IMPROVING THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION ACHIEVEMENT BY USING THINK PAIR SHARE (TPS) STRATEGY AT SMAN 1 KALISAT JEMBER IN THE 2007/2008 ACADEMIC YEAR

Abstract

Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy is a cooperative discussion strategy developed by Frank Lyman that creates a more active process, helps to maintain attention and improve the students’ motivation. It is a good strategy, in which the students work together to solve their problems, and help one another. The purpose of this research was (1) to improve the tenth grade students’ reading comprehension achievement by using Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy at SMAN 1 Kalisat Jember in the 2007/2008 academic year, and (2) to motivate the tenth grade students at SMAN 1 Kalisat Jember to be more actively involved in the teaching and learning process of reading. This research was conducted at SMAN 1 Kalisat Jember from August 20 2007 up to September 10 th 2007. The research method was classroom action research with cycle models. This classroom action research was done in collaboration with the English teacher with a sequence of steps, namely the planning of the action, implementation of the action, class observation and evaluation, and reflection of the action. This research held in two cycles. Each cycle was done in three meetings including test. The research subject was grade X 4 since this class, among the five existing classes, had the lowest mean score of the reading pre test that was 43.33. The primary data about the students’ reading comprehension achievement were collected by administering reading achievement test and observation by using observation checklist. The collected data were analysed by descriptive quantitative. Meanwhile, the reflection was based on the finding during the observation and was compared to the criteria of success, including (1) the action is considered successful if 75% of the students get score of reading comprehension test in the good score category (M= 7079)

or more, and the mean score of reading comprehension test at least in the good category (M= 70-79), and (2) the action is considered successful if at least 75% of the subjects are actively involved in the teaching learning process of reading by using Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy. The mean score of reading comprehension test in the cycle 1 was 61.35 or ‘fair’ score category. Meanwhile, only 27.02% of the students got score in the good category (M=70-79) or more. Moreover, the result of observation in cycle 1 showed that only 72.50% of the students were actively involved in the teaching and learning process of reading by using Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy. The results above showed that cycle 1 had not achieved yet the targets of this research. Therefore, the action was continued in cycle 2 by the revising the activity in the second stage (pairing stage) of Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy. In cycle 2, after finishing their discussion in pairs, the researcher asked pairs of the students to regroup into four to further their discussion. The mean score of reading comprehension test in cycle 2 was better (M=72.84) than in cycle 1 (M=61.35). In cycle 2, there were 86.48% of the students got score in the good category (M=70-79) or more. Additionally, the results of the observation in cycle 2 showed that most of the students (84.21%) were active during the teaching learning process of reading by using Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy. In other words, the targets of this research were achieved in cycle 2. From the results above, it can be concluded that Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy can improve the students reading comprehension achievement as well as their involvement. Therefore, it is suggested to the English teacher to use Think Pair Share (TPS) strategy as an alternative strategy in teaching reading.