IMPROVING THE VIII-A YEAR STUDENTS’ ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITING A RECOUNT TEXT BY USING STORY MAPPING STRATEGY AT SMPK ST. PETRUS JEMBER

Abstract

Based on the preliminary study that was done on 24 t h September 2010, most of the eighth year students of SMPK St. Petrus Jember especially class VIII-A faced some difficulties in writing a text in terms of organizing the ideas and applying tenses. This was proven by their writing score, which showed that 11 (55%) of the students got <66 and the mean score was 64.60. This score is below the required score of the school for the English subject that is 66. The classroom action research was implemented in this research because this research was intended to improve the eighth year students’ writing achievement. In this research, the researcher has collaborated with the English teacher of the eighth year of SMPK St. Petrus Jember. It was conducted in the eighth A year students of SMPK St. Petrus Jember consisting of 20 students. The observation and the writing test were the methods that were used in collecting the data. The obtained data of the writing test were analyzed quantitatively, while the result of observation described qualitatively. The action was conducted in two cycles in order to achieve the objectives of this classroom action research. The first cycle was done in two meetings and followed by a test. The results of the classroom observation indicated that 68.42% in meeting 1 and 70% in meeting 2 of the students were active during the teaching learning process. It showed that there was an improvement of the students’ active participation from meeting 1 to meeting 2, but it had not achieved the objective of the research that was 70%. In addition, the result of the writing test in the first cycle had not achieved the criteria of success of the research that was 70% of the students got 66 or more in the writing test. The percentage of the students who got score 66 was only 13 students or 68.42% of 19 students. Based on the results of the first cycle above, the second cycle was necessary to be conducted to solve the problems found in the first cycle. Some modification had been made on the aspects of time and teacher’s explanation. The process and product evaluation in the second cycle indicated an improvement. In the process evaluation, the students’ participation showed that 80% in meeting 1 and 84.21% in meeting 2 of the students who are actively involved in the teaching learning process. So, the result of the observation in meeting 1 and meeting 2 had achieved the objective of the research. In the product evaluation, the percentage of the students who got score 66 in the writing test was 15 students, or 75% of 20 students. Based on those results, it could be concluded that the actions in the second cycle were successful because the results of process and product evaluation achieved the objectives of the research. Finally, it could be summarized that the use of story mapping could improve the eighth year students’ achievement in writing a recount text and the students’ active participation in teaching learning process at SMPK St. Petrus Jember in the 2010/2011 academic year.