Mayned

The Effect of Collin Writing Assessment Strategy on Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive Text at Grade VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Problem

Writing is an essential part of learning. Academically, writing is main point for developing ideas and feeling by considering some important components and writing processes. Writing can also be as an independent learning tool that can be done by students to write their own idea or main idea and fulfill their writing assignment and to enrich their skill to write of everything. As addition, writing is not only to develop idea but also to develop feeling in mind.

Writing skill is one of macro skill in four English skills. This skill, for the students of SMP 23 Siak, must learned by the student. In writing skill, there are 80 % from the students, where the researcher teaches in VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak, find low result. The fact that the students finding low result are consists of 22 students from 30 students where between of them are 17 female and 13 male. The students finding high results are 4 students with the result finding are 8 and the reason for those students are understand the writing subject. In contrary, there are 22 students get the low result between 3, 4, 5, and 5.5 because of them do not understand the process of writing the descriptive text. As a matter of fact, when they go to write some texts they do not understand the idea of the topic that they want to write. From this problem, the teacher guides the students to find the topic. After guided by the teacher, the students find the topic and they try to write that topic. Having written the topic, there are 4 students get result 8 and others low results; it is indicated that they do not develop the idea into paragraph because they have not more idea and lack of vocabulary. After missing word, the students are lazy to continue their writing subject. And then, the teacher motivates them to continue that writing subject and guide them to continue it. They go to write that subject and the teacher find 70% - 80% from the students have the problem in mechanism of writing structure, such as, grammar, word order, forms of verb, and the structural of sentence. The teacher also find the student have the problem in making supporting sentence in their writing subject. So, the writing skill here is not found from the students yet in their writing product.

Therefore, the researcher finds the problems that make him goes to research this problem. The problems in this research are 22 students who find low result like 3, 4, 5, and 5.5 because of finding and developing idea in the topic. The students have problem in developing idea because of lack of vocabulary, they lazy to continue because the written subject is boring and difficult, they have problem in mechanism of the sentence structure, and they cannot developing the supporting sentence.

In this situation, a teacher has a great responsibility to promote the students’ skill in writing. The effectiveness of learning in the classroom depends on the teacher’s skill to seek for teaching strategy to be used in the classroom to encounter students’ learning problems. Teacher is facilitator of an interesting and meaningful learning to make students able to write well about the text.

Moreover dealing with the issue above, the researcher finds the writing assessment strategy can improve the student writing skill in descriptive text. The writing assessment is a popular and sometimes misunderstood term in current educational practice (Brown, 2004: page 2004: page 4). He also states that the assessment, on the other hand, is an ongoing process that encompasses a much wider domain. Whenever the students respond to a question, offer a comment, or try out a new word or structure, the teacher subconsciously makes an assessment of the students’ performance writing skill. From this writing assessment strategy, the teacher makes a concept to improve the problem of the students where this assessment strategy can be assessed from their main idea when they make topic sentence. The assessment strategy also can be assessed the students vocabulary assessment, grammatical transformation, paragraph construction, mechanism of writing, and developing supporting idea.

From the problem above, the researcher chooses the writing assessment strategy to improve students’ writing skill in descriptive text. The researcher writes the thesis topic in this thesis under title “Improving Students’ Writing Skill of Descriptive text Through Writing Assessment Strategy at Grade VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak.

Identification of the Problem

Dealing with the background above, it is important to apply the writing assessment strategy in teaching writing at the grade VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak because of the problems bellows:

The students cannot understand how to make idea become a topic sentence,
The students lack of vocabulary in developing the topic,
The students cannot understand the mechanism structure grammar of sentences,
The students cannot develop the paragraph of supporting sentences, and
The students have the lazy habit in writing subject.

C. Limitation of the Problem

Based on the identification of the problem above, the focus of this study is on the problem occurred on students at the grade VIII 1 of SMPN Siak. The problem is low skill in finding idea and developing paragraph which is lead to low achievement in writing skill. In this study, improving main idea and developing paragraph with writing assessment strategy is not used before. Hereby, the researcher will apply writing assessment strategy to improve students’ writing skill. Especially, it will be implemented for improving students’ writing skill of the descriptive at the grade VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak.

D. Research Questions

The problem in this study can be formulated as follow:

1. To what extend the writing assessment strategy can improve the students’ writing skill of Descriptive text at grade VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak?

2. What factors influence the change of students’ writing skill of descriptive text through writing assessment strategy at VIII 1 of SMPN Siak?

E. Purpose of the Research

The general objectives of this action research are:

To find out whether use writing assessment strategy in teaching writing can better increase the students’ skill in writing descriptive text at grade VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak,
To find out what factors influence the change of the students’ writing skill of descriptive text through writing assessment strategy at VIII 1 of SMPN Siak.

F. Importance of the Research

By doing this research, the writer expects to give valuable contributions:

First, the result of this research has been helpful for the students who learn English writing especially in writing descriptive texts. By knowing writing assessment strategy, as one of writing strategy, the students have been more motivated to express their ideas in writing.

Second, the result of this research has been helpful for the lecturer to improve her teaching technique in teaching writing and to overcome the problems that have been faced in writing descriptive texts.

Third, the result of this research will be useful for other language researchers who are interested in developing their better technique in teaching writing. