Literacy is one of the key elements in improving the quality of Human Resources (HR). If the literacy level of human resources in a country is high enough, the country can develop much more advanced. Therefore, strengthening literacy needs to be carried out from the education unit environment, especially to students.
To strengthen the literacy culture, it can be done with a reading activity approach for students. The two approaches are intensive reading and also extensive reading. Intensive reading is a reading activity by deepening the contents of the reading in order to understand the context and essence of the reading itself, while extensive reading emphasizes the quantity of the number of readings.
If intensive reading focuses on students’ understanding of reading materials, an extensive reading approach can be useful for implementing and strengthening the reading culture of students.
Three characteristics that distinguish extensive reading from an intensive reading approach are the focus on the quantity of reading, aiming to get information and enjoyment from what is read, and allowing students to read freely without being charged.
Judging from these characteristics, extensive reading is more directed to be a tool to foster a positive attitude towards reading activities and end up with a cultured reading habit, as well as increase vocabulary and enthusiasm for learning.
For the implementation of extensive reading strategies, it can be done in two ways. Both of these ways are to determine the source of reading and also extensive reading techniques. How is the strategy implemented? Let’s see this article!
Reading Sources
In order to encourage a culture of reading fondness, of course, reading sources have a great influence on students’ reading interest. Determining the source of reading can be classified into several categories, such as fictional texts and informational texts, tiered texts and non-tiered texts, as well as reading genres.
Fiction reading texts are quite recommended by several experts because generally fiction texts contain elements of entertainment so that readers enjoy reading more. On the other hand, informational texts are not as interesting as fiction texts because they aim to provide information and develop insights. However, some informational texts can be alternative reading materials such as descriptive texts, causal texts, and problem texts.
In addition to fiction texts and informational texts, there are also tiered and non-tiered reading texts. Graded reading is reading that is made to accommodate the diverse skills of readers. The factors that determine the level of reading are the length of the story, the complexity of the language structure, and the diction used. While the recommended non-tiered texts for extensive reading are novels, short stories, magazines, articles, and so on.
Reading resources for extensive reading can also be classified by genre. In order to develop interest in reading, students need to choose the type of reading (genre) according to their respective interests. The fiction and non-fiction reading themes provided should include adventure themes, biographies, comedy, fables, culture, environment, fantasy, history, horror/mystery, romance, business economics, sports, social issues, travel, humor, and so on.
Reading Selecting Techniques
a simple step and easy to remember by students. The FFR step can be carried out in stages, starting from inviting students to open a page in the selected book to finally determining the appropriate reading.
As time goes on, students are asked to count difficult vocabulary. If there are 5 difficult vocabularies on 1 page, students are directed to choose another reading that has a maximum of 3 difficult vocabularies on a page. Suitable reading will increase the positive reading class atmosphere and affect the students’ reading motivation.
So, those are various strategies for extensive reading activities. In essence, students must feel comfortable and happy with the text they read. This is to increase the quantity of reading material that is read so that the reading culture can be more honed. Strengthening reading culture will certainly lead to improving the literacy quality of students. Hopefully this information can be useful.
Reference:
Modules for Intensive Reading and Extensive Reading in Learning, published by the Directorate of Middle Schools in 2021