It cannot be denied that the role of the teacher in the academic achievements of students is highly significant. The research of Mourshed, Chijioke & Barber (2010) in America showed that the teachers’ contribution to student’s learning outcomes was 53%. Similar percentages were found by Pujiastuti, Raharjo & Widodo (2012) in Indonesia who found that the teachers’ contribution to student learning outcomes amounted to 54.5%.
The importance of the role of the teacher increases even more if the teacher also contributes to fostering general literacy. Their contribution in this area of education does not only have an impact on student learning outcomes, but also encourages students to develop and use 21st century learning and life skills, namely: improving literacy skills, strengthening character, and developing student competence in order to be successful in a global society.
Since teachers play such a large role in student academic achievement, great teachers should be literacy role models for their students. There are several ways in which teachers can be good literacy role models: teachers can explore the joy of reading and writing with students by creating and conducting engaging literacy lessons, and also to write works themselves and let students read them, e.g. short creative stories.
Why is Writing Satisfying?
Writing can become such an absorbing and involving process that it can make you feel more alive — concentrated yet euphoric. It can also help the writer recreate something in themselves that they may have lost without noticing or glimpse when reading a rewarding book: a sense for wonder.
The process of writing can be more rewarding than the outcome, although, when you capture something luminous, that sense of discovery and wonder swims through the words and leaps out from the page. There is a pleasure in precision; in solving and resolving the riddles of your syntax and voice; and in the choice of what to lose and what to allow.
Why Writing is Important for Students?
- Writing improves students’ high-level thinking skills, especially their creativity and critical thinking skills.
- Writing deepens students’ understanding of learning material and connects it with the context of life around them.
- Writing activities can encourage students to collaborate with friends through collaborative projects.
- Writing familiarises students with critical, analytical, and reflective thinking about themselves.
- Writing increases student curiosity. By writing, students must research various reading sources to improve the quality of their writing.
The essence of good writing has less to do with grammar, spelling, punctuation and more to do with content. The essence of good writing is good thinking. Your thoughts, ideas, and logic are the foundation of your writing.
Got writer’s block? Here are a few tricks to get unstuck:
- Pretend you’re writing to a good friend. Just tell him or her everything you’ve learned about your subject and why you believe your ideas are correct.
- Use everyday language. Too many people get hung up on using fancy words and phrases that they forget their goal is to communicate. Simpler is better.
- Just do it. Write or type something… anything! Once you have written that first paragraph—even if it’s a really bad first paragraph—your brain will start to generate spontaneous ideas.
- Don’t edit yourself! Your goal is a rough draft—it’s not supposed to be perfect.
- Keep moving. If you get stuck on a particular section, especially when writing an essay, don’t sit there thinking about it for hours—or even for more than five minutes. Just write a quick note about what you plan to cover in that section, then go on to the next section. Force yourself to make it all the way through, with as few stops as possible.
Students need to recognise how to communicate through written language in order to communicate effectively starting from their early years. Skills to express written language well and effectively are important life skills. Later on, writing skills are not only needed in the workplace, but also in social life. Humans use written language, both formal and informal, through print, visual and digital media.
“People may be clever as the sky is high, but as long as they does not write, they will pass from the memory of society and history. Writing is a work remembered for eternity.”—Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Source: https://issuu.com/stashac/docs/how_to_study_7th_edition; https://issuu.com/uzzho/docs/the_cambridge_introduction_to_creat; http://repositori.kemdikbud.go.id/8659/1/Manual-GLS_Menulis-untuk-Kesenangan.pdf; http://gln.kemdikbud.go.id/glnsite/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/1.-Seri-Manual-GLS_Guru-sebagai-Teladan-Literasi.pdf
Writer: Aulia Nurdini
Editor: Todd Cordy
