USING PICTURE SERIES

TO IMPROVE THE WRITING SKILL ON RECOUNT OF 8TH GRADERS

SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 3 DEPOK

IN THE 2013 – 2014 ACADEMIC YEAR

A Thesis

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Attainment of the

Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan in English Language Education

BY:

ANDIKA RAHMADI PUTRA

07202241027

ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

LANGUAGES AND ARTS FACULTY
YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY
2014

i
 DEDICATIONS

This thesis is dedicated to:

 Bapak H. Budiharto, S.H. and Ibuk Dra. Hj. Anie Amiroh.

 My beloved Grandparents, Uti and Kakung, Mbah Sol and Mbah

Salim.

 My little sister, Andini, and all of my family members from H.

Wiyono and H. Nursalim clan.

 The last but not least: my dearest partner, Khairiyah Eka Januaristi,

S.S.

v
 MOTTO

“God loves, protects us.”

(Robert ‘Bob’ Nesta Marley)

vi
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Bismillahirrohmanirrohim,

All praise be to Allah SWT for His guidance, blessing, mercy, and grace

without which I would never have finished this thesis. I would like to express my best

gratitude and appreciation to:

1. Dr. Agus Widyantoro, M.A. as my first consultant for sharing his time,

knowledge, guidance, and patience during the writing of this thesis.

2. All lecturers of English Education Program, who already did their best in every

class I had and all the staffs. God bless you all.

3. Bapak Hj. Budiharto, S.H. and Ibuk Dra. Hj. Anie Amiroh, for their lifetime love,

care, and support. My beloved little sister, Andini Kharisma Firdausi. Uti and

Kakung.

4. Family members of The River View House, Pangestu ‘Je’, Rizky ‘Bajuri’, and

Baim.

5. The big family of PBI B 2007, special thanks to my ‘veteran’ friend, Adi

Rahmadi, and also all of my pals, Dhanang, Tama, Westri, Wulan, and the rest of

them.

6. All of EDSA 2009 Family. Rio, Dewi, Siwi, Okky ‘Hok’, Rika, Suyoko, and

Linda.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER…………………………………………………………………………….. i
APPROVAL………………………………………………………………………… ii
RATIFICATION……………………………………………………………………. iii
DECLARATION……………………………...………………………..................... iv
DEDICATIONS …………………………………………………………................. v
MOTTO……………………………………………………………………............... vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………................. vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………................. ix
ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………................. xii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study……………………………………….. 1
B. Identification of the Problem…………………………..……….. 3
C. Limitation of the Problem…...………………………….………. 4
D. Formulation of the Problem……...…………………......……… 5
E. Objectives of the Study……………………………….………… 5
F. Significance of the Study …..…………………………………… 6

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................. ........... 7

A. Literature Review………………………………….......…….......7
1. Teaching Writing in the EFL Class .……………...………… 7
a. Teaching Writing…………............................................. 7
b. Teaching Writing in the Junior High School .................. 14
c. Writing Genre Based Texts ..… …................................. 15
d. Writing Recount Texts ..…………................................. 19
2. Picture Series as Media in Teaching Recount
a. Role of Media in The EFL Teaching .............................. 22

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 b. Picture Series as Media in the Writing Process ........... 22
B. Review of Relevant Studies …...………………….......……....... 27
C. Conceptual Framework …...………………….......……............. 28

CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHOD

A. Research Design………………………………….......……........ 30
B. Setting of the Research …...………………….......…….............. 32
C. The Subject of the Research .…………………….......……........ 33
D. Data Collection Techniques ......………………….......……....... 33
E. Instruments ………………....…………………….......……........ 34
F. Procedure of the Research .........………………….......……....... 34
G. Data Analysis Technique .....…………………….......……........ 35

CHAPTER IV : RESEARCH FINDINGS

A. The Sharpening of Problems ….………………….......……....... 38
1. Reconnaisance …………………….……………...………… 38
2. Identification of Field Problems ….……………...………… 39
3. Research Problems ……………….……………...………… 43
4. Determining Actions to Solve Field Problems .....………… 45
5. Action Plans ……………….……………...………… 47
3. Research Problems ……………….……………...………… 43
4. Determining Actions to Solve Field Problems .....………… 45
B. The Implementation of Actions and Discussions .......……....... 49
1. The Report of Cycle I …………….……………...………… 49
a. Plans for Cycle I ….……………...………… 49
b. Actions and Observations in Cycle I ..………...………… 54
c. Findings and Reflection of Cycle I ………. .....………… 62
d. Summary of Cycle I ………….……………...………….. 67
2. The Report of Cycle 2 …………….……………...………… 68

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 a. Plans for Cycle 2 ….……………...……………………… 68
b. Actions and Observations in Cycle 2 ..………...………… 74
c. Findings and Reflection of Cycle I ………. .....………… 80
d. Summary of Cycle I ………….………...……...………… 85
3. The Result of the Writing Test ….……………...…………... 86

CHAPTER V : CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions…………………………………..............……........ 88
B. Implications …...…………………….……….......…….............. 90
C. Suggestions ………………. .…………………….......……........ 92

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………….......... 95

APPENDICES……………………………………………………………….......... 96

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 USING PICTURE SERIES
TO IMPROVE THE WRITING SKILL ON RECOUNT OF 8TH GRADERS
SMP MUHAMMADIYAH 3 DEPOK
IN THE 2013 – 2014 ACADEMIC YEAR
By:
Andika Rahmadi Putra
NIM. 07202241027

ABSTRACT

This study is aimed at improving the writing skill on recount by using picture
series of 8th graders SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok, Yogyakarta in the 2013 – 2014
academic year.
This study is action research. The researcher followed the procedures of
action research stated by Kemmis and Mc. Taggert 1988. The steps in each cycle
consisted of planning, action, observation, and reflection. The research was done in
two cycles with two meetings for each cycle. The subjects of this research were 37
students of 8C class of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok, the English teacher of this
class as the collaborator, and the researcher. The data of this research were qualitative
and quantitative. The qualitative data are obtained by conducting interviews and
observations to students and the collaborator. The quantitative data were in the form
of writing scores obtained by conducting pre test and post test.
The findings of the analysis showed that the picture series improved students
writing skill in the following aspects. 1. Students could get more ideas to write their
own text by paying attention to the picture series. 2. Students could enrich their
vocabularies by using the picture series. 3. Students could arrange their sentences
chronologically by following the order of the picture series. 4. Students showed
higher interest in the writing assessments that used picture series as media. The result
of the test showed an improvement on the writing score which are the means of pre
test was 56.2 (Researcher) and 57.8 (Collaborator), to 73.8 (Researcher) and 75.2
(Collaborator) in the post test.

xii
 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English is an international language which is largely used in this world.

English can be said as an international vehicle which can be used to rest of the world

(Brewster and Ellies : 2004). It can be seen that in fact that lots of countries use

English as their first or second language. It has no doubt that those countries which

don’t use English as their second or first language still use English as foreign

language, or the mean of communication when they have foreigners come to their

country. (i.e. in Indonesia, when we have a Chinese guest but we cannot speak in

Chinese, we tend to use English to do communication)

From the example on the previous paragraph, it can be inferred that English is

an important language to be learned. That is why Indonesian government, through

schools, teaches English to their students. English is also a lesson which is tested in

the National Examination for last grader both in Senior and Junior High School. This

is one of the ways to build students knowledge about worldwide and global

information.

The English teaching and learning process in Indonesia determines this

language as a foreign language. It means that students only have this language in

limited area, such as in schools, English courses, or some other places that they rarely

have any significant objection to do there.

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 In Indonesia, English is commonly taught as one of primary subjects started

on Junior High School. English lesson starts on 7th grader on Junior High School and

it continuous until 12th grader on Senior High School. It is also applied in SMP

Muhammadiyah 3 Depok junior high school which teaches English to students started

from 7th grader (1st grader of Junior High School) until 9th grader (3rd grader of Junior

High School).

The English classroom activities contain four main skills in English. The

activities are reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Every skill is related one to

another. Generally, the skills of English are related in the following order: reading

relates to writing meanwhile listening relates to speaking. In fact, all of the skills have

important role for students in language acquisition. Generally, it can be inferred that

students get language input by reading and listening, and produce the language by

reading and writing.

Reading and writing skills cannot be separated from the language classroom

activities. To get ideas, input of vocabularies, word arrangements, and information,

students need to read materials in the target language so that they can produce

something after read the material. Writing skills follow up the previous skill, and

taught by giving students vocabularies and grammars so that they can make writing

products as the assessment at the end of the process.

Textbooks are used in the teaching and learning process to help students as

the main source of study. The curriculum applied in the process is 2008 curriculum

which has some genres of texts. There are narrative, recount, procedure, report, and

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descriptive text. The genres are divided into some chapters with different themes (i.e.

recount text has ‘holiday experience’ as the theme).

B. Identification of the Problem

Making writing products for 8 C students of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok is

not an easy thing to do. Most of them had very limited vocabulary. This condition

would be a big barrier for them to produce writing products easily. The condition was

even worse because there were less than 5 students from the total 37 members of that

class who brought the dictionary during English lesson. This condition showed that

they had low motivation in English class.

Students also found difficulties in gathering ideas for their writing task even

though they are only asked to make a simple paragraph about what they did on

previous day. It made them wrote very little amount of sentences in their text. They

also spent long time to gather ideas for a very simple writing.

Their writing skills are not practiced well since they did not provide

themselves a dictionary. In the other case, they did the writing homework from the

teacher just right before the class started, by copying from their friends. Most of them

did not submit their own writing for the homework.

The writing assessment requires students to understand lots of vocabularies

and ideas to make them able to make writing products. In this assessment, every task

given by teacher requires something that can provide vocabularies and ideas that

students need. It makes students think that writing tasks are easier to do. That’s why

students need a media which helps them to master vocabularies and building their

3
writing ideas at the same time by clear and real depiction of what happened in the

text. So they can make good writing products easier with various vocabularies, more

sentences, and systematic ideas.

C. Limitation of The Problem

In this research, the researcher focuses on using media in English teaching and

learning process. The media were used to activate the students. The elaboration of the

word activate is students can use the language as freely and communicatively as they

can (Harmer 26:2008). So it was necessary for them to have the media which can

show the concrete example. In the teaching and learning process, the researcher

would use series of photographs. This media was used for helping students to gather

as many ideas as they can. In the same time, students also could get new vocabularies

easily. After they had already gathered their ideas in the form of words and sentences,

the media would also help them in constructing their sentences chronologically.

The photos would be arranged in chronological order to help students

construct the ideas. In every picture, there would be some details which could be seen

such as characters, activities, and setting. They would help students to learn words

related to the pictures in the form of noun, verb, and so on. Meanwhile, teacher also

gave the supporting materials such as tenses, conjunction, adverb of time, and so on.

By looking to the pictures combined to the teacher’s explanation, students could

make good recount text.

Students on 8th graders were chosen to be the subjects of the research because

of some reasons. The first one, they considered to be medium learner. They were on

4
the age of 14 – 15 years old. The second one, the curriculum used genres of texts to

make writing products. So it was easier to give them to produce thematic writing

products.

D. Formulation of the Problems

Based on the background, identification, and limitation of the problem, the

researcher formulates the research into some questions.

1. How can picture series be used to improve students writing skill on recount by

helping them to gather as many ideas as they can?

2. How can picture series be used to improve students writing skill on recount by

helping them to get new vocabularies when it is applied as media in the writing

process?

3. How can picture series be used to improve students writing skill on recount by

helping them to construct ideas chronologically?

E. The Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this study are related to the problem formulation. The

research was expected to do the following actions:

1. To observe how picture series improved students writing skill on recount by

helping them to gather as many ideas as they could.

2. To observe how picture series improved students writing skill on recount by

helping them to get new vocabularies when it is applied as media in the writing

process.

5
3. To observe how picture series improved students writing skill on recount by

helping them to construct ideas chronologically.

F. The Significance of The Study

Based on the previous elaboration of this research, the significance of the

study can be classified into some points.

1. To provide easier way of gathering ideas to obtain words to write recount text.

The study had an objective to help students to gather ideas by paying attention to

series of pictures as media in the writing process. The picture series were

expected to help students to write their recount text faster so they can maximize it

to make longer text with variation of vocabularies.

2. To improve students writing skill in recount text by providing media in the form

of picture series so that they could get new vocabularies from their idea. At the

same time they could get better understanding while they were trying to get new

vocabularies derived from the details in the pictures, not only by remembering the

meaning of the words.

3. To improve students’ writing skill by accustoming them to write recount text in

chronological order. The series of pictures were set based on the time order, event

by event, so the risk of jumping ideas and incorrect writing order could be

minimized.

6
 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEWAND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

A. Literature Review

This study aimed to report the result of using pictures series as media in

teaching recount texts, focused on making writing products. There are some aspects

which are needed to be elaborated to build clear understanding of this study. This

study will make the correlation of teaching writing in EFL class to the use of series of

pictures as media in teaching recount text. By the end of the study, it will show the

result of the study so teacher can use this media in his EFL Class.

1. Teaching Writing in the EFL Class

a. Teaching Writing

Mc. Donald, et al. (2002: 47) stated that writing is one of four main skills in

English. It is one of the ways to produce a language. By doing writing, students can

express their ideas in form of words and sentences. We can also say that writing is

originating and creating a unique verbal construct that is graphically recorded. In

writing text, ideas play a big role as the starting point of the steps.

According to Brown (2001: 34), writing is the very process of putting ideas

down on paper to transform thoughts into words, to sharpen your main ideas, to give

them structure of coherent organization. While converting ideas from brain into

written form, teacher has to make sure all of his students pass the criteria of good

writing.

7
 Harmer (2007: 11) stated that teaching writing for students can be started by

encouraging students to think what they want to write on their paper. The activity can

be in the form of brainstorming to gather ideas by doing discussion done by pairs or

groups. It also can be done in the form of guided tasks in which several questions can

guide students to their forthcoming task.

Teaching English also means giving tasks or writing activities to students.

Brewster et al. (2004: 117) stated that writing activities can be easily divided into two

sets. The first one is what we call as learning to write. In this stage, the writing

activities will be done in beginner level. Some activities in this type involved mostly

in tightly guided copying which focus on ‘surface’ features such as handwriting,

spelling, punctuation, and using the correct word and grammar.

The previous writing activities can be done to a beginner writer. For students

who have already passed them, writing activities can be continued to ‘writing to

learn’. These writing activities are suitable for 8th graders who already got English

lesson for at least 1 year at the previous class (7th grade). Writing activities in this

stage may have less tight control, moving to much freer or even creative writing

which has higher cognitive demands and a greater focus on meaning and writer’s

personal expression. The writing activities for students are done in a set of processes

which is needed to be done step by step.

The process of writing activities is explained by Means and Lindner (1998: 3).

The role of gathering ideas is so important for students while they are starting to

write. They can obtain ideas maximally if they could understand some elements that

8
come together while making good writing ideas. The elements of writing ideas can be

seen in the following writing ideas triangle.

Figure 2.1. The writing ideas triangulation

From the figure above, Means and Lindner explain that a subject is not

enough to build maximum ideas. Students need to imagine more than the subject

itself. They need other ideas that have relationship to it. The ideas can be in the form

of their comments toward the subject. Other ideas can be the setting of time and

place, shape, colours, and so on. All information related to the subject is needed to be

gathered by writers as the very first step of writing process

Means and Lindner also stated that there are some steps in writing process.

They are deciding what to write about, planning, getting the word to flow on paper,

then continued by editing/Gathering ideas is the very first chapter which is needed to

be taken. In gathering ideas, knowing the genre is an important thing for students. It

will influence the way of obtaining their ideas and select them to fit the writing

purpose of the genre. It can be inferred, as the starting point of writing process,

getting abundance of ideas will make students easier to write their text. Furthermore,

writing in genres will be explained later on the other subchapter.

9
 Almost similar to Means and Lindner, Harmer (2004: 4-6) states four steps of

writing. They are planning, drafting, editing, and final draft. Planning means the

writer starts the writing process by selecting the theme or what the writer want to say.

This step strongly relates to the writer’s ideas in his head. They can write down their

ideas on a sheet of paper. In his explanation, Harmer noticed that writers need to

consider some aspects which is related to writing by genre. The aspects are:

1. Purpose of writing the text.

2. Audience. This aspect will differ on the language choice based on the target

readers.

3. Content structure. This aspect relates to the way of stating the ideas in good

sequence.

The next step of writing process by Harmer is drafting. Drafting means

writing the base of the writing product. This base of writing is considered to be fixed

or edited in the next step. A theme may results in some drafts which are possible to be

continued into the next step which is editing. In editing process, the author can ask

for reflection from other writers then do some revision on the writing product. This

step can be done in more than once because the correction may be various, from the

ambiguity of several words, ideas order, or in the form of vivid errors and mistakes

such as grammatical errors or mistyping.

The result of editing process is called final draft which is going to be the final

product of the whole writing process. However, steps in writing process are not

10
always in the order of planning, drafting, editing, and final drafting. Each step relates

each other in form of writing cycle as the following figure.

Figure 2.2. The process wheel of writing

From the figure above, Harmer explained that every step in the wheel can be

done in more than once. For example, after selecting the theme so that the writer

already made a draft, they may change their mind so they start from the planning

again. However, planning is still being the first step of the writing process because in

this step, ideas are obtained to be draft.

Writing activities produce writing products. To measure how good the writing

product is, Harmer (2001: 28) states that a good writing has to pass some criteria.

a. Check language use (grammar, vocabulary, linkers)

b. Check punctuation (and layout).

c. Check the spelling.

d. Check your writing for unnecessary repetition of words and/or

information.

11
 e. Decide on the information for each paragraph, and the order the

paragraphs should go in

f. Note down various ideas

g. Select the best ideas for inclusion.

h. Write a clean copy of the corrected version

i. Write out a rough version.

The measurement level can be different on some grades. Writing products in beginner

level has lower level of measurement than intermediate or advanced level.

Meanwhile, Broughton, et al. (2003: 119) stated that the good writing task

should fulfill some criteria. Firstly, it can help students to understand their composing

process. This step is very important to build students’ basic understanding in the text

that is asked to be written. Then, it also gives chance for students to discover what

they want to say as they write. In this process, the role of stimulator to expand their

ideas is very necessary. Meanwhile, one of the goals of writing program is to train

students to produce sequences of sentences which express their meaning most

effectively since writing assessment needs more natural activity with context.

Brewster, et al. (2004: 117) stated that writing activities, which are productive

activities (similar to speaking activities) have some demands which can be briefly

divided into two. Firstly, these activities are related to ‘choosing the right language’.

It covers the word selection and also grammar using. Secondly, they are related to

‘thinking and having ideas’, such as remembering, choosing, selecting, ordering,

prioritizing, and interpreting visual clues using a picture or graphic organizer.

12
 Meanwhile, Anderson (2003: 92) presents his scoring rubric of writing

product in the following table.

Table 2.1. Categories for Evaluating Writing based on Anderson (2003:92)

Scores 1 (1 – 5 2 (6 – 10 points) 3 (11 – 15 4 (16 – 20

points) points) points)
Idea and Weak Adequate Good Extensive
development development development of development development of
of topic topic, listing of of topic topic, strong
detail support of main
ideas with
details
Organization Not Sparsely Fairly well Completely
organized organized, lack organized, organized,
of sequence flow and smooth flow
sequence with strong
evident sequence
Vocabulary Poor or Fair word Good word Vivid
inappropriate choice, simple choice, imaginative
word choice words simple words word choice,
appropriate use
of vocabulary
Sentence Poor: many Fair: choppy Adequate: Excellent: no
structure errors with variety few errors errors and a
and some variety length
variety of
length
Capitalization Many errors Some errors (6 – Very few Error free
and (over 10) 10) error (1 – 5)
punctuation

b. Teaching Writing in the Junior High School

Harmer (2007: 39) stated that English is considered as foreign language in

Indonesia, so it means that the area of using this language is still limited. For

students, this language is rarely used outside their school, except in their English

13
class. Teaching English as foreign language is generally taken as a method to teach

general English in schools or institutes in their own country.

Students in 8th graders of junior high schools are considered as beginner

learners. They have been learned English for at least a year in the previous class.

After the previous year, many students will have mastered some more basic skills in

writing and should be encouraged to produce writing for a specific context but still in

the term of practicing stage. This is very important to help them produce more

writing products and practice their writing skill maximally.

Brewster, et al. (2003: 123) stated that writing assessments for students in this

stage can be done by guided copying task at the sentence level and above. The tasks

can be supported by the use of support frameworks and graphic organizers such as

pictures, written models, thick charts, flow charts, grids, and so on.

Therefore, the teacher should pay attention to the level of students in giving

writing assessments for them through these following ways, so it is suitable to the

level of students’ grade of writing.

1. He can limit the length of the written material to be produced.

2. He can increase the amount of class preparation for the task.

3. He can provide guidance on the final form of the written work, for

example with picture prompts as a result of the oral preparation.

4. He can encourage students to collaborate in the actual process of writing.

5. He can allow cross – checking between the draft stage and the writing of

the final product.

14
 6. He can limit the complexity of the writing task itself.

7. He can demand that the task be completed either slowly or quickly.

Derived from the previous statements that teacher should set the writing task

to fit students’ level, teachers can make a proper writing assessment of recount to

their students. Based on the students’ level of English mastery in 8th graders of junior

high school, the writing task should be in simple result, low word complexity, and

full teacher’s assistance.

The writing assessment for students can be done in four ways:

1. By the whole class, with the teacher or a student drafting on the blackboard.

2. In groups – each member of the group writes the agreed version sentence by

sentence.

3. In pairs – using the same method as in groups.

4. Individually, without any consultation.

c. Writing Genre Based Texts

Nation (2009: 127) stated that writing tasks can be done in several methods.

One of them is based on the types of texts. Using text types is most suited to learners

who are of at least on intermediate level. This method will help them to select deas

and information based on the topic.

There are two types of texts in Kurikulum Bahasa Inggris untuk SMP,

functional and non functional. Functional texts cover invitation, announcement,

letters, advertisements, memo, and short message. Meanwhile the non functional texts

15
for Junior High School are in the form of narrative, recount, descriptive, report, and

procedure.

Genres of texts are used to help student to produce writing products easier.

Genres of text also help students to select their topic to write and get the real example

in real life. It is important for them so learners should bring experience and

knowledge to their writing. Writing is most likely to be successful and meaningful for

the learners if they are well prepared for what they are going to write. This

preparation can be done through the choice of topic (Nation 2009: 93).

In his Journal, Ken Hyland (2003: 18) stated that genres are socially

recognized ways of using the language. Genre based text teaching involves being

explicit about how texts are grammatically patterned, but grammar is integrated into

all sentences, goal, and contexts of the text rather than taught as a ‘standing-alone’

component. Every genre, or text type, has its’ own grammatical features. For

example, recount and narrative use past tenses, descriptive and report usually use

present tenses. This helps students in some benefits. The benefits are not only to see

how grammar and vocabulary choices create meanings, but also to understand how

language itself works, acquiring a way to talk about the theme and its role in texts. By

those benefits, students will directly use the grammar in a meaningful way by

implementing it in the text. The context and the purpose of the text genre will help

them to acknowledge the language better than separating the text genre from writing

activities.

16
 Johns and Davies in Stern (1983: 220-223) (1983) described 12 topic types

which are used in making writing products. Some topics are more commonly found in

writing tasks for students. The topics are:

1. Characteristics

What are the features of the thing described?

What is the proof that some of these features exist?

What general category does this thing fit into?

What other information is there about this thing?

2. Physical structure

What are the parts?

Where are the parts located?

What are they like?

What do they do?

3. Instruction

What are the steps involved?

What materials and equipment are needed?

What do we need to be careful about at some steps?

What is the result of the steps?

What does this result show?

4. Process

What are the stages involved in the development?

What material is involved at each stage?

17
Where and when does each stage occur?

How long does each stage last?

What acts at each stage to bring about change?

What is the thing like at each stage?

