Technique of Collecting Data Analysis of Data

E. Technique of Collecting Data

Research needs an instrument to collect the data. Instrument is a method used for getting the data such as the information, notes, and explanation, which is related to the theme of the research. The interview, observation, and documentation are the part of the instrument. The major instrument used in this research is observation. The writer conducts the observation as the teacher in playgroup class to observe directly. The writer uses qualitative method to describe and to explain about this study.

F. Description of Data

In the observation, the writer put stress on the method of teaching English, the core curriculum, some aids to introduce the letterland character, and reinforcement to the student at home, that is used at Tumble Tots. “Learning through playing” is Tumble Tots philosophy. By playing, children will introduce to the learning concepts, which is fun, enjoyable and comfortable. Tumble Tots uses Multi-sensoric approach as the method, which includes visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and oralverbal to improve memory and learning. This method is applicable to learning by doing some play, which built to empower the children to be responsible, creative, active and broad minded. Letterland consists of three stages early yearfoundation, program Iintermediate, and program IIadvanced. Each stage has own curriculum as the purpose of learning process. The term of curriculum refers to the sum total of organized learning stated as educational ends, activities, school subject and or topics decided upon and provided within an educational institution for the attainment of the student. 44 Here Letterland curriculum, which is based to the stages of the learners.

1. Early YearsFoundation Curriculum

Early years provides a unique multi-sensory experience of the alphabet, developing listening and speaking skills while laying a solid foundation for literacy. The child is guided in this stage to realize that the letters the letters that were learned during the sessions actually form words, therefore the importance of word formation. Care should be taken not to over-emphasis the letterland characters so much so that it takes precedence over recognition of the actual letters of the alphabet. Each character of letterlanders has been created and designed to represent the sounds which letters make in words. For example, by saying the names of a letterland, Clever Cat, Annie Apple, and Dippy Duck, children already have their associated sound on their lips. Clever Cat makes the sound of the beginning of her name - c , just whisper it Annie Apple makes the sound at the beginning of her name - a as in apple. 44 Geoffrey H. Wilson, Curriculum Development and Syllabus Design for English Teaching, Singapore: Eurasia Press, 1976, p. 1 Early year’s teacher teaches children to: a. Recognize capital and lower case letter shape In each letter of b d p q are the small differences in shape change the letter completely. These small differences are also a feature of words. A few example of capital letters and their small letters counterparts: Cc Aa Dd Hh Mm Tt Ss . With these and some of the other letters, the shape of capital letter is completely different from the shape of the small letter version. By using a connecting idea or the same character in a different pose, letterland succeeds in linking the two very different shapes, confirming that they both make the same letter sound. Each Letterlander has a special way of turning their letter into a capital. They are so proud at being given the important job of beginning someone; name or a sentence that they do their ‘Capital Letter Trick’ and the small letters, its change makes an important difference by using ‘Small Letter Trick.’ For example, Capital letter ‘C and A’ C ‘Whenever Clever Cat starts important words such as names, she takes a deep breath and gets bigger’. A ‘In Letterland, the capital A shapes are called Applestand. The apples sit on the Applestand while they say ‘a....at the start important words, such as names like A nne, Andrew and Ashraf. For example, Smalllower Letter ‘c and a’ c ‘curve round Clever Cat’s face to begin, then gently tickle her under her chin. a ‘at the leaf begin, go round the apple this way, then add a line down, so Annie won’t roll away. b. Form letters correctly Letterland pictogram characters like to look or move in from the left to the right. Simple built-in picture cues and logic like this have helped children to avoid the common problem of reversing similarly shapes letters, such as b and d, p and q , and to orientate all the other letters correctly. For example, it makes sense to write the downstroke for Dippy Duck ‘draw Dippy Duck’s back, go round her tummy, go up to her head, then down you come c. Link letter sounds to their shape There are no obvious reasons for a particular letter or group of letters. Each Letterlander becomes the reason for a letter’s shape and sound. For example, look at Bouncy Ben, the brown bunny with a big blue letter. His head and ears make sense of the otherwise abstract b shape. Children easily remember that this character is called Bouncy Ben. The children already have all the information they need to link letter sound and letter shape within one audio-visual image. The character name acts as a cue for the letter sound: just start to say Bouncy Ben’s name, ‘b...’ That is the sound his letter makes in words. d. Sort out reversals The teacher revises the entire letters on term I c a d h m t s. It’s can help the children to remember the letter shape belong to each letterland characters.

