who can make his audience think cleverly.

The students were placed in the Karaoke building to do breakfasting and had some karaoke song. Bastian and I just enjoyed the food. The squid was so delicious. Bastian commented that squid (fish) was so interesting. My stomach was so full. And Pandu is a very gentle man; he escorted us to Smanda to go home. Bastian asked to stop at Interlingua. Ayu accompanied him. You know, Ayu sent me a text to tell her regret for not helping Bastian to cross the road. I replied her text saying “don’t worry, if Bastian can cross the country from German to Indonesia, so he can also cross Cianjur’s road”.

At August 13th, 2012 (Monday), Bastian and I went to Cibodas Park with some of Science-3 students. I explained Bastian that Cibodas means Ci is water and bodas is white. Bastian guessed that white-water name come because the water fall makes the water looked white. That day was the first day of Bastian in his 25 years old. On Sunday (12/08/2012) Bastian had his 25.

We left Smanda at around nine in the morning by public transportation for Cibodas. After around an hour, the car approached the gate, and each person has to pay 2 thousand rupiahs. Then at the main gate each of us has to pay 6 thousand rupiahs.  I tried to bargain with the gate-man, and he agreed that we paid only 60 thousand from 96 thousand rupiahs. When we entered the park, the park was so empty. Fadil said ‘wow great, we hire the entire park just for ourselves!’

Bastian wanted to try flying-fox, but the men said that the area is being fixed to prepare for the Lebaran day. Then we walked to the Moss Garden. Some men were cleaning the garden. We tried touching the moss bed. It is very soft just like bed. Bastian said that in German there is moss too.

I headed to the green house, and it was empty too. I handed my camera to Fadil and he took some pictures. I think he had a talent to be a photographer as he made some good picture.

We passed through a very big tree. The four of us tried to hold it; I guess the diameter must be around 3 meters. Before that, we take ‘check point’ on the falling-tree. Everyone took their position to be captured by the camera. There was a lot of fun, but our stomach could not lie. We felt tired easily as we felt hungry. It was around 11 when we sat near the pool. While we served Bastian food to have his lunch, a guy from Italy passed us by. I did not know what the students said to him, but Jackomo (the 29-Italian man) and his guide Henry stopped and joined us. Bastian and Jackomo took their lunch together and we left them for having dzuhur pray and Ade became our imam. After we got our energy back, we continued our travel to water fall. Now the journey was lighter, as there was two bules with us.

When we are about to arrive at the water fall, an Arabian family was there. And on the water fall, a Japanese family was having their lunch. Imagine, we were very hungry, and the Japanese family, ignore us, just eating and eating, I could only smile. We spent some time in the water fall, tried to enjoy the beauty of the water which at that time almost dry and the water flow slowly.

Here you can see (the picture on the right) that the water is almost dry. When it is in the wet season, the water almost reaches the outer part of the river, but now you can see only stone scattered everywhere. I think, Fadil took this picture to remind us-Indonesian- to look back and see the nature closely. Dry-river is symptom of water scarcity. I heard in the future, one day, people will fight for a drop of water; water will become the most expensive thing to buy. Now, people fight for fuel, even a country makes a war just to get the source of fuel. If we treat the nature as we are now, then we will see people make war for water.

I think we do not need to wait for too long to see the water become an expensive thing. Now you can compare a gasoline per liter costs Rp. 4.500, and one liter of mineral water costs around Rp. 3.000 (60ml of mineral water cost Rp. 2.500). In the year 2012, a liter of water cost Rp. 3.000, what about 10 years from now? The water is as expensive as the gasolines will not an imagination.

Sometimes, as Indonesian-we are too confident that water will be available all the time. Actually it won’t. In the dry season, some people in central Java walk 15 kilometers just to get a pail of water. They use water only for important thing, such as cooking, drinking, not enough for bathing! As Indonesian, we must immediately fix this situation unless our younger sisters and brothers will not get enough water because we had used them up and left nothing for them.

Suddenly, I remembered Bastian’s question. He asked whether I know why Indonesian’s government subsidizes the gasoline, where the money is from. I could not give any answer, as I know nothing about where and how the government provides money for gasoline. Bastian said that one liter of gasoline in German cost almost equal to 18.000 rupiah. I felt Bastian question is worth to reconsider, how the government subsidizes the gasoline while it is sold very expensive in another country. There must be something wrong with our government policy. As wrong as in its way to handle water. Why the government does not take a serious action to preserve water. In my personal point of view, in the school, it will be more useful to teach students to plant and nurture trees. The students get good grades if they can grow the trees well during their 3 years in their school-time, rather than being taught environmental education (PLH) that equip students with nothing unless waste their time and take action to the environment.

Well, let’s go back to the journey. We had great moments at Cibodas. The students and bules played some ‘impromptu’ game, like remembering names. It was hard for me to remember the entire students name at once. So you can imagine it will be even harder for bule to remember the entire names. And it does! You know, I could not stop laughing when Jackomo tried to pronounce Fachmi’s name. He pronounced it become something else. Thank God, the students did not know the meaning of it (???). I just talked to Jackomo informing his mistakenly-spelling and he got surprised with that, then we talked and talked and talked, we did not realize if the students were watching us and waited for the translationJ.

