Literacy Tree: An Unique Teaching Medium to Support Gerakan Literasi Sekolah (GLS)

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) stated that, in 2012, the cultural literacy of the Indonesian people was one of the worst in the world.
What is literacy? Literacy is the ability to read and write, and these skills are two primary competencies that can be used as indicators to monitor a student’s development. Through reading authentic texts, the students will learn to recognize and understand the information given more effectively. This information can then be used for discussions, question and answer materials, presentations, and report writing.
Faced these problems of literacy, it would be easy to just blame the government. However, our role as citizens to support government programs is valuable, even if only with a simple contribution. One of these contributions could be done is to develop teaching media. Good teaching media should be cheap and creative. One example of this is the ‘Literacy Tree’.
A Literacy Tree can be created by the teacher or the students. It is made from paperboard and cut to form a tree-shape. The leaves can be made from colourful paper where in each one of the leaves will be written with the book title and brief description about the book that already been read. Literacy Trees are completed by all of the students during each semester, and the students who read the most books will each be given an award. In order to assess the validity of their Literacy Trees and to see how much they actually remember, the students will be asked about each book they have read. Hopefully, by implementing this media, the students will develop a stronger reading habit, wider insight, and broader knowledge.
In conclusion, the Literacy Tree is a symbol of creativity that supports the spirit of literacy. Hopefully, by making Literacy Tree, students can imitate the growth of a tree, having strong roots, strong twigs and branches, and the leaves will grow thicker by reading and writing more often. Reading will help us to recognize the world, and through writing, the world will recognize us.

e world.  PISA ranked Indonesia in position 64th out of 65 countries. How could this happen? One of the reasons is the usage of the Lembar Kerja Siswa (LKS) or Student Worksheet. It is a short worksheet with a surface material which is just like a “junk food” for the teacher and students during several years. It prevents the students developing a good reading and writing culture and the teacher have no strong literacy experience as well. In 2016, LKS was already disbanded and it has been replaced by Gerakan Literasi Sekolah (GLS) or the School Literacy Movement, a program that aims to develop the reading and writing culture of the students, in order to create lifelong learning.