IMPROVING THE SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ DESCRIPTIVE TEXT WRITING ACHIEVEMENT BY USING MIND MAPPING TECHNIQUE AT SMP NEGERI 11 JEMBER IN THE 2013/2014 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

The result of the students’ descriptive text writing achievement test in Cycle 1 showed that the mean score of the students’ writing test was 77 in Cycle 1. There were 30 students (80.08%) who got scores 71 or more in this Cycle. The result indicated that the students’ writing test in Cycle 1 achieved the target score. To know the consistency of the result, Cycle 2 needed to be done. Meanwhile, the result of observation checklist in Cycle 1 related to the students’ active participation was 20 active students (55.56%) in the first meeting, and then it increased up to 30 active students (81.08%) in the second meeting. Although it showed improvement, the target percentage of this research did not achieve yet. Furthermore, the result of descriptive text writing achievement test in Cycle 2 showed that the students could maintain the consistency of the writing achievement test result in Cycle 1 and improve their writing achievement test. The mean score of the students’ writing test was 79. There were 34 students (89.47%) who got scores 71 or more in this Cycle. The students could put their words related to the picture into the Mind Mapping appropriately and compose simple paragraphs using the words in the Mind Mapping in writing descriptive text. Meanwhile, the result of observation checklist in the first and second meeting showed that the percentage of the students’ active participation in Cycle 2 was higher than in Cycle 1. It increased from 68.32% of the students in Cycle 1 to 86.84% of the students in Cycle 2 who participated actively during the teaching learning process. The students were more active discussing the material in pairs, answering the questions from the teacher and raising some questions to the teacher because the researcher used aid Media like Mind Mapping application, Laptop, and LCD Projector. Moreover, the researcher used loud voice that could hear in the back row. Therefore, they looked so enthusiastic and paid much attention to the teacher’s explanation during the teaching learning process. From the writing test and the observation result in Cycle 1 and Cycle 2, it could be concluded that the use of Mind Mapping technique was able to improve class VII D students’ descriptive text writing achievement and active participation of SMP Negeri 11 Jember in the 2013/2014 academic year.