Improving Students' Achievement in Writing Report Text Through Numbered Heads Together
Improving Students' Achievement in Writing Report Text Through Numbered Heads Together
Improving Students' Achievement in Writing Report Text Through Numbered Heads Together
*Yunita Khairani
**Zainuddin
ABSTRACT
This study attempted to improve students’ achievement in writing report text
through numbered heads together. This study was conducted by using classroom action
research. The subject of the research was class VIII/B at SMP SWASTA UPMI Medan
that consisted of 32 students. The research was conducted in two cycles and the first
cycle consisted of four meetings and the second cycle consisted of two meetings. The
instrument for collecting quantitative data was a writing test and the instrument for
collecting quantitative data included diary notes, observation sheets, interview and
questionnaire sheets. Based on the writing test score, students’ score kept improving in
every test. In test I, the mean was 66,4375, in test II the mean was 78,125 and in test III
the mean was 87,5625. Based on the observation sheets and questionnaire sheets, it was
found that the teaching learning process ran well. Students were active and interested in
writing. The result of the research showed that Number Heads Together (NHT)
significantly improved students’ achievement in writing report text.
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INTRODUCTION
Background of Study
Writing is one of the most powerful communication tools used today and for the
rest of our life. Writing is a process of transforming thoughts and ideas into written
form. Writing is not only a process of linking words into sentences or paragraphs, but it
is a sequence or steps of ideas, organized thoughts and feeling in the form of words and
combined into sentence into form of paragraphs in which every sentence is closely
related one another. Oshima (1991:3) states that writing, particularly academic writing
is not easy. It takes study and practice to develop this skill. For both native speakers and
new learners of English, it is important to note that writing is a process, not a “product.”
Since writing is the most difficult process in language, students have to study
harder to be able to write effectively. There are some reasons which make writing
difficult. Firstly, writing requires good grammar. A non-native spoken of English
should be able to remember a large number of rules in structure which are quite
different from their own language. Secondly, people are often known to spend less time
to write than to listen, to speak and even to read. Thirdly, when students of English as a
foreign language write something, they have a big question in mind whether what they
write is correct or incorrect. It can be concluded that writing is the most difficult skill
that learners of any foreign language may face. To be good at it, learners must give
much effort. This study the writer deals with writing since the writer found in teaching
practice (PPLT 2010) in Senior High School, the students found difficulties in writing
report text. Most of students are unable to complete report writing successfully and the
students’ attitude in writing is likely to become more and more negative. They are not
confidence to use their own language because they do not have good grammar and
enough vocabulary.
Doing observation and interview at SMA NEGERI 3 TEBING TINGGI, it was
found that learning writing is still in problem. It is proved by their achievements in
writing. In class, the teacher only asks the student to translate the text and rewrite the
translation. They are not asked to practice their writing ability. Taught by that way, the
students cannot practice to write and think critically. Therefore, the students are
expected to be able to write.
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Based on the standard competence in the syllabus of the second year students of
Senior High School called The Unit Level Curriculum of Education (Kurikulum
Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) students are expected to be able to write simple paragraphs
of report, narration, exposition, and spoof. The curriculum highlights that students have
to be able to write various types of the text genres, one of them is report text. Report is a
text which presents information about something. It is as a result of systematic
observation and analysis within writing report text, student have to write something
decent report by researching and analyzing something.
By using Numbered Heads Together technique in teaching writing report text, the
students are expected to be able to learn from these experiences and apply them to their
lives in the real world. The student has to think in original ways to come up with the
solution to these real problems. It helps with their creative thinking skills by showing
that there are many ways to solve a problem. Within the Numbered Heads Together,
cooperative learning student are working together to make sense of what is going on,
and then represent what being learned.
From the explanation above, the research will be conducted to see how the
application of Numbered Heads Together can improve students’ achievement on
writing, particularly writing report text.
Research Questions
The objective of the study is to find out whether the students’ achievement in
writing report text will improve using Numbered Heads Together.
