Picture Book as a Model to Teach Writing Narrative Text

texts such as grammar, vocabulary, organization, and etc. 20 Due to the reason explained above, it can be concluded that reading is able to give students‟ knowledge about correct grammatical pattern, writing organization, and suitable vocabulary choice which are useful in creating a good writing. In addition to make teaching writing meaningful to students, it should be integrated with other skills, for instance, reading which can help and support teaching and learning writing. Similarly, to support Ken Hyland‟s suggestion above, Luu Trong Tuan adds that writing classes are commonly started with reading text, analyze text, and using text to be a good example or model for writing. 21 Moreover, Barbara Z. Keifer also asserts that there are connection between reading and writing; a good writer must be a good reader and vice versa. 22 She also argues that what students often write reflects books they have ever read. 23 These theorists‟ point of views can be understood that reading activity, especially reading picture books should be included in writing instruction to make students familiar with the use of correct grammar, suitable vocabulary choices, and writing organization because reading picture books give students a good model or example for writing a good narrative text. Also, students‟ content of writing is probably influenced by their favorite books they often read. Furthermore, there are four stages which the writer adopts from Kelly Br oker‟s strategies in using picture books in writing instruction for implementing picture books in writing narrative text instruction as follows: 1. Engaging students to read picture books they like best Before beginning to write, students are engaged to read through providing and introducing some picture books. There were eight picture books 20 Ken Hyland, Second Language Writing, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 17 21 Luu Trong Tuan, Teaching Writing through Reading Integration: Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 3, 2012, p. 489. 22 Barbara Z. Keifer, op-cit, p. 12 23 Ibid they can read by free in a group discussion. In this stage, the students are given freedom to choose the picture books they like best. Then, they can do silent reading by themselves. However, reading aloud is not used in this stage due to time consuming and the great numbers of students in each class. 2. Sharing what the students have read in a group discussion After the first stage is done, the students have to share what they have been read in a group discussion. They can share about the characters they like and dislike, the story itself, the story endings, the topic, etc. Through sharing what they have been read, students can find interesting topic for their own narrative writing. 3. Connecting what students have read to develop their own writing In this stage, teachers guide the students to transfer what they have read to their own narrative writing and help them to link the picture books they have been read to their own writing. Moreover, the students can collect or write all ideas they have got after reading in a notebook. 4. Taking students through writing process In the last stage, teachers take students into writing process including before writing prewriting, during writing drafting, and after writing revising, editing, sharing, evaluating. However, stages 1 and 2 can be applied in prewriting and stage 3 and 4 are in drafting. In Addition, through implementing these four stages, students can find ideas clarity, thought, and details, organization internal structure, word choice, and sentence fluency from the author‟s texts as a model.

E. Previous Relevant Studies

There had two relevant or previous studies which were conducted related to the study the researcher did. The first study was written by Susan Anderson McElveen and Connie Campbell Dierking with the title “Children‟s Books as Models to Teach Writing Skill”. The objective of the study was to implement children‟s literature, especially fiction and non fiction picture story books as a teaching tool to support writing instruction. The study was conducted in their school, Curtis Fundamental Elementary School in Clearwater, Florida, USA when they taught the kindergarten and the fourth-grade peer writing workshop. The method used in the study was classroom action research. In the study, they found important information that children‟s books could be a bridge for connecting the target skill with the reason for thinking, speaking, and writing like a writer. During conducting the study, they made a list of children‟s books which was matched to the target skills including brainstorming, focus, elaboration, organization, and convension necessary for developing effective writing. Then, in each meeting, they read aloud the children‟s books to their students. After reading aloud ended, both classes the kindergarten and the fourth-grade peer writing workshop discussed about the auth or‟s technique of focusing on an object through the use of specific details. Moreover, the result of the study showed that children‟s bookschildren‟s literature helped students to generate and develop their own writing topics. The other result also showed that children‟s literature facilitated the students to develop their writerly thinking and language which then they applied in their own writing. The other previous study came from Kelly Booker, Literacy and Numeracy Field Officer, ACT entitled “Using Picture Books to Empower and Inspire Readers and Writers in the Upper Primary Classroom”. This study used classroom action research methods and conducted at the beginning of Term 3, 2011. She took over a year 5 classes which had experienced a very disruptive start to the year including a series of relief and short term contract teachers. The objective of the study is to apply picture books to empower and inspire students to love reading and writing. The study appeared because Booker strongly believed that through the use of picture books, children are able to critically engage in author‟s message and consider what it will be meaningful for their own texts. Before she started teaching writing, she had engaged students first in guided