Bahasa Inggris untuk Profesi Informasi

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Bahasa Inggris untuk Profesi Informasi

• Responding to
• Written Arguments
• Oleh
• TAMARA ADRIANI SUSTEYO-SALIM
• Berdasarkan buku ACADEMIC WRITING, Ilona Leki

DEPARTEMEN ILMU PERPUSTAKAAN DAN
INFORMASI FAKULTAS ILMU PENGETAHUAN
BUDAYA UNIVERSITAS INDONESIA Depok, 2007
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ANALYZING WRITTEN ARGUMENTS

• The following articles discuss the question of
• whether or not "gifted" children should be
• separated from regular classes and receive
• more accelerated instruction than average
• children do.
• Kenneth Mott, a well-known educator, believes
  that separating gifted children is better for
  both the gifted children and the average
  children
• Bruno Bettelheim, a famous child psychologist,
  opposes special classes for gifted children.

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Before reading the entire essays

• Read the first paragraph, the last paragraph, and
  the first sentence in each of the remaining
  paragraphs to get an overview of the essay.
• Then read the essay through quickly.
• Finally, read again more carefully, while marking
  sections you find particularly interesting,
  convincing, or unconvincing.
• Write your comments in the margins, especially
  the examples to contribute.

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Pro to Grouping the Gifted Children

• I regard gifted children as those who possess
  some quality or innate ability which has been
  recognized and identified by any number of
  testing and observation devices and who manifest
  interest and success in either physical,
  intellectual, or artistic pursuits.
• These might be children who are gifted athletes
  but who have real trouble mastering academic
  subject matter, or students who are poor athletes
  but are highly intellectual "quiz kids" who knock
  the top off all measuring devices. "Gifted" may
  describe pupils of average intelligence who have
  exceptional ability in art or music, or it may
  refer to the child with an IQ of 135 who excels
  in everything.

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• How can we deal with these gifted? I firmly
  believe that we should group them as nearly as
  possible according to interest and ability
• (giftedness) and challenge them with a type of
  program that will help them to grow to the
  fullest extent of their abilities and capacities.
• This grouping could take the form of special
  subject arrangements in the elementary grades, a
  situation in which a class is heterogeneously
  grouped most of the day but is divided at times
  into special interest or ability class groups for
  special instruction. In high school, it may take
  the form of grouping students in regular classes
  according to any number of criteria but basically
  those of interest and proficiency (or lack of
  proficiency) in various subject areas.

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• One of the basic arguments against grouping the
  gifted is the fear of creating a caste of
  intellectual snobs. Similarly, some educators
  fear that the average and slow students would
  come to regard themselves as inferior.
• If my definition of the gifted is accepted, then
  these fears are groundless. After all, the
  schools have grouped gifted athletes for years.
  Yet how many athletes regard themselves as part
  of an elite? Do varsity athletes look down upon
  other pupils as inferior? The vast majority of
  them apparently do not.

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• Consider also the amount of "gifted grouping" in
  speech, music, art, and journalism. Schools have
  readily grouped the gifted in these areas without
  any apparent ill effect. To the extent of my
  observation, encouraging gifted debaters,
  musicians, artists, and writers to develop their
  special talents does not create envy or feelings
  of inferiority among less talented students.
• If educators sincerely desire to promote
  individual growth and self-respect, they have no
  grounds, as far as 1 can see, to fear any kind of
  grouping. The teacher, not the manner in which a
  class is organized, determines students'
  attitudes toward individual differences. Before
  he can hope to instill the proper attitude,
  however, the teacher needs to make a critical
  analysis of his own attitudes toward differences.

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• If a group of gifted or non-gifted students forms
  the wrong concept about themselves, the fault
  probably lies with the teachers, parents, or
  administrators. I have confidence that if
  teachers accept and respect individual worth,
  that if they challenge and spark interests in
  young people, the individual student will mature
  and grow successfully along the lines of his
  interests and abilities. I say, let those with
  similar "gifts" associate, plan, and enjoy being
  together.
• Many educators disagree with the idea of gifted
  grouping because they believe that it does not
  affect achievement significantly. They cite pilot
  studies which indicate that no significant change
  in achievement results when children are
  separated into slow and accelerated classes.

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• The fact is, however, that in a vast majority of
  pilot studies the children have been grouped only
  according to IQ scores, which are far from
  reliable, and the conclusions have been based on
  achievement scores which measure only mastery of
  factual detail.
• Unfortunately, there are no reliable devices for
  measuring growth in such areas as creativity,
  attitudes, personal adjustment, latent interest
  and talent, and innate capability. .
• My opinion, which is based on more than a decade
  in the classroom, is that learning skyrockets
  when individuals are grouped according to
  interest and ability and are motivated,
  challenged, and inspired by a type of school work
  that will yield some measure of success to them.

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• Heterogeneous classrooms frequently produce
  frustration in children who are persistently
  unable to do the same work that most of the other
  children do. Frustration is also produced when
  bright children are not properly challenged by
  their school work, as is too often the case in
  heterogeneous classrooms.
• I have little fear of gifted students' being
  pushed beyond their endurance, for I have faith
  in the ability of most teachers to recognize the
  limits to which any student should be pushed. On
  the other hand, I don't believe giftedness should
  be wasted away simply because a bright or
  talented student is content to proceed at what
  is for hima snail's pace or to stand at the top
  of a class of students with less ability.

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• Several schools, with which I am familiar have
  experimented with grouping the gifted in a
  reading program. (Their regular procedure had
  been to have three or four reading groups in one
  classroom under one teacher. The teacher's time
  was divided among several small groups.)
• The experiment involved putting slow readers from
  different classrooms in one classroom, average
  readers from different classrooms in another
  class, and fast readers in still another class.
  Each classroom still had one teacher, but he no
  longer had to divide his time among several
  different groups. The control group consisted of
  a class organized and taught under the regular
  procedure mentioned above.

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• After two years, the researchers found greater
  overall progress at all reading levels in the
  experimental group. In fact, some slow readers
  joined the average ones and some average ones
  moved up to the fast group. In this case, special
  ability grouping paid dividends all around.
• I believe the same results could have been
  achieved in science, social studies, mathematics,
  or English. By decreasing the range of interest
  and/or ability levels, the teacher is able to do
  more toward helping individual growth.

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• While I do not believe that children should be
  regarded as resources to be molded to the needs
  of society, I do believe that as individuals they
  are endowed with certain characteristics and
  attributes"gifts" of naturewhich represent
  their potential success in life. Where children
  have certain "gifts" in common, they should be
  allowed to work and study together.
• (Kenneth Mott)

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Techniques used by Writers

1. Giving examples
2. Using analogies (comparing this situation to
   another situation)
3. Mentioning and responding to opposing views
4. Appealing to authority (citing experts in this
   area who agree with the position)
5. Pointing out consequences or implications of both
   pro and con positions