What happens at each stage?

5. State/situation

Who are the people, etc. involved?

What time and place are involved?

What is the background leading up to the happening?

What happened?

What are the effects of this happening?

6. Principle

What is the law or principle involved?

Under what conditions does the principle apply?

What are some examples of the principle in action?

How can we check to see that the principle is in action?

How can we apply the principle?

7. Theory

What is the hypothesis?

What led to this hypothesis?

How is it tested?

What are the results of testing?

18
What is the significance of the results?

d. Writing Recount Texts

From the topic list in the previous explanation, a recount text has some topics

in number 5, state and situation. A recount text is considered as a genre which tells a

past experience of the writer or someone else. The topic of the texts can be holiday

experience, an unforgettable day, a journey to a place, and other topics which are in

one scope of past experience area. This text type is taught in the first semester of 8th

grader students in junior high schools.

Anderson and Anderson (1997: 39-50) stated that a recount is a piece of text

that retells past events, usually in the order in which they occurred to. Its purpose is to

provide the audience with a description of what occurred and when it occurred.

Sometimes students want to tell others about something happened in their lives or

maybe the experience from someone they knew. Speaking or writing about past

events is called a recount

Recount text is more than just arranging a sequence of events in order. There

are other writing considerations which must be counted such as the function of the

text, the structure of the text, and the language features of the text. Since the activities

and events happened in the past, it means that students need to learn about past

tenses. To join the sentences, students also need to learn about conjunctions to make

the time coherence.

19
 Priyana, et al. (2008: 69) stated that a recount text is a text which tells “what

happened”. The purpose of this text is to document a series of events and evaluate

their significance in some ways. This text is focused on a sequence of events that

relates to the occasions and also expressions of attitudes and feelings from the

characters. The characteristics of recount text can be seen in the following table.

Table 2.2. Characters of recount text by Priyana, et al. (2008)

Social function of - To documents series of events and evaluate their

recount text significance in some way.

General structure of - Orientation

recount text Providing background information needed to understand
the text, i.e. who was involved, where it happened, when
it happened.
- Series of events
A record of events usually recounted in chronological
order.
- Re-orientation
Personal comments and/or evaluate remarks on the
events.

Language feature of - Use nouns and pronouns to identify people, animals, or

recount text things involved.
- Use action verbs to refer to events.
- Use of past tenses to locate events in relation to writer’s
time.
- Use of conjunctions and time connectives to sequence the
events.
- Use of adverbs and adverbial phrases to indicate place and
time.
- Use of adjectives to describe nouns.

20
 Meanwhile, Anderson and Anderson stated that a recount text usually has

three main sections. The first paragraph gives background information about who,

what, where, and when (called as orientation). This is followed by series of

paragraphs that retell the events in the order in which they happened. Some recounts

have a concluding paragraph. However, this is not always necessary.

Recounts usually include the following grammatical features:

- Proper nouns to identify those involved in the text.

- Descriptive words to give details about who, what, when, where, and how.

- The use of the past tense to retell the events

- Words that show the order of the events (for example, first, next, then)

Table 2.3. The three-part recount scaffold by Anderson and Anderson (1997)

Step 1 Introductory paragraph that tells who, what, where, and when.

Step 2 A sequence of events in the order in which they occurred.

Step 3 A conclusion.

Table 2.4. The two-part recount by Andersen and Andersen (1997)

Step 1 Introductory paragraph that tells who, what, where, and when.

Step 2 A sequence of events in the order in which they occurred.

21
 Models of recount text that can be seen in previous tables show:

a. the first paragraph that gives background information about who, what, where,

and when. (called orientation)

b. a series of paragraphs that retell events in order in which they have already

happened. (called events)

c. a concluding paragraph that may include a personal comment. (not always

necessary. In table 1.2. called a conclusion)

2. Picture Series as Media in Teaching Recount

a. Role of Media in the EFL Teaching

Media are used in the teaching and learning process as an aid for teaching

English. Teachers usually used various kinds of media to help students in

understanding target language. It can give real example of vocabularies (noun, verb,

adjective, adverbs) and also context of the utterance that students should make.

Smaldino, et al. (2004: 9) stated that the word ‘medium’ comes from a Latin

word which means ‘between’. It means that a medium brings something to deliver

from the resource to the receiver. There is information carried by a medium so that

the receivers get something in their minds. Furthermore, media do not only merely

function as transferring information but also as a means of communication. Media

can give any information that might be needed. Media can also be a means to

communicate between or among those who use the media. Media can help people to

communicate their ideas. In the case of teaching and learning process media can be

used as a means of communication between the teacher and students.

22
b. Picture Series as Media in the Writing Process

As presented in the previous subchapter, writing process needs media that can

help students to make good writing product. Picture series can be used as media in

ELT process.

There are three major points which can be used to learn language in actuality.

The points are:

1. Enactive – learning the language by doing it,

2. Iconic – learning a language by depiction on images, and

3. Representational or symbolic that means learning by restatements in words.

By this elaboration, it can be concluded that pictures can help students to master a

target language easier (Landmarks and Horizon 2002:49). Pictures help students to

learn English in ‘iconic’ point. They can learn languages by getting depiction from

the picture given to them.

As stated in the previous subchapter, media are used for helping students in

the target language acquisition. Harmer (2004:12) stated that students, of course they

have many kinds of obstacles in learning language skills. The number of obstacles

depends on their own ability to use the target language. One of the processes in the

language acquisition is writing. In writing production, media can help students to

avoid the process trap. It is the problem of process writing that it takes time. It is

caused by over planning which can take up too much time. Picture series can help

students to plan what they want to write systematically in chronological order based

on what really happened.

23
 Meanwhile, Wright (2004: 5-7) stated that pictures can be used by students

whatever the emphasis of the syllabus they are following is. Pictures can be used as

media in English class to learn:

1. Structures.

2. Vocabulary.

3. Functions.

4. Situations

5. Skills (Speaking, listening, reading, writing)

Skills use the combination of number 1 until number 4. In this study, for example, the

skill being improved is writing. In writing class, students also learned how to use

structures, obtain vocabularies from pictures, using language function to express

experience, and understand the situation from events by looking to the pictures.

By using pictures, the teacher can apply 2 methods in his class. The first is

called ‘challenge’. Picture can be used to challenge students to predict, analyze,

deduce, differentiate, account for, interpret, evaluate, verify, and convince. These

challenges are considered flexible to be used in all skills of language. The other

method is called ‘opportunities’. It means that the teacher gives them an opportunity

to do something in a context full of encouragement and free from stress.

Pictures as media play important roles in the writing skill learning.

1. Pictures can motivate the student and make him or her want to pay attention and

want to take part. This means using pictures can gain students’ interest to the

material brought by their teacher. Motivating students will also give good result

24
 in class participation in gaining their frequency to express their ideas from

everything they can see in the pictures.

2. Pictures contribute to the context in which the language is being used. They bring

the world into the classroom (a street scene or a particular object). Pictures play

big role in supplying ideas to students mind because the world is depicted clearly

through pictures. This clear depiction brings language context to students because

they also can see the situation when the language can be use, the participants, and

also the purpose of using the utterance.

3. The pictures can be described in an objective way (‘This is a train.’) or interpreted

(It’s probably a local train.) or responded to subjectivity (I like travelling by

train.). The expansion of the ideas depends on students’ imagination and

sensitivity in observing the pictures. In describing the pictures, students can be

guided by their teacher.

4. Pictures can cue responses to questions or cue substitutions through controlled

practice. In relationship to writing skill, students need words to build a sentence,

and sentences to build a paragraph, and paragraphs to build a text. To assist

pictures, a controlled practice through guided task can be a good choice for

teacher.

5. Pictures can stimulate and provide information to be referred to in conversation,

discussion, and storytelling. Ideas in form of words can be obtained from pictures.

After students got their ideas, teacher can guide students to use their words in

form of writing product (Wright 2004: 17)..

25
 In addition, it is stated in sub chapter A.1.b point 3, pictures can be a

preparation for students to make writing products. Pictures can provide not only

vocabularies but also authentic context in which students can use it to construct their

ideas.

Pictures as media directly help students in writing by giving them

opportunities to produce their text. The opportunities given by pictures in writing are

classified by Wright (2004: 96 - 113) as the following explanation:

1. Opportunities to express their opinion. These opportunities are given to students

so they can write their ideas from the picture in the range of opinion. For

example, if objects in the pictures are jobs, students can express their ideas about

the payment of the job whether it is well paid or not, whether it is outdoor or

indoor job, and other opinion related to the job.

2. Opportunities to express experience and feelings. Pictures can be used to lure

students’ memories about past experiences and their feelings about them. The

ideas are obtained by saying what the experience is, their feeling whether it is bad

or god, and also the implication for their future after learning from past

experience.

3. Opportunities to express speculation and opinions. After seeing objects in

pictures, students can make some speculations about the information related to the

object. If the object is people, the information can be about age, family

background feeling, and other speculation about the people. When a thing is used

as an object in the picture, students can speculate about the use of the thing, the

26
 price, the belongings, and any other speculations in the range of the picture. A

teacher must not have any fixed interpretation of the pictures so that students will

have wider opportunities in speculating.

4. Opportunities to express and debate opinions. Since every student may have

different opinions toward a picture, teacher can facilitate them to conduct debate

to get ideas to write. Every student can enrich each other ideas by conducting

debates.

5. Opportunities to dramatize. Picture can show an event. Prediction on what is

going to happen after the event, the cause of the event, can be dramatized. Every

student can be given opportunities to predict it based on their ability to dramatize

the event to gather their ideas.

Stern (1983: 467-468) stated that using picture series as media is also included

to audiovisual teaching method which has already started since 1961. In this method,

picture series (visual image) and spoken utterance (from teacher’s explanation)

complement each other and constitute jointly a semantic unit which can be used to

write a text. By using picture series as media, the visual presentation from them is

used to stimulate the social context in which language is used. So we can also

conclude that the visual presentation in the form of picture series can stimulate

student’s idea to write texts.

C. Review of Relevant Studies

1. A thesis by Anisatul Karimah ‘Using Picture Series to Improve The Eleventh

Grader Students’ Ability to Write Recount Texts at SMK Abdi Negara Muntilan’

27
 shows that picture series can be good media to use in ELT process. From the

result of the research, students can elevate their ability in making recount text

when using picture series as media.

2. A thesis by Lesna Henry Mia Kadoate ‘Improving Students Skills of Writing

Recent Texts by Using Picture Series for The Eight Grade Students in SMP 1

Seyegan’. The result showed that there was an improvement because of the

media.

3. A thesis by Siti Nurjanah ‘Improving Writing Skills of Tenth Grade Students of

SMA N 1 Prambanan by Using Picture Series’. From the result of the research,

picture media can improve student’s writing skill.

3. Conceptual Framework

The concepts of using picture series technique to improve students’ writing

skills have been explored in the previous section. In this section, a conceptual

framework derived from those concepts will be presented.

Writing is a written product of thinking, drafting, and revising that requires

specialized skills on how to generate ideas, how to organize them coherently, how to

use discourse markers and rhetorical conventions to put them cohesively into a

written text, how to revise the text for clearer meaning, how to edit the text for

appropriate grammar, and how to produce a final product. That is why writing is

considered as one of the most difficult productive skills that require specialized skills

because we need some process in writing.

28
 In fact, based on the observation at SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok, there were

some problems that are found in writing skills. The first one was about expressing

ideas. The students at SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok had difficulties to express their

ideas in writing something. The second one was about vocabulary. The students at

SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok had limited vocabulary. That was why they got

difficulties to express their ideas in writing. It was not surprising if the students found

difficulties in mastering the writing skill. Teachers should find the effective ways of

teaching writing.

Therefore, using series of pictures was a good technique that can be used to

teach writing at SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok especially in class VIII C. The use of

the series of pictures was expected to help the students express and organize their

ideas into a good text. Besides, it was also expected that using series of pictures in the

teaching-learning process could make the students comfortable to learn writing, and it

did not spend a lot of time to work on it. The implementation of an appropriate

teaching technique was very essential in determining the success of the teaching-

learning process. In this case, using series of pictures could make the students arrange

a text easily.

29
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODS

A. Research Design

This research was action research. Taylor (2000: 12) stated that it means the

research was done in a collection of problem-solving cycles for improvement. The

action in the English classroom activity was done by using series of pictures as

media. It was done by carefully collecting data to diagnose problems, searching for

solutions, taking actions on promising possibilities and monitoring whether and how

well the action worked

Techniques to get the data in action research were generally qualitative. It is

because the main goal of this study was to investigate practice critically and to work

towards changing it within the context of situation of the teaching situation. It did not

mean that quantitative doesn’t give any relevant result to the research. In some terms,

quantitative data would be used to complement or extend the findings of action

research (Burns, 1999: 78).

The research was done in cycles by some steps in every cycle. Kemmis and

Mc Taggart state that there are the four steps in action research. They are planning,

action, observation, and reflection. According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988), the

action research was conducted through the process below

30
 Figure 3.1. The cycle of action research.

In this scheme, the researcher identified some problems, formulated possible

solutions, implemented the actions, and reflected on the outcome of the action. These

steps were done in two cycles in order to find the convincing result.

Kuhne and Quigley (1997) stated that there are three phases in the action

research with some steps in each phase.

Table 3.1. Action research by Kuhne and Quigley (1997)

1. Planning Phase 1.1 Understanding the problem

1.2 Defining the project
1.3 Determining the measures

2. Action Phase 2.1 Implementing an action and observing

the result

3. Reflection Phase 3.1 Evaluating result

3.2 Reflecting on project

31
 This study was using observational action research technique. It means

that in the research, researcher did the observation as the mainstay of the action

research. It enables researcher to document and report all classrooms activities and

events as they really occurred in fact rather than as we think they occurred (Burns

1999: 80). And also in the process, the researcher would use a collaborator who was

the English teacher of the class.

B. Setting of the Research

The setting of the research was SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok, Yogyakarta.

However, this school was different by state school because they have more lessons

than state schools do. This condition happened because there were some Islam

lessons which were taught to students. The other difference in this school was all

female students have to use hijab (veil). The classroom activities were started by

praying in Islamic way. This school was also a full day school so the school period

was started on 7.15 a.m. and ends on 3.15 p.m.

The amount of students in each class was 34 until 37. The class arrangement

was in basic pair work setting class. There were tables with two chairs each. Boys sat

with boys so did the girls. There was a big whiteboard in each class. LCD projector

was also available but not in every class.

The writing skill teaching and learning process was done by explaining

materials, and assessments were given by doing grammar exercise and making

writing products based on the theme and text genres in each chapter. The teacher took

32
the task from textbook. Most of the tasks were in the form of close test, arranging

sentences or paragraph, and thematic free writing. Beside of textbooks, the teacher

also gave writing task by LKS. The writing assessments were done in school and also

taken to be homework. English lesson got 5 lesson hours in a week. The duration of

the lesson hour was 40 minutes.

C. The Subject of the Research

The subject of the research was 8th graders. The teacher recommended 8 C as

the subject. The population of this class consisted of 20 male students and 17 females.

The teacher was Mr. Dwi Yulianto, S.Pd.

From the observation, the researcher could get some information of field

condition. Students had low level of English and they were not used to English class

situation. The explanation should be repeated in Bahasa Indonesia. Students also had

low motivation in the English class. They gave little attention to their teacher while

he was explaining the material. Most of them also did not provide themselves with

dictionary although their vocabulary mastery level is still very low.

D. Data Collection Techniques

The data collection technique was done in 2 ways, test and non-test. So there

would be 2 types of data, qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data was

possessed from several tests. Meanwhile, the qualitative data was derived from non-

test approach by doing guided interviews to students and teacher.

33
 The tests were done several times, pre-test, at the end of cycle 1, at the end of

cycle 2, and post-test. Student marks were quantitative data which were going to be

used to complement the qualitative data from the interviews.

E. Instruments

Doing action research means researcher needed some instruments from the

research. There were some instruments used, observation sheet and interview

guideline. The researcher also planned to take field notes and pictures of the research.

F. Procedure of the Research

This research was done by doing observation in the very first step. By doing

observation, the researcher could plan the action that would be done in the research. It

included gathering information about students, problem in class, school information,

and planning the action with classroom teacher.

The next step was doing pre test to measure the level of students writing

product from their score. After knowing their level, the researcher would start cycle 1

by planning action that is going to be done in the class. After making the lesson plan,

the material, and media, the researcher did the action by implementing the planned

action. After doing the action, the researcher would do observation towards the action

by doing interview to students. After doing observation in the action phase, the

researcher continued cycle one by doing test as the reflection phase. After doing the

34
test, researcher would do observation again by doing interview to students as the

ending the cycle 1.

After students had finished with the cycle 1, the researcher would prepare to

do cycle 2 with same phases that held in cycle 1. The data withdrawn from both

cycles would be analyzed to get the conclusion.

G. Data Analysis Technique

The data were analyzed from the field notes, questionnaires, and the interview

transcripts collected during the research. The data were analyzed based on the

following steps of the research:

1. Determining the Thematic Concern-Reconnaissance

To explore and find out information about the real situation of the teaching

and learning process, the researcher did the reconnaissance step on October, 2013. In

the reconnaissance step, some activities were conducted. The activities were

observing the teaching and learning process, interviewing some students of VIII C

and the English teacher, and having discussion with the English teacher as the

collaborator.

Based on the observations, the interview, and the discussions, the existing

problems were classified. The problem in the research was the low writing skill

affected by the writing blocks. The writing blocks are caused by low mastery from

students about basic information .of recount text. They also found some problems in

gathering ideas because there was no media used in the writing assignment from their

35
teacher. They also had low number of vocabulary so that they could not write

adequate number of sentences to make a complete recount text. Another problem was

they had some obstacles in arranging their ideas chronologically.

2. Planning

Together with the English teacher, the researcher designed some plans to be

implemented in the action research. In this step, some techniques that were

considered suitable to be implemented in improving students’ writing skill were

selected. The actions planned to be carried out are as follows:

a. Using picture series as media for students to write recount text.

b. Building better comprehension on recount text for students in VIII C so that they

can make their recount text better.

c. Creating students eagerness in doing English writing assessments.

d. Giving rewards to the active students

3. Action and Observation

The action plans agreed by the involved members of the research were

implemented. They were implemented in two cycles. Before the cycles were

conducted, the researcher gave a pre test to the students to understand the students’

writing skill. After the cycles were conducted, the researcher gave a post test to the

students to measure the enhancement of students’ writing skill. The text type that

would be used in the English teaching and learning process was recount text.

36
Together with the English teacher as the collaborator, the researcher would observe

and record the students’ reactions during the activities and did the interview with

some students of VIII C class after the English lesson. Based on the observation, field

notes, and interview, the involved members discussed the implemented actions and

analyzed the result.

4. Reflection

The reflection would be done every time after the implementation of the

actions. The successful actions would be continued in the next teaching and learning

process, but the unsuccessful actions were modified into the ones that were more

suitable.

37
 CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH FINDINGS

This chapter presents the result of the research which has been done. All of

findings from the research are reported in this chapter by concluding them into 3

parts. The first one is the sharpening of the problems, then the implementation of

actions and discussions, and the last is the result of the speaking test. In this chapter,

researcher is going to explain how using picture series improved the students writing

skill.

A. The Sharpening of Problems

The research was done by following the concept of Action Research by

Kemmis and Mc. Taggart. Since this research was an observational action research, it

was started by an observation to gather field problems.

1. Reconnaisance

The researcher conducted an observation on Wednesday, 23rd of October

2013. He came to the 8C class. The observation was held to get the real condition so

that the researcher could get information about problems which happened in the class

especially in writing recount text. The observation was held by monitoring the

teaching and learning activities conducted by the English teacher. The researcher also

interviewed some students and the English teacher to collect problems from the real

condition of the class. Problems found from the observation can be seen in the next

table.

38
2. Identification of Field Problems

After conducting observation by analyzing the teaching and learning process

in the classroom and also doing interview to students and the English teacher, the

researcher could identify some problems which occurred in recount text writing in

VIII C class of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok. Some of the problems were caused by

students, else were from the teacher. To make them easier to be analyzed, the

researcher wrote them in a table.

Table 4.1. Problems found after observation

Problems found during the teaching and learning process:

NO. PROBLEMS FOUND INDICATORS

1. Students paid less attention to - About 10 students kept talking when the
teacher’s explanation. teacher was explaining.
- 4 students did another subjects’
homework.

2. Students had low mastery in - almost all students kept on asking the
vocabulary. teacher for translation while doing task.
- While making writing product, they
could not say their ideas in English.
- Students always asked to the teacher for
word translation.

3. Students were not got used to - The teacher should translate his
English classroom. explanation to Bahasa Indonesia every
time he finished a sentence.
- Students used 100% Bahasa Indonesia
or Javanese to do communication to
their friends in English class.
- Students only understood very simple
command such as ‘sit down, please’ and
‘please open your book page 29’.
(continued)

39
 (continued)

4. Students had low - They were late to come to the class.

motivation in English - They did not try to speak in English although
class. the teacher told them to do so.
- Only about 5 students brought dictionary
although they had very limited vocabulary.

5. Students could not build - They spent around more than 20 minutes to
their ideas to write in gather the ideas for simple writing product.
English. - They kept on asking to ET what else they
should write in their text, or asking to their
friend.
- Some of them did not write anything after
spending almost 20 minutes to write a recount
text.
- Students could not imagine how an event in
their experience occur, the situation of the
place, the detail information from their
experience such as things they could see when
they were doing the activities in their
experience.

6. The writing task had low - The teacher rarely used media to teach writing.
variation. - Students think that the writing task is
uninteresting.
- Mostly teacher took the writing tasks only from
LKS or text book which made students bored
because the command was only ‘please write
your own recount text’

7. Students could not use - All students did not know how to use verb in
simple past tense simple past tense.
properly. - Students have very limited memory of past
verbs.
- They use V-ing in simple past tense as the
main verb.
- Students made incomplete sentences. many
times they only used adverb of place as on
sentence.

(continued)

40
 (continued)

8. Students did not get used of using - They did not use any conjunction
conjunctions. except ‘and’.
- They could not make any
chronological order by using
conjunctions to show time order.

9. Some students were not familiar to - Those especially who kept on talking
recount text. did not know what recount text is, the
purpose, and the generic structure.
- They only said that recount text is only
about holiday.
- They did not know that recount text
also could be used to tell someone’s
interesting experience, whether it is
good, bad, mysterious, or funny
experience

10. Students did not practice their - Although teacher had already given
writing skill enough. them writing task, they did it 5 until 10
minutes before the due time.
- They did the homework just right
before the class started.
- Writing tasks should be given
minimum amount of sentences unless
students will make it very short.

From the table, we can see many problems which happened in the teaching

and learning activities, especially during teaching recount. The problems in the class

were varied and caused by many reasons such as uninteresting writing task, low

motivation and attention from students, and also the lack of knowledge of the target

text. In this research, the researcher had selected some problems which were crucial

and had relationship to the writing of recount. The selected problems can be seen in

t6he following table.

41
 Table 4.2 Problems found related to writing skill

NO. PROBLEMS FOUND INDICATORS

1. Students had low mastery in - Almost all students kept on asking the
vocabulary. teacher for translation while doing task.
- While making writing product, they could
not say their ideas in English.
- Students always asked to the teacher for
word translation.
2. Students could not build their - They spent more than 20 minutes to
ideas to write in English. gather the ideas for simple writing
product.
- They kept on asking to ET what else they
should write in their text, or asking to
their friend.
- Some of them did not write anything after
spending almost 20 minutes to write a
recount text.
- Students could not imagine how an event
in their experience occur, the situation of
the place, the detail information from
their experience such as things they could
see when they were doing the activities in
their experience.
3. The writing task had low - The teacher rarely used media to teach
variation. writing.
- Students think that the writing task is
uninteresting.
- Mostly teacher took the writing tasks
only from LKS or text book which made
students bored because the command was
only ‘please write your own recount text’
4. Some students were not - Those especially who kept on talking did
familiar to recount text. not know what recount text is, the
purpose, and the generic structure.
- They only said that recount text is only
about holiday.
- They did not know that recount text also
could be used to tell someone’s
interesting experience, whether it is good,
bad, mysterious, or funny experience

42
3. Research Problems

After doing the observation, the researcher and the English teacher did a

discussion to solve the problem which had been found in the class. Problems related

to writing skill are selected to be solved in the research. Students in VIII C of SMP

Muhammadiyah 3 Depok tended to have problems in writing recount text. This

condition can be seen from some conditions in the class which showed some causes

that proved.