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a. For the teacher, it is one of alternative technique to improve the quality of
teaching writing, particularly teaching writing report text.
b. For the students, it helps them to write grammatically accurate and to improve
their writing skill.
c. For those who are interested in this study, it will be the information how to
improve students’ report writing.
Conceptual Framework
Writing
Writing is the act of putting letters, symbols, or words on paper or a computer
screen. Writing is used to express and explain ideas. Lamb and Jhonson (1999:173)
state that writing is the expression of language in the form of letters, symbol or word.
The symbols have to be arranged according to certain convention, to form words, and
words have to be arranged to form sentences. Writing is communication. In other
words, writing is how do someone more what are there in their mind by written. Conclin
(1991:1) states that writing is a way of communication and course communicates all the
time, mainly talking to other people.
Writing is the mental work of inventing ideas, thinking about how to express
them, and organizing them into statements and paragraphs that will be clear to reader.
On the other hand, writing is not merely process of thinking of something to say and
selecting the words needed to express it. It is kind of technique in arranging ideas or
information into condensed form of writing. The ideas and thoughts are informed into
paragraphs and have a meaning of the content. Hyland (2002:24) states that good
writing is discovered combination of words, which allows a person the integrity to
dominate his subject with a pattern both fresh and origin. In conclusion, writing is a
process to put some thoughts into words in a meaningful form and it is used to express
used to express and explain ideas.
In teaching writing is communicative activity between the teacher and students. In
learning English writing is the same as learning other skills like reading, speaking and
listening. The students should practice and do a lot of exercise, continually and
seriously studying language for students.
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Genres of Writing
The word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘kind’ or
‘class’. The term is widely used in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory, and more
recently linguistics, to refer to a distinctive type of text. (Daniel Chandler, 2000). Texts
are classified into genres on the basis of the communicator.
According to Gerot and Wignell (1994:190-219), there are thirteen types of genre;
spoof, recounts, reports, analytical exposition, news item, anecdote, narrative,
procedure, description, hortatory, exposition, explanation, discussion, and reviews.
Every genre has a number of characteristics and it has the specific purpose which
makes it different from other genre. In this study, it is only focused on report text.
Report Text
Gerot and Wignell (1994: 196-197) state that report is a text which functions to
describe the way things are, with reference to a range of natural, manmade and social
phenomena in our environment. Report means a text which describes things in general.
It’s a little bit different from descriptive text which describe specific thing. To tell the
facts of the things described, the writer usually uses simple present tense. Except, the
things are extinct, simple past tense is used in report. Report text contains the class or
subclass of the topic described, and then followed by telling the shape, parts, behavior,
etc in details.
A report presents information about a subject. It is a result of an observation and
analysis. Within writing report text, students have to write something decent to report
by researching and analyzing something.
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1. General Classification: Stating classification of general aspect of thing; animal,
public place, plant, etc which will be discussed in general.
2. Description: Describing the thing which will be discussed in detail; part per part,
customs or deed for living creature and usage for materials.
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b. Conditional, logical connective: but, in the other hand
c. Simple present tense pattern: Platypus lives in streams; male platypus does not
need any burrow, etc.
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative Learning is a successful teaching strategy in which small teams, each
with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve
their understanding of a subject. Each member a team is responsible not only for
learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an
atmosphere of achievement. Students work through the assignment until all group
members successfully understand and complete it. Olsen and Kagan (1992:8) describes
that cooperative learning is group learning activity which is organized, so that learning
depends on structured exchanged of information between the learners in group and in
which the learner in accountable for his or her learning and it is motivated to increase
the learning of the other.
Students learn best when they are actively in the process. It means, the students
learn more of what is taught by working cooperatively with others. Cooperative is not
having students sit side by side at the same table to talk with each other and also not
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assigning a report to a group of students where one student does all the work.
Cooperative is much more than being physically near other student, discussing materials
with other students, helping other students or sharing material among students.