It was about four in the afternoon we left Cibodas. We said goodbye to Jackomo and Henry. It was about to leave when a bad news arrive. Arif motor-bike got some troubles; I heard its oil-tank blew up and stop working.  I felt guilty, but I could do nothing to fix his motorbike, then it was decided that girls left earlier with public transportation, meanwhile boys were stayed around Balakang-Cipanas market to get an open truck to carry the motor-bike. I just prayed that Arif’s parents did not get angry with Arif or me-the teacher. I got off at Hypermart’s roundabout.  Breakfasting time was over; we drank water from the same mineral bottle glass when we were at the public transportation. I drank some water from Hanna’s bottle. Then, Bastian and I walked to have breakfasting at Delarisa café. I took Bastian there as I had promised ex-12 science-3 class students to meet them there. The café was full with ex-science three students. I saw almost all the students arrived. It made me happy; their class-unity caused them to be together and met me there. Bastian was given mango-juice and sea-food with shrimp on it plus a cone of rice with small cut of chicken and tofu. Bastian asked me how to eat shrimp. I said, ‘just avoid eating its legs’. Suddenly I remember, at Pandu’s birthday he ate squid, and now he ate shrimp. Maybe he thought that Indonesian eats a lot of fish in their dish.

In this picture (even isn’t very clear), you can see Ibep at the front, then left to the right Ansori, Bastian, Eka, Erlis; then left to the right standing  Ica, Yeti, Diva, Nadia, Gani, Dylan, Akew, Ms B, Agung, Reza, Puji, Elsa. I can’t recognize who stand at the back row.The picture was taken at the front of Delarisa café on its parking lot.

After gathering with ex-science three, I said goodbye to everyone including Bastian. I went home and went back to my house-wife life.

UJI KOMPETENSI GURU

  Berdasarkan kepentingan pemerintah untuk melakukan pemetaan kompetensi guru Indonesia, maka dilakukanlah Uji Kompetensi Guru (UKG) secara on line dan off line. Kegiatan ini sebagai tindak lanjut atas dikucurkannya pencairan dana sertifikasi bagi para guru yang secara signifikan tidak mengubah output menjadi lebih baik. Hasil Ujian Nasional (UN) tidak menunjukkan perubahan pengalaman belajar siswa, bahkan lebih buruk lagi, dicurigai UN telah dimanipulasi dengan beredarnya kunci jawaban. Sehingga evaluasi skala nasional ini hasilnya tidak mencerminkan hasil pembelajaran yang sesungguhnya.

                Pemerintah mendengungkan bahwa UKG hanya diberikan kepada para guru yang telah lulus sertifikasi baik secara portofolio ataupun PLPG. Sedangkan bagi para guru yang belum memperoleh uji sertifikasi dan masih harus mengikuti kegiatan PLPG, maka diberikan Uji Kompetensi Awal (UKA) yang setara dengan UKG.

                Pemerintah seperti telah merasa terkecoh dengan meluluskan sertifikasi para guru lewat portofolio. Alasan untuk ini, katanya ternyata ditemukan beberapa guru telah melakukan kecurangan yang sangat tidak cerdas. Yakni memalsukan beberapa sertifikat serta data-data pedagogik lainnya sehingga lulus hanya dengan diwakili lembaran-lembaran kertas saja. Memperbaiki keadaan ini, maka diputuskan bahwa guru sebaiknya diberi pelatihan keprofesian (PLPG) sehingga secara tidak langsung kompetensi para guru meningkat dan pantas menyandang gelar guru profesional dan sekaligus mendapatkan pencerahan dan penyegaran melalui kegiatan pelatihan.

                Setelah sertifikat keprofesionalan guru diedarkan dan dipegang oleh para guru, pemerintah kembali kelimpungan. Sesungguhnya seperti apa gambaran kompetensi guru-guru pada saat ini, belum diketahui. Padahal, pemerintah telah membuat rambu-rambu bahwa guru harus menguasai empat kompetensi, yaitu (1) profesional, (2) pedagogik, (3) kepribadian, dan (4) sosial. Menyadari ada bolong, maka pemerintah segera membuat Penilaian Kinerja Guru (PKG) yang mulai diberlakukan tahun 2013. Pada PKG, pemerintah memberikan rincian menyoal gambaran kinerja dan gambaran guru profesional. Seperti misalnya, untuk menjadi guru profesional, dalam hal perangkat pembelajaran saja, guru harus memiliki paling tidak 13 jenis pelengkap pengadministrasian yang dibuat oleh guru secara individu.

                Kini, pemerintah menyelenggarakan UKG, dalam kurun waktu 30 Juli sampai 4 Agustus 2012 katanya. Sekolah-sekolah penyelenggaraan UKG telah ditentukan, kartu-kartu peserta UKG telah disebar ke setiap sekolah. Maka terjadilah chaos diantara para guru. Sebagian menyikapi UKG dengan diam saja, ada pula yang dengan menggerutu, ada pula yang menyambutnya dengan sikap sinis dan menganggap bahwa kegitan ini tidak lain adalah proyek. Proyek pada lingkungan pendidikan memiliki konotasi negatif. Proyek diartikan sebuah kegiatan untuk buang-buang uang, menghabiskan dana untuk mendukung keuntungan segelintir pihak. Sedangkan guru adalah korbannya.

