Peer Teaching for Early Reading of Elementary School Students: Classroom Implementation and Challenges

The purpose of this study was to analyze and describe the application of the peer teaching learning method to students' beginning reading skills. The research method used is qualitative research with exploratory descriptive design. Sources of data in this study were students and teachers in first grade of elementary school who had implemented the peer teaching learning method. Data collection techniques using documentation, interviews, and observation. Data analysis techniques used are data reduction, data display, and data verification. Test the validity of the data using technical triangulation. The results showed that the inclusion of students' initial reading skill aspects included being able to pronounce letters very fluently with no errors, being able to compose letters into words fluently even though there were a few structuring errors, understanding the meaning of words that were read quite fluently because there were several deficiencies in understanding the meaning of words, showing appropriate reading behavior quite fluently, there was activity of repeating words in reading even though not many words were repeated, and activities in decapitation were not quite right there were few errors, so that overall the coverage of reading skills through the peer teaching method analyzed was as large as fulfilling If the criterion is sufficient, in the future it is hoped that there will be a review related to the implementation of learning plans through the peer teaching method so that learning activities that refer to the development of students' reading abilities are achieved.


A B S T R A C T
Reading is one of the crucial aspects in an educated society.However, in the process, students often face challenges or difficulties in learning to read and rarely receive attention from teachers.The purpose of this study was to analyze and describe the application of the peer teaching learning method to students' beginning reading skills.The research method used is qualitative research with exploratory descriptive design.Sources of data in this study were students and teachers in first grade of elementary school who had implemented the peer teaching learning method.Data collection techniques using documentation, interviews, and observation.Data analysis techniques used are data reduction, data display, and data verification.Test the validity of the data using technical triangulation.The results showed that the inclusion of students' initial reading skill aspects included being able to pronounce letters very fluently with no errors, being able to compose letters into words fluently even though there were a few structuring errors, understanding the meaning of words that were read quite fluently because there were several deficiencies in understanding the meaning of words, showing appropriate reading behavior quite fluently, there was activity of repeating words in reading even though not many words were repeated, and activities in decapitation were not quite right there were few errors, so that overall the coverage of reading skills through the peer teaching method analyzed was as large as fulfilling If the criterion is sufficient, in the future it is hoped that there will be a review related to the implementation of learning plans through the peer teaching method so that learning activities that refer to the development of students' reading abilities are achieved.

