IMPROVING THE ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT BY USING DIRECTED READING - THINKING ACTIVITY (DR-TA) STRATEGY AT MAN 2 SITUBONDO IN THE 2007/2008 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

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.