                Kisi-kisi UKG memuat pengevaluasian pada wilayah kompetensi profesional dan pedagogik. Sedangkan kompetensi sosial dan kepribadian, tidak diperhitungkan. Atau dengan kata lain, menjadi guru, cukup bisa ngajar (kompetensi pedagogik) dan pintar (profesional), urusan bermoral, tidak peduli, wearing innocent smile, tidak diurus. Kompetesi sosial dan kepribadian guru diabaikan.

                Menjelang UKG dilaksanakan, kehebohan merebak disetiap kantor guru. Setiap percakapan hanya dikhususkan untuk UKG saja, percakapan lain, maaf, untuk sementara tidak mendapat tempat. Para guru mengeluhkan ‘apa yang harus dihapalkan’. Inilah gambaran guru kita, masih tidak ragu-ragu mengucapkan kata ‘menghapal’. Menghapal merupakan metode pembelajaran yang telah lama ditinggalkan. Menghapal hampir tidak jauh dengan metode drilling  atau tubian, yakni sebuah kegiatan memperoleh pengalaman belajar dengan cara meminta siswa diberi latihan berulang-ulang supaya ingat. Sesuatu yang diperoleh melalui hapalan tentu saja perlahan-lahan akan lupa seiring semakin banyaknya urusan yang harus dipikirkan oleh para guru. Sekarang para guru masih memikirkan apa yang harus dihapal untuk uji kompetensi, ironis!!!

                Ketakutan yang mengahantui para guru diekspresikan dengan ajakan ‘boikot UKG’ dan ‘gagalkan UKG’. Jika melihat kekhawatiran yang diungkapkan pada paragraf sebelumnya yakni ‘ketidaktahuan apa yang harus dihapal’, ungkapan boikot UKG, sangat masuk akal. Jika boikot disetujui, maka guru-guru yang khawatir ini akan lepas dari vonis penentuan posisi kompentensi dirinya yang akan terpetakan secara nasional. Dengan kata lain, zona nyaman mereka tidak terganggu.

SILABUS BAHASA INGGEIS TAHUN AJARAN 2012/2013

 COURSE AND LESSON GRADE 12

BAD DAY

 I joined a seminar on Developing Lesson Plan for EYL at UPI. I should be arriving at 8 in the morning to re-register, but I came very late. I managed to come at around 9.15 in the morning.  When I arrived the 1st speaker was explaining ‘thing’ that I could not understand at the beginning. Then I tried to catch what she is being explained, I took a note on what written on the board. Then I could see then, the participants were supported to do a little survey someone who

–          Plans in the shower

–          Always design a lesson plan before teaching

–          Can mention elements of a lesson plan

–          Can explain the difference between objectives and indicators

–          Can sequence child-friendly activities

All the points written above, in my point of view related to the characteristics of developing instructional design. I put a hope that the seminar would support my quest on lesson planning.

The seminar itself was dedicated for pre-school and preliminary level English teachers. My coming was because the topic catch my eye. Minutes by minutes I joined the seminar in a bit impatient way. My mind went to my chapter one of my thesis. It discuses on giving background why I research lesson planning under genre-based approach. And my coming to Bandung was actually to submit my chapter one. When the break time came, it was at 12, I run to FPBS building to see my supervisor after being informed by her assistance that she was in that building.

I waited. Then I saw my supervisor walking and talking with others. I could not say anything as I knew that she was very busy. I heard that she was having ISO monitoring and assessment. It seemed to me that there would be no chance for me to submit my chapter one. The clock showed it was 13.20. I run back to Language building where I was joining the seminar there. Then I took my lunch box. I saw every participant was eating. Then the second session started. The second speaker did not make me enthusiastic. Sometimes she made fatal mistake that decrease my point of view for her as an expert on young learners. Lay person like me could do such a thing; the difference was that she got a place and moment. I just sighed; my mind went back to my thesis. I began cursed myself, I blamed my unluckiness. Others were doing their first seminar and dreaming about graduation by this August. My position was very worse, my thesis is in chapter one.

Then a text vibrated my gadget. I read that someone from the place where I was looking for a job asked whether he could call me. I replied yes.

He actually had called me four days before. He asked me what days that I could spend to teach in the school where he posts as the curriculum designer. I offered Monday, Friday and Saturday. He said that he was doing teaching table and would put my name on it. As the effect of this, I thought I had a right to dream about standing in front of students who were labeled international standard school.

It was around three in the afternoon, he called me. He informed me that he cancelled and erased my name as a teacher in the international standard school. He mentioned that other had filled the post. The information was in contradictory with what he said before. He said that the school needs at least two teachers to teach 48 hours. He spoke that if I joined it would be the great help for the school. After he told the main point, he added that he wanted my help on the students’ diary. But o knew very well that what he said after the main point was nothing but icebreaking. Even I had a bad impression on him. I concluded that he was nice to me as he needed me and he did jerk thing when he considered himself had a chance to do so, even it is to a person that he called friend.

I felt like he stabbed me from the back. Why he gave a sudden change. The decision was too weird to me. This hurt me much. I had accepted many pains this week. This completed the pain. I cursed my self again, even worse now.

