The principles above should be considered by the teacher when teaching reading to junior high school students. Those principles should be a consideration in designing the
materials, media, and activities in the classroom.
c. Characteristics of Junior High School Students
Before teaching the high school students, the teachers need to understand about the characteristics of the students. The eighth grade students of junior high schools are teenagers
whose ages are between 13-15 years old. Brown 2001: 92 said that the teens are an age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness, growing, and changing bodies and minds. They are
in the position between childhood and adulthood so that the teacher needs to consider this factor when teaching them.
According to Harmer 2002: 39, teenagers, if they are engaged, have a great capacity to learn, a great potential for creativity, and a passionate commitment to things which interest
them. Adolescents are in the phase when they are still looking for an individual identity, so it is necessary for the teachers to think about their inner potentials, to give them more guidance,
and to be motivated in learning process. Some teenage students particularly may be disruptive in the class. This can be caused
by the needs of self-esteem and peer approval that may provoke them for being disruptive. Additionally it can also be caused by the boredom affected by many problems outside the
class. Nevertheless this is determined by the position of the teachers. The students will be happy if the teachers manage to control them and help them solving their problems with a
supportive and constructive ways rather than shouting or scolding them.
d. Teaching Reading to Junior High School Students
In Indonesia, English is taught as a compulsory subject in Junior High School. Generally, the purpose of learning English for junior high school students is to develop
communication skills in spoken or written forms to attain a functional literacy level. To reach this purpose, the language teaching focuses on the teaching of four skills i.e. listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. Reading is a basic skill that needs to be acquired by students in daily their life or academic circumstances. In teaching reading to junior high school, the
teacher should reflect on the standard of competence and basic competence of junior high schools grade VII of reading skill like presented below.
Table 3:Standard of Competence and Basic Competence of Reading Skills for Junior High School Students Grade VII Semester 2
Standar Kompetensi Kompetensi Dasar
KI 1 : Responding and applying the religious teaching according to own
beliefs. KI 2 : Appreciating the traits of honesty,
discipline, responsibility, politeness, curiousity, self confidence, tolerance,
internal motivation, healthy living and environment care in effective interaction
with the social and natural environment in students’ social relationship and their
existence.
KI 3 : Understanding factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge in
science, technology, arts, culture and humanism with religious, nationality,
statehood and civilization, insights in relation to factual phenomena and events
KI 4 : Attempting, processing, and presenting various concrete domains
utilizing, analyzing, synthesizing, modifying, and creating and abstract
domains writing, reading, calculating, drawing, and composing related to
3.10 Comprehending the social function, structure text, and language feature on
describing people, animal and things in composing spoken and written texts very
shortly and simply based on appropriate context.
school subjects and similar outside sources in theoritical point of view.
e. Characteristics of Effect Teaching of Reading
Junior high school students are categorized as intermediate grade students who are in the crucial instructional period of education stages. Therefore, the teaching and learning
activities of reading should be adjusted to their characteristics and also their language proficiency level. The teaching activities should be systematic and well-planned in order to
create a progress on the students’ reading competence. Heilman et al. 1986: 6 propose some major features of effective reading instructions for the teachers to be taken into account.
Those features are presented in the following. 1
Ongoing diagnosis to determine pupil’s progress in relation to the learning tasks. 2
Varied teacher direction and structure to stimulate pupil interaction and discussion.
3 Larger groups to allow for and guide pupil’s exploration and discussion of valued
topics. 4
Many opportunities for applicationof reading abilities in a wide range of materials for a variety of purposes.
5 Engagement of pupils in learning that enhances active involvement in and
reinforces the development of independent reading. In addition, according to the study conducted by Langer et al. 2000,there are six
features of effective instructions for teaching reading as described below. 1
Students learn skills and knowledge in multiple lesson types. This feature can be summed up by differentiating between the effective and
ineffective teaching instructions to provide multiple lesson types.
Table 4: The activities that work and do not work to provide multiple lesson types
Some activities that work What do not work
a. Offering separated and simulated a. Reliance upon any one approach to
activities to individuals, groups, or the entire class as needed
b. Providing overt, targeted instruction and review as models for peer and
self-evaluation c. Teaching
skills, mechanics,
or vocabulary that can be used during
integrated activities such as literature discussion
d. Using all three kinds of instruction to scaffold ways to think and discuss e.g.
summarizing, justifying answers, and making connections
the exclusion of the other two. b.
Focus on separated andor simulated activities with no integration with the
larger goals of the curriculum
2 Teachers integrate test preparation into instruction.
There are two kinds of activities about the effective and ineffective teaching instruction related to the test preparation. Those activities are presented below.
Table 5: The activities that work and do not work to integrate test preparation into instruction
Some activities that work What do not work
Using district and state standards and goals, teachers and administrators
work together
to: identify
connections to the standards and goals,
develop instructional
strategies that enable students to build
necessary skills,
make connections between and among
instructional strategies, tests, and current
learning, develop
and implement
model lessons
that integrate test preparation into the
curriculum. 1 Short-term test preparation
2 Test preparation that focuses on how to take the test
3 Separate rather than integrate test preparation experiences
3 Teachers make connections across instruction, curriculum, and life.