The difficulty in gathering ideas was one of the proofs. Students needed more

than 20 minutes to gather their ideas in simple writing assessment. This weakness

blocked students to work on their assessment so they chose to stop writing then

chatted to their friends. Boundaries in gathering ideas are about no aids in building

the idea, the incomplete memory of details about their experience, and also their

idleness to browse ideas by maximizing their ability. If they could not tell their own

experience, they were already permitted to tell about their friend’s experience. In fact,

this chance did not give better condition. Most of students just stopped writing

whenever they already spent their ideas in one simple paragraph consisted of 3 to 4

short sentences. Those who could build moderate ideas were stuck because of the

next problem was about vocabularies.

Not only in students with less effort in gathering ideas, but also in those who

had worked hard in collecting their piles of experience memories, the low mastery in

vocabulary also hindered students to write their recount text. They kept on asking to

their teacher for the translation. In fact, this problem could be anticipated by

43
consulting to dictionary. Unfortunately, they did not provide themselves with

dictionary because they motivation in English class tended to be low. They were also

reluctant to memorize every single word that mentioned by their teacher. In this case,

the media which can bridge their lack in vocabularies and getting new words without

too much consulting to their dictionary are needed.

Other problem was students were not interested in the type of writing

assignment given by their teacher. From the interview to students, this phenomenon

happened because of the less variation of writing assessments given to them, which

did not provide them with media to guide writing their text. Their teacher only asked

them to do some writing assessments that were taken from some text books or

students work sheet with no existence of media or anything that could help students

to make their writing products, instead of very simple command like ‘please make a

recount text based on your experience’.

Students also did not master the recount text well. It can be seen when they

were interviewed, they said wrong explanation about the writing purpose, generic

structure, and also language feature of the recount text. Students in 8 C class of SMP

Muhammadiyah 3 Depok said in the interview that recount text was only used to

retell someone’s holiday experience. This incomplete understanding about the writing

purpose limited their ideas to be written. This was an obstacle for those who did not

have something interesting during their past holiday. In fact, the purpose of writing

recount text did not stop in the topic about holiday but other past experience.

44
 Not only the purpose of writing this text, students also did not understand well

the generic structure of recount text. They did not know even how to start writing a

recount text, moreover, to continue to write longer recount text. In the interview, they

could not mention the parts of recount text. Having no understanding in the parts in

the text, of course they did not know the function of each part. This affected their

writing ability because if they did not understand the function of every part in the

recount text they would get confused in gathering the idea and expressed them in a

writing product. This, of course, made them to keep on asking ‘What should I write

after this?’.

4. Determining Actions to Solve Field Problems

From the selected problems related to the writing of recount text, the

researcher simplified the founding in some classifications.

1. Students got some problems in gathering and constructing their ideas.

2. Students had low mastery in vocabularies.

3. Students got low variation in writing assessments and media to support making it.

4. Students did not master the recount text well enough.

After making the list of problems, the researcher and the teacher discussed

about the plan. The result from observation showed that student’s problems in writing

skill needed to be solved by doing some actions. Considering the low variety of the

writing assessments from the English teacher and the lack of media involved in the

process, the researcher offered a solution to use series of pictures to help students to

gather and construct their ideas in the same time.

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 Series of pictures are made of some photographs which are taken from real

experiences of some people. By using photographs from real characters and places,

researcher expected that students could get real example from real objects so that they

could get more ideas better than using comic strips or handmade cartoon pictures.

Photographs are expected to give clearer condition and better detailed information to

be the source of student’s idea.

The obstacle in gathering ideas is expected to be solved by providing students

a clear example of what characters in the picture did in their past activities. In each

picture, students could see characters, places, tools, events, which they could set them

as nouns in writing their own text. They also could enrich their ideas by paying

attention to the time which could be seen in the picture and also the feeling of the

characters about their experience. Those two items could be used to add some

adverbs of time and adjectives to the writing products. Verbs to make the sentences

also could be taken by looking to what the characters did in the pictures.

Other result from the observation, which implied that students had difficulties

in knowing the parts of recount text, was tried to be solved by explaining the parts

using pictures that showed the information that was written in the text. Each part of

recount text, for example the orientation, would be explained well through a

photograph that was going to present characters in that text, where they were, what

occasion they were in, when they had the events, and so on. Next, for the events part,

students were going to be given some pictures which would provide them with real

activities done by characters in the text, what they did, what happened along the

46
events, where they got the events, and all of these events would be set

chronologically as they really happened at the previous time. After that, the last

optional part of this text that we can call it ‘the conclusion’ was also going to be

presented even though the existence of this part was not a must. The picture which

was going to be the media for this past would show how the characters felt about their

experience.

So after the actions ended, the researcher expected that students will get into

these conditions.

1. Students found no problem in gathering and constructing their ideas.

2. Students had adequate vocabularies to write their recount text.

3. Students got new variation in writing assessments and media to support

making it.

4. Students sufficiently mastered the recount text.

5. Action Plans

After determining actions to solve student’s problems in writing the recount,

the researcher planned some steps to be done to the class. As the first measurement of

student’s writing skill, a pretest would be conducted first. The score from this text

was going to be used to monitor students’ improvement after the actions ended. The

researcher also could get more information about student’s ability and potency or

problems thoroughly.

47
 After having finished with the pretest, the researcher would continue to the

next steps. Firstly, the researcher started his next steps by making a course grid. It

used to list the basic competence, learning objectives, assessments, and also media

that were going to be used along the action.

Having finished with the course grid, the researcher considered that actions to

this class would be done in 2 cycles. There were two topics selected in writing the

recount text. The first topic was about holiday experience. The second topic is about

someone’s unlucky experience. This action was expected to give better understanding

for students that a recount text could be used to write not only about their holiday or

good experience, but also their unlucky day or bad experience.

Every topic would be delivered in one cycle. In every cycle there would be

two meetings which that meant there would be four meetings for all cycles. The

researcher then continued to prepare the lesson plan for every meeting with different

objectives in each meeting. The first meeting in every cycle had a main objective to

introduce the topic of the recount text to the students. They were also introduced to

new vocabularies which were going to be used in the upcoming task. The generic

structure, purpose of writing, language features of the text would be also explained

during the first meeting.

Carrying on the first meeting, the second meeting in every cycle was set to let

students to write their recount text through series of pictures. These pictures are

expected to answer their problems in gathering and constructing their ideas. There

48
were also some questions under each picture to stimulate their ideas about the picture.

After that, students are expected to combine their ideas to be a whole recount text.

As the action research method by Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1998), each

action taken should be followed by interview to students. So the researcher also

planned to do interviews to some students

B. The Implementation of Actions and Discussions

1. The Report of Cycle 1

a. Plans for cycle 1

Cycle 1 of the action was started by conducting a pretest for students in 8C

class. Here, they were given an order to write a recount text based on their

experience. The researcher and the English teacher already planned that there would

not be any assistance in the pretest because it was very important to measure how far

their ability in writing recount text.

Students are given 30 minutes to write their own recount text. Unfortunately,

their result on the pretest showed writing products which were in very low level.

Some students even wrote only three sentences.

Based on the result from the pretest, the researcher was going to set some

actions to be done in the first cycle. The actions were:

1. Students were given better enlightenment on recount text about the purpose of

writing, generic structure, and language features.

2. A new variation in writing assessment with series of pictures as media would be

given to students.

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3. Vocabularies would be introduced and comprehended through pictures.

4. Maximize student’s idea using pictures and constructing them to induce better

recount text.

In this first cycle, the researcher already prepared two texts about holiday. The

first recount text was a text entitled ‘Cave Tubing in Pindul Cave’ which took a

holiday experience from some ladies who had their holiday in Wonosari. The first

text was going to be used as a model to build student’s comprehension in recount

text. The text had a medium word variation density to introduce students to new

vocabularies. In the text, there are some pictures which showed the characters, places,

and activities during the holiday. Every part of the recount text structure was also

going to be explained by the pictures. So that students could memorize the structure

better because they could see the ‘real’ example by taking a look to the pictures.

There were also some comprehension questions to stimulate student’s understanding

in every detail from information of the text so that they could use the text as the role

model for their upcoming task. Here, the researcher also expected that students might

get as much information as they could by using pictures given, so they would be able

to use picture series as source of ideas.

Having finished by the first meeting, the second text was going to be used as

the writing task for students. In this meeting, students would get a new series of

pictures that showed another holiday trip which was done by same characters as the

first meeting but in different places. The task in second meeting was designed to be a

writing assessment assisted by a series of pictures which provided students with much

50
information and many details, which could be easily taken by looking at the pictures.

The series of pictures provided nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs which students

needed to create a recount text. Here, the better they maximized their ideas, the better

text they would produce.

Again, pictures were set chronologically based on how it had happened and

followed the structure of recount text so students who had been taught by the function

of every part in the recount text would recognize what they should write by paying

attention to the picture order. This was important to avoid them of kept on

questioning ‘What should I write after this?’. Assistance from the researcher who

took part as a teacher in the action was still needed but it was limited until the level of

facilitator and instructor only.

Based on the explanation above, the implementation of the actions in the class

would be done in the following ways:

1. Students were given better enlightenment on recount text about the purpose of

writing, generic structure, and language features.

This action would be done by giving students the text entitled ‘Cave Tubing

in Pindul Cave’. The text was prepared to be completed with pictures and explanation

about the purpose of writing, the generic structure, and some language features of

recount text. As mentioned before, the generic structure would be explained

thoroughly by using picture series. So, students would not only memorize the

information by listening to the researcher’s explanation, but also by using pictures to

see that every part of the text had different functions.

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2. A new variation in writing assessment with series of pictures as media would be

given to students.

Based on the interview transcript during the observation, the interviewed

students showed less eagerness in the writing tasks because of the monotonous

writing assessments from their teacher. This problem was showed in this following

interview :

R : Tadi kalian bilang kalau kalian bosen dengan tugas writing. Memang
apa yang membuat kalian bosen? You have mentioned that you felt bored
with the writing assessments from your English teacher. So what was
actually the thing that made you bored?
S 1 : Ya habis gitu – gitu thok. Paling ya tugas dari LKS kalo nggak ya buku
paket. They were just so so. They would only tasks from the students
worksheet or English student’s book.
S 2 : Ntar kalo nggak selesai, buat PR. Ya udah. gitu aja. Later if it had not
been finished yet, we would do that for our homework. That was all.
(Interview 1, Question 5)

By doing this step, students would not receive an assessment with only

‘Please write your own recount text about your or someone’s experience!’. They

would be supported by interesting photographs from real experience of the characters.

Some guiding questions were also set to assist them in making the whole text.

3. Vocabularies would be introduced and comprehended through pictures.

This plan was set to solve the obstacle of vocabularies which occurred

whenever students of 8C wanted to create their writing products. Most of them did

not provide themselves with dictionary because of the size and the weight. This

obstacle could be implied from the following interview.

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 R : Tadi juga kalian sempet bilang kalau banyak yang nggak tahu bahasa
Inggrisnya. Kalian nggak punya kamus? You have said that you did not
know the English words (of many Indonesian words). Don’t you have any
dictionary with you?
S 1 : Ada Mister, tapi nggak bawa. Berat soalnya. I have it but I did not
bring it. It’s too heavy.
S 2 : Aku bawa Mister. Tapi tadi dipinjem sama temen. I bring it. But it was
borrowed by my classmate.
(Interview 1, Question 6)

As mentioned before, details from real photographs would be really helpful

for students to grab many new vocabularies. Firstly they probably needed to consult

to their dictionary but here pictures would help them by providing a real image. They

would not only memorize it but also comprehend it well.

If students were stimulated to be responsive to what they saw in the

pictures, they would get more new vocabularies. So, the researcher also expected that

pictures would introduce a lot of new words to students.

4. Maximizing student’s ideas using pictures and constructing them to induce better

recount text.

The previous explanation already mentioned that ideas from students would

be lured by series of pictures. For example, from a picture, students could get some

ideas about characters, place, time, occasion, weather, and so many others depended

on their finding. In the other picture, they would get activities done by the characters

in the text, and in the last picture students would also see the comment of the

characters about their experience in the holiday.

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 To construct their ideas to be a recount text which had correct order, the

series of pictures were set based on the generic structure of recount text. What

students needed to do was only expanding their ideas then joined them with

appropriate conjunctions.

b. Actions and Observations in Cycle 1

The cycle 1 was started by doing pretest then continued with two meetings for

implementing the actions. The pretest was done on 23rd of October 2013 at 3rd lesson

hour on 08.50 – 09.30 a.m. This pretest was conducted to measure students writing

skill in some criteria such as ideas density in term of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and

adverbs, the amount of sentences, and the grammar appropriateness. Then it was

continued by two meetings which were held on Tuesday, 29th of October 2013 at 1st –

2nd lesson hour on 07.30 – 08.50 a.m. and on Wednesday, 30th of October 2014 at 4th

– 5th lesson hour on 09.45 – 11.05 a.m.

Actions in the classroom were taken by following the plans which had been

set before. Based on the observation, the researcher had already known that the

students got explanation of the recount text from their previous meeting with the

English teacher. Since the explanation did not result in maximum comprehension to

students, the researche decided to repeat it from the beginning.

All actions in the classroom will be reported in the following points.

1. Students were given better enlightenment on recount text about the purpose of

writing, generic structure, and language features.

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 This plan was taken mostly in the first meeting. Before using the new text, the

researcher did a warming up session by getting students interest about the recount

text by asking them some oral questions related to their holiday. The researcher

needed to know how well they mention their activities in holiday, and also some

details about what they saw in their holiday. Unfortunately, they could not answer the

researcher’s questions without any translation given to them.

When the bell rang ET and R went to the class. ET set his position behind the
class. Unlike the previous meeting R opened the class by asking the class
captain to lead the prayer. Then R checked the attendance. No one was absent
that day. R continued by doing BKOF step, by asking ‘Class, I want to know
about your holiday. Ryandika, where did you go last holiday?’. Then S
(Ryandika) answered ‘What Mis?’. One of his friends helped him to translate
R’s question. ‘Oh, go to Parangtritis! Yes. And Pantai Depok’. ‘What did you
do there?’ ‘What Mis??’ ‘Kamu di sana ngapain aja, and don’t call me Miss.
Call me Mister Popo. Okay?’ ‘Oh okay Mister Popo, I eating fish sama father
and mother’ ‘Okay… I see. Thank you Ryandika. Very nice answer!’ R then
continued to ask some other Ss about their holiday. But for the next 2 Ss, still
no one can answer R’s questions without translation.
(Field note 3)

In the step of BKOF, the researcher also tried to give warming up about

student’s knowledge in the recount text. The questions are in the range of the function

recount text, the generic structure, and the language features of the text.

Unfortunately no one of the students gave any answer.

R continued the warming up session by asking ‘Do you know what is recount
text? Apa sih recount text itu?’. The class remained silent. Then R took the
attendance list then called two of Ss. Both of them answered the same that a
recount text is a text to tell about holiday. R then asked Ss about the parts of
recount text. No one of Ss gave an answer.
(Field note 3)

55
 After conducting a warming up session with the students, the researcher

continued to explain the purpose of writing, generic structure, and language features

of recount text by giving them a model of the text. The researcher already prepared a

text entitled “Cave Tubing in Pindul Cave” on a handout to be discussed with the

students. This text was used to be the role model of the text.

After each student got the text, the researcher continued the class by asking

the students to read the text. However in this step, students did many times of

misspelling while the researcher asked them to read the text loudly. Nonetheless the

researcher did not spend many times in this problem since it did not relate to the

writing skill.

Through the new model text, students got explanation on every single part of

recount text. It was really important to enable them to gather their ideas. This step

was conducted by explaining the detail of every part in the text. By explaining every

single detail of the parts students could find the information that they needed in a part

of recount. This was important so students could easily find out the ideas that fit to

the part while they were making their own text. For example, the researcher explained

that recount text had three parts. They were orientation, events, and re-orientation.

After explaining the parts of recount text, the researcher also defined the roles of each

part in building the whole text.

After that, R explained generic structure of recount text by using the picture
series. R concluded the pictures based on the information which could be
derived from every picture. After that, R also explained the function of every
part in recount text by using the picture series. Unfortunately, some Ss kept on
talking while R was explaining the material. (Field note 3)

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 Firstly, the researcher explained the orientation. Researcher explained that as

the opening of the text, this part was used to tell the readers about the characters

involved in the text, the general setting of the place, and the general activities that

was done in the past experience. While explaining the orientation, the researcher said

that students were asked to memorize that this part was the opening of their text; so in

the upcoming tasks, they can start their text by writing the characters involved, the

main activity in their experience, the time, and the place if necessary.

Then the researcher continued to definite the next part, events. After

explaining the meaning of the sentences in this part, the researcher explained that the

function of this part was to retell the happenings which were done by the characters in

the text during their experience. By using model text as the example, students were

defined that the events were written in the chronological order as they had happened.

New nouns such as places might appear in this part. Students also learned how to use

conjunctions to join the sentences. Also here in this part, the researcher explained that

students needed to write what they had done in their experience. They could mention

the detail of the activities, such as what they did firstly in their experience, activities

in the following day, etc.

Having finished with events, the researcher continued the process by

explaining the last part of recount text, reorientation. Although this part was not

compulsory, the researcher decided to complete the model text with this part because

it was considered to be an important thing for students to get a fully completed text so

they could produce a new text with the reorientation. The researcher then explained

57
the function of this last part which was to show the personal feeling or comment from

the characters towards their experience. In the first cycle, the researcher used a model

text using holiday as the theme to show a happy feeling from the characters about

their holiday. Students were also exemplified how to write their happy feeling about

their good experience. This would be used in the step of making the writing product.

2. A new variation in writing assessment with series of pictures as media would be

given to students.

Previously, students in 8C of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok practiced their

writing skill through some writing tasks from the English teacher which were derived

from Students worksheets or English student’s books. In the writing assessment from

the researcher, he provided the task with pictures which explained the story board of

the text.

The assessment type was a semi-guided writing task which provided some

pictures and some questions related to the pictures. The questions stimulated students

to make their own sentences and create their own text.

3. Vocabularies would be introduced and comprehended through pictures.

Considering that the weakness in making the writing product was the very low

mastery of vocabularies among the students, the researcher tried to solve this barrier

by providing them with enrichment in vocabularies by taking the advantages of using

pictures.

This step was taken in the both in the first and the second meeting. After

handing the students with the handouts, the researcher asked students to do a brief

58
overview to the picture series on the handouts. After that, the researcher asked the

students to analyze the pictures and mentioned what they could see in the pictures. By

oral questions and written questions under each picture, the researcher tried to lure

the vocabularies which appeared in the text and also could be used in the text

producing step.

Having finished reading the text, R asked Ss to take a look to series of

pictures at the next page. R asked Ss to fill in the blanks under the pictures
about what they saw in each picture. R guided Ss to fill the blanks by asking
them to get the vocabularies in the text.
(Field note 3)

Students were trying to guess in English about the things that they could see

in the pictures. While doing this, the researcher asked the students to consult their

dictionary.

R observed Ss by walking around the class. Most of them got enough ideas to
write the text. Almost all Ss asked R about the translation but R persuade
them to use the dictionary and discuss the words and ideas to their partner.
The situation on the class became so noisy so that R should go around the
class to supervise Ss to write their text. More than half of the class got
troubles in subject and verb arrangement. Ss used verb1 or V-ing to write the
text. They also wrote all subjects together with to be. (they wrote ‘She is take
photo.’ instead of ‘She took a photo.’. R explained again how to use past
tenses and reminded Ss many times to use past verbs.
(Field note 4)

Combining the use of pictures and direct translation from the dictionary, the

researcher expected that the students were able not only to know the meaning of the

words, but also to comprehend it well.

4. Maximizing student’s idea using pictures and constructing them to induce better

recount text.

59
 This step was taken in the second meeting. After the students had already got

the understanding from each part of the recount text in the first meeting, they started

to make their own recount text. The researcher gave new handouts of writing

assessment with pictures series inside. The picture series showed a trip to Borobudur

temple.

In the previous point, it was stated that the researcher tried to lure new

vocabularies from students by asking them to pay attention to the picture series given.

The picture series were also directly used to gather their ideas.

R gave the second worksheet with some pictures to make a recount text
entitled ‘A Trip to Borobudur Temple’. R asked Ss to use the pictures and
some guiding questions under the pictures to help them in gathering ideas. R
also asked Ss to pay attention really carefully so they could get as many ideas
as the picture could provide them. R also stimulated Ss ideas by giving oral
questions so Ss could be more sensitive to the details in the picture series.
(Field note 4)

The assessment, as stated in point number 2, contained some questions under

each picture. The questions here are only used to stimulate student’s idea (not to limit

their imagination towards the pictures). This step also used as the follow up and

correlation from the previous point about vocabularies.

The ideas were drawn from the pictures given and also the previous

explanation about parts of recount text. The explanation about parts of the text also

helped students to construct their ideas as shown in the following field note.

Ss got some difficulties to guess the time in the pictures. They still had many
questions about what time the activity happened. They got many ideas from
the pictures but they could not write them in English. The process of gathering
ideas was monitored to be easier than without using pictures. Ss discussed the
pictures each other to get more vocabularies or just cross checking their ideas.

60
 R asked Ss to remember the generic structure of recount text to help them
worked with the picture series.
(Field note 4)

After they wrote down their ideas on the paper in the form of phrases and

words, the researcher asked them to make sentences based on the ideas they gathered.

The class was monitored to be well conditioned because students were already guided

by pictures and questions under them. Sometimes noises happened but there were

some discussions among students.

However, this step still found some obstacles. Students got some difficulties

in determining the adverb of time, and also they did not use the sentence connectors

to show the chronology of the events. The researcher then watched over the students

to give some consultation.

Ss got some difficulties to guess the time in the pictures. They still had many
questions about what time the activity happened. The process of gathering
ideas was monitored to be easier than without using pictures. Ss discussed the
pictures each other to get more vocabularies or just cross checking their ideas.
R asked Ss to remember the generic structure of recount text to help them
worked with the picture series.
After Ss already wrote their ideas, R asked them to join the sentences by using
conjunctions. Ss started to work by using conjunctions. All of instructions
from R should be translated or Ss would not understand them. Ss started to
join their ideas. R reminded Ss to use various conjunctions to prevent them of
using only one conjunction.
(Field note 4)

The result of all the steps taken was a new recount text from students. The

length of the text was about 9 to 11 sentences. The researcher did not ask students to

make it into certain number of paragraphs. They only needed to write their own text

as good as they could.

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c. Findings and Reflection of Cycle 1

1. Students were given better enlightenment on recount text about the purpose of

writing, generic structure, and language features.

By implementing this action to students, the researcher recorded that there

was an improvement in their writing product. Firstly, students could recognize

that one of the goals from writing a recount text was to tell their experience about

holiday. In the other hand, the researcher already stated the function of the

recount text was more than the students known before, not only talking about

holidays so there would be no misinterpretation after the researcher gave the first

model text which talked about holiday.

The better understanding of each part in the recount text resulted in more

information which was derived from the model text. This improvement would

result in more sentences that students could make when they were asked to do the

upcoming task in writing recount text. The improvement can be seen in the

following interview transcript.

R :Apakah kalian sekarang sudah mengetahui bagian dari recount text?