(At the same time, my heart says that perhaps ‘the man who I belief’ who stands beside him that stabbed me, not him directly. Then I suspected both did this me in purpose. Actually, my plan to join international standard school is with a hope that I can give better nuance in this school. I had made enough research on these kind of schools, and got a vivid picture how to teach in this kind of class)

Then the seminar was over, I hurriedly run to FPBS building to see my supervisor, who knows that she had a minute for me to take a glance on my chapter one.

She was there, busy. When she was walking outside, my eye just followed every step she made, and then she would returned to her room when I stopped her and asked her if she had time for me. She said no she is in the middle of ISO program. I forgot what I had mentioned, but she agreed to wait for my hands opening the research questions part. She murmured that she needed to read before she decided what to change in my research questions. What she did for me, at least gave me a relief. I told myself if at least she remembered that I was doing my thesis, perhaps she would also remember that I was one of her students!

Bad Week

 It is my first visit to my supervisor after three weeks I did not see her.  Three weeks ago she said thing that made my life change and at the same time like falling into endless cliff. It has been almost five months she is supervising my thesis. I visited her regularly to have my writing checked. It seems like she agrees with the topic I am studying, and I continue writing almost finish.

Yet, three weeks ago she said, ‘change your topic, focus on lesson planning’. I could only say yes. I believe what she said is final. Then, I went home and confused.

I got very ill since then, but I try to read and read and buy some books what I think has connection with the new topic. I found many discrepancies on my self. The books I bought some of them have nothing to do with the topic, and at the same time, I did not have any financial power to buy other books. It is like a very perfect day to blame my destiny.

Even though it was very hard, I started writing chapter one-the introduction. The chapter sound very weird to me, but I must submit it or I loose all my chance to be found serious by my supervisor.

Then, I sat in the chair waiting for the supervisor to come. It was eight in the morning. I met another student; he is from class-c. I asked him whether he would do the similar thing as I did. He replied no, but he would have ‘seminar phase one’. Oh gosh, this is too painful. If the supervisor did not turn down my thesis and ask me to write from zero, I would be in his position, waiting for the seminar. The worse, I get penalized to pay the six million school-fees as my writing has not noted joining seminar by this 15 July. I got very angry to myself; it was my stupidity that makes me lost six millions.

Back again to my visit, I wait and wait and wait. My friend who will have seminar was called and did his seminar, but I still wait. My supervisor did not want to see me; she said she had no time to supervise me. I returned home at six in the afternoon and got nothing but sick in the heart. This is unfair.

I almost forgot, before I went home, around five in the afternoon, I met two junior high school English’s teachers. They said ‘you are here, we are here too because we got scholarship to continue my study here for three semester to get our master degree. We were supported by preliminary directorate and now we are on ‘study status’ and we are free from teaching. We were given ‘shortened program’ to get our master degree, so how’s your study?’

The statement above made me see nothing but black. I worked very hard to get my master degree and pay every cent of it from my own pocket and got no help. But they talked about pursuing master degree with all those laugh as if laughing my unfortunate study-life and mock my ‘writing from zero’. I know, they get an easy way to get their degree and then finish their study very soon as the program said so. I could say nothing but smile to their long statement. What a life. I study very hard every day, and get nothing, but they get a very luxurious facility and does nothing just sit down and then the degree comes to them. This is unfair (again).

The next day, I went to school to have my papers signed by my principal. This happens because the directorate of Jakarta turned down my proposal to fulfill my credit rating and get my 4.b leveled. While I am waiting for the principal who is talking with guests, my friends said lightly ‘you know, Mr. X, Mrs. Y, and Mr. Z has just got their promotion of 4.b, they asked for Mrs. T help’s to do so, and paid Mrs. T six millions to get their 4.b. I guess you must also do the same thing, you had proposed you 4.b for a year but no answer and news’. Again this strikes my heart very ugly. I worked very hard using ‘clean way’ and fail, but my friends did nothing ‘using bribery’ and succeed. This is very unfair and sucked.

Anyway, my principal signed the papers. He asked ‘what is this about?’ I said plainly ‘my proposal for 4.b’. Then, I went home as quickly as I can; this is too much; I can’t stand this anymore.

KENCAN PERTAMA dengan SFL GBA

 Mengenal GBA = Genre Based Approach tidak dapat dengan mudah dilakukan. Sebelum tahu persis siapa atau mungkin apa itu GBA, kita harus kenal TEKS terlebih dahulu. Kenapa alasan ini diajukan? Jawabannya karena pendekatan GBA diarahkan bukan pada kata-kata atau kalimat atau sekumpulan kata-kata, melainkan pada semantic unit. Sebuah semantic unit tidak ditentukan oleh panjang atau pendeknya, melainkan oleh wholeness atau kesempurnaan secara makna. Sebagai contoh, kata STOP merupakan sebuah teks, walaupun hanya terdiri dari satu kata saja. Ketika seseorang berhenti di depan lampu lalu lintas karena melihat lampu berwarna merah dan diterjemahkan berhenti atau stop maka stop dalam konteks ini adalah sebuah teks. Sebaliknya, jika kata STOP diambil dari sebuah tulisan tesis misalnya, dia bukanlah teks. Selain tidak jelas apa maknanya juga tidak tahu konteks field (apa) dan tenor (untuk siapa) kata STOP tersebut ditujukan. To sum up, text refers to words or sentences woven together to create a single whole (Christie and Misson, 1998: 8 dikutip Emilia, 2011: 4).