INTRODUCTION
The habit of early reading at the beginning of school is one way to develop skill and proficiency in to develop main ideas.The ability to develop skills and independence in language becomes strategic, in the sense that this ability is used as an equivalent in language proficiency in elementary schools so that the main focus is the ability to master vocabulary and master the basics of language.Reading is an ability that must be mastered by students in elementary school because the ability to read is directly related to the entire student learning process (Hendrayani, 2018).Students are categorized as ready to read when they are able to identify or understand the meaning of words from objects called by other people, even though students have not been able to sound the letters of the names of these objects (Vania et al., 2022;Bond et al., 2015).For example, when the teacher says soap, students can show soap.When students are able to identify the meaning of words, students begin to enter the initial reading stage.At the initial reading level, readers do not yet have actual reading skills but are still in the learning stage to acquire reading skills (Amanda et al., 2022).Reading is a vital thing in an educated society, because reading is the beginning of individual learning activities and the process of reading books is very important for a child for his future life (Dewi, 2019;Farida et al., 2020).This mean that reading has a very essential role in an individual's life, so that the teaching of reading that he receives in the first education must receive special attention.The main thing that must be considered by the teacher, because students are in the early grades, namely Classes I and II (Hadian et al., 2018).The accuracy and success of learning in the early stages has a major impact on subsequent student learning.This means that the teacher who teaches in that class has a great responsibility for the ability of students' reading skills in that class.
At the beginning of reading, there are several indicators that students need to achieve.Accuracy, clarity of sound and fluency are things that need attention when learning takes place.However, in the process students often experience difficulties in learning to read and rarely get attention from the teacher.Some teachers or educators who are involved in the implementation of the learning process every day tend not to fully understand their students who have learning difficulties (Dewi, 2019;Utami, 2020).If difficulties in learning to read at the beginning do not get the attention of the teacher, then these difficulties will get worse and interfere with the student's learning process.In this case, it is necessary to make efforts from teachers, parents and other adults who are around the child by providing assistance and assistance so that the child immediately gets the right treatment.As for one effort that can be done is to analyze the difficulties of each student in reading the beginning.Through this analysis, it will be known which students have difficulties and which aspects are difficult for them.This analysis needs to be carried out as quickly as possible in the early grades so that there are no delays in providing appropriate treatment to students later.
Based on the results, information was found that reading difficulties were the type of learning difficulty most faced by elementary school students in the early or lower grades.There are around 85% of early grade elementary school students who are identified as having learning difficulties, having major problems related to reading and language skills (Fauzi et al., 2018).This shows that there are serious problems faced by the world of education in elementary schools in the form of the many difficulties faced by students in learning to read.Students who have difficulty learning to read are identified as having difficulty learning to read letters, words or sentences that are not caused by major cases such as mental retardation, low visual and hearing, movement disorders and emotional disturbances.Reading difficulties are related to (1) reading habits, (2) mistakes in knowing words, (3) mistakes in understanding, and (4) various symptoms (Yusup & Sari, 2020).Based on the observations of researchers when teaching, students seem more comfortable when communicating with their peers, because there is equality in language and communication styles.Students are also more free to ask questions without any obstacles.With the context described above, the researcher chose peer teaching as a learning method to apply, so that students' understanding and abilities could increase.This is in accordance with the concept of peer teaching , namely students are given the opportunity to discuss with peers to be able to teach other students.In addition, students more easily accept information given by their peers, because there is equality in language and communication (Febianti, 2014;S, 2019).This peer teaching method is very relevant for the ability to develop ideas, mastery of material, and very contextual learning according to the context of students (Munthe & Naibaho, 2019;Sani et al., 2022).The concept of peer teaching in essence is a learning process that involves a person to provide assistance and study guidance to others in learning activities (Anas et al., 2014).The peer teaching method is a way to facilitate students learning together and being guided by peers in sharing knowledge, helping each other, and being able to create comfortable conditions in the learning process both in expressing opinions and asking questions when experiencing difficulties.A series of studies have tested related to reading skills in learning.Research on elementary school students in Bojonegoro regarding reading skills through the PBL model yielded positive results.Implementation of language learning through learning media games builds activity and increases student (Ariyati, 2013;Rahmat, 2017).Learning through the tutor peer model provides extraordinary progress in learning outcomes because it is interesting and at the same time has a positive effect on students' reading skills.Research related to the application of learning through the cooperative model states positive results (Nurdyansyah & Fahyuni, 2016;Rahmadhanty, 2022).However, no research has been found that examines the description of the application of the peer tutoring learning model in developing early reading skills for elementary school students.This is a novelty in research as well as the reason for this research being conducted.Beginning reading skills for elementary school students who are low need to be given intervention because being skilled in reading is very important in everyday life.In addition, interventions based on cooperative learning are needed so that learning can be carried out optimally.Peer teaching method is a part of the cooperative learning model.This cooperative learning model functions to increase social sensitivity and solidarity, make it easier for students to make social adjustments, eliminate selfishness or selfishness, increase mutual trust in others, increase the ability to see problems and situations from various perspectives, increase willingness to use other people's ideas.perceived better, and increase the friendliness of friends regardless of differences (Handayani & Panjaitan, 2015;Sani et al., 2022).Referring to this description, a question arises in the form of how to apply the peer teaching method in improving elementary school students' early reading skills.The purpose of this study was to analyze and describe the application of the peer teaching method to improving elementary school students' early reading skills.

