Things to Know in Teaching Reading.In teaching reading comprehension, usually a teacher will only ask the students to read and after that the teacher will ask some questions that are related to the text Actually, it is not enough to only have the students to answer questions because we do not know whether they have understood the meaning of the text or not Besides, students are often lazy if they are asked to read something that does not interest them. So, the use of retelling is hoped to be able to help the students to develop their reading comprehension and help them to become more interested in learning reading.
The Material in Teaching Reading
In learning reading, sometimes the students will get bored easily. So, in order to avoid the problem, the writer .uses different stories as the material in every meeting. Actually, story is useful for children because it can open the children's mind about life. As Mackay & Simo (1976: 74) state that, children can learn what life is about from stories and picture, so that they ..yill know the description about .life through the infonnation which writers, artists and photographers offer to them. It makes them to imagine the lives of others, into places they could not visit and into the past.
The statement.above is also supported by Freeman & Munns (1990: 4) saying that stories can bring children to another world, other points of view, and ways ot: living. In order to bring_ them to "the other world" they have to be helped to know who is speaking if there is an "I" in the story, see the situation and conflict from more than one point of view, discuss about "what would happen if!"
Ellis & Brewster ( 1991: I) state that stories are motivating and fun because they create a desire to continue learning. Moreover, stories can exercise imagination. The imaginative experience helps the children to improve their own creative powers. But according to Brumfit et a! ( 1996: 289) the most effective combination in teaching are pictures and stories together. By combining the pictures and stories together, hopefully the students will understand more about the content of the story.
Retelling as the Activity in Teaching Reading
Retelling is a process that involves a person to change a written text into his/her own words. The students may retell orally, in writing or by drawing picture, it depends on the instruction which is given by a teacher in the lesson. Besides, retelling can be done individually or in pairs, and guided or (;."!guided.
In addition, retelling can play an important role in student' reading comprehension because through retelling, students as the readers may know and get more focused on the elements of the story .such as character, setting, plot, theme and resolution. As Kaiser (2002: I) states in Story Retelli g: Linking Assessment to the Teaching-Learning Cycle that ·'story retelling is an effective teaching and assessment tool that enable. the reader to. focus on specific
elements of story structure".
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Visual Aids for Retelling Activity .
In this thesis, the writer uses two kinds of visual aids in teaching reading comprehension. They are picture and story inap. Picture is one of the best visual aids in teaching because picture can show the students a description of a word or about something. For example, if a teacher wants to teach vocabulary of tiuit, he/she can show the picture of an apple to the students so that the students can have a real description of a fruit which is called 'apple'. As Burns, Roe & Ross (1984: 36-37) state that pictures are extremely fruitful sources of new ideas and experiences and useful in developing vocabulary and concept. Furthermore, they also say that good pictures to use tor building experiences are those that tell a story.
The use of visual aids is important; as Doff (1988:82) states that it can make the students to focus attention on the meaning and helps to make the language used in the class more real and alive. Besides, using visual aids can make the classroom activity become more interesting and keep the students attention.
To sum up, using picture as the media not only make the lessons become more interesting but can also motivate the students and the teacher in the teaching and learning process. Moreover, Skrzypczynska (1992: 42-43) states that "picture provides students with a variety of completely open-endedspeaking and· writing exercises, thus transforming an ordinary lesson into anenjoyable activity tor both student and teacher".
The second visual aid that will be used in this thesis is story map. Story map is what is described in the story elements and its details. Actually, story map can be very helpful for the students to differentiate between the essential and nonessential information in the story that they read. As Kaiser state that instruction and practice in attending to story structure using a story map enable the reader to distinguish between essential and nonessential information. So, the students have to be informed that story map is useful for them, not only for helping them to differentiate between the essential and nonessential information in the story but also to help them while they read books, article and so on.
Below is an example of a story map according to Kaiser m Story
In teaching reading comprehension, usually a teacher will only ask the students to read and after that the teacher will ask some questions that are related to the text Actually, it is not enough to only have the students to answer questions because we do not know whether they have understood the meaning of the text or not Besides, students are often lazy if they are asked to read something that does not interest them. So, the use of retelling is hoped to be able to help the students to develop their reading comprehension and help them to become more interested in learning reading.
g to Kaiser m Story