Sebuah teks tidak berdiri sendiri, dia selalu mempunyai konteks. Kon (con) artinya penyerta; konteks bisa diartikan sesuatu yang menyertai teks. Ada tiga elemen yang menyertai teks, pertama field, kedua tenor, dan ketiga mode. Berbicara field artinya kita sedang melihat teks memiliki topik yang dibicarakanya, sedangkan tenor mengacu pada teks memiliki arah untuk siapa teks dibuat dan dengan cara apa menyampaikannya, lisan ataukah tulisan, itulah yang disebut mode. Sebuah teks didalamnya memiliki apa yang dikupasnya, kepada siapa teks tersebut ditujukan dan dengan cara apa kupasan itu disampaikan.

Teks yang baik mempunyai unsur koherensi dan kohesi. Koherensi terdiri dari dua macam. Pertama koherensi situasional yakni ketika teks itu dibaca (jika bentuknya tulisan) atau didengar (jika bentuknya lisan) pembaca (pendengar) mampu mengenali field, tenor dan mode yang digunakannya. Kedua koherensi generik, yakni teks dapat dikenali jenisnya misalnya prosedur, recount, deskriptif atau jenis teks lainnya.

Ketika teks memiliki ‘semantic tie’ maka teks tersebut memiliki kohesi. Alat kohesi untuk teks diantaranya konjungsi yang mampu membuat hubungan antar kalimat menjadi jelas.

Dalam menyampaikan sebuah teks, intertekstualitas akan terlibat. Makna istilah intertektualitas adalah setiap teks berkait kepada teks lainnya. Ketika seseorang berbicara tentang sebuah sepeda, maka dengan sendirinya baik dirinya sendiri sebagai pembicara ataupun lawan bicaranya telah mengenal sebelumnya dengan konsep sepeda. Seorang ahli Jurnal, Moon, menyebutkan bahwa learning is relating prior knowledge to new learning material. Ini menunjukkan bahwa ada kaitan atau interteks antar apa yang kita miliki sekarang dengan yang telah kita miliki sebelumnya.

Pertanyaannya apa hubungan TEKS dengan GBA?

Jawaban untuk pertanyaan ini tidak dapat disampaikan dengan singkat. Pertama kita harus menengok ke belakang dari mana GBA berasal dan mengapa berkembang biak di Indonesia. Kedua, kita harus mengetahui konsep GBA itu sendiri sehingga kita dapat mengenal secara utuh jatidiri GBA sehingga diadopsi dalam kurikulum nasional Indonesia.

SFL merupakan singkatan dari Systemic Functional Linguistic berupa cara pendekatan terhadap grammar dengan melihat dari sudut pragmatik atau bagaimana bahasa digunakan. Dasar bagaimana bahasa digunakan menjadi titik tolak pengajaran berbasis Genre. Dalam kehidupan nyata, manusia tidak serta merta bisa menulis karena kemampuan menulis tidak ‘given’ atau sudah terkuasai dengan sendirinya tanpa dipelajari seperti kemampuan berbicara pada anak-anak. Kemampuan menulis harus dibimbing atau diberi intervene pada saat proses menulis itu terjadi. Pendekatan mengajar menulis, berkembang marak dengan menerapkan pendekatan proses. Pendekatan ini dikritik oleh teoriman GBA dengan alasan diatas yakni kemampuan menulis tidak given.

Genre Based Approach atau Pendekatan Berbasis Genre (jenis teks) merupakan pengajaran yang memberikan bekal pengalaman belajar kepada siswa tentang berbagai jenis teks sehingga mereka mengenal beragam teks untuk memudahkan mereka di kemudian hari seperti misalnya ketika berhadapan dengan teks pada saat perkuliahan terjadi. GBA pertema berkembang di Australia. Halliday memperkenal Linguistik Fungsional Sistemik dan menjadi ilham bagi berkembanganya GBA.

Seperti halnya pendekatan pengajaran yang lain, GBA memiliki keterkaitan dengan pendekatan-pendekatan pengajaran yang telah dipergunakan sebelumnya. Sebagai contoh Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL). Beberapa prinsip CTL digunakan pula pada GBA dengan istilah yang berbeda. Prinsip Inquiry Learning, berpikir kritis, kemampuan siswa bertanya, prinsip constructivism, learning community, modeling, penilaian otentik dan refleksi terwadahi pada empat langkah pengajaran GBA.

1. Building Knowledge of Field (BkoF)

Tahap ini diberikan untuk membangun pengetahuan atau latar belakang pengetahuan siswa mengenai topik yang akan ditulisnya (Freez, 2002; Gibbons, 2002, 2009, dikutip Emilia 2011: 33)

Langkah-langkah pengajaran yang dapat dilakukan diantaranya:

Diumpakan materi yang akan diajarkan adalah teks Discussion

Pertemuan 1

–          Berikan siswa tajuk rencana yang diambil dari koran berbahasa Indonesia. Kegiatan ini membantu siswa untuk bisa mengenal apa opini penulis dan bagaimana stance penulis terhadap sebuah isu

–          Berikan siswa ‘editorial’ berbahasa Inggris misalnya dari The Jakarta Post

–          Ajak siswa untuk bisa melihat kesamaan bentukan antara kedua koran tersebut

–          Tulis jurnal untuk refleksi

Pertemuan 2

–          Gali pemahaman siswa mengenai apakah mereka pernah melakukan diskusi, apakah berhasil?