In cooperative situations, there is positive independence among students’ goal
attainments: students perceive that they can reach their learning goals if and only if the
other students in the learning group also reach their goals (Johnson & Johnson, 1989).
No one-group member will possess all of the information, skills, or resources necessary
for the highest possible quality presentation. Cooperative learning refers to a set of
instructional strategies, which include cooperative student-interaction over subject
matter as an integral part of the process (Kagan: 1989:4).
Cooperative learning can be as simple as two students pairing up to discuss a
piece of learning. It can also be complex and can include team development activities,
cooperative classroom atmosphere through class building, activities, special training in
social roles and social skills, specialized tasks for teams, and special scoring,
recognition, and reward systems structured for individuals, teams, and classes.
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the assigned material and make sure that all members of your group learn the assigned
material)
b. Individual Accountability
Individual accountability exists when the performance of each individual student
is assessed and the results are given back to the group and each individual. It is
important that the group knows who needs more assistance, support, and encouragement
in completing the assignment. It is also important that group members know that they
cannot hitchhike on the works of others. The purpose of cooperative learning group is to
make each member a stronger individual in his or her right. Students learn together so
that they can subsequently perform higher than individuals. To ensure that each member
is strengthened, students are held individually accountable to do their share of the work.
Common ways to structure individual accountability include (a) giving an individual
test to each student, (b) randomly selecting one students’ product to represent the entire
group, or (c) having each student explain what they have learned to the classmate.
c. Face-To-Face Promotion Interaction
Students need to do real work together in which they promote each other’s
success by sharing resource and helping, supporting, encouraging, and applauding each
other’s effort to achieve. There are important cognitive activities and interpersonal
dynamics that can only occur when students promote each other’s learning. This
includes orally explaining how to solve problems, teaching one’s knowledge to others,
checking for understanding, discussing concepts being learned, and connecting present
with past learning.
d. Social Skills
Contributing to the success of a cooperating effort requires interpersonal and
small group skills. Placing socially unskilled individuals in a group and telling them to
cooperate does not guarantee that they will be able to do effectively. Persons must be
thought the social skills for high quality cooperation and be motivated to use them.
Leadership, decision-making, trust-building, communication and conflict-management
skills have to be taught just as purposefully and precisely as academic skills.
e. Group Processing
Grouping processing exist when group members discuss how well they are
achieving their goals and maintaining effective working relationship. Groups need to
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describe what member actions are helpful or unhelpful, and make the decisions about
what behaviors to continue or change. The time and procedure for analyzing must be
given to the students.
Types of Cooperative Learning
There are many methods of Cooperative Learning can be used in classroom
activities. (http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm)
Table 2.1 The Types of Cooperative Learning
Methods Implementation
No.
1 Jigsaw Groups with five students are set up. Each group member is
assigned some unique material to learn and then to teach to his
group members. To help in the learning students across the class
working on the same sub-section get together to decide what is
important and how to teach it. After practice in these "expert"
groups the original groups re-form and students teach each other.
2 Think-Pair-Share Involves a three step cooperative structure. During the first step
individuals think silently about a question posed by the instructor.
Individuals pair up during the second step and exchange thoughts.
In the third step, the pairs share their responses with other pairs,
other teams, or the entire group.
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4 Round Robin Class is divided into small groups (4 to 6) with one person
Brainstorming appointed as the recorder. A question is posed with many answers
and students are given time to think about answers. After the "think
time," members of the team share responses with one another round
robin style. The recorder writes down the answers of the group
members. The person next to the recorder starts and each person in
the group in order gives an answer until time is called.
5 Three-minute Teachers stop any time during a lecture or discussion and give
review teams three minutes to review what has been said, ask clarifying
questions or answer questions.
7 Team Pair Solo Students do problems first as a team, then with a partner, and
finally on their own. It is designed to motivate students to tackle
and succeed at problems which initially are beyond their ability. It
is based on a simple notion of mediated learning. Students can do
more things with help (mediation) than they can do alone. By
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allowing them to work on problems they could not do alone, first as
a team and then with a partner, they progress to a point they can do
alone that which at first they could do only with help.
8 Circle the Sage First the teacher polls the class to see which students have a special
knowledge to share. For example the teacher may ask who in the
class was able to solve a difficult math homework question, who
had visited Mexico, who knows the chemical reactions involved in
how salting the streets help dissipate snow. Those students (the
sages) stand and spread out in the room. The teacher then has the
rest of the classmates each surround a sage, with no two members
of the same team going to the same sage. The sage explains what
they know while the classmates listen, ask questions, and take
notes. All students then return to their teams. Each in turn, explains
what they learned. Because each one has gone to a different sage,
they compare notes. If there is disagreement, they stand up as a
team. Finally, the disagreements are aired and resolved.
9 Partners The class is divided into teams of four. Partners move to one side of
the room. Half of each team is given an assignment to master to be
able to teach the other half. Partners work to learn and can consult
with other partners working on the same material. Teams go back
together with each set of partners teaching the other set. Partners
quiz and tutor teammates. Team reviews how well they learned and
taught and how they might improve the process
The results show that students who have opportunities to work collaboratively,
learn faster and more efficiently, have greater retention, and fell more positive about the
learning experience. Needless to say, this is not to say that students just can put into a
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group and assign a project to complete. There are very specific methods to assure the
success of group work, and it is significant that both teacher and students are aware of
them.
Numbered Heads Together
Numbered Heads Together is one of the teaching techniques that derived from
cooperative learning and was first proposed by Spencer Kagan in 1994. It requires
students to interact and rely on others and themselves to accomplish a task. Numbered
Heads Together is an excellent structure for combining learning partnership into groups
or team of four. According to Kagan (1994) Numbered Heads Together is a learning
method when each student is given a number they make a group of work and then the
teacher will call the number of students randomly. (file:/local
host/D:proposal/cooperative%20learning.htm).
Salvin (1995: 78) states Numbered Heads Together is a cooperative learning
strategy that hold each student accountable for learning the material. The purpose of this
method is the students are able to process the information, communication. They also
can develop their thinking, review material and checking their prior knowledge.
Numbered Heads Together can serve any activities in the classroom. It means that there
are many other ways of ensuring the teacher cues the students into collaborative
activity. The students work together, they quite literally ‘put their heads together’ in
order to solve the problem and also ensure that everyone in the group can answer the
question.
The teacher in this case asks an answer by calling the number and the students
with the number take it turns to answer. If there are not enough students ready to
respond the teacher may judge that a little more time. When the teacher thinks the
answer is good so the answers can be taken. There are a number of choices: 1) select
one student, 2) select one but ask other to elaborate, 3) ask different students to give a
particular part the answer.
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Numbered Heads Together is an easy way to do in the classroom. It can derive
the students to be more active in the class. According to Lie (2002) there are some steps
of Numbered Heads Together, they are:
1. Teacher divides the students into group of work of 4.
2. Teacher numbers the student from 1 to 4 in each group.
3. Teacher gives a problem.
4. In presenting the result of students work, the teacher calls the number of
students from 1 to 4 randomly.
5. For each team, the student whose number was called answers the question. They
may not receive any help from their team at this point. If they didn’t pay
attention during the discussion, it’s too bad.
6. When all teams have shown their own work, the teacher checks each teams
answer for accuracy.
7. The teacher can give the other question or problems if times allows.
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learners may face. Writing report text is an important skill to be acquired by the
students since it needs observation and analysis before starting to write.
METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The research design of this study is action research. It is a method for solving
the problems of teaching objectively and systematically. This is useful for improving
and modifying the teaching-learning process. Wallace (1998:1) defines that action
research as the systematic collection and analysis of data relating to the improvement of
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some area of professional practice. The application of action research would bring
advantages to both active roles in the class; the students and the teacher in their parts
during the teaching and the learning process.