Have you been able to recognize every part of recount text?
S 1 : Udah sih. Pembukaan yang tadi namanya apa ya, lupa. sama events.
yang isinya urutan kegiatannya. Nah itu tuh nyebutin nya harus urut.
Misalnya pertama kemana, terus kemana, terus kemana gitu. Habis itu
akhirnya ditutupnya pake perasaan pada hari itu. I guess so. The opening,
I forgot the name. Then events which contained the order of activities.
This part was needed to be mentioned chronologically. For example,
firstly we went there, then there, then there. After that closed by our
feeling.
S 2: Yang pembukaan itu isinya orang nya siapa aja, terus liburannya
kemana. Terus disebutin semua kegiatannya ngapain aja. Pas liburan tu
apa aja yang dibawa. Makan apa. The opening was about who the

62
 characters are, where the holiday was. Then the events are stated, what the
characters did. What they brought during the holiday and also what they
ate.
R : Apakah dengan bantuan gambar – gambar tadi, Adik – Adik bisa
memahami bagian dan fungsi teks recount dengan lebih baik. By the
support of the pictures, could you understand the parts and of recount text
and their function better?
S 1 : Kalo kataku sih iya, Mister. Kan Misternya nerangin, kita liat aja
gambarnya sambil ndengerin, udah. Gampang sih kalo pake gambar. I
said yes, Mister. While you were explaining, we just needed to take a look
to the pictures and listened to your explanation, that was it. It was easy if
we used pictures.
S 2 : Aku habis diterangin pakai gambar jadi mudeng Mister. Ntar kalau
ada soal apa suruh bikin teks kaya gitu ya kayanya bisa. After I had the
explanation by using the pictures, I understood. Later on if I have a test to
make that kind of text I guess I can make it.

2. A new variation in writing assessment with series of pictures as media would be

given to students.

This action resulted in higher interest from the students towards the

writing assessments. Because of their previous type of writing assessments,

students found that the use of pictures in the writing assessments gave them

assistance while making the text.

The improvement as the result of this action can be seen in the following

interview transcript.

R : Apakah dengan bentuk penugasan dengan gambar - gambar seperti

tadi membantu kalian untuk menulis teks recount? Apakah kalian lebih
tertarik untuk mengerjakannya? Did the type of assignment with picture
series like the previous one help you to write recount text? Were you
interested to do it?
S 1 : Gampang Mister kalau ada gambarnya. Aku sekarang jadi tau kalau
menulis itu yang ditulis apa aja. Sama kaya yang di gambar itu. That was
easier if we had picture series on it. I had known what I should write if I
am ordered to. Similar to (the information in) the pictures.

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 S 2 : Aku sih tertarik Mister. Soale ya gambare itu bagus terus ya tinggal
ngikuitin aja sama urutannya. Nggak kelamaan mikir. I say I am
interested, Mister. I think the pictures are good then we only needed to go
along with the pictures. Don’t need to think too long.
(Interview transcript 3)

3. Vocabularies would be introduced and comprehended through pictures.

The result of doing this action could be monitored since the first meeting. The

role of picture series helped students to recognize new vocabularies and memorized

them well. It was because students not only get the translation of the words by

consulting to their dictionaries, but also they could see the meaning of the words in

the pictures. This improvement can be seen in this following interview transcript.

R : Apakah gambar – gambar tadi bisa membantu Adik – Adik untuk

memahami kosa kata baru dari recount text tersebut? Did the pictures help
you to understand new vocabularies from the recount text?
S 1 : Membantu sekali sih Mister. Sebenernya nggak usah pake kamus juga
udah mudeng Mister. Sama gambarnya bikin lebih seneng bacanya. It was
very helpful. In fact, without using any dictionary was okay. And the pictures
made us more interested while reading.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Soalnya kalo nggak ada gambarnya tuh bingung e. kalau ada
gambarnya kan bisa dibayangin orangnya ngapain aja. Tinggal di pas pasin
aja. That was right, Mister. If there was no picture, I would be confused. If
there were pictures, I could imagine what the characters did. We only needed
to match them (the new words and the pictures)
(Interview transcript 2)

The follow up of the introduction of new vocabularies also showed good

result in the writing process. Though this improvement could not be separated as they

could gather their ideas better than without having pictures as the media, still,

vocabularies from the models text in the first meeting could be used again in the

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writing process. By this action, students were able to reduce their obstacles about

vocabularies to write recount text, as shown in the following interview transcript.

R : Apakah dengan adanya gambar yg berurutan cukup membantu dalam

menulis teks recount? Did the existence of picture series help you in writing
recount text?
S 1 : Iya Mister.soalnya jelas mau nulis apa dan nggak lama mikirnya. Sama
bikin urutannya gampang. Yes Mister, because what we wanted to write was
clear and it did not take long time to think about it. And also it was easier to
make the arrangement.
S 2 : Enakan pake gambar Mister. Soalnya kan mau nulis apa juga tinggal
liat di gambar. Sama tadi kan juga di bantu buat ngeliat benda – benda dan
tempatnya. It was easier by using picture, Mister. Because if we wanted to
write, We just needed to take a look to the pictures. And also I was helped to
look at the things and places.
R : Apakah dengan media gambar Adik - Adik bisa mengingat kosa kata
dengan lebih baik? Did the use of picture as media make you memorize the
words better?
S 1 : Iya sih. Soalnya inget artinya dari liat gambarnya. Tapi ya untuk nyari
Bahasa Inggrisnya buat yang pertama kali tetep butuh kamus. Yes. Because
we could memorize the meaning by taking a look to the picture. But still we
needed to consult the dictionary in the first time.
S 2 : Ya gampang Mister. Enak soalnya. Aku tadi nggak sering pake kamus
bisa lho. Yes, it was easier, Mister. I found it enjoyable. I could do it without
consulting to the dictionary very often.
(Interview transcript 3)

4. Maximize student’s idea using pictures and constructing them to induce better

recount text.

The role of this action was monitored while conducting the second meeting.

The pictures in the assessments gave students guidance to gather and construct their

ideas easier. From the interview, the researcher could get some information that the

pictures had prevented students from wasting their time while making their recount

text. The real example given by photographs allowed students to collect ideas as

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much as they could gather. The following interview transcript will show how this

action improved student’s ability in gathering ideas.

R : Menurut Adik - Adik apakah gambar – gambar tadi cukup membantu

dalam mencari ide dan membuatnya menjadi tulisan utuh? In your opinion,
did the pictures helped you well in searching ideas and make it into whole
writing?
S 1 : Lebih gampang pake gambar soalnya nggak bingung sih Mister, Kan
tinggal kaya bikin komik gitu. Kalau nggak pake gambar bingung mau nulis
apa. It was easier to use pictures because we did not confuse about it, Mister.
It was only like naking comic. If we did not use the pictures we would be
dazed what to write.
S 2 : Lumayan sih Mister. Tinggal liat aja di gambar satu ada apa, ngapain,
kedua ngapain. Tapi aku kadang lupa nyambungnya gimana. It was fair
enough, Mister. Just took a look at the first picture, what things and activities
we could see and so on with the following pictures.
(Interview transcript 3)

As the follow up of the first step which was ‘Students were given better

enlightenment on recount text about the purpose of writing, generic structure, and

language features’, this action helped students to collect ideas which were suitable to

the function of the recount text. They were also able to write proper ideas which

could be written as the parts content of recount text (e.g. characters, place, action

verbs).

The process of constructing the ideas into a whole writing was seen easier.

Some students said that it was easier to do the arranging step of the ideas by using

picture. This benefit could be drawn from the pictures because they already shown the

events in chronologic order. Students only needed to follow the picture order. The

following interview transcript shows the benefit of the pictures series to help students

in constructing their ideas.

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 R : Apakah tugas dengan gambar - gambar seperti tadi membantu kalian
menyusun ide untuk menulis teks recount? Did the task with pictures like what
you have done help you to construct the ideas while writing recount text?
S 1 : Gampang nyusun idenya Mister kalau pake gambar. Aku sekarang juga
jadi tau kalau menulis itu yang ditulis apa aja. It was easy if we used picture.
Now I have known what I should write whenever I wanted to write.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Karena ada gambarnya aku jadi nggak kelamaan mikir waktu
nyusunnya. Yes Mister. Because of the pictures I did not spend a lot of time to
construct (my ideas).
R : Apakah dengan gambar kalian jadi lebih tertarik untuk mengerjakannya?
By using picture, do you feel more interested in doing the task?
S 1 : Kalo aku iya Mister. Gambarnya bikin lebih menarik jadi nggak bosen. In
my opinion, yes, Mister. The pictures made (the task) more interesting.
S 2 : Aku sih tertarik Mister. Soale ya gambare itu bagus terus ya tinggal
ngikutin aja sama urutannya. I was interested, Mister. The pictures were good
and I only needed to follow the pictures (to construct the ideas)
(Interview transcript 3)
d. Summary of Cycle 1

The result of successful actions and unsuccessful actions are summarized as

the following.

- The Result of Successful Actions

a. Students got better enlightenment about function, parts, and language features of

recount text.

b. By using picture series, students could get many ideas to write the recount text in

shorter time.

c. Students were successfully helped by the picture series to construct their ideas.

d. Students could use the picture series as media to help them in recognizing new

vocabularies taken from their own ideas and vocabularies related to the information

derived from the text.

- The Unsuccessful Actions

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a. Students were monitored to use less variation in using time conjunctions and got

obstacle in making past tenses.

b. In some pictures, students could not imagine or even guess the time of the

activities described in the pictures. They requested for clear time stated in each

picture, especially the hour and minutes.

2. The Result of Cycle 2

a. Plans for cycle 2

After discussing the findings and reflection of cycle one, the researcher

continued to prepare the plan for the second cycle. This cycle was conducted to make

sure that the picture series which were used as media really showed an improvement

towards student’s writing skill.

Cycle 2 was done in two meetings. In this cycle, researcher planned some

actions which were going to be done. The actions were related to the result and

evaluation of the first cycle. While planning the actions for this cycle, there searcher

also discussed with the English teacher. From the discussion, there were some actions

planned.

1. Introducing another function of recount text by using new theme.

2. Implementing the function of recount text parts when they were used to

help students in collecting ideas of the new theme.

3. Help students to get more ideas to obtain new vocabularies and

constructing them into a recount text by using new picture series.

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 4. Fixing the unsuccessful actions in the first cycle to help students in

writing their recount texts.

In the second cycle, the researcher prepared to conduct two meetings with two

different texts. The first meeting was planned to give students the role model of the

text. For the first meeting, the researcher had already prepared a text entitled ‘Bajuri’s

Unlucky Day’ and the picture series of the text which told a bad experience of a man

named Bajuri while he was on his way to his campus. Focusing to introduce the new

theme, the first text was set to give students the new vocabularies and how the parts

in the text play the role in building the whole text. This text had a medium level of

word density. This text consisted of 14 sentences which were divided into four

paragraphs. The story board was selected from a daily life problem, lateness in

attending something very important. The setting and things in the picture series were

selected to represent a real daily problem which could happen to everyone, included

the students. By combining the selected story and picture series, the researcher

expected that students could remember new vocabularies from the text.

The second meeting was set to be the meeting of writing task for the students.

For this meeting, the researcher prepared picture series on a handout which told about

‘Yoko’s Unlucky Day’. The picture series told a bad day of a man named Yoko who

was late for an important appointment. In this meeting, students would be guided by

some questions under each picture which helped them to gather ideas from the

pictures. After that, like what they had done in the first cycle, they were asked to

make a complete recount text based on what had happened in the pictures. The

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picture was taken from a real life story and also the real photographs were expected to

give a complete real situation so that students could derive the ideas from what they

could see in the picture.

From the explanation above, we can see the detail planning in the following

explanation.

1. Introducing another function of recount text by using new theme.

The theme of second cycle, as the real function to retell someone’s past

experience, was different from the theme chosen in the first cycle. If the first cycle

told about holidays, in this cycle, the theme was selected to be unlucky experience

got by the character. This step also conducted to correct the misinterpretation of the

function of recount text which had been said by one of the students that this text is

only used for retelling the past experience about holiday only. By using a text entitled

‘Bajuri’s Unlucky Day’, a new theme of recount text was introduced to students. This

step was very important so that students could use recount text to write about their

unlucky experience. The introduction to the new theme would be assisted by picture

series which described all the information in the text, included the character, location,

things carried by the character, time, and also the personal feeling of him. The

researcher selected the common unlucky experience that were possibly happened to

general people such as flat tyre, being late to attend an important occasion, and failure

in doing something.

2. Implementing the function of recount text parts when they were used to help

students in collecting ideas of the new theme.

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 Parts of the recount text, as explained in the first cycle, were orientation,

events, and the last part which was not a must, the re-orientation. Although it had a

different theme from the first cycle, the function of each part did not change. But still,

the re-explanation of each part was assumed to be important step in the second cycle.

This was done to help students to understand the model text and the information in it.

It was also conducted to avoid student’s confusion in correlating the parts of the text

to the information which they might need to write their own recount text.

3. Help students to get more ideas to obtain new vocabularies and constructing them

into a recount text by using new picture series.

It was also explained in the first cycle that the main focus of this research was

to help students in gathering ideas and construct them into good recount text. In 2nd

cycle, this objective was also planned to be implemented in 2nd meeting.

The real depiction of the story was presented in some photographs. The

researcher expected that the interesting pictures and authentic theme would stimulate

student’s ideas so they could lure all information they needed from the pictures. The

full coloured photographs, again, was selected because students could see the events,

characters, places, emotion of the characters, and all of the details like how they could

see in the real life.

The pictures were printed on handouts which every student would receive it

one by one from the researcher. Under every picture, there were some guiding

questions. The questions were not used to narrow students’ creativity, but to arouse

their ideas. The ideas then made into sentences by combining the 3rd step. After they

71
had collected their ideas in form of sentences, again, the process of students would be

helped by the arrangement of the pictures.

The pictures were set chronologically so that students would need shorter time

to construct the sentences into whole paragraphs then text. Like what 8C students had

done in the first cycle, they only needed to follow the order of the pictures.

4. Fixing the unsuccessful actions in the first cycle to help students in writing their

recount texts.

From the first cycle, the researcher and the English teacher had already

discussed two problems which were stated as the unsuccessful actions. The first

problem was the unclear time in the pictures. The second were the low variation in

using sentence time connectors while combining the sentences and obstacle in

making past tenses. The problems were planned to be conquered as the following

methods.

The media in second cycle were made to avoid the problems which hinder

students from getting ideas about the time. The burden of writing the text caused by

the unclear time can be seen in this following interview transcript which was held

after the second meeting of the first cycle.

R : Bagaimana dengan tugas tadi, apakah dapat dikerjakan dengan baik?

How was the assignment? Could you do it well?
S 1 : Lumayan Mister. tapi ya masih banyak yang lupa verb 2 nya. Not bad,
Mister.But still I forgot many past verbs.
S 2 : Aku agak bingung waktunya Mister, pagi apa siang sore gitu. Habis
nggak ada tulisan jam berapa sih. I was rather confused by the time, was it
afternoon, or morning. Because I found no time sign written there.
(Field note 5)

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 And also an interview with the English teacher after 2nd meeting of the first

cycle as shown in the following interview transcript.

R : Setelah siklus pertama ini, menurut Bapak, apakah kelebihan dan

kelemahan dari media yang saya gunakan? After this first cycle, in your
opinion, what is the plus or minus from the media that I had used?
ET : Kelemahannya, mungkin keterangan waktunya perlu ditambah karena di
dalam gambar tidak ada penjelasan tentang keterangan waktu semisal jam
berapa peristiwa tersebut terjadi. The weakness of this media maybe the
adverb of time should be added because there was no clear adverb of times in
the pictures that told students the time the events had happened.
(Interview Transcript 5)

Based on the interview scripts above, the researcher then put the clearer time

in some pictures by giving photographs which contained watch picture on them. As in

the first cycle, all of the pictures were real photographs printed colorfully on the

handout and all of the pictures were set in the chronologic order as they had

happened.

The obstacles related to the low variation of the sentence conjunction and in

making past tenses were reported in the first cycle. The obstacles can be seen in the

following interview transcript.

R : Adakah kesulitan dalam mengerjakan tugas tersebut? Was there any

obstacles in doing the assignment?
S 1 : Susah bikin past tense nya.soalnya nggak apal tu lho. It was hard to
make the past tenses because I couldn’t remember it well.
S 2 : Sama, Mister. Sama cara nyambungnya. Aku keseringan pake then aja.
Me too. Also the way to combine (the sentences). I used to use ‘then’ only.
(Interview Transcript 5)

The problems above would be solved by reminding students about simple past

tense, and also the use of conjunctions while combining student’s idea into a whole

73
recount text. The researcher planned to remind variation of conjunctions that could be

used by students.

b. Actions and Observations in Cycle 2

The second cycle was started at the upcoming week after the first cycle ended.

The second cycle was conducted in two meetings. Each meeting consisted of two

lesson hours. Each lesson hour consisted of 40 minutes. The first meeting in this

cycle was done on Tuesday, 5th November 2013. The class had English on their 1st

and 2nd lesson hours. The second meeting was done on the following day, Wednesday

6th November 2013. The class had English lesson on the4th and 5th periods.

The cycle was well planned before as shown in the previous subchapter. The

researcher already planned the actions that would be taken with the English teacher.

The application of the actions can be seen in the following explanation.

1. Introducing another function of recount text by using new theme.

This action was done in the first meeting of this cycle. The researcher

planned to introduce a new function of recount text. This action had a purpose to

teach students that recount text was not only used to retell a holiday experience but

also a bad or unlucky experience. The researcher expected that by the end of the

class, students would recognize the function of recount text which was explained in

that meeting.

In BKOF step, the researcher applied this action by asking students in 8C

about their unlucky experience. To make the class more communicative, the

researcher asked students to remember about their previous unlucky moments. The

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researcher started by introducing the word ‘UNLUCKY EXPERIENCE’ in front of

the class to get student’s attention as the following field note.

R continued by conducting warming up session. For the second cycle, R

and ET agreed to choose unlucky days as the theme. R tried to set the
class circumstance and S’s mindset into their unlucky experience by doing
oral questions. Firstly, wrote ‘UNLUCKY EXPERIENCE’ in front of the
class. ‘Anyone knows the meaning?’. Unfortunately no one answer. Then
R asked to one of Ss. ‘Aji Bayu! Boy, what is Unlucky Experience?’.
‘Apa yo Mister? Experience tu pengalaman…. Unlucky ki opo Mister?’
‘Unlucky means sial atau tidak beruntung’. Then there was a long
‘Ooooh….’ heard in the class.
(Field Note 4)

After that, the researcher continued to ask students one by one.

Communicative teaching was very important in this class since the researcher

concluded that if the teaching process was done in one way teaching, students would

keep on chatting each other.

To build students knowledge of the text field, the researcher then continued to

ask some students about unlucky experiences that they had already got.

Unfortunately, every time the researcher used English in the conversation, students

asked for translation. The process can be seen in the following field note :

R asked to the class, R asked to 4 students about their unlucky experience.

‘Vicka, what is your unlucky experience?’ ‘Anu Mister, HP ku pernah
ilang.’ ‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Kasihan sekali. Where?’ ‘Where? Oh
nggak tau Mister. Di jalan kok. jatuh paling’. Then R asked to other
students. They told their experience about their unlucky days. One of them
told about getting a punishment from teacher because he was late for
school. One of them told about losing their money. After that, R explained
the topic of the day, about unlucky experience.
(Field note 4)

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2. Implementing the function of recount text parts when they were used to help

students in collecting ideas of the new theme.

Still in the first meeting, having finished with the BKOF step, the researcher

then distributed handouts to students. In each hand out, there was a model text

entitled ‘Bajuri’s Unlucky Day’. The text would be used as the source of vocabularies

and also to introduce the example of text with theme unlucky experience so that they

would be able to make a new recount text.

When the researcher gave the handouts one by one, students started to show

their interest to the handouts because of the picture series which was set to be the

media of the text. The situation of the class can be seen in this following field note.

R continued by giving Ss new model text in handouts, entitled Bajuri’s

unlucky day. The situation was quite noisy because most Ss talked about the
pictures in the handouts by yelling to their friends. R then asked Ss to be
silent. Different from the first cycle, in the 2nd cycle R asked students to
directly put the page which displayed the pictures next to the page that
contained the text. Then R asked one of Ss to read the first paragraph. She
made some errors in the pronunciation and R gave the correction. R discussed
the model text paragraph per paragraph then he gave direction to Ss to pay
attention to the pictures while they were reading the text. This action was
observed more effective than asking Ss to look at the picture series after they
have finished reading the whole text.
(Field note 4)

After every student had the text on their hand, the researcher asked them to

read the text by directly looking and paying attention to the pictures so that they were

able to recognize the meaning of the story in the text. New vocabularies were also

introduced in this step by asking students to do the following task after the text. The

task was done to ensure students got the meanings of the words in the text.

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 Having finished with the vocabulary task, the researcher asked students to re-

memorize the parts of recount text. This process was started by asking students to

look at the table on the first paragraph of the handout. The researcher then continued

to re-memorize students about the function of the parts of recount text. Similar to the

first cycle, this step was very important to help students in gathering ideas as much as

they could if it was combined with the picture series. The use of the media to help

students in understanding the parts of the text and information that they could write in

each part can be seen in the following field note.

Having completed all of the vocabulary meanings, R continued to explain

the parts of the recount text. This action did not take long time because Ss
still remembered the parts from the meetings in the first cycle. After that,
R gave instruction to Ss to look carefully to each picture, and R asked
some questions about what Ss could see in the picture. The questions were
in the range about what they could see in the picture. R considered that the
oral questions would help Ss to get more information in the picture. R then
asked Ss to identify the pictures so they could distinguish which picture
belonged to which part. This step found no problem because Ss already
memorized the parts of the text well.
(Field note 4)

After making sure that every student had understood the parts of the recount

text, the researcher asked students to answer the questions under pictures on the

second page. Because the pictures were already classified into parts, students were

able to do the task in less than 10 minutes. This task had an objective to warm up

students before they would be asked to write another recount text with different

pictures at the upcoming meeting.

3. Help students to get more ideas to obtain new vocabularies and constructing them

into a recount text by using new picture series.

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 After students got a review about parts of the recount text and the functions in

the first meeting, they were given again a new handout with new picture series on it.

The researcher already selected a new story, still in the same theme, about Yoko’s

unlucky day. The picture series showed almost same problems to the first handout.

The problems showed in the handout were the daily phenomenon that

everyone was possible to have them. The new vocabularies introduced in the pictures

were ‘ran out of fuel’, ‘lost the key’, and ‘fired from a job’. Some vocabularies could

be drawn from the first handout such as ‘came late’, ‘pushed the motorcycle’, ‘woke

up late’, and another synonym of ‘missed the appointment’.

After every students received the handout, the researcher tried to stimulate

their ideas by using the pictures and let them gather as much ideas as they could. The

process can be seen in the following field note.

R continued by telling Ss the activities that they were going to do that day. R
then gave Ss the new handouts. Some Ss were directly looked to the pictures,
some of them laughed when they had seen the pictures. Some Ss walked
around to talk to their friends about the pictures. The situation of the class
turned to be noisy. R asked Ss to sit down and he continued by asking Ss to
look at the pictures. R introduced the name of the main character in the
picture. Then he continued to ask students about detail information that they
could see in the picture. After discussed 2 pictures, R asked Ss to discuss the
next pictures with their pairs and Ss were given 5 minutes to discuss all of
pictures. R also asked Ss to imagine the time of the events in the picture in the
form of afternoon so that they would not face any problem with the exact time
of the events.
(Field note 5)

By looking to the pictures, students then gather their ideas and they also

conducted discussion with their pairs. After they spent 5 minutes of discussion, the

researcher then asked students to write their ideas under each picture and answered

78
the questions to lead their ideas. The researcher asked students to state their ideas

directly in the form of sentences. Unfortunately, there were still some obstacles,

especially in the use of past tenses. The situation of this process can be seen in the

following field note.