–          Berikan siswa sebuah teks yang mengadung isu dilihat dari dua sudut pandang berbeda, misalnya “Is X-Ray Examination Necessary?”

–          Guru bersama siswa membuat ringkasan

–          Siswa mencatat ekspresi penting seperti: 60% people agree…. however, not all people agree with …., as the result of controversy, many people….

–          Siswa menerima student worksheet berisi pertanyaan yang berisi pemahaman tentang isi teks

–          Siswa menulis jurnal.

Pertemuan 3

–          Tayangkan pertanyaan “Food Miles: Advantage or Disadvantage?”

–          Siswa diminta menyampaikan secara lisan pendapat mereka mengenai “trade’ dan ‘global warming’ sebagai pengantar berpikir kritis untuk mendiskusikan masalah Food Miles

–          Berikan komentar-komentar yang telah dikumpulkan atas Food Miles yang diberikan dan dikoleksikan sebelumnya

–          Siswa membahas untung ruginya melakukan atau berpatisipasi dalam kegiatan Food Miles

–          Siswa menulis jurnal.

 

 

1. Modeling

Pertemuan 4

Secara eksplisit guru menerangkan stuktur generik dan fitur-fitur linguistik teks berbentuk discussion. Buatlah tabel analisis teks agar siswa dengan mudah mengkaji struktur generik dan lexicogramtikal setiap kalimat. Selain itu disampaikan pula tujuan komunikatif teks dilihat dari social purpose.

Ditutup dengan siswa mengkaji sendiri teks yang telah disediakan dan menulis pada jurnal.

 

1. Joint Construction of text (JCot)

Pertemuan 5

Pertemuan ini ditujukan untuk melihat rangkaian recursive pada sebuah proses menulis. Guru menjadi scriber. Tulis pada papan tulis sebuah isu Should I Social Network or Not? Minta siswa untuk menyampaikan topik dan guru menuliskannya pada papan tulis. Ajak siswa untuk berani menyampaikan sebuah argumen positif bersosial networking. Lakukan kegiatan seperti ini sampai teks discussion lengkap. Setelah teks lengkap, perlihatkan bahwa teks yang dibuat bersama-sama ini belum bagus. Lakukan revisi teks. Tunjukkan bagaimana ada kalimat yang dibuang, diganti, grammarnya diperbaiki, alat kohesi ditambahkan dan seterusnya.

Setelah itu edit dan tutup dengan proofreading. Kegiatan ini lebih efektif dan efisien ketimbang meminta siswa untuk mengkonstruksi teks bersama temannya (Emilia, 2011)

Sebelum kelas berakhir, siswa menulis jurnal.

 

1. Independent Construction of Text (ICot)

Siswa diberi ‘ideas card’ siswa dipersilakan untuk memilih isu yang hendak mereka kembangkan menjadi sebuah teks. Mereka diharapkan menunjukkan pemahaman dan  kepiawaian dalam menulis teks discussion setelah mengikuti serangkaian kegiatan di atas.

Kegiatan ditutup dengan menulis jurnal.

Ketidakberhasilan mengajar bahasa Inggris yang selama ini dialami beberapa guru (penulis contoh realnya), salah satunya disebabkan karena belum kenal baik siapa dan apa GBA, guru sudah serta merta mengajar dan ‘mengaku’ jika mengajarnya menggunakan pendekatan berbasis genre.

Semenjak 2006 penulis berSK untuk mengajar SMA dan telah mendengar istilah GBA serta ada bisik-bisik HARUS mengajar bahasa Inggris dengan GBA. Tapi pada kenyataannya tidak mengaplikasikan GBA, karena tidak tahu juga tidak paham harus kemana mencari informasi tentang GBA.

L1 influences L2

 I went to school very late today.  Two students had not followed Performance Test yet because one of them was sick (I heard possessed-!?) and almost collapsed of being exhausted joining a series of test ((cinematography), art, religion, and sport)). I felt a bit uneasy as they behaved as if they wanted to avoid the test. I asked them to state the time to have the test as soon as possible; they replied ‘we do not know’… what kind of answer it is! I asked similar questions three times and they kept saying they did not know when. Actually they are at the school at the very moment.

I sat on my desk when I found out that somebody had made my desk dirty with liquid sugar. Sticky and drove me crazy. Irresponsible people are everywhere. Then I found out another irresponsible people wrote on the announcement whiteboard asking for collecting data-paper as certified teacher. You know, I did the similar thing less than a month ago. My question is ‘WHERE THOSE DATA GO? This time the data made in triple bundles that consist of copied this and that. A teacher got mad and asked to no one “why the government asks for this data again, I had just given this. Did they lost the previous one?” I said nothing, no one tried to satisfy him.

