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1.4.09

CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH: IMPROVING WRITING SKILLS USING PICTURES

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the research
One of the basic competencies of English taught to the grade VIII of Junior High School based on Competence Based Curriculum 2004 is to express idea in written texts in the form of narrative, descriptive, and recount. This competency requires mastery of language components such as grammatical feature, vocabulary and ability to arrange text cohesively.
Producing text using certain genre seems difficult. Students have to have large amount of vocabulary, mastery of grammatical feature, and understanding the generic structure. The difficulties has found in the grade VIIIA of SMPN Sukorambi Jember academic year 2007-2008. The earlier study through competency test worked out to 43 students, showed that 34 students or around 79% students are not able to reach score 60 as the passing grade of this competency especially in arranging text or paragraph.
Result of the test has shown that the students found difficulty in composing paragraph to be a passage. This difficulty happened because the students aren’t able to create imagination in their mind. Children (age 6-15) tend not to use the right brain hemisphere to think which has ability to recognize form and shape, music, art, sense of colour, creativity and visualization (Susilo: 68).
To solve the students’ problem, some approach, method and technique have been set up to overcome it. Beside that media also influence the result of the study. The use of media, such as pictures in learning environment will not only change the dynamic of the class but it will also rejuvenate students and help the brain to learn more effectively (Agoestyowati:5).
In the hope to improve the students’ writing ability, media using pictures is applied. The research decides to use pictures to help students to solve their problem in composing texts because pictures are easy interpreted and support fun learning.
The problem may be solved in the research are:
a. How to compose texts using pictures?
b. To what extend does the pictures improve the students’ writing ability?

1.2 Scope and Limitation
Scope of the research is limited to use sequence pictures, cartoon, and photograph. The basic competence is limited to express idea in written texts in the form of narrative, descriptive, and recount which are taught to grade VIII of Junior High School.

1.3 Purpose of the research
Based on the background, scope, and limitation, purpose of the research are:
a. To help students to express their idea using pictures aids.
b. To help students to arrange passages based on the pictures easily.
c. To make teaching and learning process fun and relax.
1.4 Benefit of the research
Benefit of the research is supposed to students and teachers, i.e.:
a. Students are easy to compose writing using pictures aids.
b. Teachers are easy to develop planning, applying and assessing learning process of English, especially to standard competence: expressing idea to write texts in the form of narrative, descriptive, and recount.

1.5 Definition
a. Writing skills is ability to express idea through written text by combining grammatical rules, vocabulary and generic structure.
b. Picture is an image or drawing as a visual effect that one can see as non moving object.

CHAPTER II
REPORT OF THE ACTIVITY

2.1 Teaching and Learning Preparation
a. Media
- Picture series, example comics.
- Famous person photograph, example Barrack Obama, etc.
b. Design and Steps
Prepare a piece of paper and stick some pictures on it. Each genre has different pictures as below:
- Narrative text
Stick picture series as below:










- Descriptive text
Stick a famous person photograph as the example below:




- Recount text
Stick some pictures in sequence that shows someone’s activity in the past.








The arrangement will be easier by adding keywords and generic structure under each picture. The generic structure will be described below:
a. Narrative text: Orientation – Complication – Resolution – Reorientation.
b. Descriptive text: Identification – Description
c. Recount text: Orientation – Events – Reorientation

2.2 Teaching and Learning Process
Teaching and learning process to arrange compositions are as below:
CYCLE I
The first meeting
Aim: by the end of the lesson students will be better able to arrange composition in the form of narrative text.
No Learning Process Timing
1. Lead in
Students list some stories on their own experience watching movies or reading novels. 10’
2. Reading
Students arrange sequence pictures based on the story they read. 20’
3. Writing Draft
Students arrange different sequence pictures using their own opinions and write keywords of each picture and define main idea of the pictures. 20’
4. Writing
Students write the generic structure then develop the main idea to be a passage 30’
The learning process used learner’s centre where the students were set in group work or pair work to do some task. The explanation of the learning process will be described as the following:
In the beginning of the lesson, students listed some stories and filled the bubble to create a clear context of the lesson as below:





After that students arranged pictures based on the written story in order they were able to practice reading for skimming. Students were allowed to consult dictionary to find the meaning of some difficult words. Students also defined which pictures were the orientation, complication, resolution and reorientation. The result was consulted to the class and teachers monitored the activity.
Students got new pictures and arranged pictures in sequence to make their own stories. They decided what happened in the pictures and wrote the main idea of each picture.
Students work in pair to develop the main idea to be a passage. After the composition finished, the passage was given to the other group to check the errors and gave back to rewrote a new draft.