Kemmis and Taggart (1988) in Burns (2009:7) define that action research
typically involves four broad phase in a cycle of research, the firs cycle may become a
continuing or iterative, spiral of cycles which recur until the action researcher has
achieved a satisfactory outcome and feels it is time to stop. In simple word we can say
that second cycle is not necessary to be continued if the class means score at the first
cycle is satisfying or their significance progresses in first cycle. These are four broad
phases in a cycle of researches can be seen in the following figure;
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resolve all problems but provides a mean for people to “get handled” on their situation
and formulate effective solutions to problems they face in their public and professional
life.
The basic action research routine provides a simple yet powerful frame work –
look, think, and act.
Look - Gather relevant information (Gather data), - Build a picture: describe
the situation (Define and Describe)
Think - Explore and analyze: what is happening here? (Analyze), - Interpret
and explain: how/why are things as they are?
(Theorize)
Act - Plan (Report), - Implement- Evaluate
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Figure 3.2 was easier to do it and more complete action to make the teaching learning
become well.
Technique of Data Analysis
The study applied quantitative and qualitative data. The qualitative data was
analyzed by using diary notes, questionnaire, interview and observation sheets which
described the improvement of the students’ achievement on writing report text. The
quantitative data was collected and analyzed by computing the score of writing test.
The mean was gotten by using this formula:
x=
∑ x
N
In which:
X̃ = the mean of the students’ score
∑χ = the total score
N = the number of students
The score percentage of each cycle will be calculated by using this formula:
R
P= X 100%
T
In which:
P = the percentage the students who get the score 75
R = the number of the students who get score 75 to up
T = the number of students who do the test.
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The writer organized all the quantitative and qualitative data from all meetings.
In every two meetings, the writer conducted writing evaluation. From the first
evaluation, it was found that students’ achievement in writing report text was still low in
the level imperative writing. They were confused how to write down the text and what
are the parts of the report text. Next, the first cycle of class room action research was
conducted and students were given treatment of NHT (Numbered Heads Together)
technique at the first time. Although they still had problem, the result of second
evaluation was better than first evaluation. After the writer did the second cycle, the
result was better than first cycle.
The researcher also analyzed data to support this research finding beside the
quantitative data (writing evaluation score) the qualitative data were taken from
observation sheet, questionnaire sheet and interview report. Observation result showed
that the students gave their good attitudes and responses during the teaching and
learning process. Even though they got problem at the first time but they could handle
their difficulties and enjoyed their lesson by the process of time. They became more
active and interested in writing. The questionnaire and interview report showed that
students agree that the application of NHT (Numbered Heads Together) method had
helped them in writing descriptive paragraph. These all qualitative data supported the
research findings which based on the quantitative data. Based on the result of
quantitative and qualitative data, in found that the application of NHT (Numbered
Heads Together) technique had successfully improved students’ achievement in writing
report text.
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
Conclusion
Having analyzed the data that have been presented in the previous chapter, it
was found that average scores of students in every evaluation kept improving. It can be
said that there is a significant improvement on the students’ achievement in writing
report text by applying the application of Numbered Heads Together. It can be seen
from the improvement of mean of students’ score, namely: the mean of first evaluation
(66,4375) increased to the mean of second evaluation (78,125) and the mean of third
evaluation (87,5625). The score continuously improved from the first evaluation to the
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third evaluation. Observation result showed that the students gave their good attitudes
and responses during teaching and learning process by applying the application of NHT
(Numbered Heads Together) technique. Questionnaire and interview report showed that
students agree that the application of NHT (Numbered Heads Together) technique had
helped them in writing report text. It can be concluded that the application of
significantly improved students’ achievement in writing report text.
Suggestions
The result of this study showed that the application of NHT technique could
improve students’ achievement in writing report text. In relation to the conclusion
above, some points are suggested, as follow:
1. The English teacher are suggested to use NHT (Numbered Heads Together)
technique as teaching method to stimulate the students’ learning writing spirit in
teaching writing process.
2. For the readers who are interested for further study (university students) related
to this research should explore the knowledge to enlarge the understanding about
how to improve students’ achievement in writing and search another reference.
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