IMPROVING THE GRADE EIGHT STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPH WRITING ACHIEVEMENT AND THEIR PARTICIPATION BY USING NUMBERED HEADS TOGETHER MODEL AT SMP PGRI BANGSALSARI IN THE 2010/2011 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

This research was a classroom action research. It was intended to improve the grade eight students‟ paragraph writing achievement and their participation by using Numbered Heads Together (NHT) model in teaching learning process. It was conducted at SMP PGRI Bangsalsari which was chosen by purposive method. The subjects of the research were the grade eight students of class VIII A under the consideration that they were low achievers and could not perform well in learning English. In addition, the data of the research were taken from the interview, observation, and writing test. NHT model was chosen as the model in the teaching learning process of writing under consideration that NHT model requires students to think together to discuss the answers with the member of the groups. The groups‟ success depends on every member of the groups because every student has his/her own responsibility to do the assignment based on the results of discussion. This classroom action research consisted of two cycles in which each cycle covered the stages of planning the action, implementation of the action, classroom observation and reflection of the action. Then, each cycle was conducted in two meeting. In the third meeting, a writing test was conducted. In addition, observation was used to monitor the students‟ active participation in the teaching learning process by using NHT model. From the results of classroom observation in cycle one, it was known that there were 60% or 18 of 30 students who actively involved in the teaching and learning process in the first meeting. Moreover, 66.66% or 20 of 30 students actively participated in the second meeting. These meant that the process evaluation has not achieved yet. In addition, the result of the achievement was not successful. It can be seen from the students‟ score. 63.34% or 19 of 30 students achieved ≥70. It did not achieve the requirement. That was 70% of the students had to get ≥70. Therefore, the action was continued to cycle two. Based on the results of observation in the first meeting in cycle two, there were 76.66% or 23 of 30 students actively involved in the teaching learning process. In the second meeting, it was known that 86.67% or 26 of 30 students were categorized as active during the teaching learning process. Meanwhile, the percentage of the students who got score ≥ 70 improved to 76.67% or 23 of 30 students in cycle two. These meant that the actions in cycle two were successful and necessary to be stopped. Finally, the findings in both cycles showed that the use of NHT model could improve the grade eight students‟ paragraph writing achievement as well as their active participation. Therefore, the English teacher, the students, and the other researchers are suggested to use NHT model as an alternative model in teaching writing.