METHOD
In this research, the research design used exploratory descriptive analysis.The design was chosen because the author analyzed in detail the application of the peer teaching learning method to early reading skills at SDN 01 Temurejo with the consideration that this school is an elementary school level education unit that has implemented learning through the peer teaching method.The subjects were students and class teachers who have carried out learning through the peer teaching method .The selection of the subject was based on considerations because they had carried out learning on initial reading skill material through the peer teaching model.The data collection techniques used are observation and interviews.The observations were made by the author to analyze the results of students' initial reading skills, while interviews were conducted with class teachers to confirm the application of the peer teaching method to initial reading skills.The data analysis technique uses analysis based on Miles and Huberman (Vania et al., 2022), which consists of data reduction, data presentation, and data verification.
At the data reduction stage, the results of observations related to students' reading skills that have been collected are very large, so data reduction is carried out by categorizing the results of students' initial reading skills into 6 aspects, namely reading with spelling, incorrect decapitation, incorrect pronunciation, omission of sounds or words , repeated, and reversed.At the data display stage, the results of data reduction into these 6 aspects were then analyzed based on the presentation during the interview by the class teacher regarding the process of applying the peer teaching method which can develop early reading skills.At the data verification stage, the results of the data that have been reduced and analyzed then describe the processing results of each aspect of the initial reading skills analyzed.The data that has been analyzed is then tested for the validity of the data using technical triangulation .Technical triangulation was carried out to test the credibility of data from the same source using different techniques.The instruments used in this study are presented in Table 1 and Table 2 Can the peer teaching method improve students' initial reading skills?3 How is the implementation of the peer teaching method ? 4 What are the obstacles experienced by teachers in applying the peer teaching method ? 5 What is the teacher's solution in overcoming obstacles when applying the peer teaching method?6 Are students excited about learning to read using the peer teaching method ?7 Is the role of friends and teachers very influential in applying the peer teaching method ?8 How to assess initial reading skills using the peer teaching method ? 9 Is the assessment of initial reading skills using the peer teaching method the same as the previous method?10 How do you evaluate success in applying the peer teaching method ?11 How do you evaluate failures in applying the peer teaching method ?12 What follow-up did you do after implementing the peer teaching method ?

Result
The subject of this study was an 8 year old grade 2 student at SDN 01 Temurejo named AP.Through the results of the study that has been carried out by the AP, one of the students who is included in the regular class is not proficient in reading and spelling, even though they already know the letters, but it is still difficult to memorize.For example, there is the word B-A-C-A, when you know the letters AP you can do it even if you say it very slowly, but to combine B to combine A and C to combine A, READ is still difficult for AP to do.Apart from spelling letters and reading, AP also has difficulty in counting and understanding other material.From the memorized numbers 1 -20, several times AP has skipped the numbers.After learning through the peer teaching method, it was found that some developments in reading skills were found in AP students, namely being quite fluent in sounding the letters "b" with "d" and the letters "p" with "q".In addition, AP students are fluent in removing the last letter in words that end in a consonant, such as "eat", "obligatory", "month", and so on.Besides that, they also become proficient at reading words which contain digraphs, such as "going home", "flowers", and "only".When reading short stories, he is quite fluent even though he still stammers in reading words such as "has", "behind", "a", and others.From the results of the interviews, information was obtained that AP students practiced their reading skills at home and preferred learning with their study partners.In addition, parents of students admit that they often teach AP to learn to read at home.Based on the results of field interviews with class teachers, it turns out that the peer teaching method is able to facilitate AP students to achieve learning goals.During the learning process, it can be seen that the tutor is able to accompany and guide each of its members who do not yet understand how to spell readings correctly.The tutor always takes the initiative to observe how its members understand the text given by the teacher.The tutor also always asks what each member's difficulties are, so that each tutor has the courage to convey his or her difficulties.Each member is really well directed to be able to solve things that are difficult for the tutor.The peer teaching learning process cannot be separated from the teacher's supervision, so that each group that has difficulties that cannot be resolved by the tutor, can directly ask the teacher.
Furthermore, referring to the results of interviews with teaching teachers, that the implementation of peer teaching begins with designing learning.Before entering the learning activity, the teacher calls 4 tutors who have been previously selected.According to the steps for implementing peer teaching , the teacher determines the tutor based on the student's academic grades.Student scores that are always high or have high absorption will be used as tutors.The division of groups is adjusted according to the number of tutors available.The tutor is given instructions before the implementation begins.The directions given by the teacher are about things that will be done during group discussions later.Tutors are also given training in how to read properly and correctly.The aim is to better prepare the tutor in understanding the material, so that when the peer teaching process takes place it can run well.Next, the teacher starts learning activities according to what has been planned in the Learning Implementation Plan.At the beginning of learning activities, students are directed to remember or briefly repeat previous learning.After that, then explained the learning objectives to be achieved in this lesson.The teacher also explains to students that learning will be carried out using the peer teaching method .Previously the teacher had written the division of groups on the blackboard.Students are directed to sit according to their respective groups and in each group there is a tutor in it.Students can follow the teacher's instructions properly, calmly and without any noise or questions.Before starting the discussion, the teacher first explained the material to be discussed in the group.The teacher explains the material through question and answer with students to discuss some examples of questions.After the teacher finishes explaining the subject matter through discussion and question and answer, the teacher writes questions on the blackboard which will later be worked on in groups.These questions are teaching materials that must be learned by students.Students are welcome to work on the problem with their group.During the peer teaching process, the teacher goes around to see how students study in groups and what is the role of the tutor in the group.Apparently, with the application of peer teaching , students look easier and feel free to ask questions without fear.They exchange ideas, give each other input, and the role of the tutor is to explain how to read properly and correctly.There are also tutors who still ask the teacher, but only to make sure whether the reading method is correct or wrong.Each group looked very enthusiastic when they could study with friends in the group and all group members were very active in learning.The teacher makes sure that all students have finished, then learning ends with an evaluation together.Each student is given the opportunity to give an opinion about today's lesson.Many students stated that they were happy and found it easier when they could study and discuss with friends.