The second meeting
Aim: by the end of the lesson students will be better able to arrange composition in the form of descriptive text.
No Learning Process Timing
1. Lead in
Students list some famous person they know 10’
2. Reading
Students read a passage about a famous person and identify the physical appearance, characteristic and everything about him or her based on the text 20’
3. Writing Draft
Students enquiry a picture of famous person and write the physical appearance and his characteristic. 20’
4. Writing
Students write the generic structure then develop the main idea to be a passage 30’
In the beginning of the lesson, students listed some famous person and filled into the right column to create a clear context of the lesson as below:
Actress Actor President
Drew Barrymore Jacky Chan Barrack Obama
……………….. ……………….. ………………..
After that, students read a passage about a famous person and identify the physical appearance and characteristics. Students also identified the generic structure of the text: identification and description.
After accomplishing the task, students noticed a famous person picture and wrote the physical appearance and characteristic. They might consult the dictionary to get specific word.
Students work in pair to develop the main idea to be a passage. After the composition finished, the passage was given to the other group to check the errors and gave back to rewrote a new draft.
The third meeting
Aim: by the end of the lesson students will be better able to arrange composition in the form of recount text.
No Learning Process Timing
1. Lead in
Students list what place they plan to visit during vacation 10’
2. Reading
Students arrange jumble paragraph about travelling into good order. After that they defined the generic structure of the text they read. 20’



3. Writing Draft
Students arrange different sequence pictures using their own opinions and write keywords of each picture and define main idea of the pictures. 20’
4. Writing
Students write the generic structure then develop the main idea to be a passage 30’
In the beginning of the lesson students listed some famous place they want to visit to create a clear context of the lesson.
After that students arranged jumble reading text in order they were able to practice reading for skimming. Students were allowed to consult dictionary to find the meaning of some difficult words. Students also defined which paragraph were the orientation, events and reorientation. The result was consulted to the class and teachers monitored the activity.
Students got new pictures and arranged pictures in sequence to make their own stories. They decided what happened in the pictures and wrote the main idea of each picture.
Students work in pair to develop the main idea to be a passage. After the composition finished, the passage was given to the other group to check the errors and gave back to rewrote a new draft.

CYCLE 2
The first meeting
Aim: by the end of the lesson students will be better able to arrange composition in the form of narrative text.
No Learning Process Timing
1. Lead in
Students list some Indonesian and western stories. 10’
2. Reading
Students arrange sequence pictures based on the story they read answer the reading comprehension. 20’
3. Writing Draft
Students match the main idea of the pictures and arrange the pictures using their own opinions. 20’
4. Writing
Students write the generic structure then develop the main idea to be a passage 30’

In the beginning of the lesson, students listed some Indonesian and western stories and filled the bubble to create a clear context of the lesson as below:







After that students arranged pictures based on the written story in order they were able to practice reading for skimming and get to know the content of the story. Students were allowed to consult dictionary to find the meaning of some difficult words. Students also defined which pictures were the orientation, complication, resolution and reorientation.
Students got new pictures, match the main idea and arranged pictures in sequence to make their own stories.
Students work in pair to develop the main idea to be a passage. After the composition finished, the passage was given to the other group to check the errors and gave back to rewrote a new draft.
The second meeting
Aim: by the end of the lesson students will be better able to arrange composition in the form of descriptive text.


No
Learning Process Timing
1. Lead in
Students name some famous person in the hand out. 10’
2. Reading
Students read a passage about a famous person and identify the physical appearance, characteristic and everything about him or her based on the text 20’
3. Writing Draft
Students enquiry a picture of famous person and write the physical appearance and his characteristic. 20’
4. Writing
Students write the generic structure then develop the main idea to be a passage 30’
In the beginning of the lesson, students named some famous person in the hand out to create a clear context of the lesson.
After that, students read a passage about a famous person and identify the physical appearance and characteristics. Students also identified the generic structure of the text: identification and description.
After accomplishing the task, students noticed a famous person picture and wrote the physical appearance and characteristic. They might consult the dictionary to get specific word.
Students work in pair to develop the main idea to be a passage. After the composition finished, the passage was given to the other group to check the errors and gave back to rewrote a new draft.
The third meeting
Aim: by the end of the lesson students will be better able to arrange composition in the form of recount text.
No Learning Process Timing
1. Lead in
Students list what place they had visited 10’
2. Listening
Students fill the gap in the text while listening to the spoken text after that they arrange the pictures into good order. 20’
3. Writing Draft
Students arrange different sequence pictures using their own opinions and write keywords of each picture and define main idea of the pictures. 20’
4. Writing
Students write the generic structure then develop the main idea to be a passage 30’
In the beginning of the lesson students listed some famous place had visited to create a clear context of the lesson.
After that students filled the gap in the text based on the spoken text to practice listening. Then, students arranged the pictures into good order and were allowed to consult dictionary to find the meaning of some difficult words. Students also defined which paragraph were the orientation, events and reorientation.
Students got new pictures and arranged pictures in sequence to make their own stories. They decided what happened in the pictures and wrote the main idea of each picture.
Students work in pair to develop the main idea to be a passage. After the composition finished, the passage was given to the other group to check the errors and gave back to rewrote a new draft.