Having finished with the picture discussion, still in pair, R asked Ss to state
their ideas derived from the pictures in the form of sentences. R also directed
students to answer the questions under the pictures to stimulate their ideas. Ss
were given 10 minutes to write their ideas. While Ss were doing the task, R
walked around the class to monitor S’s work. Most of Ss did the task by
themselves, they only discussed it when they did not know the English words.
Some Ss also asked to R about the translation. The amount of the questions
was lower than in the first cycle.
(Field note 5)

After making sure that every student had already stated their ideas, the

researcher then asked students to construct their ideas by following the chronologic

order in the picture series. Then they were instructed to combine the sentences into a

whole paragraph by giving time connectors such as ‘then’, ‘and then’, and ‘after that’.

4. Fixing the unsuccessful actions in the first cycle to help students in writing their

recount texts.

The first unsuccessful action was related to the unclear time of the events in

the picture series. On the first meeting, the time was showed clearly to the students by

showing pictures of clock and a schedule. However, the researcher considered that

dependence to very clearly stated time was not good for students while gathering their

ideas. The researcher then asked students to guess the time of the events based on

their own capture while seeing the events in the picture series.

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 Unfortunately, there was still an obstacle in this process. Students, they forgot

about the time connectors that could be used in the text. So, the researcher decided to

re-explain the use of time connectors to set a chronologic order of the events. They

also forgot the pattern of simple past tense. Thus, the researcher needed to explain the

conjunctions and simple past tense. This step can be seen in the following field note.

Having finished with the ideas, R asked Ss to combine all of the sentences into
whole recount text. Again, Ss forgot how to use the time connectors, so in 5
minutes, R gave short explanation about conjunctions to show the chronologic
of the time. The writing process was done beyond R’s expectation.
Approximately 80 percent of all Ss did the writing less than 20 minutes.
Unfortunately, Ss who had finished with their writing continued to talk each
other in loud voice. ET helped R by asking Ss to be silent. R walked around the
class to control the condition. Then 5 minutes before the class over, all Ss had
finished the writing.
(Field note 5)

By fixing the unsuccessful actions, the researcher expected that students

might get improvement in their writing product. Overall, the process in second cycle

found less problems than the previous one.

c. Findings and Reflection of Cycle 2

1. Introducing another function of recount text by using new theme.

The new function of recount text was introduced in this cycle. It was about the

unlucky experience. The introduction of the other function of this text was monitored

could give students more theme to write a recount text.

From the following interview transcript, it can be inferred that the new theme

gave students more materials or we can also say, reason, to write a recount text.

R : Apakah kalian sudah mengetahui tujuan lain dari penulisan recount text?
Have you recognized the other purpose of writing recount text?

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 S 1: Menceritakan pengalaman buruk kita. Telling our bad experience.
S 2 : Ya buat nyeritain pengalaman yang buruk juga. Nggak cuma yang
seneng – seneng pas liburan. It was also talking about bad experience, not
only happy experiences on vacation.
R : Apakah dengan mengetahui tujuan penulisan yang tadi, kalian bisa
menulis recount text dengan lebih mudah? By knowing the purpose of writing
the text, could you write recount text easier?
S 1 : Iya mister. Tadinya tak kira recount tu cuma untuk menceritakan liburan
tok. Yes Mister. I thought before that recount text was only used to retell
holidays.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Aku juga baru mudeng kalo pengalaman buruk itu bisa jadi
teks recount. Yes Mister. I just understood that bad experience could be a
recount text as well.
(Interview Transcript 4)

2. Implementing the function of recount text parts when they were used to help

students in collecting ideas of the new theme.

The role of the picture as media provided students with a lot of ideas. They

could search as many ideas as their imagination. This step resulted in guidance for

students while they were writing their recount text. The better understanding of each

part in the text helped students to select the information from the pictures so that they

could write a proper recount text. In the other hand, the explanation of parts also

helped students while ordering their ideas to be a complete recount text.

Those improvement from this step can be seen in the following interview

transcript.

R : Kemarin Mister sudah menerangkan tentang bagian – bagian dari recount

text untuk menceritakan pengalaman buruk. Nah, sambil melihat gambar,
apakah dari penjelasan itu bisa membantu kalian dalam mencari ide untuk
menulis? Yesterday I had explained parts of recount text to retell unlucky
experience. While you were taking a look to the pictures, could the
explanation help you in searching ideas to write?

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 S 1 : Iya Mister. Kalau nggak dijelasin, aku bingung mesti nulis apa.
Gambarnya mau diapain. Yes Mister. If it was not explained, I might been
confused on what I should write. What I should with the pictures.
S 2 : Kalau aku, habis dijelasin jadi lebih gampang pas nulis urutannya sih
Mister. In my opinion, having explained (the text), it was easier to write the
order, Mister.

R : Setelah kalian mengerjakan tugas tadi, apakah kalian mengetahui cara

menuliskan pengalaman buruk kalian agar lebih lengkap dan menarik?After
you have done with the assignment, have you known how to write your
unlucky experience to make it more complete and interesting?
S 1 : Kalo nulis pengalaman buruk harus jelas awalnya gimana, terus
kejadiannya apa aja, urut. Habis itu perasaan kita ditulis di akhir nya. If we
write about unlucky experience, it must be clear how it started, what the
events were chronologically. After that we wrote our feelings at the end of it.1
S 2 : Tau Mister. Nulisnya kaya yang di gambar. Awalnya dulu, terus
kejadiannya pas pengalaman buruk, sama terakhirnya nulis komentar kita.
We knew it, Mister. We needed to write like the picture. The orientation was
the first, then events during the unlucky experience, and in the end we wrote
our opinion about the experience.
(Interview Transcript 5)

3. Helping students to get more ideas to obtain new vocabularies and constructing

them into a recount text by using new picture series.

Similar to the first cycle, the role of the picture series in this cycle was being a

media that helped students to collect ideas, or we can also say that the picture series is

used as their source of ideas to write the recount text.

From the activities, the researcher could infer that the media helped students

to get more ideas to write the recount text. This condition happened because of some

reasons. Firstly, students enjoyed the teaching method by using picture series because

the pictures are in the form of real photographs. They gave students complete

information as what it really happened. It can be seen in this following interview

transcript.

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 R : Bagaimana pendapat kalian tentang kegiatan hari ini? Apakah kalian
menyukai bentuk tugas yang Mister berikan? How do you think about today’s
activity? Did you like the task type I have given to you?
S 1 : Aku suka yang kaya gini Mister. Soalnya asik kalo ada gambarnya. I like
the one like this. It was enjoyable if there were pictures in it.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Aku suka yang ada gambarnya apalagi kalo pake foto. Nyata
gitu lho. Yes Mister. I like it with pictures moreover if it used photograph. It
was more realistic.
(Interview transcript 5)

Secondly, since the first meeting of this cycle, the pictures helped them to

recognize and memorize new vocabularies. Students only needed to pay attention to

the pictures while they were reading it. The media helped them to memorize the

words and understood the meaning without consulting to dictionary very often. This

condition can be seen in the following interview transcript.

R : Apakah kalian mendapatkan kata - kata baru dari teks tadi? Apakah
gambar – gambar tadi membantu kalian memahami dan mengingatnya? Did
you get new words from the text? Did the pictures help you to recognize and
memorize them?
S 1 : Iya Mister. Kaya yang tentang liburan itu. Kalo aku nggak tau artinya,
liat gambar aja. ga usah liat kamus. Lagian aku nggak bawa kamus. Yes
Mister. It was similar to the previous (text) about holiday. I just needed to take
a look to the pictures without consulting to the dictionary. To be honest, I did
not bring any dictionary.
S 2 : Aku dapet beberapa kata baru Mister. Tapi kalo sekarang aku belum
apal semuanya. I got some new words, Mister. But now I have not memorized
all of them.
(Interview Transcript 5)

The pictures also took role to provide students with plenty of ideas so that

they could write more words in their text. But still there was a problem in it about the

translation to from their ideas in Bahasa Indonesia to English, although they had

abundance of ideas. The phenomenon can be seen in this following interview

transcript.

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 R : Apakah kalian mendapatkan ide – ide seperti tempat, benda yang terlihat,
dan aktivitas untuk menuliskan pengalaman buruk si tokoh di dalam gambar
tadi? Did you get the ideas such as places, things that could be seen, and
activities to write the character’s unlucky experience in the pictures?
S1 : Iya Mister. Tinggal liat aja di gambar ada apa. Kalo ide banyak kok
Mister. Masalahnya Mister, aku nggak tau Bahasa Inggrisnya. Yes Mister.
We just took a look what were they in the pictures. We had a lot of ideas. The
problem was I did not know the English word.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Soalnya di gambar udah kelihatan jelas. Yes Mister. It was
clearly depicted in the pictures.
(Interview Transcript 5)

The next improvement derived from using the picture series was students

thought that it was easier to write the recount text by using the picture series. It

helped them to write the text in correct order faster and chronologic. This conclusion

was derived from the following interview transcript.

R : Apakah gambar – gambar tadi membantu kalian untuk menyusun kata –

kata atau ide – ide kalian menjadi teks recount yang utuh? Did the pictures
help you in arranging your words or ideas to make a whole recount text?
S 1 : Gampangan pake gambar ini Mister. Ikutin aja gambarnya pas waktu
nyusun. I found it was easier if we used pictures. Just went along the pictures
while we were arranging (the words).
S 2 : Kalo nggak ada gambarnya ya kelamaan mikir Mister. If there was not
any picture, it took so long to think about it, Mister.
(Interview Transcript 5)

4. Fixing the unsuccessful actions in the first cycle to help students in writing their

recount texts.

The unsuccessful actions in the first cycle were fixed in the second cycle.

There were related to the using of adverb of time, time connectors, and using past

tense. The re explanation of those three important aspects in the recount text was

done during the second meeting and gave good result in the writing product. The

following interview transcript will explain the result.

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 R : Di pertemuan kedua ini, apakah kalian sudah bisa menggunakan
keterangan waktu dengan tepat dan jenis – jenis lain dari conjunction? On
this second meeting, could you use adverb of times properly and other
variations of conjunctions?
S 1 : Iya Mister. Ternyata nggak usah pakai gambar jam juga udah bisa. Kalo
untuk nggabungin, udah bisa kok. Asal nggak lupa aja. Yes Mister. Actually
without using any clock pictures we could do it well. For combining the
sentences, I could do it. As long as I do not forget it.
S 2 : Aku udah bisa kok Mister. Karena nggak ada jamnya, aku kira – kira aja
waktunya. Pas nggabungin, ya aku pake yang dijelasin sama Mister nya. I
could do it, Mister. Since I did not see any clock (in the pictures), I just
guessed the time. While I combining it, I used (the conjunctions) that you had
explained.
(Interview Transcript 5)

d. Summary of Cycle 2

Second cycle had some objectives, introducing students to other function of

recount text, which is retelling unlucky experience, and also improving students

writing products using picture series as media as the source of ideas, vocabularies,

and in the same time helping them to set their sentences into chronologic order.

Overall, the actions which had been done by the researcher resulted in improvement

of students writing product. The condition can be seen in the following interview

transcript.

R : Setelah kalian mengerjakan tugas tadi, apakah kalian mengetahui

cara menuliskan pengalaman buruk kalian agar lebih lengkap dan
menarik? After you have done with the assignment, do you know how to
write your unlucky experience to be more complete and interesting?
S 1 : Kalo nulis pengalaman buruk harus jelas awalnya gimana, terus
kejadiannya apa aja, urut. Habis itu perasaan kita ditulis di akhir nya. If
we want to write our unlucky experience, it must be clear on the beginning
of the story, then the events. They should be in correct order. After that,
we write our feeling about the experience at the end of the text.
S 2 : Tau Mister. Nulisnya kaya yang di gambar. Awalnya dulu, terus
kejadiannya pas pengalaman buruk, sama terakhirnya nulis komentar

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 kita. I know it Mister. We write like the picture showed us. Firstly the
beginning, then the events of unlucky experience, then finally we write
our comments (about the experience).
R : Apakah kalian mendapatkan kesulitan ketika mengerjakan tugas tadi?
Did you find any difficulties while doing the assignment?
S 1 : Apa ya? Nggak tau. Kayanya nggak ada. What was that? I do not
know. I think no.
S 2 : Gampang kok Mister. Mudah – mudahan ulangannya Mr. Yuli juga
pake gambar. That was easy, Mister. I hope Mr. Yuli’s exam will use
picture too.

3. The Result of The Writing Test

Before the researcher used the picture series as media, he already conducted a

pre test on recount text writing. The data from the interview transcript and field notes

were already shown improvement towards the writing skill. The following tables

show the improvement in the score of writing test of students of 8C class SMP

Muhammadiyah 3 Depok.

Table 4.3 Writing score of 8C SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok students

Pre-Test
Data
Researcher English Teacher

Mean 56,2 57,8

Number of the Students 37 37

86
 Post-Test
Data
Researcher English Teacher

Mean 73,8 75,2

Number of the Students 37 37

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 CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter discusses the conclusion, implications, and suggestions from the

researcher towards the study. Those three items are presented in the following

explanation.

A. Conclusions

This study had an objective to show the improvement of students’ writing

skill when they used picture series as media. The description of the improvement in

the writing skill also explained here in the form of qualitative data which are

interview transcripts and field notes, supported by improvement in students’ writing

score from pre test to post test. The finding and analysis of the research had been

explained in chapter IV.

Taking a look back to the previous chapter about the research findings, there

are some conclusions derived from each cycle.

1. The picture series were good media to be source of ideas and vocabularies.

As explained in chapter IV, the pictures in picture series provided students with a real

depiction of events happened to the characters in the story. Pictures will also give

students a stimulant to gather their ideas so that vocabularies will be easily drawn

from the pictures. Pictures, especially in the form of real photograph like what the

researcher had used provide many objects to be written. They can be in the form of

nouns such as people (especially the characters), places, vehicles, and many other

things. In the form of verbs, students can pay attention to what the characters did in

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the pictures. They can get the word ‘push’, ‘wake up’, ‘meet’, ‘forget’, etc. If they are

sensitive enough in observing the pictures, students will be able to get adjectives such

as ‘late’, ‘early’, ‘sad’, ‘happy’, etc. Furthermore, students can infer adverb of times

by taking a look to the pictures whether the events happened at night, morning,

afternoon, together with another events, and so on. This element, the adverb of time,

is an important thing that students need to get if they want to write simple past tense

sentences. As explained in the second chapter, all of sentences in recount text consist

of past sentences.

This action will give maximum result if students already knew the basic knowledge

of the target text type that they will write. Students will take ideas from the pictures

based on what they need to write in each part of text.

2. The picture series helped students to construct their ideas chronologically.

Writing a recount text obliges students to write their ideas chronologically, as what

had already happened. The picture series are used by students to set their ideas, in the

form of sentences, based on what really happened. They only needed to follow the

storyline in the pictures to know the chronology of events experienced by the

character(s).

This function of the picture series needed to be combined with explanation to

students about the use of conjunctions. The conjunctions here had role to connect the

sentences into whole paragraph and paragraphs to a text. By taking a look carefully to

the picture series, students would be able to write their text and connect the sentences

properly by using conjunctions.

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3. The writing task with picture series gave students other variation of writing

assignment.

The picture series used by the researcher which were in the form of full coloured

photographs, in fact, gave students a new variation of writing assignment which had

never been used by their English teacher. The photographs were succeeded to

stimulate their interest to the writing task. This type of recount text task can be used

to avoid monotonous common type of task which only asked students to write such

text without providing any media.

B. Implications

After making conclusion from the research, the researcher implied some

improvements in 8C students’ writing skill. The improvements of their skill in

writing recount text were the result of media used by the researcher during the

actions. They can be classified as the following explanation.

1. Students got more ideas and words to write recount text easier.

The ideas from students to write recount text were presented in the form of

words. From the findings in chapter IV, the researcher implied that students got a lot

of ideas to write the text although they still find some obstacles in translating their

ideas from Bahasa Indonesia to English.

The researcher already introduced some new vocabularies in every first

meeting on each cycle. Unfortunately since the vocabulary level of students were still

very low, they still needed dictionary if students wanted to maximize the ideas

derived from the pictures.

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 However, above all obstacles in translating their ideas, from the interview

students thought that picture series could improve their writing skill by taking role as

the source of ideas so that they did not need to spend long time to think what they

wanted to write.

2. Students felt easier to construct their sentences chronologically while writing the

text.

The implication of the picture series to students writing skill did not only help

them to grab as many ideas as they could. Picture series, in the same time, also eased

students by providing them the plot of the story so that what they needed to do was

only following the pictures order. From the interview transcripts the media helped

them to shorten their time while they ordering the sentences chronologically.

3. Students were interested to the media and the type of writing assignment with

picture series.

The findings in chapter IV implied that picture series attracted students’

interest to do the writing task. This phenomenon happened because they could see

real figures in full coloured printed photos which were set like comic. The selection

of the themes also effected the photo shoots to be a daily phenomenon that everyone

might get, include students.

In the other hand, students were interested to the writing assignment with

picture series because their English teacher had never used this kind of assignment

before. They also expected this type of assignment used more often in their English

class.

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C. Suggestions

This study of pictures series as media to improve students writing skill of 8th

graders students resulted some suggestions for English teachers and other researchers.

The suggestions are related to the development of media, the use of media in teaching

and learning activities, and further study about pictures as media.

1. Suggestions for English Teachers

English teachers need media in their teaching activities. Firstly, pictures can

be used as media which can expand students’ ideas and vocabulary enrichment.

However, if same media used too often, they cannot work as interest stimulator as if

English teachers use them variously. Picture series can be used in writing tasks.

Nevertheless, in order to avoid students’ boredom, English teachers need to consider

other media since abundant of writing tasks needed to be assigned to their students.

Secondly, maximizing the quality of media gives result in maximum writing

product. Teachers need to provide colourful printed pictures if they expect more ideas

from students. Black and white pictures, of course, will limit students’ ideas on what

exactly presented in them. Students are able to see vivid images in the colourful

printed pictures. They will get many ideas such as colour of costumes of the

characters, the condition of weather during the event, and also the time differences

day or night which are incapable to be presented in black and white pictures. In

addition, real photographs give more ideas than cartoon or handmade pictures. In

conclusion, picture series consist of colourful photographs are suggested. Guided

questions can assist the process of gathering ideas as well.

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 The last suggestion for English teachers is students still need enough basic

knowledge of the target text before they use picture series as media. They need to

know the purpose of writing the text, functions of each part, and also grammatical

features of the text. Assistance from English teacher about this knowledge is also

suggested during the writing process. Review on simple past tense and conjunctions

for students with limited skill of writing are necessary.

2. Suggestions for Other Researcher

This research was done in students in junior high school. Their skill in writing

text in English was very limited. The findings in research about pictures as media

maybe different if the actions in this research are implemented to students with higher

English competence. Conducting further research on pictures series as media to

improve writing skill is suggested. The research can be different in text types,

research objects, arrangement of pictures, etc.

93
 REFERENCES

Anderson, Mark. and Kathy Anderson. 1997. Text Types in English 1. Hongkong:
Macmillan Education Australia
Brewster, Jean, et al. 2003. The Primary English Teacher’s Guide: New Edition.
London: Penguin Books Ltd.
Broughton, Geoffrey, et al. 2003. Teaching English as A Foreign Language. New
York: Routledge
Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to
Language Pedagogy. California: Longman
Burns, Anne. 1999. Collaborative Action Research for English Language
Teachers. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press
. 2010. Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching. New
York: Routledge
Harmer, Jeremy. 2004. How to Teach Writing. Malaysia: Longman.

Hyland, Ken. 2003. Second Language Writing. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Mc. Donald, Christina Russell and Robert L. Mc. Donald. 2002. Teaching
Writing. Landmarks and Horizon. USA: Southern Illinois University.
Means, Beth. and Lindy Lindner. 1998. Teaching Writing in Middle School.
Colorado: Teacher Ideas Press.
Nation, I.S.P. 2009. Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing. New York:
Routledge
Priyana, Joko. et al. 2008. Scaffolding. English for Junior High School Students.
Jakarta: Pusat Perbukuan Departemen Pendidikan Nasional.
Smaldino, Sharon E. 2004. Instructional Technology and Media for Learning :
Eighth Edition.
Stern, H.H. 1983. Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching. UK: Oxford
University Press
Taylor, Maurice. 2000. Action Research – A Handbook for Literacy Instructors.
Canada : National Literacy Secretariat

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Wright, Andrew. 2004. Pictures for Language Learning (Twelfth Printing). U. K.:
Cambridge University Press.

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FIELD NOTES

1. While Conducting The Observation

Field Note 1
Wednesday, October 23rd 2013
VIII C Class
R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher
S : Student

1. R went to SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok to held the observation on Wednesday,

23rd 2013. He came to school at 8.30 to do preparation for observation at 8.50. ET
was still teaching at the previous class.
2. After the bell of the 3rd lesson hour rang, R met ET at the lobby to discuss the
observation. ET would introduce R as the other teacher from other school who
was doing a comparative teaching to do scoring to SMP Muhammadiyah 3
Depok. He said that this is very important to anticipate recklessness from Ss.
Then ET and R went to VIII C class.
3. T opened the class by greeting Ss and led the prayer. Around 5 Ss were still
outside the class. They went inside after the prayer ended. ET then checked the
attendance list. Around 10 Ss kept on talking then ET asked them to keep silent.
ET gave instructions in English to make up an English classroom condition. After
giving instructions in English, ET translated them into Bahasa Indonesia unless Ss
would not understand well the instruction.
4. ET then asked Ss to open their text book (English in Focus) to read a recount text.
ET then asked one of Ss to read the text loudly. S read in very low voice then ET
asked to read louder. S made errors in pronunciation while reading. ET then asked
other S to read the text.
5. ET then re-read the text to give corrections to miss-read words. While re-reading,
ET also translated the sentences. ET asked the meaning of some words to Ss but
they mostly remained silent. Only two of Ss brought dictionary. Other Ss who
didn’t bring dictionary kept on waiting for ET’s translation. Some of Ss were
chatting to their chair mate. In some words, some Ss could answer ET’s
questions.
6. ET then asked Ss to answer comprehension questions which followed the text. ET
gave 10 minutes for answering all questions. The class situation turned to be little
bit noisy and some Ss walked around the class to get answers. Some Ss discussed
with their friends to answer the questions.
7. Right after 15 minutes were already up, ET asked Ss to write their answer on the
whiteboard. Ss said that they had not done yet. ET gave them 5 more minutes to
do. After time was up, ET called some Ss to write their answer n the whiteboard.
Having finished writing the answers, some Ss were asked by ET about what they

96
 had written. They answered him in Bahasa Indonesia. Three of them couldn’t
answer correctly. It seemed that they got the answer from their friends.
8. ET then explained about the goal of recount text and grammar focus in past tense.
About 5 Ss were talking each other while ET explained the material. After that,
ET asked Ss to write their own recount text. Ss asked to ET what should they
write. ET said that they could write about their previous holiday. Some Ss had
already prepared a piece of paper but most of them were asking each other what
they should write. Some Ss already started to write the title and first sentence.
About 3 minutes later minutes later, the bell rang. ET asked Ss to keep the paper
save it for the next meeting.
9. R and ET greeted Ss then left the class. R told ET that he would do the pre test at
the following day with the same task to write a recount text.