Discussion
In this section, we will discuss the results of research on the analysis of early reading skills through peer teaching methods.In this study, it was found that the peer teaching method can improve aspects of students' ability to recognize letters and identify letters.Peer teaching learning can improve students' reading skills is shown by being able to pronounce letters, both vowels and consonants (Munggaraning Westhisi, 2020;Sessiani, 2007).Researchers in testing this aspect, students were asked to mention letters orally and in writing.It was found that most students were fluent in expressing letters, but there were still some students who had errors in pronouncing some letters, such as AS who had doubts when sounding the letter "p" with "q", hesitated to sound the letter "d" with "b", and had difficulty distinguishing "m" from "n" and other letters.In line with research (A.Hasanah & Lena, 2021).Students often have difficulty distinguishing letters such as "m" and "n" as well as "p" and "q", which hinders students' reading skills.In addition, this study obtained that the peer teaching method also improved The ability of students to read words containing digraphs.The peer teaching method can also improve students' ability in aspects of reading separate words, meaningful words, and meaningless words fluently.The peer teaching method, students' ability to understand various words separately has increased besides that students are also able to read words that have no meaning fluently (Mahfiyana et al., 2019;Rosita & Muftianti, 2021).In this aspect, of course, there are still weaknesses of students, namely there are some students who stop reading when they encounter difficult words, omissions in words, and errors in pronunciation of words.This is in line with research (Novita et al., 2021) Although the initial reading ability of students on average in class has improved significantly, there are still some students who have difficulty in reading some words that they consider difficult in pronouncing the word.
Then, in the aspect of fluency in reading aloud and understanding the content of reading also increased with the application of the peer teaching learning method.With the help of peer tutors in reading skills, students are better able to answer questions and understand the content of the reading they have read (T.N. Hasanah, 2020;Septarini Rahmasari, 2017).In this method, the tutor has the role of accompanying and guiding his friend to understand the text given by the teacher.But in this aspect there are still errors encountered during research, mistakes that are often made by students in the form of difficulty in reading words that have quite a lot of syllables.In addition, some of them have difficulty answering the questions given based on the content of the reading.This is in line with what is stated by (Abdurrahman et al., 2018) Most students experience an improvement in initial reading, but there are some students who still read not fluent in composing words, where students falter in combining the words given and if reading a paragraph often do not understand the content of the reading.From the results of the research diperole, it can be seen the benefits of the peer teaching method, namely students are more active and courageous in expressing their difficulties because they are guided by their own friends, students understand each other's characteristics in each tutor group, the delivery of material is easier to understand because it is taught by their peers, creating a comfortable and fun learning atmosphere but still achieving learning goals.This is in line with opinion (Irawan et al., 2018) Reveal the benefits of peer teaching in improving students' initial reading skills including, 1) Each student can express what is a learning difficulty directly to the tutor without having to be ashamed or afraid, 2) Students learn to understand each other about the nature or character of one student with other students in the group.3).Students more easily understand learning material, because using equivalent language makes it easier for students to understand.4).Students who act as tutors learn to be leaders and guide peers to discuss in groups.5) The learning atmosphere is very relaxed and comfortable, because students can communicate with their peers.In this study, it was seen that the enthusiasm of students in working with each other, minimizing the level of stress in students because of the fun learning process with their friends.Peer teaching can improve social competence and communication skills, students are more confident, direct interaction between students will encourage active learning, and can improve learning outcomes.The application of peer tutoring is useful for improving understanding of concepts