2.3 Assessment of the Learning Process.
The assessment is set to know whether the competency learnt has been reached or not. The assessment is arranged as the following:
a. The Indicator application into the assessing instrument
From the indicators set up in the syllabus, they are elaborated into assessment instrument consists of scoring and instrument form. Every indicator is divided into 2 assessment instrument i.e. psychomotor and affective assessment.
b. The assessing instrument arrangement
The assessing instrument arrangement consists of: (a) determining aim of the assessment, (b) arranging design of the assessment, (c) selecting the instrument form, and (d) determining the instrument length.
c. The Assessment and instrument form.
The assessment of the research is gained from score of test. Score of the test includes: (1) the accuracy of spelling, (2) the accuracy of structure, (3) the arrangement of passage, and (4) the content of writing (generic structure). After that each task is scored. The score is counted using the formula as the following:

The assessment criteria are in the following:
The Accuracy of Spelling Score
All Spelling is correct 5
Between 75% - 99% spelling is correct 4
Between 50% - 74% spelling is correct 3
Between 25% - 49% spelling is correct 2
Between 1% - 24% spelling is correct 1
All Spelling is wrong 0
The Accuracy of Structure Score
All Structure is correct 5
Between 75% - 99% Structure is correct 4
Between 50% - 74% Structure is correct 3
Between 25% - 49% Structure is correct 2
Between 1% - 24% Structure is correct 1
All Structure is incorrect 0
The arrangement of passage Score
The arrangement is correct 1
The arrangement is incorrect 0
The content of writing Score
Understandable 2
Complicated 1
Clueless 0

The research also uses non test instrument consists of questionnaire to get objective view of the affectivity of the teaching using pictures in the writing ability.

CHAPTER III
RESULT OF THE RESEARCH
3.1 Report of the Research
The use of pictures as a technique to arrange composition in the form of narrative, descriptive, recount and anecdote has been conducted to the grade VIIIA of SMPN Sukorambi in the second semester of academic year 2007-2008. Generally, the use of the picture aids was proved effectively based on the test result, monitoring, and questionnaire. The result will be described in the following.
3.2 Result of the test
a. Pre Test Result
From the pre test instrument in the beginning of the learning process is gained below:

Table 1. Pre Test Result
Mark Students Percentage Total Mark Mean
70 2 4.7 140 51.40
60 7 16.3 420
50 29 67.4 1450
40 5 17.2 200
Total 43 100 2210
From the pre test in the table above, it describes that 40 students of Grade VIII A of SMPN Sukorambi in the academic year 2007-2008, 34 students or around 79% haven’t reached the passing standard score over 60. it means that they didn’t get the standard competency of writing. There were only 9 students who get score over 60 or 21%.
b. Test Result of the Cycle I
After learning process of composing text in the form of narrative, descriptive, and recount using pictures, a test is conducted to the students to know result of the action. The result will be described in the following chart.

Table 2. Test Result of the Cycle I
Mark Students Percentage Total Mark Mean
80 3 6,9 240 62.33
70 9 20,9 630
60 26 60,4 1560
50 5 11,6 250
Total 43 100 2680
From the result described in the table 2, there were 5 students (11.6%) not to reach the competency standard. Meanwhile there were 38 students or 88.3%. The result described that there were 21% to 88.3% raising. The conclusion from the assessment of the cycle I is that the use of pictures has an effective result in writing which is shown by the raising score from 51.40 to 62.33.
c. The result of the Cycle II
After learning process of composing text in the form of narrative, descriptive, and recount using pictures, a test is conducted to the students to know result of the action. The result will be described in the following chart.

Table 3. Test Result of the Cycle II
Mark Students Percentage Total Mark Mean
90 2 4,6 180 73.72
80 17 39,5 1360
70 19 44,1 1330
60 5 11,6 300
50 - - -
Total 43 100 3170
From the result described in the table 2, all students has reached the competency standard. The result described that there were 88.3% to 100% raising. The conclusion from the assessment of the cycle I is that the use of pictures has an effective result in writing which is shown by the raising score from 62.33 to 73.72.

3.3 Result of Non Test Instrument
To know the effect of using pictures aids in writing in the form of narrative, descriptive, and recount, students were given questionnaires to enquiry about their response to the use of pictures aids. The result will be described in the following.
Table 4. The Result of the Questionnaire
No
Statement Frequency Total
Absolutely Agree Agree Disagree Absolutey Disagree
1 Interesting 31 12 0 0 43
2 Easy 26 17 0 0 43
3 Better 38 5 0 0 43
4 Continue 40 3 0 0 43
Total 135 37 0 0 172
Percentage 78.48 21.51 0 0 100
The result of questionnaires on the table above described that from 43 students, around 78.48% students absolutely agree that the use of pictures in writing in the form of narrative, descriptive and recount is interesting, easy, better, and need to be continued. The conclusion is the use of pictures in writing genre is proved effective.

CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
4.1 Conclusion
Based on the result of the research, the paper is entitled “Improving Writing Skills Using Pictures in the Eight Grade of SMPN Sukorambi Academic Year 2007-2008,” is concluded as the following:
1. Pictures are good for improving the writing ability
2. Pictures are good to increase students’ interest to learn English especially in writing genre.
4.2 Recommendation
This research is recommended to the English teachers to use pictures during teaching and learning process as media because the pictures are able to improve writing ability.