2. While conducting The Pre Test

Field Note 2
Thursday, October 24th 2013
VIII C Class
R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher
S : Student
1. R came to the school at 10.10. The class would be at the 5th lesson hour (10.25). R
waited for ET at the lobby then after a moment ET came and R said that today he
would like to conduct a pretest in writing a recount text. ET said that it would be
better to start as soon as possible to avoid Ss went out from the class.
2. R and ET went to the class then R introduced himself. The class situation turned
noisy. R spoke louder to control the class condition. Some of Ss asked some
personal questions to R about his campus and what he wanted to do there. R them
directly started the class by leading the prayer and checking students attendance
by calling their names to know them better. While calling one by one, the class
situation became noisy again.
3. Having finished with the attendance list, R asked Ss ‘Do you still remember about
recount text that was explained yesterday?’. Ss remained silent, then R repeated
the question in Bahasa Indonesia. ‘Masih ingatkah kalian tentang teks recount
yang dijelaskan kemarin?’. Some Ss answered ‘Yes, itu tentang masa lalu’. Some
Ss answered ‘Yes, tentang libursn to?’. R answered, ‘Yes, you are right! Benar
sekali’. Then R gave each S a piece of loose paper to write their experience about
their last holiday. Some Ss said ‘Mister. Aku nggak kemana – mana e.. Terus
gimana?’. ‘Maybe, kalian pernah liburan kemana. Like, I ever visited Sundak
Beach, and so on. Seperti, pengalaman kalian mengunjungi pantai Sundak. Atau
mungkin pengalaman teman kalian atau orang yang kalian kenal, juga boleh.

97
 Okay? I give you 25 minutes to write. Saya beri waktu 25 menit, and please start
now!’.
4. Ss started to look for ideas. Some of them still did nothing but messing around
with their friends. Some of Ss who already started to write asked to R and ET the
translation of some words in to English. R walked around the class to check Ss
works. Most of Ss did not have any idea to write. Less than 10 of total Ss who
already got idea found difficulties in vocabularies and arranging sentences.
5. 5 minutes before the time limit, R reminded Ss to finish their work in 5 minutes.
Most of Ss got panicked because some of them haven’t even started yet. For those
who had already started, they only got around 3 – 5 short sentences. When the
time was already up, R asked Ss to submit their papers. The pretest products
considered very poor.
6. R closed the class by asking Ss to read their book by themselves to prepare for the
upcoming class then leaded the prayer.

3. While Working on The First Cycle

a. 1st meeting

Field Note 3
Tuesday, October 29th 2013
VIII C Class
R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher
S : Student
1. R came to the school at 7.00 to prepare for first meeting of cycle 1. R directly met
ET to discuss the lesson plan for that day. R gave the copy of lesson plan to ET to
discuss the learning objective for that day.
2. When the bell rang ET and R went to the class. ET set his position behind the
class. Unlike the previous meeting R opened the class by asking the class captain
to lead the prayer. Then R checked the attendance list. No one was absent in that
day. R continued by doing BKOF step, by asking ‘Class, I want to know about
your holiday. Ryandika, where did you go last holiday?’. Then S (Ryandika)
answered ‘What Mis?’. One of his friends helped him to translate R’s question.
‘Oh, go to Parangtritis! Yes. And Pantai Depok’. ‘What did you do there?’
‘What Mis??’ ‘Kamu di sana ngapain aja, and don’t call me Miss. Call me Mister
Popo. Okay?’ ‘Oh okay Mister Popo, I eating fish sama father and mother’
‘Oh…okay… I see. Thank you Ryandika. Very nice answer!’ R then continued to
ask some other Ss about their holiday. But for the next 2 Ss, still no one can
answer R’s questions without translation.

98
3. R continued the warming up session by asking ‘Do you know what recount text
is? Apa sih recount text itu?’. The class remained silent. Then R took the
attendance list then called two of Ss. Both of them answered the same that a
recount text is a text to tell about holiday.
4. R gave them the first handout with a recount text entitled Cave Tubing in Pindul
Cave. R gave handouts to Ss at the front row then gave them simple command to
take one then pass it to their friends behind. When this happened, the class was
little bit noisy because Ss found out some pictures in the text. Ss seemed
interested to the handouts. R asked Ss to listen to the instruction how to use the
handout. R then asked some Ss to read the text loudly. Some misspelling were
done by Ss. R directly fixed them while they were reading.
5. Having finished reading the text, R asked Ss to take a look to series of pictures at
the next page. R asked Ss to fill in the blanks under the pictures about what they
saw in each picture. R guided Ss to fill the blanks by asking them to get the
vocabularies in the text. After that, R explained generic structure of recount text
by using the picture series. R concluded the pictures based on the information
which could be derived from every picture. After that, R also explained the
function of every part in recount text by using the picture series. Unfortunately,
some Ss kept on talking while R was explaining the material.
6. After completing the blanks, R asked Ss to answer comprehensions related to the
text. Ss had less difficulty although most of them did not bring any dictionary
(only 3 Ss brought dictionary). Having finished with the comprehension
questions, R directly discussed them with Ss orally. Most of the Ss could answer
the questions correctly.
7. R then continued to explain how to use past tense and adverb of time. Almost all
Ss did not know when they had to use past tense. They also could not make
correct sentences so R gave an explanation about past tense and asked Ss to make
some sentences with new verbs related to telling experience in holiday. The
problem in this explanation is Ss had very limited vocabularies, especially in
verb.
8. After giving the task, R closed the class by greeting Ss and reminded them to
bring dictionary for the next meeting.

b. 2nd meeting

Field Note 4
Wednesday, October 30th 2013
VIII C Class
R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher
S : Student

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1. R came to the school at 9.30 to prepare for the class at 9.45. R came to the office
to meet ET then discussed plans for that day’s meeting.
2. The class was started right after the first break. When R came to the class, there
were only two third of Ss and the rest were still outside. R waited for about 3
minutes then after Ss were complete, R started the class by leading Ss to read Al
Fatihah. Then R started the class by checking the attendance list and greeting the
students in English by asking what they did last night.
3. R gave warming up activities in form of oral questions for Ss to ask some verb
that related to the upcoming task in Bahasa Indonesia and asked Ss to memorize
the translation and the past tense of them. Then R asked Ss to take their
dictionaries to be used in that meeting.
4. R gave the second worksheet with some pictures to make a recount text entitled
‘A Trip to Borobudur Temple’. R asked Ss to use the pictures and some guiding
questions under the pictures to help them in gathering ideas. R also asked Ss to
pay attention really carefully so they could get as many ideas as the picture could
provide them. R also stimulated Ss ideas by giving oral questions so Ss could be
more sensitive to the details in the picture series.
5. R observed Ss by walking around the class. Most of them got enough ideas to
write the text. Almost all Ss asked R about the translation but R persuade them to
use the dictionary and discuss the words and ideas to their partner. The situation
on the class became so noisy so that R should go around the class to supervise Ss
to write their text. More than half of the class got troubles in subject and verb
arrangement. Ss used verb1 or V-ing to write the text. They also wrote all subjects
together with to be. (they wrote ‘She is take photo.’ instead of ‘She took a
photo.’. R explained again how to use past tenses and reminded Ss many times to
use past verbs.
6. Ss got some difficulties to guess the time in the pictures. They still had many
questions about what time the activity happened. The process of gathering ideas
was monitored to be easier than without using pictures. Ss discussed the pictures
each other to get more vocabularies or just cross checking their ideas. R asked Ss
to remember the generic structure of recount text to help them worked with the
picture series.
7. After Ss already wrote their ideas, R asked them to join the sentences by using
conjunctions. Ss started to work by using conjunctions. All of instructions from R
should be translated or Ss would not understand them. Ss started to join their
ideas. R reminded Ss to use various conjunctions to prevent them of using only
one conjunction.
8. Around 10 minutes before the class ended, some Ss were done with their task.
They directly handed their papers to R. The class became a little bit noisy then R
came to the finished Ss to do interview to make the class more conducive.
9. 5 minutes before the time limit, all Ss had already submitted their work. R
continued to give the closing activities by reminding them the purpose of writing

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 recount text, the generic structure of recount text, and some conjunctions that they
could use in the text.
10. R collected all of the sheets. After that R closed the class by leading the prayer
and asked Ss to study harder then greeted Ss.
11. R and ET discussed the meeting on that day at the lobby.

4. While Working on The Second Cycle

a. 1st meeting

Field Note 4
Tuesday, November 5th 2013
VIII C Class
R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher
S : Student

1. R came to the school at 7.00 to prepare for first meeting of cycle 2. R directly met
ET to discuss the lesson plan for that day. R gave the copy of lesson plan to ET to
discuss the learning objective for that day.
2. R reported to ET about the result of cycle 1. R and ET continued to discuss the
actions which were going to be taken to solve the problems found during the first
cycle and giving follow up to student’s improvements.
3. After having discussion with ET, R entered 8C class. The condition of the class
was noisy enough so R needed to yell when he tried to silent Ss. ET helped R to
control the class. R continued by asking the leader of the class to lead the prayer.
Then R continued by greeting students and checking the attendance list. No one
was absent that day.
4. R continued by conducting warming up session. For the second cycle, R and ET
agreed to choose unlucky days as the theme. R tried to set the class circumstance
and S’s mindset into their unlucky experience by doing oral questions. Firstly,
wrote ‘UNLUCKY EXPERIENCE’ in front of the class. ‘Anyone knows the
meaning?’. Unfortunately no one answer. Then R asked to one of Ss. ‘Aji Bayu!
Boy, what is Unlucky Experience?’. ‘Apa yo Mister? Experience tu
pengalaman…. Unlucky ki opo Mister?’ ‘Unlucky means sial atau tidak
beruntung’. Then there was a long ‘Ooooh….’ heard in the class.
5. R asked to the class, R asked to 4 students about their unlucky experience.
‘Vicka, what is your unlucky experience?’ ‘Anu Mister, HP ku pernah ilang.’
‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Kasihan sekali. Where?’ ‘Where? Oh nggak tau
Mister. Di jalan kok. jatuh paling’. Then R asked to other students. They told
their experience about their unlucky days. One of them told about getting a
punishment from teacher because he was late for school. One of them told about

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 losing their money. After that, R explained the topic of the day, about unlucky
experience.
6. R continued by giving Ss new model text in handouts, entitled Bajuri’s unlucky
day. The situation was quite noisy because most Ss talked about the pictures in
the handouts by yelling to their friends. R then asked Ss to be silent. Different
from the first cycle, in the 2nd cycle R asked students to directly put the page
which displayed the pictures next to the page that contained the text. Then R
asked one of Ss to read the first paragraph. She made some errors in the
pronunciation and R gave the correction. R discussed the model text paragraph
per paragraph then he gave direction to Ss to pay attention to the pictures while
they were reading the text. This action was observed more effective than asking
Ss to look at the picture series after they have finished reading the whole text.
7. R asked Ss to do task 3 in the handout as their vocabulary enrichment. Ss directly
used the picture series to get the meaning of the words in the task. They already
got used to the picture as media. Ss did the task in less than 10 minutes. R then
asked some Ss about the translation about the translation of some sentences in the
model text. Ss could give the meaning correctly. R also asked some vocabularies
which were not in the task. R asked to one of Ss ‘Soleh, so what is the English
word of ‘ban bocor’?’. He answered ‘Flat tire, Mister’. ‘Very Good! Thank you.
So…. Inna, what about bangun tidur?’. She answered. ‘Woke up, Mister.
Ngomongnya bener kan Mister?’ ‘Yes, you’re correct. Bener, nduk! ’
8. Having completed all of the vocabulary meanings, R continued to explain the
parts of the recount text. This action did not take long time because Ss still
remembered the parts from the meetings in the first cycle. After that, R gave
instruction to Ss to look carefully to each picture, and R asked some questions
about what Ss could see in the picture. The questions were in the range about
what they could see in the picture. R considered that the oral questions would
help Ss to get more information in the picture. R then asked Ss to identify the
pictures so they could distinguish which picture belonged to which part. This step
found no problem because Ss already memorized the parts of the text well.
9. Then R continued to ask Ss to answer the questions below each pictures on the
second page of the handout. Here, R could infer that the media not only help Ss to
get new vocabularies, but also, in the same time, grew their interest to do the task.
Ss were busy and discussed about the task. Although the condition of the class
was noisy, Ss were busy discussing the pictures. Unfortunately, Ss still got some
problem in using past tense. This condition was inferred by R to remind Ss the
use of simple past tense and adverb of time in sentence.
10. As the last activity in the class, R asked Ss to discuss the answer of the questions
under each picture. After that, R closed the class by greeting Ss and asked them to
re-read the materials they had studied that day in their house.

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b. 2nd meeting

Field Note 5
Wednesday, November 6th 2013
VIII C Class
R : Researcher
ET : English Teacher
S : Student

1. R came to the school at 9.30 to prepare for the class at 9.45. R came to the office
to meet ET then discussed plans for that day’s meeting.
2. R entered 8C Class and greeted Ss. Unfortunately 3 Ss were outside so R needed
to wait for about 3 minutes. After the 3 Ss came to the class, R started the class by
asking the class leader to lead the prayer then R checked the attendance list. No
one was absent that day.
3. R started by asking Ss about the theme that had been discussed at the previous
meeting. R asked Ss by asking oral questions about the name of the character, the
bad experience that happened to him, places, and the character’s comment about
his experience. Ss could answer the questions well but R needed to say ‘Please
say it in English’ whenever Ss answered the questions.
4. R continued by telling Ss the activities that they were going to do that day. R then
gave Ss the new handouts. Some Ss were directly looked to the pictures, some of
them laughed when they had seen the pictures. Some Ss walked around to talk to
their friends about the pictures. The situation of the class turned to be noisy. R
asked Ss to sit down and he continued by asking Ss to look at the pictures. R
introduced the name of the main character in the picture. Then he continued to ask
students about detail information that they could see in the picture. After
discussed 2 pictures, R asked Ss to discuss the next pictures with their pairs and
Ss were given 5 minutes to discuss all of pictures. R also asked Ss to imagine the
time of the events in the picture in the form of afternoon so that they would not
face any problem with the exact time of the events.
5. Having finished with the picture discussion, still in pair, R asked Ss to state their
ideas derived from the pictures in the form of sentences. R also directed students
to answer the questions under the pictures to stimulate their ideas. Ss were given
10 minutes to write their ideas. While Ss were doing the task, R walked around
the class to monitor S’s work. Most of Ss did the task by themselves, they only
discussed it when they did not know the English words. Some Ss also asked to R
about the translation. The amount of the questions was lower than in the first
cycle.

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6. After 10 minutes, R discussed the answer. Ss were asked to raise their hands
when they knew the answer. In this step, the amount of Ss who raised their hands
was higher than in the first cycle. Some of Ss raised their hands more than twice
so that R needed to select the answerer to make it fairly done with different Ss. R
also got different ideas from Ss about the answer. R asked Ss to stay on their
ideas. This step was done quickly to let Ss got longer time to write their recount
text from the pictures.
7. Having finished with the ideas, R asked Ss to combine all of the sentences into
whole recount text. Again, Ss forgot how to use the time connectors, so in 5
minutes, R gave short explanation about conjunctions to show the chronologic of
the time. The writing process was done beyond R’s expectation. Approximately
80 percent of all Ss did the writing less than 15 minutes. Unfortunately, Ss who
had finished with their writing continued to talk each other in loud voice. ET
helped R by asking Ss to be silent. R walked around the class to control the
condition. Then 5 minutes before the class over, all Ss had finished the writing.
8. R closed the class by asking Ss to learn the material about recount text which had
been discussed from the first until the last meetings. R also told Ss that there
would be a writing text which would be conducted at the following day. R then
closed the class by asking Ss to say Alhamdulillah then saying goodbye.

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 INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS

Interview 1
Before gathering the data
Interviewer: Researcher
Interviewee: Students
1. Apakah Adik - Adik suka menulis dalam bahasa Inggris? Jika iya, kapan Adik -
Adik melakukannya?
S 1 : Biasa aja Mister. Kalau nggak ada PR atau tugas dari Mr. Yuli ya nggak
nulis.
S 2: Ya sebenernya males Mister.
2. Apakah Adik - Adik mengetahui jenis teks recount? Bisakah kamu
menjelaskannya secara singkat?
S 1 : Recount itu ya teks yang isinya tentang kita waktu liburan. Ya kaya pas
liburan itu ngapain aja.
S 2 : Itu menceritakan tentang tempat –tempat yang bvisa dikunjungi waktu
liburan.
3. Kalau bagian dari teks recount tau nggak ada apa aja?
S 1 : Apa ya Mister? Judul, isi, penutup.
S 2 : Nggak tau Mister. Nggak apal aku.
4. Mister mau bertanya tentang kesulitan kalian dalam menulis teks recount.
Dalam menulis teks recount, kesulitan apa yang Adik - Adik hadapi? Bisa
disebutkan?
S 1 : Bingung mau mulai dari mana nulisnya. Sama nggak tau Bahasa Inggrisnya
apa. Bingung nyambung kalimatnya juga. Terus kalau nulis itu ya biasanya males
kalo banyak – banyak. Mentok sih idenya. Banyak lah pokoknya.
S 2 : kalau aku sih ya karena kadang bosen aja. Soalnya kalo udah bingung mau
nulis apa terus nggak semangat tu lho Mister.
5. Tadi kalian bilang kalau kalian bosen dengan tugas writing. Memang apa yang
membuat kalian bosen?
S 1 : Ya habis gitu – gitu thok. Paling ya tugas dari LKS kalo nggak ya buku
paket.
S 2 : Ntar kalo nggak selesai, buat PR. Ya udah. gitu aja.
6. Tadi juga kalian sempet bilang kalau banyak yang nggak tahu bahasa Inggrisnya.
Kalian nggak punya kamus?
S 1 : Ada Mister, tapi nggak bawa. Berat soalnya.
S 2 : Aku bawa Mister. Tapi tadi dipinjem sama temen.
7. Lalu, waktu kamu dapat tugas menulis, bukan teks recount aja, maksudnya setiap
kali Mr. Yuli memberi tugas, pakai media semacam gambar atau slide gitu
nggak?

105
 S 1 : Jarang sih. paling ya gambar di LCD. Tapi ya jarang banget. Habisnya LCD
nya harus gantian sama kelas lain.
S 2 : Dulu udah pernah. Pake LCD di laboratorium Bahasa.

Interviewer: Researcher
Interviewee: Collaborator (Teacher)
1. R : Masalah apakah yang sering Bapak temui dalam proses pembelajaran teks
recount? Khususnya pada kemampuan menulis siswa?
ET : Mereka sulit dikondisikan untuk menulis. Mungkin karena kemampuan
vocab yang sangat sedikit. Pengkondisian kelas juga butuh ekstra kesabaran
karena mereka harus selalu diarahkan ketika mengerjakan tugas dan dipantau satu
per satu.
2. R : Apakah teknik yang Bapak terapkan dalam mengajar menulis, dalam hal ini
mengenai teks recount?
ET : Menggunakan contoh teks yang sudah jadi, kemudian ada tanya jawab
tentang pengalaman. Lalu siswa diberi contoh untuk menulis teks recount yang
benar. tapi ya tetap saja banyak yang kesulitan. Kadang mereka malah bengong
atau bercanda ketika buntu mau menulis apa.
3. R : Media seperti apakah yang sering Bapak gunakan dalam mengajar menulis
teks recount?
ET : Kalau media ya mungkin gambar di LCD, saya berikan dalam bentuk power
point. Tapi itu juga tidak setiap saat karena memang penggunaan fasilitas harus
bergantian dengan kelas lain.
4. R : Menurut Bapak, apakah media seperti gambar dengan berbagai variasinya
akan membantu siswa dalam menulis teks recount?
ET : Sebenarnya sangat membantu dalam membangun ide. karena bisa
memberikan contoh nyata. Tetapi lagi – lagi biasanya terbentur dengan
keterbatasan fasilitas dan kemampuan siswa.

Interview 2
After teaching 1st meeting 1st cycle.
Interviewer: Researcher
Interviewee: Students
1. Apakah penjelasan saya tentang recount text tadi sudah cukup jelas?
S 1 : Ya Mister. sudah jelas. Tapi ngomongnya jangan cepet – cepet Mister.
S 2 : Jelas Mister. Tapi aku nggak mudeng kalau pakai Bahasa Inggris terus.
2. Apakah kalian sudah mengetahui dengan baik fungsi dari recount text?
S 1 : Untuk menceritakan liburan kita sendiri bisa, untuk menceritakan
pengalaman liburan orang lain juga boleh. Ya misalnya kaya cerita tentang
holiday experience yang tadi di Gua Pindul itu.
S 2 : Sama buat njelasin juga pas sampai di tempat liburan itu ngapain aja, terus
makan apa, dimana, perasaannya seneng apa nggak.

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3. Apakah kalian sekarang sudah mengetahui bagian dari recount text?
S 1 : Pembukaan yang tadi namanya apa ya, lupa. sama events. yang isinya urutan
kegiatannya. Nah itu tuh nyebutin nya harus urut. Misalnya pertama kemana,
terus kemana, terus kemana gitu. Habis itu akhirnya ditutupnya pake perasaan
pada hari itu.
S 2: Yang pembukaan itu isinya orang nya siapa aja, terus liburannya kemana.
Terus disebutin semua kegiatannya ngapain aja. Pas liburan tu apa aja yang
dibawa. Makan apa. Sama terakhir itu, perasaan setelah liburan.
4. Apakah dengan bantuan gambar – gambar tadi, Adik – Adik bisa memahami
bagian dan fungsi teks recount dengan lebih baik.
S 1 : Kalo kataku sih iya, Mister. Kan Misternya nerangin, kita liat aja gambarnya
sambil ndengerin, udah. Gampang sih kalo pake gambar.
S 2 : Aku habis diterangin pakai gambar jadi mudeng Mister. Ntar kalau ada soal
apa suruh bikin teks kaya gitu ya kayanya bisa.
5. Apakah kalian bisa memberi tahu saya tenses apa yang harus digunakan untuk
menulis teks recount?
S 1 : Pakai past tense. Tapi ya itu Mister. Aku nggak apal e. Susah ngapalinnya
S 2 : Pakai verb dua ya Mister? Aku agak bingung tapi nek nggak pakai kamus
soalnya verb duanya tu lho susah.
6. Apakah gambar – gambar tadi bisa membantu Adik – Adik untuk memahami
kosa kata baru dari recount text tersebut?
S 1 : Membantu sekali sih Mister. Sebenernya nggak usah pake kamus juga udah
mudeng Mister. Sama gambarnya bikin lebih seneng bacanya.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Soalnya kalo nggak ada gambarnya tuh bingung e. kalau ada
gambarnya kan bisa dibayangin orangnya ngapain aja. Tinggal di pas pasin aja.

Interviewer : Researcher
Interviewee : Collaborator teacher
1. Apakah menurut Bapak, penjelasan saya tadi ditangkap dengan cukup bagus oleh
siswa?
ET : Cukup jelas sebenarnya mas. Tapi ya itu, siswa yang ngomong sendiri nggak
memperhatikan tetap ada satu dua orang. kalau dari materi sudah jelas dan
detail.
2. Menurut pengamatan Bapak, apakah mereka bisa memahami isi bacaan dengan
lebih baik dengan media yang saya berikan?
ET : Bisa mas, soalnya contoh di teks yang mas bawakan sudah ada gambar dan
urutan peristiwa nya. walaupun nggak pakai kamus, mereka bisa memahami.
3. Apakah saran Bapak untuk pertemuan yang akan datang?
ET : Tolong untuk pengkondisian kelas sebaiknya ditegaskan saja. Lalu beberapa
new vocabularies diulang beberapa kali agar mereka lebih paham.

Interview 3
After teaching 2nd meeting 1st cycle.