A man passed by he said,’ this time the data will go to Secondary Directorate of Education, that’s why this data is not included salary-paper”. We thought the data given last year, and the year before, and before, and before…. had become enough source of data.   A lady in pink said,’…. I get bored of collecting similar data, it seems to me like ‘the government burdens us with this and that just to make them pay our salary’.

Back to my business, the students who are doing the test look idea-dead. I asked them to put their mobile phone on the table so that they do not open google and find the answer for the test. Or doing translation from Bahasa Indonesia to English using google translation service. They are asked to write one of these topics: School Uniform, Mobile Phone, Fuel Price Hike. The first student wrote like this:

School uniform High School Cianjur

Scholl uniform is something very penting which must use all student. Because it is salah satu syarat for so student in school and not only that school uniform also sebagai cerminan positive terhadap all people. This time in Cianjur many more model school uniform, example school uniform in high school 2 Cianjur which have aturan difficult antara ladies and boy students.

 This time school uniform must memakai jilbab for ladies student and my opininion that very good because it can menutup aurat. But it also can make ladies student feel canggung terhadap aturan itu because many from they non Islamic. But for me it make happy because ot make we muslimah and looking beautiful. So for all high school in Cinajur must memakai jilbab for ladies student agar looking Islamic and beautiful.

The second wrote:

Handphone

Handphone is communication modern this time. Handphone after di berbagai kalangan from start menengnah ke bawah sampai kalangan atas, not only that hand phone also have function salah satunya for mempererat silaturahmi. Hand phone is alat modern make all people feel froud, because hand phone it. this time the children after memakai hand phone for looking ketinggalan zaman.

 My opinion hand phone very penting this time, because can many people to success example business, etc, hand phone cant make people clever form year’s by year’s hand phone semakin maju and canggih for all people must have hand phone because it will easy we for communication. minimal hand phone not mahal.

Those two text represent the framework of L1-Bahasa Indonesia. Let’s see the analyze below:

Handphone is communication modern this time (handphone adalah komunikasi modern pada saat ini). Handphone after di berbagai kalangan from start menengnah ke bawah sampai kalangan atas (handphone telah ada di berbagai kalangan dari mula menengah sampai kalangan atas), not only that hand phone also have function salah satunya for mempererat silaturahmi (tidak hanya itu handphone juga memiliki fungsi salah satunya untuk mempererat tali silaturahmi). Hand phone is alat modern make all people feel froud (handphone adalah alat moderen yang membuat seseorang merasa bangga), because hand phone it (karena handphone itu). this time the children after memakai hand phone for looking ketinggalan zaman (saat ini anak-anak telah memakai handphone untuk mencari agar tidak ketinggalan zaman).

COMPREHENSIVE TEST

 Comprehensive test is one of the tests that I must face to pass post graduate program. The test covers all the materials given during the lecturing time in three semesters. The materials tested are categorized into four major category i.e. 1) English as Foreign Language (relates to teaching methodology, curriculum design and language testing), 2) statistics (covers statistics in conducting quantitative research in education area), 3) Qualitative research and 4) Linguistics (consists of grammar, language in use and systemic functional grammar).

The test is carried out in a day. Each subject is given two hours to finish. The first is Statistics test. This is given as the first test as everyone will agree that statistics relates to counting, calculating, formulas, and other scary rejecting null hypothesis – using t table, degree of freedom and many other terms that cause us as students feel stress.  There two part in this test. The first part is related to our understanding on quantitative research. We must get familiar with the terms relates to research such as ‘validity, internal/external validity, variable, control variable, scale and many more.

The second part of statistics test relates to our understanding and how to apply the statistical formula based on the problem given. We must fully understand basic calculation of finding mean, mode, median, range, standard deviation and also z score. Further, the problem is getting tougher, we must be able to formulate null hypothesis and test the null hypothesis at the level of significance of 1% or 5%.

Everyone tried their best. To my surprised, one of my friend complained “how can I finish all these six problems, doing the four had made me lost all my precious time!!” he sighed. I said, ‘didn’t you read? We may pick TWO out of FOUR problems given, and we must answer the first the two questions, so we did only four, not six.” He almost fell subconsciously; he regretted for he missed reading the instruction and did not able to answer the first two questions.

In stressful condition like this, even the brightest person made mistake. I myself worked very-very hard to answer the second part. I chose number three and four.  Number three, it asked the basic calculation on statistics, whereas number four demanded one way annova. I did not know for sure whether my answers were right, I just answered as good as I could.

The second subject is Linguistics. It is not always easy to talk about grammar especially when you are asked to uninstall what you had known with new belief about grammar.  Take an example, people around the globe believe that there at least 16 basic form of tenses. The major form is present tense, past tense, future tense and progressive tense. However, in my post graduate, to my surprise, it is said that there are only two tense: present and past period. Imagining the difficulties of grammar part, I feel so weak; I forget what I had learned on grammar in my semester 1. The problem doubles, semester two, ‘language in use’ was also another difficult subject. Some new terms relates to this subject such as deixis, gricerian theory, maxim, politeness, speech act, presupposition, implicature and many other difficult terms. The problem becomes perfect when semester three, we learned about systemic functional grammar (SFG) that see language as text started from clause not from the word.  SFG also offers troubles to us, its new terms again burden us. The terms such as mood, transitivity, tenor, theme, rheme, tenor, field, genre.

