IMPROVING CLASS VII USING BRAINSTORMING TECHNIQUE CLASS VII-A STUDENTS’ WRITING ACHIEVEMENT BRAINSTORMING TECHNIQUE AT MTSN JEMBER IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2010/2011

Abstract

This research is a classroom action research that was conducted collaboratively by the researcher with the English teacher. It used brainstorming technique to improve the seventh year students’ writing achievement of MTsN Jember III. Before doing this research, the researcher had experienced in teaching practice program (PPL Program) for about three months in MTsN Jember III. During the PPL Program, the researcher always found students’ difficulties in writing certain texts. Students faced difficulties in generating ideas. This finding was also supported with the result of the diagnostic test which showed that the seventh year students had a problem in generating ideas in writing. Because of this reason the research was conducted. To overcome such problem above, applying an appropriate technique in teaching writing becomes important. The researcher had had a discussion with the English teacher before using brainstorming in type of clustering as a technique to help the students generate ideas before they start to write. It was used because brainstorming is a widely used and an effective way of getting ideas flowing. Brainstorming technique in type of clustering was an effective and easily introduced to the students in teaching of writing particularly in generating, developing, and organizing ideas. In addition, it seems to be a fun activity for the students because the students make a rough draft of their ideas by drawing balloons of their ideas on their paper sheet. Brainstorming by clustering can also be helpful for people who like seeing things in images. The purpose of this research was to improve the writing achievement of the seventh grade students of MTsN Jember III in the 2010/2011 academic year by using brainstorming technique. The data in this research was gathered by administrating a writing test and by having observation in the class in each cycle. The research design was Classroom Action Research (CAR) with cycle model. Each cycle consists of four stages of activities: planning of the action, implementation of the action, class observation and evaluation, and data analysis and reflection of the action. This research was conducted at MTs Negeri Jember III. The seventh year students of MTs Negeri Jember III, especially VII-A class, were the research subject of this research. Based on the results of the data analysis and discussion, it could be concluded that teaching writing by using brainstorming technique in two cycles could improve the seventh year students’ writing achievement at MTsN Jember III in the 2010/2011 academic year. The research also showed that the students who used brainstorming technique could consistently achieve the target score. The improvement was from 62% in the first cycle to 67% of the research subjects who got score of 65 or more in the second cycle. It was also shown that the brainstorming technique was applicable to the seventh year students. It was supported by the improvement of the results of observation that was from 62.5% in Cycle I to 75% of the research subject who were able to use brainstorming technique in Cycle II. Considering the results of the application of brainstorming technique in this research, it can be concluded that brainstorming was appropriate technique to overcome the problem. So, it is suggested to the English teacher to use brainstorming to teach English to the students, especially to teach writing.