107
Interviewer: Researcher
Interviewee: Students
1. Apakah penjelasan tadi cukup jelas?
S 1 : Jelas Mister. Tapi Misternya ngomongnya masih cepet – cepet.
S 2 : Lumayan Mister.
2. Apakah dengan adanya gambar yg berurutan cukup membantu dalam menulis
teks recount?
S 1 : Iya Mister.soalnya jelas mau nulis apa dan nggak lama mikirnya. Sama bikin
urutannya gampang.
S 2 : Enakan pake gambar Mister. Soalnya kan mau nulis apa juga tinggal liat di
gambar. Sama tadi kan juga di bantu buat ngeliat benda – benda dan tempatnya.
3. Apakah dengan media gambar Adik - Adik bisa mengingat kosa kata dengan
lebih baik?
S 1 : Iya sih. Soalnya inget artinya dari liat gambarnya. Tapi ya untuk nyari
Bahasa Inggrisnya buat yang pertama kali tetep butuh kamus.
S 2 : Ya gampang Mister. Enak soalnya. Aku tadi nggak sering pake kamus bisa
lho.
4. Menurut Adik - Adik apakah gambar – gambar tadi cukup membantu dalam
mencari ide dan membuatnya menjadi tulisan utuh?
S 1 : Lebih gampang pake gambar soalnya nggak bingung sih mister, Kan tinggal
kaya bikin komik gitu. Kalau nggak pake gambar bingung mau nulis apa.
S 2 : Lumayan sih Mister. Tinggal liat aja di gambar satu ada apa, ngapain, kedua
ngapain. Tapi aku kadang lupa nyambungnya gimana.
5. Bagaimana dengan tugas tadi, apakah dapat dikerjakan dengan baik?
S 1 : Lumayan Mister. tapi ya masih banyak yang lupa verb 2 nya.
S 2 : Aku agak bingung waktunya Mister, pagi apa siang sore gitu. Habis nggak
ada tulisan jam berapa sih.
6. Apakah tugas dengan gambar - gambar seperti tadi membantu kalian menyusun
ide untuk menulis teks recount?
S 1 : Gampang nyusun idenya Mister kalau pake gambar. Aku sekarang juga jadi
tau kalau menulis itu yang ditulis apa aja.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Karena ada gambarnya aku jadi nggak kelamaan mikir waktu
nyusunnya.
7. Apakah dengan gambar kalian jadi lebih tertarik untuk mengerjakannya?
S 1 : Kalo aku iya Mister. Gambarnya bikin lebih menarik jadi nggak bosen.
S 2 : Aku sih tertarik Mister. Soale ya gambare itu bagus terus ya tinggal ngikutin
aja sama urutannya.
8. Adakah kesulitan dalam mengerjakan tugas tersebut?
S 1 : Susah bikin past tense nya.soalnya nggak apal tu lho.
S 2 : Sama, Mister. Sama cara nyambungnya. Aku keseringan pake then aja.

Interviewer : Researcher
Interviewee: Collaborator

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1. Bagaimanakah penjelasan saya di kelas Bapak?
ET : Sudah jelas Mas. Nanti coba kita lihat hasil menulis anak – anak seperti apa.
2. Menurut Bapak, apakah siswa dengan baik menerima penjelasan saya?
ET : Kalau dilihat dari keaktifan mereka menjawab oral questions, ya sepertinya
sudah cukup baik mas.
3. Menurut Bapak, apakah gambar dalam penjelasan saya cukup membantu siswa
dalam menulis teks recount?
ET : Ya Mas. Gambar – gambar yang dibentuk secara berurutan bisa membantu
mereka menulis teks sesuai dengan gambar – gambar tersebut. Gambar – gambar
itu juga bisa membantu mereka untuk mencari bahan tulisan seperti noun dan
verb yang harus mereka cantumkan.
4. Setelah siklus pertama ini, menurut Bapak, apakah kelebihan dan kelemahan dari
media yang saya gunakan?
ET : Kelebihannya ya seperti tadi saya bilang, media ini membantu anak – anak
dalam mencari ide, mengurutkan peristiwa, dibantu dengan penjelasan
Mas,mereka bisa lebih memahami past tense dan conjunctions. Mereka bisa lebih
cepat menulis karena sudah terbantu dalam pencarian ide.
Kelemahannya, mungkin keterangan waktunya perlu ditambah karena di dalam
gambar tidak ada penjelasan tentang keterangan waktu semisal jam berapa
peristiwa tersebut terjadi.
5. Apakah saran Bapak untuk pertemuan yang akan datang?
ET : Saran saya tolong untuk yang besok, keterangan waktunya diperjelas saja.
Kalau di gambar susah, ya ditulis aja juga bisa.

Interview 4
After teaching 1st meeting 2nd cycle.
Interviewer: Researcher
Interviewee: Students
1. Bagaimana dengan tema hari ini? Apakah kalian menyukainya?
S 1 : Suka Mister. Menarik soalnya aku juga udah pernah kena pengalaman buruk
sih.
S 2 : Aku juga suka Mister. Kalo aku sukanya karena lucu aja itu ceritanya.
2. Apakah kalian sudah mengetahui tujuan lain dari penulisan recount text?
S 1: Menceritakan pengalaman buruk kita.
S 2 : Ya buat nyeritain pengalaman yang buruk juga. Nggak cuma yang seneng –
seneng pas liburan.
3. Apakah dengan mengetahui tujuan penulisan yang tadi, kalian bisa menulis
recount text dengan lebih mudah?
S 1 : Iya mister. Tadinya tak kira recount tu cuma untuk menceritakan liburan tok.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Aku juga baru mudeng kalo pengalaman buruk itu bisa jadi teks
recount.

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4. Apakah gambar – gambar tadi membantu kalian dalam memahami contoh teks
yang Mister berikan?
S 1 : Iya Mister. Soalnya gambarnya sama kaya isi ceritanya. Aku nggak usah
mbayangin sih. Tinggal liat aja.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Gambarnya lengkap soalnya. Satu paragraf satu gambar.
5. Apakah kalian mendapatkan kata - kata baru dari teks tadi? Apakah gambar –
gambar tadi membantu kalian memahami dan mengingatnya?
S 1 : Iya Mister. Kaya yang tentang liburan itu. Kalo aku nggak tau artinya, liat
gambar aja. ga usah liat kamus. Lagian aku nggak bawa kamus.
S 2 : Aku dapet beberapa kata baru Mister. Tapi kalo sekarang aku belum apal
semuanya.
6. Kira – kira apa saja yang kalian harus sebutkan bila kalian ingin bercerita tentang
pengalaman buruk kalian?
S 1 : Apa ya? Mulainya gimana, terus pengalamannya gimana, terus akhirnya
ngomong aja kalau itu pengalaman yang buruk.
S 2 : Kalo aku sih pake tempatnya dimana, sama pengalamannya kapan. Siang
apa pagi. Gitu.
7. Apakah penjelasan Mister tentang bagian – bagian dari teks recount tadi
membantu kalian untuk memahami apa yang harus kalian tulis dalam teks
recount?
S 1 : Iya Mister. Masih sama sih kaya yang pas Mister nerangin pertama.
S 2 : Aku sih paham Mister. Ya tinggal nyebutin aja pengalamannya gimana,
dimana, gara – gara apa, terus perasaan kesel kita.
8. Kesulitan – kesulitan apa yang adik – adik dapatkan ketika mengerjakan task
tadi?
S 1 : Apa ya? Aku nggak ada sih.
S 2: Aku agak bingung. Soalnya itu tentang orang kuliah sih. Nggak dong aja
pertamanya.

Interviewer : Researcher
Interviewee: English Teacher Collaborator
1. Bagaimana pendapat Bapak tentang pertemuan pertama di cycle kedua ini?
ET : Keseluruhan lancar Mas. Ya mungkin karena anak – anak sudah terbiasa
dengan media dari Mas-e.
2. Apakah media gambar yang diberikan di pertemuan ini sudah lebih jelas daripada
yang sebelumnya?
ET : Ya. Sudah lebih baik Mas. Waktunya sudah lebih jelas. Cuma gambarnya
tadi ada yang gelap. Jadi mungkin anak bertanya – tanya ini si tokoh sebetulnya
sedang apa.
3. Menurut pendapat Bapak, apakah media gambar ini memberikan pengaruh positif
tentang pemahaman siswa pada kosa kata yang baru saya berikan hari ini?

110
 ET : Media gambar dari Mas tadi bagus. Jadinya mereka tertarik sama isinya.
Tapi yang saya kuatirkan mereka lupa sama kata – kata yang mereka pelajari
kalau terlalu banyak.
4. Apakah ada koreksi dan masukan untuk pertemuan mendatang?
ET : Kata – kata baru memang harus selalu diulang. Kalau perlu ditanyai satu –
satu. Sama sebelum pertemuan, Mas nya njelasin dulu, hari ini kita akan
mempelajari kata – kata berikut ini. Mungkin itu saja.

Interview 5
After teaching 2nd meeting 2nd cycle.
Interviewer: Researcher
Interviewee: Students
1. Bagaimana pendapat kalian tentang kegiatan hari ini? Apakah kalian
menyukai bentuk tugas yang Mister berikan?
S 1 : Aku suka yang kaya gini Mister. Soalnya asik kalo ada gambarnya.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Aku suka yang ada gambarnya apalagi kalo pake foto. Nyata
gitu lho.
2. Apakah kalian mendapatkan ide – ide seperti tempat, benda yang terlihat, dan
aktivitas untuk menuliskan pengalaman buruk si tokoh di dalam gambar tadi?
S1 : Iya Mister. Tinggal liat aja di gambar ada apa. Kalo ide banyak kok
Mister. Masalahnya Mister, aku nggak tau Bahasa Inggrisnya.
S 2 : Iya Mister. Soalnya di gambar udah kelihatan jelas.
3. Apakah gambar – gambar tadi membantu kalian untuk menyusun kata – kata
atau ide – ide kalian menjadi teks recount yang utuh?
S 1 : Gampangan pake gambar ini Mister. Ikutin aja gambarnya pas waktu
nyusun.
S 2 : Kalo nggak ada gambarnya ya kelamaan mikir Mister.
4. Kemarin Mister sudah menerangkan tentang bagian – bagian dari recount text
untuk menceritakan pengalaman buruk. Nah, sambil melihat gambar, apakah
dari penjelasan itu bisa membantu kalian dalam mencari ide untuk menulis?
S 1 : Iya Mister. Kalau nggak dijelasin, aku bingung mesti nulis apa.
Gambarnya mau diapain.
S 2 : Kalau aku, habis dijelasin jadi lebih gampang pas nulis urutannya sih
Mister.
5. Di pertemuan kedua ini, apakah kalian sudah bisa menggunakan keterangan
waktu dengan tepat dan jenis – jenis lain dari conjunction?
S 1 : Iya Mister. Ternyata nggak usah pakai gambar jam juga udah bisa. Kalo
untuk nggabungin, udah bisa kok. Asal nggak lupa aja.
S 2 : Aku udah bisa kok Mister. Ya karena nggak ada jamnya, aku kira – kira
aja waktunya. Pas nggabungin, ya aku pake yang dijelasin sama Mister nya.
6. Setelah kalian mengerjakan tugas tadi, apakah kalian mengetahui cara
menuliskan pengalaman buruk kalian agar lebih lengkap dan menarik?

111
 S 1 : Kalo nulis pengalaman buruk harus jelas awalnya gimana, terus
kejadiannya apa aja, urut. Habis itu perasaan kita ditulis di akhir nya.
S 2 : Tau Mister. Nulisnya kaya yang di gambar. Awalnya dulu, terus
kejadiannya pas pengalaman buruk, sama terakhirnya nulis komentar kita.
7. Apakah kalian mendapatkan kesulitan ketika mengerjakan tugas tadi?
S 1 : Apa ya? Nggak tau. Kayanya nggak ada.
S 2 : Gampang kok Mister. Mudah – mudahan ulangannya Mr. Yuli juga pake
gambar.

Interviewer : Researcher
Interviewee: Collaborator
1. Bagaimana pendapat Bapak tentang kegiatan kelas hari ini?
ET : Lancar Mas. Tidak ada kendala yang besar.
2. Menurut Bapak, dengan media gambar – gambar tadi apakah para siswa
terbantu untuk mencari ide untuk bahan menulis teks recount, terutama
tentang pengalaman buruk?
ET : Ya Mas. Tampaknya karena mereka juga tertarik sama gambar – gambar
itu. Dan lebih baik lagi karena mas pakai foto jadi lebih nyata. Tapi saya lihat
memang media ini cocoknya untuk siswa yang sudah mempunyai kemampuan
Bahasa Inggris yang cukup. Kalu untuk mereka yang benar – benar tidak bisa,
mungkin akan kesulitan menggunakannya.
3. Apakah ada saran dan koreksi untuk kegiatan pada hari ini?
ET : Tidak ada Mas. Semua lancar.
4. Menurut Bapak, apakah para siswa sudah siap untuk menghadapi post test
yang akan dilaksanakan besok?
ET : Bila mereka belajar tentunya bisa.

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 COURSE GRID

School : SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok

Grade : VIII (Eight)
Subject : English
Semester : 1 (One)
Skill : Writing
Standard of Competence : 6. To express meaning in short functional written text and simple essay in the form of
descriptive, recount
and exposition to interact in daily life and in academic context.
Basic Competence : 6.2. To express meaning in a simple short essay accurately, fluently, and appropriately
in the form descriptive, recount, and exposition to interact in daily life and in
academic context.
M Indicators Learning Material Learning Activities Assessments Time
eet
ing
I 1. Students are able to 1. Recount text entitled Opening activities Cave Tubing in Pindul Cave 2x
recognize a recount ‘Cave Tubing in Pindul a) The teacher greets the students. 40
In this picture,
text. Cave’. b) The teacher asks one of the you can see : mins.
2. Students are able to 2. Vocabulary students to lead a prayer. - Place :
know the social • Verbs in past tense. c) The teacher asks students’ ………….
- Activity :
function of a Went, wanted, condition and attendance.
…………
recount text. bought, wore, kept, d) The teacher informs the - Time :
3. Students are able to felt. material for the day. ………….

96
 identify the generic • Noun (Equipments
structure and and places) ; tube, life - Main activities
language features jacket, rubber shoes, a) Building Knowledge of the
of a recount text. cave, meatball seller. Field (BKoF) You can see : You can see :
4. Students are able to • Prepositions: at, in, • The teacher gives warming-up Place : …………. equipment : . . . .
use language questions related to their last Activity : ………… .
inside, on etc.
activity : . . . . . .
features in a • Conjunctions : Firstly, holiday to gather students’
recount text then, next, after that, attention and vocabularies.
properly. (simple and then, finally. • The teacher gives students
past tense and • Adverb of time : some questions related to their You can see :
adverb of time) You can see :
yesterday, last week, knowledge about recount text. equipment : . ..
equipment : . . . .
5. Students are able to two months ago. .
activity : . . . . .
use picture series as b) Modelling of the Text (MoT). activity : . . . . . .
media to make a 3. Generic Structure • The teacher gives an example
recount text. explanation about of a recount text and series of
Recount text entitled pictures that described the text.
You can see : You can see :
‘Cave Tubing in Pindul • The teacher explains the - Place : ………… - Place : …………
Cave’. generic structure of a recount - Activity : ……… - Activity : ………
text and the function of each
part in the text.
• The teacher asks students to
categorize sentences and
pictures based on the generic You can see : You can see :
Drink : . . . . . Place : . . . . .
structure of the recount text. Activity : . . . . . . Activity : . . . . .
• The teacher explains the
language features of a recount
text.
• The teacher asks students to You can see :
pay attention to the language You can see : - impression : . .

97
 features of the given recount Food : . . . . . . . .. ..
Drink : . . . . .
text.
Activity : . . . . . . - Activity : . . . . .
• The teacher explains how to ..
use the picture series to gather
student’s ideas. Comprehension questions
• The teacher explains and 1. Where did Kessi and her
shows how to use the picture friends go?
series to make sentences to be
2. What did they do there?
a recount text.
3. What equipments did they
c) Joint Construction of the Text wear before starting the trip?
(JCoT)
4. What did they do inside the
• The teacher asks students to
pay attention to the pictures cave?
and match the pictures to the 5. What did they do after the
parts of the recount text in trip?
pairs. 6. How did they feel about the
• Teacher asks students to
trip?
answer in pairs some
comprehension questions
related to the text.

d) Individual Construction of
the Text (ICoT)
• The teacher asks students to
pay attention carefully to the
picture series and write their
ideas from each picture under
it.

98
 • The teacher asks students to
write their ideas in the form of
sentences.

Closing activities
a) The teacher reviews the
material briefly.
b) The teacher asks students
whether they understood the
material.
c) The teacher asks students
whether the media helped them
to understand a recount text.
d) The teacher asks students to
keep their portfolio to be used
again for the upcoming
meeting.
e) The teacher asks students to
review the material in their
house.
f) The teacher closes the class by
greeting students.

II 1. Students are able to Vocabulary - Opening activities 2 x 40

gather ideas by • Verbs in past tense. a) The teacher greets the students. minut
using series of Went, wanted, b) The teacher asks one of the es
pictures. bought, wore, kept, students to lead a prayer.
you can see :
2. Students are able to felt. c) The teacher asks students’ you can see :
- Place : ………….
- Place : ………….
find the words they • Noun (places and condition and attendance. - Activity :

99
 need to state their things) temple, d) The teacher informs the - Activity : ………… …………
- Time : ………….
ideas. paintings, museum, material for the day.
3. Students are able to food, dinner.
make an outline of a • Prepositions: at, in, - Main activities
recount text from inside, on etc. a) Building Knowledge of the
ideas derived from • Conjunctions : Firstly, Field (BKoF)
picture series. then, next, after that, • The teacher gives warming-up
4. Students are able to and then, finally. questions related to their last
make a recount text Your outline : Your Outline :
• Adverb of time : meeting.
from their outline. yesterday, last week, • The teacher gives students
two months ago. some questions about using
simple past tenses and some
past verb.
you can see : you can see :
• The teacher asks students to - Person :
- Person : ………….
open the previous portfolio ………….
entitled ‘Cave Tubing in Pindul - Activity : …………
Cave’ - Activity :
…………
Your Outline : Your Outline :
b) Modelling of the Text (MoT)
• The teacher gives students a
new portfolio with new series
of pictures inside and brief
overview about the portfolio. you can see : you can see :
• The teacher asks students to - Place : …………. - Place : ………….
- Activity : ………… - Activity :
guess what they can see in the …………
pictures. Your Outline : Your Outline
• The teacher asks students to
categorize pictures on the
portfolio to the generic

100
 structure of recount text.
c) Joint Construction of the Text you can see :
you can see :
(JCoT) - Place : …………. - Place : ………….
• Teacher asks students to work
- Activity : ………… - Activity :
in pairs to complete the blanks …………
in the pictures based on what Your Outline : Your Outline :
they can see in the pictures.
• Teacher asks students to make
an outline from the words they
have derived from pictures you can see :
you can see :
- Place : ………….
d) Individual Construction of the - Place : ………….
- Activity : …………
Text (ICoT) - Activity :
…………
• The teacher asks students to Your Outline : Your Outline :
make their recount text based Your Outline :
on the outline they have made. ...

- Closing activities You can see :

- impression : . . . .
a) The teacher reviews the ..
material briefly. Activity : . . . .
b) The teacher asks students
whether they understood the
material.
c) The teacher asks students
whether the pictures series help
them to make recount text.
d) The teacher asks students to
review the material in their
house.

101
 e) The teacher closes the class by
greeting students.
III 1. Students are able to 1. Recount text entitled - Opening activities 2x
recognize a recount ‘Bajuri’s Unlucky a) The teacher greets the students. Bajuri’s Unlucky Day 40
text. Day’. b) The teacher asks one of the mins
2. Students are able to 2. Vocabulary students to lead a prayer.
know the social • Verbs in past tense. c) The teacher asks students’ 3. What did he
do after that?
function of a Woke up, went, condition and attendance. 1. What did Bajuri
recount text. played, slept, pushed, d) The teacher informs the do?
3. Students are able to material for the day. 2. What time did
missed. he play it?
identify the generic - Main activities
• Noun (Equipments Your sentence here : Your sentence
structure and a) Building Knowledge of the here :
and places) ; tyre
language features of Field (BKoF)
repair stall, class,
a recount text. • The teacher gives warming-up
4. Students are able to motorcycle.
questions related to their last
use language • Prepositions: at, in, holiday. 7. What
inside, on etc. 4. What happened to
features in a recount • The teacher gives students happened his
text properly. • Conjunctions : Firstly, some questions related to their when Bajuri motorcycle?
(simple past tense then, next, after that, knowledge about recount text. woke up?
and adverb of time) and then, finally. 5. What did he
have actually?
5. Students are able to • Adverb of time : b) Modelling of the Text (MoT). 6. What did he do
use picture series as yesterday, last night • The teacher gives an example after wake up?
media to make a of a recount text and series of Your sentence here : Your sentence
recount text. 3. Generic Structure pictures that described in the here :
explanation about text.
Recount text entitled • The teacher explains the
‘Bajuri’s Unlucky Day. generic structure of a recount 9. Where did
8. What did Bajuri Bajuri fix the
text.
do then? problem?
• The teacher asks students to 10. How did he

102
 categorize sentences and fix it?
pictures based on the generic
structure of the recount text. Your sentence here : Your sentence
• The teacher explains the here :
language features of a recount
text.
• The teacher asks students to 11. What did Bajuri 13. What did he
see? think?
pay attention to the language 14. How did
12. What did it
features of the given recount mean? Bajuri feel?
text. Your sentence here : Your sentence
• The teacher explains how to here :
use the picture series to gather
student’s ideas.
• The teacher explains and
shows how to use the picture
series to make an outline of a
recount text.

c) Joint Construction of the Text

(JCoT)
• The teacher asks students to
pay attention to the pictures
and match the pictures to the
parts of the recount text in
pairs.
• Teacher asks students to
answer in pairs some
comprehension questions
related to the text.

103
• Teacher asks students to fill the
vocabulary enrichment table.
d) Individual Construction of the
Text (ICoT)
• The teacher asks students to
pay attention carefully to the
picture series and write their
ideas from each picture under
it.
• The teacher asks students to
write their ideas in the form of
sentences.
- Closing activities
a) The teacher reviews the
material briefly.
b) The teacher asks students
whether they understood the
material.
c) The teacher asks students
whether the media helped them
to understand a recount text.
d) The teacher asks students to
keep their portfolio to be used
again for the upcoming
meeting.
e) The teacher asks students to
review the material in their
house.
f) The teacher closes the class by

104
 greeting students.
IV 1. Students are able to Vocabulary - Opening activities 2x
gather ideas by • Verbs in past tense. a) The teacher greets the students. Yoko’s Unlucky Day 40
using series of Went, wanted, woke b) The teacher asks one of the minu
pictures. up, waited, received, students to lead a prayer. tes
2. Students are able to lost, fired. c) The teacher asks students’
find the words they • Noun (places and condition and attendance. 3. Who was he?
1. What did Yoko
need to state their d) The teacher informs the 4. What did he
things) message, café, do?
do? Where?
ideas. material for the day. 2. What time did
gas station, this activity
3. Students are able to
make an outline of a motorcycle, toilet, - Main activities happen?
recount text from key. b) Building Knowledge of the
Your sentences here Your sentences
: here :
ideas derived from • Prepositions: at, in, Field (BKoF)
picture series. inside, on etc. • The teacher gives warming-up
4. Students are able to • Conjunctions : Firstly, questions related to their last
make a recount text then, next, after that, meeting. 5. Who texted 7. What did he
from their outline. and then, finally. • The teacher gives students Yoko? search?
Adverb of time : some questions about using
6. What did Yoko
feel?
yesterday, this simple past tenses and some Your sentences here Your sentences
morning.. past verb. : here :
• The teacher asks students to
10. What was
open the previous portfolio
entitled ‘Cave Tubing in Pindul
Cave’ 8. Where did he
find it? wrong with
9. What did Yoko Yoko’s
b) Modelling of the Text (MoT) motorcycle?
do after that?
• The teacher gives students a Your sentence here : Your sentence here
new portfolio with new series :
of pictures inside and brief

105
 overview about the portfolio.
• The teacher asks students to
guess what they can see in the 11. What did Yoko 12. What did
pictures. do next? happen in
• The teacher asks students to the café?
categorize pictures on the 13. What did
portfolio to the generic Yoko feel?
Your sentence here : Your sentence here
structure of recount text. :
14. What did
c) Joint Construction of the Text happen to
(JCoT) Yoko?
• Teacher asks students to work 15. What did he
feel
in pairs to complete the blanks probably?
in the pictures based on what Your sentence here :
they can see in the pictures.
• Teacher asks students to make
an outline from the words they
have derived from pictures
d) Individual Construction of the
Text (ICoT)
• The teacher asks students to
make their recount text based
on the outline they have made.

