Developing Literacy Program Through Reading Corner “POCETAS: Pojok Cerita Terbatas”

In an era of globalization marked by declining student interest in reading, the Literacies in ELT course designed a final project task that aims to increase student interest in literacy again. This project was carried out by fifth-semester undergraduate students of the ELT study program, Universitas Negeri Malang. Supervised by Sari Karmina, S.Pd., M.Pd., Ph.D. This project is in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of “Quality Education” by addressing the goal of providing quality education by focusing on increasing students’ interest in literacy.

We had a program called POCETAS (Pojok Baca Terbatas) where the focus of the books provided in this reading corner program is non-fiction books. This type of non-fiction book was chosen because the type of writing is easy to understand and light in nature. Therefore, this reading corner is called POCETAS (Pojok Baca Terbatas) because the types of books provided are specifically for non-fiction books. The types of books we provide also focus on encyclopedias and novels. In addition, our reading corner is themed space, which means that even though only reading books with limited types, it is still able to open students’ imaginations and knowledge as wide as outer space. 

On the morning of December 12th, 2023, in our project called POCETAS (Pojok Baca Terbatas), it was directly implemented at SMP Islam Plus, KarangPloso District, Pendem Village, Malang Regency – East Java. Then, the purpose of this project in detail is to increase high reading literacy among school children and make the school library aesthetic, innovative, and fun with the direct actions of volunteers from our group. The implementation of this project program by making changes to the school library is also convenient, beneficial, and really helpful for students and school educators.

The “POCETAS” reading corner program is expected to be useful to rebuild students’ enthusiasm for reading books, either in Indonesian or English language with a focus on creating a new scope for students with a focus on non-fiction books. So, by providing non-fiction books, it is hoped that students will not have the mindset that reading is a boring activity, but rather create a new side where reading is fun. In addition, this reading corner may also be useful for students who need references to nonfiction works for school assignments.

Our final project is not only to fulfill the final assignment of the Literacies in ELT course, but also an idea and our contribution as education students in an effort to help improve student literacy in Indonesia. Although it seems simple, this project has a long-term function for the reference of student knowledge sources that have no time limit.