2. Programme OneIntermediate Curriculum

Programme one leads children quickly into confident word building and early reading. Primary years children are taught say or pronounce to: a. Aa- Zz, short and long vowels b. Word building from the 4 th lesson

c. The long vowels silent e principle

d. First essential diagraphs and word endings e. Blending skills

3. Programme TwoAdvanced Curriculum

The alphabet knowledge which children have gained from learning about the letterland characters in programme two leads them directly and logically to the spelling patterns. Programme two teaches children to say or pronounce: a. All major letter patterns in the English language b. Advanced word building punctuation and handwriting 45 To reach language competence, which is in conformity with the curriculum, Tumble Tots uses some aids designed to encourage and familiarize children in learning the alphabet such as Letterland ABC, Letterland Alphabet Frieze, First Reading Flashcards, Activity Books 1-3, Board Books, Alphabet songs CD, and Handwriting songs CD. 45 Playgroup Training Division, Playgroup Curriculum and Syllabus Letterland and Fun Math Stage One Term I – Term IV unpublished: Tomble Tots Playgroup, 2005, p. 1 - 4 On introducing the letterland character letterlanders to the students, teachers have to aim at the syllabus. It is a program of study which consists of outlines of lessons per term. See Appendix To reinforce teaching and learning process at home, Tumble Tots introduces some media resources or materials to help the parents such as Letterland ABC book, Letterland At Home: My First Reading Flashcards, Alphabet Songs CD’s, Handwriting songs CD’s, Letterland First Alphabet Frieze, Letterland At Home: My First Spelling Activity Book and Letterland Reading At Home. These have given the parents a lot of information, how to practice and enrich their child’s vocabulary in a fun way base to write a word. For example, when parents go to the mall with their child, they see a P parking sign. Parents can choose a simple game to explore this letter. Show the Peter Puppy card from My First Reading Flashcard or make the letter P in modeling dough. Or they can ask their child to make a collection of toys or some things around them, such as a toy panda, a pen, a pencil, or a plate, because these all start with the same letter sound. In making a good atmosphere to the students, all teachers at Tumble Tots have to be called “auntie” or “uncle”. There are two teachers who teach at the playgroup there are “auntie” Imey and “auntie” Cha-cha. The success and impact of the program would be evaluated through feedback sessions between the parents of the child, the child concerned and Tumble Tots at the end of every term. The child should be evaluated at the beginning of the term and again at the end of the term to measure the child’s parents and then kept as part of the child’s record of achievements And also to perform effectively in teaching and learning process, Tumble Tots playgroup teachers work cooperatively with students’ parents. With relationship with parents as a partnership it is hoped that they can collaborate to promote students’ long-term development and learning. This relationship is a means of informing about the progress what students have been making so far. And it can inform them about their children’s accomplishments which make them alert to any behaviors that are consistently interfering to their children’s learning and achievement. Finally, the teachers can coordinate about classroom strategies with those that parents use at home. Here are several ways that teachers use in communicating with parents:

a. Parent-teacher conferences

It creates a warm, nonjudgmental atmosphere, to express any appreciation and to give parents sufficient time to express their thought. The aim of having the conference is to work cooperatively and constructively together to create the best educational program possible for the students.

b. Written communication

It takes variety of forms; it can be regularly scheduled report card that documents a student’s academic progress; or it can be a quick note acknowledging a significant accomplishment. Tumble Tots playgroup has two written communication books; Communication Book and Student’s Assessment Report. All of these include, not only report to parents what is happening to their child at school, but also convey, teachers’ intention in getting in touch on an ongoing basis see appendix.

c. Telephone conversation

It is used when issues require immediate attention. It expresses school concern when a student’s behavior deteriorates unexpectedly and without apparent provocation. d. Parent discussion group It is used as a way to share ideas about how best to promote student’s academic, personal, and social development. 46

