to handle all types of concrete problems. The thinking of twelve-year-old children is symbolic. Although usually related to the real objects or situations the twelve-years-
old children are easily imagined and their thinking have refined. Furthermore, they learn the verbal skills by expressing what they imagine and think.
3. Reading Materials
This study is using short stories as a kind of reading material to teach elementary school children. Although, it does not mean that this study focuses only
on developing reading skills. Through short story the teacher also could use the reading material to teach other language skills such as listening, speaking and
writing, and language elements such as pronunciation, vocabulary and structure. By the explanation below the writer tries to give the explanations and the
support statements from some experts, so the readers have a deeper knowledge about reading material especially short stories for the elementary school students to
promote the students’ values of life as the focus of this study.
a. The Proper Reading Materials for the Elementary Grade Students
According to Poniah and Tay as cited by Wijaya in his book “Teaching and Learning English in Challenging Situation” 1992: 92 there are three reading
material factors for the elementary school children. These factors are summarized as follows:
a. Reading material should be neither easy nor difficult. The too-easy- reading materials make the students have no challenge to learn.
But, if the material is too difficult this makes students feel frustrated. As a result, they would be discouraged rather than challenged. The difficult level of
reading material must match the students’ proficiency.
b. The length of the reading material should be long enough for the students’
thinking process. The reading material should not too long or too short. c.
The reading material should have a topic that is related to the students’ lives. If a suitable topic is chosen, but the language is a little too difficult for
particular groups of students, some simplification could be made. Considering the principles above, the writer selected short stories as the
main material because short story is challenging and a proper material for the sixth grade of elementary school students.
b. The Reading Materials Form
The form of reading used for the students in elementary school is narration. Narration is the form of writing used to relate the story of acts and events. Narration
places occurrences in time and tells what happened according to the natural time sequence Whinson Burks, 1980: 378. Furthermore, they say that types of
narration are short story, novel, new stories, also our conversation and our writing as letters. Thus, that is why we use narration as the form of reading material for the
students of elementary schools. And in this study the writer chooses short stories as the main source of supplementary English materials to promote the students’ values
of life.
c. The Values of Reading Materials Form for Children
As we know that children develop rapidly both in their physical and mental development. Parents and teachers should guide and notice their development in
both physical and mental development. In this study, literature such as short story can convey high values for the process of mental development in children. And the
activities of reading such as dramatizing the story can help the children to develop their physical development.
Tarigan 1995: 6 states that in general, literature conveys intrinsic and extrinsic values. Children can take benefits and values for their own. It means that
they gain intrinsic values. The following ideas are based on Tarigan’s idea 1995: 6 From a story, children can receive joy and fun. A story appeals to children’s
imagination and curiosity. It gives a new experience that could develop their vision as human beings. A story also has an important role in inheriting the culture from
one generation to the next generation. Besides, extrinsic values of literature can influence language, cognitive
behaviors, personality, and social development of the children. Reading a story may facilitate the children’s language development. Since language relates with children
intellectual activities, reading short story gives them activity in developing both their intellectual and language development. The more they read, the more they can
think systematically. It means that reading a story can support children’s cognitive development as well.
Moreover, literature can support children’s personality development by presenting the characters and also the story itself. The main character of a story can
help or teach children to control their emotion such as hatred, fear, worry, love, joy, pride and arrogance by using the character as model. The students learn these by
expressing the emotion that they find in a story. Children may try to socialize their true life by imitating the way of the main character. It may help children to solve
their own problems.
Based on the Tarigan’s idea, the writer concludes that short story is a proper and good source to develop both intellectual and personality of the students in an
attractive way.
4. Value
