Literacy Learning through Big Book in Elementary Schools
Dede Rohaniawati, Teti Ratnasih, Uus Ruswandi, and Syifa Fauziah
Departement of Primary Education Teacher, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Beginning Reading, Big Books, Literacy, Children, Reading Instruction, Reading Ability.
Abstract: Big book is an approach in improving reading skill especially for children at elementary school age. This
study aims to determine the activity and level of reading ability of children, especially in the early classes by
using the big book approach. The research method used is classroom action research, which is done as many
as three cycles. The results showed that students' interest in reading learning through big book increased,
especially reading ability of students in comprehending reading text, distinguishing punctuation, and
concluding reading text that experienced improvement in each cycle. So the use of big book can be
recommended to be used as a learning approach in improving reading ability.
1 INTRODUCTION
Big book is an approach that can be used by teachers
in teaching reading skills at the age of children,
especially elementary school age. Big book has a
certain size, such as A3, A4, A5 or the size of a
newspaper. The size is conditional based on the
consideration of the student's view of an object
within a class (USAID, 2015: 42). Big book can also
be said as a visual media in reading learning that has
certain characteristics. The big book has colorful
images, great text, clear readings and clear
storylines. In modeling through reading a big book
there is a process of reading together between
teachers and students, as well as how to understand
the contents of reading by predicting, understanding
difficult words, recognizing punctuation and
concluding the content of reading. Nambiar (1991:
1) explains that the big book has advantages over
ordinary books, which emphasize focusing on
certain parts of the text, facilitating children to think
hard, build awareness of language, and draw
attention to reading because of their large size. Even
a big book can enrich the oral language of children
through positive learning modeling (Lync, 1986: 1).
Teaching reading ability of elementary school-
aged children should pay attention to their
characteristics and development, so teaching
practice using big book approach should be adjusted
to the age of students. Students from the firs grade to
third grade are categorized as early readers. Mueller
(2007: 15) explains that the expected reading ability
of this age is that students can read, recite, recite,
develop vocabulary, and recognize punctuation.
While students in grade four to grade six are
categorized as advanced readers, and the expected
reading ability would be higher level. The big book
content will be very different for both categories,
especially in the plot and text presented. For
example, storyline in the beginning classes is
simpler and text consists of only one to three
sentences.
Mwoma's (2017: 360) study conducted on
primary school-aged children in Kenya shows that
reading ability of boys and girls is far from the
expected average because the children are not well
prepared in pre-reading skills for students in the
early classes (first and second grade), and it turns
out that reading material has an important role in
reading ability. Hargrave and Senechal (2000: 75)
also revealed that the effect of reading storybooks in
a dialogical way to children with limited vocabulary,
such as in pre-school level, has greatly affected the
vocabulary.
Picture storybooks also have a great role in the
ability and interest in children reading (Roslina,
2017: 213). Wasik and Bond (2001: 243) explain
that the effect of interactive book reading techniques
used by teachers through reading stories with
concrete objects and interacting openly with
involving children can build language skills and
literacy. In this case, the use of big book can
certainly have a big influence on the ability to read
because in this approach there is a process of
interaction between teachers and students using
200
Rohaniawati, D., Ratnasih, T., Ruswandi, U. and Fauziah, S.
Literacy Learning through Big Book in Elementary Schools.
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education (ICSE 2017) - Volume 1, pages 200-204
ISBN: 978-989-758-316-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

pictorialand colourful books that contain interesting
stories and plots.
Yacoob’s study (2008: 1) suggests that the use of
the big book in language learning fosters students’
interest and participation. They contribute to the
discussion and spontaneously comment on the
content of the story. Images in the big book are very
interesting, and the language is easy to read. These
features have increased students’ interest and
motivation for reading. As this study of using big
book is limited in the Indonesian context, this paper
aims to see how far the ability of students in reading,
especially the ability to recite reading, knowing
difficult words, knowing punctuation, understanding
and summarizing the readings are poured in the form
of writing. Thus, this study illustrates the deeper
reading ability as seen in the learning process of
each cycle.
2 METHODS
The methodology used in this research is Action
Research, which is doing an action and studying the
action (Coghlan and Shani, 2005; Bargal, 2008).
Because the research is done in the classroom, the
objective is to improve the learning process. This
method is applied considering the reading ability of
the first grade students in MI Al-Ikhwan is low,
where most of the students are able to read text only.
Not all students are able to understand the contents
of reading, the use of punctuation and vocabulary.
There are even six students who have not been able
to read clearly. Therefore, the big book approach is
expected to improve students' reading ability. The
subjects of this study are third grade students of MI
Al-Ikhwan Bandung-Indonesia regency. There were
17 students consisting of 10 men and 7 women from
various socio-economic background involved in this
study.
