| dc.description.abstract | Reading is a process of gaining meaning, knowledge, and information from
the printed page. It means that, in reading, the readers are encouraged to have active
construction of meaning when interacting with the text. Therefore, after reading,
readers should understand the writer's message in the form of meaning and get the
information needed. In fact, many students still experienced difficulties in
comprehending a reading text, particularly when they have to comprehend words,
sentences, paragraphs, and a text. Thus, Directed Reading - Thinking Activity (DRTA)
strategy is believed as an alternative teaching strategy that can be used to solve
the students' problem in reading.
The DR-TA strategy was conceptualised and refined by Russell Stauffer in
1969. The DR-TA strategy was chosen as the alternative strategy in the teaching
learning process of reading under the reason that this strategy is useful to promote the
students' comprehension of selection. This strategy guides the students through the
process of reading text by understanding and thinking about the text. By using DRTA
strategy,
the
students
will
think,
understand,
and
remember
the
material
they
have
read
easier.
This study employed a classroom action research design with cycles model.
This study aims at improving the students' reading comprehension achievement by
using Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DR-TA) strategy at MAN 2 Situbondo in
the 2007/2008 academic year. The steps developed in this classroom action research
covered a sequence of steps, namely the planning of the action, implementation of the
xiii
action, class observation and evaluation, and reflection of the action. This research
was conducted at MAN 2 Situbondo from September 3
xiv
rd
, 2007 up to October 4
2007. It was done in collaboration with the English teacher. The doer of the actions
was the researcher, and the observer was the English teacher. This research was
conducted in two cycles in which each cycle consisted of three meetings including the
test. The research subject was class XI IPA 2 since this class had the lowest mean
score of reading comprehension pre test that was 40, 67. The primary data about the
students' reading comprehension achievement was collected by conducting reading
comprehension achievement test, while observation was collected by using
observation checklist. The collected data were analysed by descriptive quantitative.
The criteria used to evaluate the success of the action were as follows: (1) The mean
score of the students' reading test result fulfilled the target mean score in this research
that was in the good category (70-79) or more, (2) 75% of the research subjects
achieved good score category or more of reading comprehension achievement (70-79
or more), and (3) 75% of the research subjects were actively involved in the teaching
learning process of reading by using DR-TA strategy.
The mean score of reading comprehension test in cycle 1 was 67.2 (fair
category). Meanwhile, the percentage of the students who got good scores (70-79) or
more was only 63%. Moreover, the result of observation in cycle 1 revealed that was
66.7% of the subjects were actively involved in the teaching learning process of
reading by using DR-TA strategy. The results above had not achieved the target of
this research. Thus, the action was continued in cycle 2 by revising the teaching
technique. In cycle 2, the researcher asked the students to do the activities in groups
in the reading lesson. | en_US |
