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On 28 – 31 March 2019, students of UKRIDA Department of English (UDE) went on a field trip to the city of education, Jogjakarta.

On 28 – 31 March 2019, students of UKRIDA Department of English (UDE) went on a field trip to the city of education, Jogjakarta. As the proverb goes reading is the window to the world, literacy development for children is essential. Due to that reason, on the first and second day in our visit, we gave part of ourselves to children at Domby Kids Hope. Domby Kids Hope is an NGO’s supported community for children who like to spend their evening learning enhanced material from schools. It is run by the local volunteers who are committed to dedicating themselves doing social acts. UKRIDA English Department batch 2016 brought a new program for Domby Kids Hope. We are trying to make them experience the fun of extensive reading. By doing the activities at hand, we do hope that they would enhance their reading interest.

Arriving at the site, the kids were very excited seeing new faces; they were ready to get new sisters and brothers! They welcomed us cheerfully. They also let us play with them while reading the prepared stories together. The fun reading sessions are led by UDE lecturers, Miss Athriyana Pattiwael and Ms. Emanuella C. Natalia. The first session was reading in silence where all of the kids were expected to read all of the text in silence. This activity aims at improving their understanding of the overall context. On the next session, the children were given a piece of paper, and they were asked to write the title, characters, settings, conflict, and plot of the story. This session was called character analysis by using a graphic organizer. This activity was meant to familiarize the children to be able to identify text elements of a story.

The next session was Round Robin. It was done by saying specific characteristics that the kids had and let them read in a fun way. It was also meant to improve their reading fluency. The last but not least was peanut butter and jelly; since we are dealing with mother tongue’s fluency, we change the name of the activity into gula dan semut. This activity is meant to enhance the children memory on a particular part in the story as well as able to re-tell the story by using their own words. Thus, it was meant to practice the ability of collaboration and sharing within them. The children would have their role; and they can choose to be the gula or the semut. When the instructor said “sharing time!” they had to touch each other’s hand and tell about their stories.

Unexpectedly, all of the sessions went well. The kids and UDE students were all having fun doing the activities. We thought it was a good experience and a reminder that we always have to lay ourselves as to serve others. We hope that there would be events like this in the future. It is a bliss to see smiles in their faces.  (Abigail Teja Sanger)