Observations and tests were conducted to collect
data. Observations were performed during the
learning process of reading by using a big book, and
the focus of observation is the activity of teachers
and students. The activity is then scored. Tests were
performed orally and in writing. Oral tests were
done in the form of performance, and the focus of
assessment is the pronunciation, fluency and
understanding of the text. Meanwhile, the writing
test was done by answering some questions in the
form of essay. The test focused on grammar,
vocabulary, understanding and concluding text.
The research procedure is carried out in a
cyclical form. This design used a model known as
the self-reflection spiral system that begins with the
plan, action, observation, reflection and re-planning
is the basis for a solution to the problem-solving
(Kemmis and McTaggart 1988, Berg; 2004).
The design of the research on cycles 1 to 3
begins with planning stage. This stage included
preparing material and big book media to be used at
the time of action and the lesson plan to be used at
the time of learning. Besides, this stage prepared
observation instruments in the form of observation
observation sheet, and made evaluation tools, such
as writing test and oral test. Students were tested
individually to see improvement of students reading
skill after applying big book.
The second stage was implementation. The
actions set in the lesson plan have been prepared at
the planning stage, and teaching is done by the
teacher in accordance with the steps in the RPP. The
third stage is observation, which was conducted
during the process of actions. Observations were
used to collect data on teacher and student activities
during the learning process. Observations were made
by colleagues at the school. The fourth stage is
reflection. At this stage the researcher analyzes all
the information recorded in the learning process
through observation and test format.
These four designs continued until three cycles
because in the cycles the reading ability is expected
to be achieved. Data analysis was performed by
calculating the observed activities and counted in
percentage. Each activity item contained in the
observation sheet was scored 1 for the activity that
has been done and 0 for the activity that has not been
done, and the overall result was then averaged. For
the analysis of test data the researcher used the
technique of mastery analysis of individual learning
and classical learning completeness. Individual
learning completeness was meant to measure the
level of each student's ability while the completeness
of classical learning was to know the overall mastery
of student learning.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Results
The results of cycle 1 show that at the planning stage
the lesson plan was made based on learning
indicators that focused on how students can predict
the story, recognize difficult words, understand the
story content, and summarize the story content. The
media used was a big book with the theme "a week
with grandpa". At the observation stage all the
Literacy Learning through Big Book in Elementary Schools
201

activities of teachers and students were observed and
scored using the observation sheet. Based on the
results, more than half of the students (55%) actively
involved in the learning, while the rest of the
students were not actively involved in the learning.
This could be due to unfamiliar use of the big book
approach in reading class.
At the stage of implementation, students
followed the learning stage quite well although not
all students could follow because the students were
still adapting to the approach. They could predict the
content of the story, expressed the experience of the
story, predicted the difficult words, recognized
punctuation, practiced the conversations of the
characters in the story in front of the class, discussed
the contents of the story with friends, summarized
the story and read aloud. At the end of the learning
the teacher made evaluation to find out how far
students could predict the story, knew the difficult
words, understood the story content, and
summarized the story content. The results of the
evaluation can be seen in the table 1.
Table 1: Learning Results in Cycle 1.
Student Level of
Completeness
Student Level of
Incompleteness
Average
35%
65%
62%
Table 1 shows that the result of individual
completeness was 35% equivalent to 6 students were
able to read after using big book. The ability to read
in this cycle was using correct pronunciation, fluent
in reading, correct grammar, vocabulary diverse, can
understand and summarize the reading. Meanwhile,
the rest of 65% or equivalent to 11 students has not
been able to read in accordance with expectations.
The average score was 62% indicating that some
students were quite able to read. In this cycle
students still adapted to the big book approach, amd
they never got such reading teaching so there were
many students who had not understood the flow of
this approach. In the reflection phase, students who
were still adaptable and were not serious in learning
should be prioritized for consideration in the next
cycle.
The planning process in cycle 2 remains the
same as cycle 1, and the theme given was also still
"A week with grandpa". But, the content is slightly
changed from the previous cycle. In this stage the
teacher prepared the learning well and really
mastered every step of learning with big book. The
results of observation in cycle 2 showed that more
students actively involved in learning (68%) as
students became familiar with the teaching approach
using big book and students seemed to have more
interest.
At the stage of implementation, similar findings
as cycle 1 were found. There were some students
who needed treatments in reading. The results of the
evaluation can be seen in the table below:
Table 2: Learning Results in Cycle 2.
Student Level of
Completeness
Student Level of
Incompleteness
Average
82%
18%
79%
Table 2 shows an individual completeness of
82% or equivalent to 14 students who were able to
read and only remaining 18% or 3 students who had
not been able to read with correct pronunciation,
fluent in reading, correct grammar, vocabulary
diverse, able to understand and summarize the
reading. The average percentage for all students in
cycle 2 was 79%, which meant that most students
could answer the tests correctly. The reflection is
that teachers should refocus learning on the three
students who have not been able to read.
