LITERACY BRIDGE: Connecting and Empowering Environment of Literacy Culture towards Students at SDN Gunungrejo 01 as Sekolah Penggerak
Education has a central role in forming future generations who are intelligent and highly competitive. One of the main keys to achieving this is through literacy programs in schools. English Language Education students at Universitas Negeri Malang have carried out a school literacy program at SDN Gunungrejo 01 from 8th November to 6th December 2023. English Language Education students are highly committed to improving the quality of literacy in schools. We are here trying to be a bridge for students and schools so that they can improve literacy in schools to produce a generation that is literate, creative, and critical generation. This is also related to the program of SDG (Sustainable Development Goals), especially for Quality Education (SDG 4).
The first thing that English Language Education students can do before implementing a literacy program at school is to make observations first. Apart from that, we also conducted interviews with school principals and teachers who manage libraries regarding the literacy programs at school and the situation of the library. From the results of the observations, we got a lot of information that could help us to develop and compile the program that we would apply at SDN Gunungrejo 01.
The literacy program at SDN Gunungrejo 01 which was developed by students does not just focus on books about subjects. However, students are trying to increase the comfort of the library at school by providing books of various genres, including fiction, non-fiction, and encyclopedia books. Apart from developing reading skills, English language education students also embrace creative and critical aspects in shaping their thinking. Such as by providing multimodal literacy in libraries such as dual language flashcards. Apart from students being able to learn various words in Indonesian, they can also learn a foreign language (English). We select the books we choose based on students’ needs because our main goal is to increase students’ interest in reading so that they become more interested in reading, moreover, it can even become a new habit for students.
Picture 2 The English Language Education students give the treatment for SDN Gunungrejo 01 students.
One of the main innovations that English Language Education students do in SDN Gunungrejo 01 is shared reading, where students and teachers gather to read and discuss specially selected books. This activity not only improves reading skills but also opens students’ insight into various types of literature. In addition, in those types of literature, we have implemented multimodality by filling the library at SDN Gunungrejo 01 with some books that use linguistics modes, visual modes, auditory modes, and spatial modes as the source of the multimodality texts. Mostly, the books that we offer to the library contain oral and written language, still and moving images, and sounds considering the layout of the objects. Some books are also integrated with QR codes that can enhance their digital literacy alongside their reading and writing literacy, especially in Indonesia and English. Moreover, we always examine the appropriateness of each book to the student’s proficiency level, such as the quality, the practicality, the appearance, the age group, and the life expectancy. Besides, we are not only focusing on the books but we also add additional resources like posters, flashcards, encyclopedias, and signposts that help the students to get the experience of learning in a meaningful and enjoyable way.
All in all, the English Language Education students, especially the literacy bridge team have done lots of beneficial things to help students at SDN Gunungrejo 01 grow in many ways. We are not just focusing on academics, but also making sure that the students can develop and think critically by providing them with a good environment in their library as their reading space.