- Closing activities
a) The teacher reviews the
material briefly.
b) The teacher asks students
whether they understood the

106
 material.
c) The teacher asks students
whether the pictures series help
them to make recount text.
d) The teacher asks students to
review the material in their
house.
e) The teacher closes the class by
greeting students.

107
 Lesson Plan I

School : SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok

Subject : English
Skill : Writing
Grade/Semester : VIII/1
Time Allocation : 2 X 40 minutes

A. Standard Competence
Writing
6. To express meaning in short functional written text and simple essay in the form of
descriptive, recount and exposition to interact in daily life and in academic context

B. Basic Competence
Writing
6.2 To express meaning in a simple short essay accurately, fluently, and appropriately in
the form descriptive, recount, and exposition to interact in daily life and in
academic context

C. Indicators
6. Students are able to recognize a recount text.
7. Students are able to know the social function of a recount text.
8. Students are able to identify the generic structure and language features of a
recount text.
9. Students are able to use language features in a recount text properly. (simple
past tense and adverb of time)
10. Students are able to use picture series as media to make a recount text.
D. Learning Objective
At the end of the lesson, the students are able to :
1. recognize a recount text.

96
 2. know the social function of a recount text.
3. identify the generic structure and language features of a recount text.
4. use language features in a recount text properly. (simple past tense and adverb
of time)
5. Students are able to use picture series as media to make a recount text.
E. Learning Materials
Simple Past Tense

Simple past tense is used to say an activity happened in past time.

Positive sentences.

Study the following sentences

1. Anas and Rohmat went to Baron Beach last weekend.

They rode a motorcycle.

Pattern : Subject + Verb 2

for positive sentences 

Anas and Rohmat went to Baron Beach last weekend.

Subject V2 adverb of place

They rode a motorcycle.

Subject V2 Object

for the adverb of time, you can use :

- Yesterday, . . . . . . - Last holiday, . . . . . .

- Two days ago, . . . . . - Last weekend, . . . .
- a week ago, . . . . . . - Last night, . . . . .
- two years ago, . . . . - This morning, . . . . . ..
- last year, . . . . . - One day, . . . . . . .

97
 Cave Tubing in Pindul Cave
Last holiday, Kessi, Ajeng, and Anes went to Pindul cave. They went there at the
afternoon. They wanted to do cave tubing there.

Firstly, they bought tickets at the locket. After that, they wore life jacket. It kept
them safe in the cave. Then, they wore rubber shoes. They also brought some big
tubes.

Then, they directly went inside the cave on the big tube. They felt very excited.
Inside the cave, they took off the tube then swam in the water. There were also
some people inside the cave.

After they finished the trip, they drank ‘wedang pindul’. Then they saw a meatball
seller nearby. Suddenly, they felt very hungry. Then, they ordered meatball and iced
tea.

They finished the trip in Pindul Cave. It was a very happy trip.

Task 2. Pay attention to the generic structure of the recount text below.

Paragraphs Parts

Last holiday, Kessi, Ajeng, and Anes went to Pindul cave. Orientation
They went there at the afternoon. They wanted to do cave
tubing there.

Firstly, they bought tickets at the locket. After that, they Events (1)
wore life jacket. It kept them safe in the cave. Then, they
wore rubber shoes. They also brought some big tubes.

Then, they directly went inside the cave on the big tube. Events (2)
They felt very excited. Inside the cave, they took off the
tube then swam in the water. There were also some people
inside the cave.
After they finished the trip, they drank ‘wedang pindul’.
Then they saw a meatball seller nearby. Suddenly, they felt Events (3)
very hungry. Then, they ordered meatball and iced tea.
They finished the trip in Pindul Cave. It was a very happy Re-orientation
trip.

98
F. Teaching Method
Communicative language teaching
1. BKOF (Building Knowledge of the Field)
2. MOT (Modelling of the Text)
3. JCOT (Joint Construction of the Text)
4. ICOT (Independent Construction of the Text)
G. Learning Activities
- Opening activities
e) The teacher greets the students.
f) The teacher asks one of the students to lead a prayer.
g) The teacher asks students’ condition and attendance.
h) The teacher informs the material for the day.
- Main activities
c) Building Knowledge of the Field (BKoF)
• The teacher gives warming-up questions related to their last holiday to
gather students’ attention and vocabularies.
• The teacher gives students some questions related to their knowledge about
recount text.

b) Modelling of the Text (MoT).

• The teacher gives an example of a recount text and series of pictures that
described the text.
• The teacher explains the generic structure of a recount text and the function
of each part in the text.
• The teacher asks students to categorize sentences and pictures based on the
generic structure of the recount text.
• The teacher explains the language features of a recount text.
• The teacher asks students to pay attention to the language features of the
given recount text.

99
 • The teacher explains how to use the picture series to gather student’s ideas.
• The teacher explains and shows how to use the picture series to make
sentences to be a recount text.

c) Joint Construction of the Text (JCoT)

• The teacher asks students to pay attention to the pictures and match the
pictures to the parts of the recount text in pairs.
• Teacher asks students to answer in pairs some comprehension questions
related to the text.
d) Individual Construction of the Text (ICoT)
• The teacher asks students to pay attention carefully to the picture series and
write their ideas from each picture under it.
• The teacher asks students to write their ideas in the form of sentences.
- Closing activities
g) The teacher reviews the material briefly.
h) The teacher asks students whether they understood the material.
i) The teacher asks students whether the media helped them to understand a
recount text.
j) The teacher asks students to keep their portfolio to be used again for the
upcoming meeting.
k) The teacher asks students to review the material in their house.
l) The teacher closes the class by greeting students.

100
H. Assessments
Cave Tubing in Pindul Cave
In this picture, you can see :
- Place : ………….

- Activity : …………

- Time : ………….

You can see : You can see : You can see : You can see :
Place : …………. equipment : . . . . . equipment : . .. equipment : . . . . .
Activity : ………… activity : . . . . . . activity : . . . . . activity : . . . . . .

You can see : You can see :

- Place : ………… - Place : …………
- Activity : ……… - Activity : ………

You can see : You can see : You can see :

Drink : . . . . . Place : . . . . . Food : . . . . . . .
Activity : . . . . . . Activity : . . . . . . Drink : . . . . .
Activity : . . . . . .

You can see :

- impression : . . . . . .

Activity : . . . . . . .

101
7. Where did Kessi and her friends go?
8. What did they do there?
9. What equipments did they wear before starting the trip?
10. What did they do inside the cave?
11. What did they do after the trip?
12. How did they feel about the trip?

102
 Lesson Plan II

School : SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok

Subject : English
Skill : Writing
Grade/Semester : VIII/1
Meeting :
Time Allocation : 2 X 40 minutes

A. Standard Competence
Writing
6. To express meaning in short functional written text and simple essay in the form of
descriptive, recount and exposition to interact in daily life and in academic context

B. Basic Competence
Writing
6.2 To express meaning in a simple short essay accurately, fluently, and appropriately in
the form descriptive, recount, and exposition to interact in daily life and in
academic context

C. Indicators
11. Students are able to gather ideas by using series of pictures.
12. Students are able to find the words they need to state their ideas.
13. Students are able to make an outline of a recount text from ideas derived from
picture series.
14. Students are able to make a recount text from their outline.
D. Learning Objective
At the end of the lesson, the students are able to :
6. gather ideas by using series of pictures.
7. find the words they need to state their ideas.

103
 8. make an outline of a recount text from ideas derived from picture series.
9. make a recount text from their outline.
E. Learning Materials
Simple Past Tense

Simple past tense is used to say an activity happened in past time.

Positive sentences.

Study the following sentences

2. Anas and Rohmat went to Baron Beach last weekend.

They rode a motorcycle.

Pattern : Subject + Verb 2

for positive sentences 

Anas and Rohmat went to Baron Beach last weekend.

Subject V2 adverb of place

They rode a motorcycle.

Subject V2 Object

for the adverb of time, you can use :

- Yesterday, . . . . . . - Last holiday, . . . . . .

- Two days ago, . . . . . - Last weekend, . . . .
- a week ago, . . . . . . - Last night, . . . . .
- two years ago, . . . . - This morning, . . . . . ..
- last year, . . . . . - One day, . . . . . . .

F. Teaching Method
Communicative language teaching
5. BKOF (Building Knowledge of the Field)
6. MOT (Modelling of the Text)
7. JCOT (Joint Construction of the Text)

104
 8. ICOT (Independent Construction of the Text)
G. Learning Activities
- Opening activities
i) The teacher greets the students.
j) The teacher asks one of the students to lead a prayer.
k) The teacher asks students’ condition and attendance.
l) The teacher informs the material for the day.

- Main activities
d) Building Knowledge of the Field (BKoF)
• The teacher gives warming-up questions related to their last meeting.
• The teacher gives students some questions about using simple past tenses
and some past verb.
• The teacher asks students to open the previous portfolio entitled ‘Cave
Tubing in Pindul Cave’

b) Modelling of the Text (MoT)

• The teacher gives students a new portfolio with new series of pictures inside
and brief overview about the portfolio.
• The teacher asks students to guess what they can see in the pictures.
• The teacher asks students to categorize pictures on the portfolio to the
generic structure of recount text.

c) Joint Construction of the Text (JCoT)

• Teacher asks students to work in pairs to complete the blanks in the pictures
based on what they can see in the pictures.
• Teacher asks students to make an outline from the words they have derived
from pictures

d) Individual Construction of the Text (ICoT)

105
 • The teacher asks students to make their recount text based on the outline
they have made.

- Closing activities
m) The teacher reviews the material briefly.
n) The teacher asks students whether they understood the material.
o) The teacher asks students whether the pictures series help them to make
recount text.
p) The teacher asks students to review the material in their house.
q) The teacher closes the class by greeting students.

I. Assesments
A Trip to Borobudur Temple

In this picture, you can see

:
- Place : ………….

- Activity : …………

- Time : ………….

Your outline :

106
you can see : you can see :
- Place : …………. - Person : …………. you can see :
- Person : ………….
- Activity : ………… - Activity : …………
- Activity : …………

Your Outline : Your Outline : Your Outline :

you can see :

you can see : - Place : …………. you can see :
- Place : …………. - Place : ………….
- Activity : …………
- Activity : ………… - Activity : …………

Your Outline : Your Outline : Your Outline :

you can see :

- Place : …………. you can see : you can see :
- Place : …………. - Place : ………….
- Activity : …………
- Activity : ………… - Activity : …………

107
Your Outline : Your Outline : Your Outline :

You can see :

- impression : . . . . . .
- Activity : . . . . . . .

Your Outline :

108
 Lesson Plan III

School : SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok

Subject : English
Skill : Writing
Grade/Semester : VIII/1
Time Allocation : 2 X 40 minutes

A. Standard Competence
Writing
6. To express meaning in short functional written text and simple essay in the form of
descriptive, recount and exposition to interact in daily life and in academic context

B. Basic Competence
Writing
6.2 To express meaning in a simple short essay accurately, fluently, and appropriately in
the form descriptive, recount, and exposition to interact in daily life and in
academic context

C. Indicators
15. Students are able to recognize a recount text.
16. Students are able to know the social function of a recount text.
17. Students are able to identify the generic structure and language features of a
recount text.
18. Students are able to use language features in a recount text properly. (simple
past tense and adverb of time)
19. Students are able to use picture series as media to make a recount text.
D. Learning Objective
At the end of the lesson, the students are able to :
10. recognize a recount text.

109
 11. know the social function of a recount text.
12. identify the generic structure and language features of a recount text.
13. use language features in a recount text properly. (simple past tense and adverb
of time)
14. Students are able to use picture series as media to make a recount text.
E. Learning Materials
Simple Past Tense

Simple past tense is used to say an activity happened in past time.

Positive sentences.

Study the following sentences

3. Anas and Rohmat went to Baron Beach last weekend.

They rode a motorcycle.

Pattern : Subject + Verb 2

for positive sentences 

Anas and Rohmat went to Baron Beach last weekend.

Subject V2 adverb of place

They rode a motorcycle.

Subject V2 Object

for the adverb of time, you can use :

- Yesterday, . . . . . . - Last holiday, . . . . . .

- Two days ago, . . . . . - Last weekend, . . . .
- a week ago, . . . . . . - Last night, . . . . .
- two years ago, . . . . - This morning, . . . . . ..
- last year, . . . . . - One day, . . . . . . .

110
 Bajuri’s Unlucky Day

I want to tell you about Bajuri’s unlucky day. It started from last Sunday, he played
football game until 3 a.m. After that, he felt sleepy and went to bed.

On Monday morning, he woke up at 9.30 and shocked. He had Speaking 1

examination at 9.00. after that, he directly went to campus.

On the way to his campus, Bajuri got flat tyre. Then he pushed the motorcycle for
few hundred metres. After that, he found a tyre – repair stall. Then, he pumped air
to the flat tyre.

When he arrived at the class, it was empty. He missed the examination.

Bajuri thought that day was his very unlucky day. He felt so disappointed.

Task 2. Pay attention to the generic structure of the recount text below.

Paragraphs Parts
I want to tell you about Bajuri’s unlucky day. It started Orientation
from last Sunday, he played football game until 3 a.m. After
that, he felt sleepy and went to bed.

On Monday morning, he woke up at 9.30 and Events (1)

shocked. He had Speaking 1 examination at 9.00. after that,
he directly went to campus.

On the way to his campus, Bajuri got flat tyre. Then he Events (2)
pushed the motorcycle for few hundred metres. After that,
he found a tyre – repair stall. Then, he pumped air to the
flat tyre.

When he arrived at the class, it was empty. He missed

the examination. Events (3)
Bajuri thought that day was his very unlucky day. He Re-orientation
felt so disappointed.

111
F. Teaching Method
Communicative language teaching
9. BKOF (Building Knowledge of the Field)
10. MOT (Modelling of the Text)
11. JCOT (Joint Construction of the Text)
12. ICOT (Independent Construction of the Text)
G. Learning Activities
- Opening activities
m) The teacher greets the students.
n) The teacher asks one of the students to lead a prayer.
o) The teacher asks students’ condition and attendance.
p) The teacher informs the material for the day.

- Main activities
e) Building Knowledge of the Field (BKoF)
• The teacher gives warming-up questions related to their last holiday.
• The teacher gives students some questions related to their knowledge about
recount text.

b) Modelling of the Text (MoT).

• The teacher gives an example of a recount text and series of pictures that
described in the text.
• The teacher explains the generic structure of a recount text.
• The teacher asks students to categorize sentences and pictures based on the
generic structure of the recount text.
• The teacher explains the language features of a recount text.
• The teacher asks students to pay attention to the language features of the
given recount text.
• The teacher explains how to use the picture series to gather student’s ideas.

112
 • The teacher explains and shows how to use the picture series to make an
outline of a recount text.

c) Joint Construction of the Text (JCoT)

• The teacher asks students to pay attention to the pictures and match the
pictures to the parts of the recount text in pairs.
• Teacher asks students to answer in pairs some comprehension questions
related to the text.
• Teacher asks students to fill the vocabulary enrichment table.

d) Individual Construction of the Text (ICoT)

• The teacher asks students to pay attention carefully to the picture series and
write their ideas from each picture under it.
• The teacher asks students to write their ideas in the form of sentences.

- Closing activities
r) The teacher reviews the material briefly.
s) The teacher asks students whether they understood the material.
t) The teacher asks students whether the media helped them to understand a
recount text.
u) The teacher asks students to keep their portfolio to be used again for the
upcoming meeting.
v) The teacher asks students to review the material in their house.
w) The teacher closes the class by greeting students.
H. Assessments
Task 3. Fill the table with the meanings of the words below.

Words Meaning Words Meaning

1. Unlucky day 5. Flat tyre

113
 2. Went to bed 6. Tyre – repair stall
3. shocked 7. arrived
4. examination 8. disappointed

Bajuri’s Unlucky Day

17. What did he do after that?

15. What did Bajuri do?
16. What time did he play it?

Your sentence here : Your sentence here :

21. What happened to his motorcycle?

18. What happened when Bajuri woke up?

19. What did he have actually?

20. What did he do after wake up?

Your sentence here : Your sentence here :

114
 23. Where did Bajuri fix the problem?

22. What did Bajuri do then? 24. How did he fix it?

Your sentence here : Your sentence here :

25. What did Bajuri see? 27. What did he think?

26. What did it mean? 28. How did Bajuri feel?

Your sentence here : Your sentence here :

115
 Lesson Plan IV

School : SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Depok

Subject : English
Skill : Writing
Grade/Semester : VIII/1
Meeting :
Time Allocation : 2 X 40 minutes

A. Standard Competence
Writing
6. To express meaning in short functional written text and simple essay in the form of
descriptive, recount and exposition to interact in daily life and in academic context

B. Basic Competence
Writing
6.2 To express meaning in a simple short essay accurately, fluently, and appropriately in
the form descriptive, recount, and exposition to interact in daily life and in
academic context

C. Indicators
20. Students are able to gather ideas by using series of pictures.
21. Students are able to find the words they need to state their ideas.
22. Students are able to make an outline of a recount text from ideas derived from
picture series.
23. Students are able to make a recount text from their outline.
D. Learning Objective
At the end of the lesson, the students are able to :
15. gather ideas by using series of pictures.
16. find the words they need to state their ideas.

116
 17. make an outline of a recount text from ideas derived from picture series.
18. make a recount text from their outline.
E. Learning Materials
Simple Past Tense

Simple past tense is used to say an activity happened in past time.

Positive sentences.

Study the following sentences

4. Anas and Rohmat went to Baron Beach last weekend.

They rode a motorcycle.

Pattern : Subject + Verb 2

for positive sentences 

Anas and Rohmat went to Baron Beach last weekend.

Subject V2 adverb of place

They rode a motorcycle.

Subject V2 Object

for the adverb of time, you can use :

- Yesterday, . . . . . . - Last holiday, . . . . . .

- Two days ago, . . . . . - Last weekend, . . . .
- a week ago, . . . . . . - Last night, . . . . .
- two years ago, . . . . - This morning, . . . . . ..
- last year, . . . . . - One day, . . . . . . .

F. Teaching Method
Communicative language teaching
13. BKOF (Building Knowledge of the Field)
14. MOT (Modelling of the Text)
15. JCOT (Joint Construction of the Text)

117
 16. ICOT (Independent Construction of the Text)
G. Learning Activities
- Opening activities
q) The teacher greets the students.
r) The teacher asks one of the students to lead a prayer.
s) The teacher asks students’ condition and attendance.
t) The teacher informs the material for the day.

- Main activities
f) Building Knowledge of the Field (BKoF)
• The teacher gives warming-up questions related to their last meeting.
• The teacher gives students some questions about using simple past tenses
and some past verb.
• The teacher asks students to open the previous portfolio entitled ‘Cave
Tubing in Pindul Cave’

b) Modelling of the Text (MoT)

• The teacher gives students a new portfolio with new series of pictures inside
and brief overview about the portfolio.
• The teacher asks students to guess what they can see in the pictures.
• The teacher asks students to categorize pictures on the portfolio to the
generic structure of recount text.

c) Joint Construction of the Text (JCoT)

• Teacher asks students to work in pairs to complete the blanks in the pictures
based on what they can see in the pictures.
• Teacher asks students to make an outline from the words they have derived
from pictures

118
 d) Individual Construction of the Text (ICoT)
• The teacher asks students to make their recount text based on the outline
they have made.
- Closing activities
x) The teacher reviews the material briefly.
y) The teacher asks students whether they understood the material.
z) The teacher asks students whether the pictures series help them to make
recount text.
aa) The teacher asks students to review the material in their house.
bb) The teacher closes the class by greeting students.
I. Assesments

Yoko’s Unlucky Day

16. What did Yoko do? 18. Who was he?

17. What time did this activity happen? 19. What did he do? Where?

Your sentences here : Your sentences here :

22. What did he search?

20. Who texted Yoko?

21. What did Yoko feel?

119
Your sentences here : Your sentences here :

23. Where did he find it?

24. What did Yoko do after that? 25. What was wrong with Yoko’s
motorcycle?

Your sentence here : Your sentence here :

1. What did
happen in
the café?
2. What did
Yoko feel?
1. What did Yoko do next?
Your sentence here : Your sentence here :

3. What did happen to Yoko?

4. What did he feel probably?

Your sentence here :

120
 WRITING SCORE

Date
No Name
Pretest Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Post test
1 ADELIA WIDYA PRATIWI 58 75 74 65
2 AJI BAYU SATRIA 55 65 75 58
3 ANDIENE IZAZ NURUN PUTRI 67 78 82 80
4 ANGGADHEA HANDIFA SAPUTRI 70 85 90 78
5 ANITA WENDY PUSPITASARI 60 70 72 65
6 ARDIFA KHAMDA BUDI CAHYA 64 75 72 88
7 ATHALA AQSA YENI 64 72 74 80
8 RIFKY PRATAMA PUTRA 58 78 70 68
9 BAYU KRISNANTO 58 75 78 75
10 DAFFA RIZKIKA MAULANA ABDULLAH 50 72 74 70
11 DIAS PUSPITASARI 56 70 72 78
12 DIMAS FADILLAH DJIWANDANA 54 70 70 78
13 FATURRAHMAN RIZKU NUGRAHA 52 62 68 75
14 FEBRIAN RAHMAT ADI NUGROHO 50 65 60 75
15 FIIHINA ADISTY ROCHMA NUR SOLI 68 78 65 75
16 GUSNANDIA AFAL AULIA 42 75 62 50
17 HAFIDZ AQSHA RIZKY PUSTAKA 52 68 65 72
18 HERMAWAN WAHYU SAPUTRO 50 70 74 74
19 HUSNI MUBAROK 52 64 50 67
20 IRFAN ARMA GUNAWAN 54 70 78 78
21 KUKUH DWI PRASETYO 56 70 75 78
22 M. APRILINO NUGRAHA 52 68 72 75
23 ARDIANSYAH AHMAD FAUZAN 50 55 50 60
24 MOH. AGIL VAD AQ 60 68 76 80
25 MUHAMMAD RIZKY 62 70 74 78
26 NADIA NISWA SANIA 58 68 72 75
27 NAURA MEDISA PUTRI 60 80 78 75
28 R. JUAN KHAFILA 55 68 68 78
29 RAHMAD DANA 48 52 50 65
30 RAMDANI ARDHI PRIHATMOKO 52 75 70 73
31 RIFAN WIRAWAN 62 68 62 74
32 RYANDIKA VALKAN 50 58 50 80
33 SEPTANTYA PUSPANING KINASIH 60 78 80 78
34 TESYA DWI LARAS KUSUMANINGRUM 58 70 82 80
35 VICKA MEMA MAYANG GADHISMA 52 75 65 70
36 VINA ASYURA HANAVI 52 74 78 76
37 GHASSANI ANGGRAINY PUTRI 60 78 82 86

121
 OBSERVATION SHEET

No Statements Descriptions

1 The teacher uses media to teach

writing

2 Students write in English only in

English class

3 Students listen to the teacher’s

explanation

4 Students know about recount text’s

generic structure

5 Students can choose topics which can

be used to make recount texts

6 Students give their ideas as far as they

know

7 Students need media to write recount

texts

122
8 Students have enough vocabularies
needed to express their ideas

9 Students can construct their ideas

chronologically

10 Students can use past tenses properly

11 Students can use adverb of time

12 Students can use time conjunction

properly

13 Students can use adverb of place

properly in their text

14 Students knew the function of recount

text well..

15 Students can get many ideas to write

a recount text.

123
124
125
126
127
The researcher was explaining
the generic structure and social
function of a recount text.

A student was answering the

comprehension question.

The researcher was helping a

group of students to use the
picture series while they were
gathering ideas.

128
A student was trying to gather
his ideas by using picture series.

The researcher helped students

to check their outlines.

Students were writing their

recount texts by using picture
series.

129