In cycle 3, the planning process remains the
same as before. The theme given was still "A week
with grandpa", but the content was slightly different
from the previous cycle. In this case the teacher
prepares the learning as before. The results show a
significant increase where 89% of the students
participated actively in the learning activities. They
were enthusiastic in learning. Meanwhile, 11% of
them were not actively involved and required
treatment.
The individual level of completeness was also
improved as shown in Table 3.
Table 3: Learning Results in Cycle 3.
Student Level of
Completeness
Student Level of
Incompleteness
Average
94%
6%
90%
Table 3 shows that 94% or as many as 16
students were able to read and 6% was equivalent to
one student is not able to read, due to dyslexia, so
another way to overcome them was required. The
average achievement was 90% indicating that
students' reading ability was very high after using
the big book approach.
The comparison of reading achievement in each
cycle was shown in Figure 1.
ICSE 2017 - 2nd International Conference on Sociology Education
202

Figure 1: Reading achievement in each cycle.
Figure 1 shows that there was a significant
increase in each cycle. In cycle 1, the ability to read
was at a score of 62% meaning that students were
able to read. In cycle 2, the increase was quite high
with 79% and 90% in cycle 3 indicating that almost
all students are able to read well through learning
big book.
3.2 Discussion
This research reveals that in cycle 1 students reading
ability by using big book had not increased
significantly. Only 35% or 6 people out of 17
students were able to read with correct
pronunciation, various vocabulary, understand and
conclude readings. The number had a correlation
with the activities of the students when learning to
read with a big book, where only 55% who follow
every step of learning with enthusiasm. This
happens because students have not adapted to the
big book approach. They have never learned with
this approach before. In the second cycle students'
reading ability increased sharply, by 79% or 14
people from 17 students who are able to read
correctly. And this is in line with the activity that
began to increase that was equal to 68% of active
students and enthusiastic with learning to read
through the big book approach. The highest
achievement was in cycle 3, where 90% or 16
people from 17 students had been able to master
reading ability deeply through big book.
According to Combs (Loughrey, 2001:92), good
readers and poor readers approach the task of
reading very differently. She claims that good
readers view reading as a process of "…interacting
with a text to construct meaning". Furthermore,
Loughrey (2001:92) explains that to help all children
do what good readers do naturally, the teacher
should begin the reading session by helping children
consider what they know about the topic and
drawing from them predictions and theories about
the story content. The interaction between teachers
and students can be seen in every stage of learning
big book, almost every step of learning occurs the
process of interaction between teachers and students.
Just as at the time the teacher provoked the students
to predict the big book title, and when the teacher
instructed the students to share experiences related
to the big book title, Cassady (1988: 20) says that
“…the constant predicting/confirming mental act
that improves memory of the text and provides for
an understanding or appreciation of the author's
intent”.
In the next steps, there is a process in which
students should read aloud the text or called reading
aloud, it can enhance children's enjoyment and
understanding of literature, develops their oral
vocabu1ary, receptive as well as expressive
(Coombs, 1987; Cassady, 1988), fosters the concept
of what reading is and what reading is for, develops
prereading skills such as left-to-right progression
and the noting of story details, fosters an
understanding of the conventions and jargon of print
(e.g., "word," "line," "sentence," "top of the page")
in a natural setting, gives children a sense of "book
language," while seeing the text and hearing it read,
as well as discussion of the story elements during
and after the reading (Cassady, 1988:23), develops
visual discrimination as well as letter and word
recognition (Holdaway, 1979; Cassady, 1988),
provides for activities that aid critical and creative
thinking skills.
4 CONCLUSION
Based on the findings, big book approach is very
influential on students' ability in reading. The
reading process along with the big book approach
needs to be supported by guided reading. Usually
guided reading is done on a small group of 4 - 5
students. The form of the book is small and the
content is the same as the contents of the big book.
In this small group of teachers can explore more in
the ability of students so that the results will be more
leverage. In addition, this study found students who
have dyslexia so it needs a certain approach for
students with such needs. The rest of this approach
can be recommended as an approach to improving
literacy at the primary school level.
0,00%
50,00%
100,00%
Cycle I
Cycle II
CycleIII
62%
79%
90%
Reading Achivement in Each Cycle
Literacy Learning through Big Book in Elementary Schools
203

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The researchers would like to express their gratitude
to teachers and students of third grade MI Al-
Ikhwan Bandung-Indonesia regency who has helped
the implementation of this research. This study was
inspired by USAID Priority training in partnership
with LPTK UIN Bandung from 2011 - 2017 in order
to increase literacy in Indonesia.
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