Many grade one elementary school students in Tana Tidung district, North Kalimantan, started their formal schooling with limited or no reading skills. The local Education Office (Dinas Pendidikan, or Disdik) used formative assessments to map and help students acquire reading skills at the beginning of the 2020/2021 school year.
Puji Lestari has been a teacher for 13 years. She is a grade one teacher at SDN TU 2 state elementary school. In June 2020, she and her fellow teachers had to accept new students during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Since the school closed in March 2020, teacher-student interactions in the classroom have been limited. The teachers are unable to have intensive interactions with their students, and they have had to start new classes without being familiar with the students’ abilities. In fact, many first grade students started elementary school without having the ability to read.
Low reading skills are one of the challenges of education in Tana Tidung district. In March 2020, a survey on reading skills conducted by the Tana Tidung Education Office together with INOVASI found that only 39 percent of first grade elementary school students were able to recognize letters, syllables, and words. This condition became increasingly challenging during the pandemic because the first graders had to study using the Learning from Home (Belajar dari Rumah, or BDR) system.
In response to this, the Tana Tidung Education Office created a policy on using formative assessment that uses simple test tools. Grade one teachers were trained to measure the basic literacy skills of new students, including recognizing letters, syllables, and words. Students who were able to pass the basic literacy test took the reading comprehension test. This test kit was developed by the Tana Tidung Education Office together with INOVASI. All of the training for this basic literacy test was carried out in the Teacher Working Group (Kelompok Kerja Guru, or KKG) activities.
After the formative assessment was completed, Puji and the other teachers visited the students’ homes to measure each student’s short reading skills. During their visits, the teachers followed strict health protocols, such as using face shields and masks. As a requirement, the measurement process is witnessed by the parents so that they understand the purpose of the measurement. Puji then made an analysis; out of the 21 students who had been measured, only two were able to reach the reading comprehension level. One student was able to read words, while the other 18 students could only recognize letters.
“When I analyzed the measurement results in July, it turned out that 86 percent of my students were at the level of able to recognize letters,” said Puji Lestari. “I made two models of student activity sheets (Lembar Aktivitas Siswa, or LAS); one is for the level of recognizing letters, and the other is for the level of reading comprehension.”
Puji referred to the special curriculum policy made by the Tana Tidung Education Office when making learning materials. The curriculum is a modification of the Literacy Learning Module (Modul Belajar Literasi, or MBL). The module was developed by the Ministry of Education and Culture and turned into a student activity sheet for the Tana Tidung Education Office. This modification was done in order for the Literacy Learning Module by the Ministry of Education and Culture to become relevant to the local context.
The student activity sheets were distributed to the students once a week along with storybooks that were adjusted to the students’ reading skill levels. The parents and students came to school, or the teacher sent the storybooks to the students’ homes. This method was chosen so that the teachers could provide learning assistance and the parents, as well as the teachers, could see the development of the students’ learning abilities.
Puji has periodically performed formative assessment and has seen positive trends in the students’ development. For example, in July 2020, only 10 percent of the students were able to reach the reading comprehension level; in five months, this percentage increased to 24 percent.
Fauzan is one of the students whose reading ability has improved significantly. In July, Fauzan could only read letters. Puji assisted Fauzan in learning to read, and his parents regularly read storybooks to him and helped him with his student activity sheets. Three months later, Fauzan’s reading ability improved to the level of reading syllables.
“After five months, Fauzan’s ability has risen to the level of fluency in reading words,” Puji happily said. “Even the number of students who only recognized letters has reduced drastically, with only six remaining out of the 18 original students.”
Puji’s success in improving the skills of her students during the pandemic shows the importance of appropriate policies to support teachers during the Learning from Home (BDR). Using formative assessment—along with training, special curriculum, student activity sheets, and mentoring—has become the key to her success.