The questions are around those materials that causes the students think hard to find the answer. Analyzing clause from its form and function and then from its Mood, transitivity and theme/rheme causes severe headache. Meanwhile asking us cohesive device used in the text also squeezes our brain. And, describing implicature from a conversation is not an easy task to do. I heard one of my friends explained the transitivity using agent-carrier, meanwhile I understood it as actor-process material- goal. My fried said,’ this cannot be ‘goal’, as nothing change by ‘process: material”. I bet you do not understand what I wrote here. To understand what I wrote you must read Systemic functional grammar from Halliday or Eggins. All the terms such as agent-actor- behaver- proces: material, verbal and many others are coined in their book. I could not argue with my friend, even though I disagree with him as ‘carrier’ usually appears in passive sentence, but I was also in doubt whether my understanding is right.

The third test is EFL methodology. The questions are five, but it needed more than four pages of folio paper to answer them. I did not understand how to answer question that related to eclective teaching. The second ambiguous question was that ‘suggest an evaluation program”, I did know how to respond to it. Did it mean summative test to evaluate students after a certain program finished, or curriculum cycles started from goal and ended with evaluation as a cycle to evaluate a program given in an institutional level. I remember my reading on Language testing book, it said that ‘the instruction/question must be clear’. I said to myself this is the unclear question that causes me to write without any confidence.

The last test is Qualitative Research.  The questions were 30!! It divided into 3 parts. Each part had 10 questions, and of course it dried my head. Some terms I did not know. I did not blame myself, I just reflect, if my lecturer was the person who made these questions I would not find any difficulty to answer these 30 questions. I was given a lecturer who had high believe on his students, he declared that he did not need to explain anything as students can learn by themselves.  The effect of this, we never study, we never meet our lecturer, and we did nothing for a semester. I understand qualitative research based on my readings.

The test is a kind of unforgettable moment for me. The reason is because it causes everyone forget the time, forget to eat, forget anything, just thinking how to answer the problem given. I could feel my right hand very numb as too much writing is done.  I never thought that I would have this kind of test. I thought mid and final test are enough. Maybe comprehensive test is a test that differentiate post and under graduate.

What can you do with this?

March 26, 2012 2:04 am / Leave a comment

I went to school very late today.  Two students had not followed Performance Test yet because one of them was sick (I heard possessed-!?) and almost collapsed of being exhausted joining a series of test ((cinematography), art, religion, and sport)). I felt a bit uneasy as they behaved as if they wanted to avoid the test. I asked them to state the time to have the test as soon as possible; they replied ‘we do not know’… what kind of answer it is! I asked similar questions three times and they kept saying they did not know when. Actually they are at the school at the very moment.

I sat on my desk when I found out that somebody had made my desk dirty with liquid sugar. Sticky and drove me crazy. Irresponsible people are everywhere. Then I found out another irresponsible people wrote on the announcement whiteboard asking for collecting data-paper as certified teacher. You know, I did the similar thing less than a month ago. My question is ‘WHERE THOSE DATA GO? This time the data made in triple bundles that consist of copied this and that. A teacher got mad and asked to no one “why the government asks for this data again, I had just given this. Did they lost the previous one?” I said nothing, no one tried to satisfy him.

A man passed by he said,’ this time the data will go to Secondary Directorate of Education, that’s why this data is not included salary-paper”. We thought the data given last year, and the year before, and before, and before…. had become enough source of data.   A lady in pink said,’…. I get bored of collecting similar data, it seems to me like ‘the government burdens us with this and that just to make them pay our salary’.

Back to my business, the students who are doing the test look idea-dead. I asked them to put their mobile phone on the table so that they do not open google and find the answer for the test. They are asked to write on of these topics: School Uniform, Mobile Phone, Fuel Price Hike. The first student wrote like this:

School uniform High School Cianjur

Scholl uniform is something very penting which must use all student. Because it is salah satu syarat for so student in school and not only that school uniform also sebagai cerminan positive terhadap all people. This time in Cianjur many more model school uniform, example school uniform in high school 2 Cianjur which have aturan difficult antara ladies and boy students.

 This time school uniform must memakai jilbab for ladies student and my opininion that very good because it can menutup aurat. But it also can make ladies student feel canggung terhadap aturan itu because many from they non Islamic. But for me it make happy because ot make we muslimah and looking beautiful. So for all high school in Cinajur must memakai jilbab for ladies student agar looking Islamic and beautiful.

The second wrote:

Handphone

Handphone is communication modern this time. Handphone after di berbagai kalangan from start menengnah ke bawah sampai kalangan atas, not only that hand phone also have function salah satunya for mempererat silaturahmi. Hand phone is alat modern make all people feel froud, because hand phone it. this time the children after memakai hand phone for looking ketinggalan zaman.

 My opinion hand phone very penting this time, because can many people to success example business, etc, hand phone cant make people clever form year’s by year’s hand phone semakin maju and canggih for all people must have hand phone because it will easy we for communication. minimal hand phone not mahal.

The underlined word, phrase or sentence is in Bahasa Indonesia. Can you help me? What can and should  I do with these texts?