G. Analysis of Data

Based on the facts above, unity of the method of teaching English, the core curriculum, some aids to introduce the letterland character, and reinforcement to the student at home, will create a great atmosphere to the students not only at the class , but also at home. At Tumble Tots Multi-sensory approach is applicable to multi-sensory teaching which children can sing, act, draw, write, move, speak, and build words by being the letterlanders. 46 Playgroup Training Division, Working effectively with parents stage 1 unpublished: Tomble Tots Playgroup, 2005, p. 1 - 2 The syllabus used in Tumble Tots, demands the teachers to be creative in making the lesson plan to each term. It is important to the teachers to choose the right aids in teaching and learning process in the class. Compositor each letterland character or letter shape in syllabus, which is not arranged according the alphabetical order, but arranged based on developing writing form. Letterland is based on important phonic principles. This means that it builds on the sound of each letter. Character names like Annie Apple, Bouncy Ben and Clever Cat are more effective than ‘aee, bee, cee’. The letter’s sound is always on the child’s lips when starting to say letterland character’s name. In the term of teaching and learning process, the explanations are given by means of simple stories about what happen when particular letters get together. The stories provide reasons why letters sometimes change their sounds. By starting to say any letterland character’s name, students can say correct letter’s sound. Teacher use Letterland ABC book to introduce and to guide in telling the stories of letterlander life. This book has contains of letterlanders picture which colorful. Each page introduces a new letterland character and repeats the character’s letter sound at the start of many words. In this session, children have showed up to Clever Cat character which it surroundings to everything that start with letter sound ‘c’. Usually children will ask about something which findable in the picture. To explain other information about letter ‘c’, teacher always uses the flashcard. It is useful to gives other relation how the letter exists in some vocabulary outside letterland. Children also introduce how to write the letter. Because, it is the first time for children to write the letter, teacher gives them a letter ‘c’ in dot. Through this way, children are able to write the letter, with tracing the dot, that teacher has given in the whiteboard. And, by using The Letterland scrapbook to be colored children can practicing the lesson which has given by the teacher. In teaching and learning process in Tumble Tots playgroup class uses song to reduce children’s stress during the process. Teacher animates children to act according to the song lyrics. Therefore, in the end of each term teacher revises the all letters and word formation. Children will rehearse their performance for mini concert. In the last term or term IV, children have prepared to present a special performance for the real mini concert. They will perform singing and dancing skill according to the letterland characters they have learned, to show parents their progress on their self-confidence and their language skills. In the classroom, Tumble Tots playgroup uses some play materials to supported children’s learning process, which they can use in their own way. Some play materials like clay, crayons, blocks, marbels, etc evoke children’s interest and creative responses. These play materials and equipments give children times to cooling down after opening format session and before entering the lesson and give possible activities to them after the lesson. In the end of each session, teacher always explain about the lesson which has been taught. It has helped parents to get the information to reinforce child at home. Examples, when children have been introduced to the Clever Cat, parent can ask to the children some objects which start with Clever Cat’s with hissing sound: ‘c...’ sound. That means objects like camera, candle, cake, cup or pictures of them. Some aids which are not used at the class can be used by parents at home to reinforce the lesson that their child get at the class. The influence of a child’s home and family is always stronger than the influence of school in terms of teaching and learning process. Communication between teachers and parents has given a lot of information about children’s learning results. Parents not only know about the progress of learning from the reports that teachers have given, but also know from the act that child shows up to them. At home child acts like the letterland characters which have been taught at school. Usually, children invite parents to be acting, singing, or playing some rhymes. This progress make parents feel trust that their child has come to the right place to learn.

CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

A. Conclusion

So far we have known that based on the data described previously by the writer, that using Letterland technique has much influence to the students. It turns out that technique used at Tumble Tots not only can teach and enrich their vocabulary as the based to write and read, but also give them some experiences in learning a foreign language. Condition and situation that has been created in the class makes the students feel happy and comfortable. This feeling has motivated the students to learn. They no longer feel bored in learning, because it is fun and an entertaining way of learning. In introducing English to children, the teaching technique should be integrated in language skills, such as; listening, speaking, reading, and writing. By using letterland technique, teaching and learning process is much fun which makes children more enjoyable in learning. Children’s life is not separable from playing, in terms of teaching and learning process, letterland technique which introduces a new way to accommodate learning with play. Each letterland character which represents in terms of teaching and learning process has inspired the student to become themselves. It is easier for children to remember teaching materials, because it is connected to the letterland characters.