such as early reading.The peer teaching learning model (peer tutoring) is useful for improving learning outcomes in the reading ability of elementary school students, in addition, peer teaching learning methods can also minimize teacher dominance in learning and teachers act as facilitators to improve students' learning skills and abilities (Mahfiyana et al., 2019;Rezeki, 2017).Several obstacles were found in this study, in the process of applying peer teaching to improve initial reading skills Some obstacles faced by teachers when applying the peer teaching method, such as the difficulty of determining tutors based on test scores before action, because student grades often rise and fall, require input beyond the grades that have been considered.In line with opinion (Rivai, 2019) peer tutor method has difficulty in determining who the student will be the tutor, this difficulty arises if learning difficult material while in that class only a few students master the material.When studying difficult subject matter, tutorial training for tutors should be intense (Pujiono, 2013;M. Sari, 2013).Thus, teachers must be ready and willing to devote more time to training tutors.In addition, it is necessary to increase the scope of subject matter to be studied in groups, so that tutorial activities can run more interactive and effective (Anggraeni et al., 2021;Sutarno et al., 2015).
Another disadvantage of this method is that students who have high academic ability do not automatically become tutors, because they must consider the ability to guide and direct other students to be able to facilitate the learning process and discussions run well.The ability of the tutor to explain the material to his friends plays an important role in the application of this peer teaching method, because the material delivered and the understanding of students will depend on how the tutor delivers the material (Anggorowati, 2013;E. Sari, 2019).Another obstacle in this method is managing time well, for example before the tutor teaches his friend, it takes time for the teacher to guide the tutor first so that the material delivered is in line with the learning objectives to be achieved.The thing that takes a long time in the peer teaching method is to determine and guide the tutor, because this step greatly determines how the tutor will guide his peers (Rosanti, 2018).However, these obstacles can be overcome in this study by communication and coordination between researchers and class teachers in determining tutors and grouping students when the peer teaching method is implemented.Overall in this study, it was obtained that the peer teaching method can improve students' initial reading skills, from the aspect of being able to pronounce letters correctly, being able to arrange letters into words correctly, understanding the meaning of the words read, showing appropriate reading behavior.The limitations of this study include difficulties in determining tutors based on pre-action test scores, challenges in time management, and constraints in selecting tutors capable of effectively guiding the learning process.Recommendations to address these limitations involve enhancing communication and coordination between researchers and class teachers in selecting tutors and grouping students when implementing the peer teaching method.Additionally, intensive tutor training and expanding the scope of subject matter can aid in conducting more interactive and effective tutorial activities.

CONCLUSION
The inclusion of aspects of students' initial reading skills is the coverage of aspects of being able to pronounce letters very fluently with no errors, being able to arrange letters into words fluently even though there are a few structuring errors, understanding the meaning of words that are read quite fluently because there are several deficiencies in understanding the meaning of words, showing appropriate reading behavior quite fluently, there are activities of repeating words in reading even though not many words are repeated, and activities in decoding words are not precise there are few errors, so that overall the coverage of reading skills through the peer teaching method analyzed meets the sufficient criteria.To apply the peer teaching method, consider these suggestions: a) Select tutors based on their daily exercise scores and input from other teachers.b) Measure each step in time to align with the plan, using a timer as a reminder for time limits.c) Allocate sufficient time for the teacher to properly prepare tutors through tutorial guidance, ensuring their thorough understanding of the material before teaching other students.

Table 1 .
. List of Questions Related to The Application of Peer Teaching Methods in Class

Table 2 .
Observation of Reading Behavior Data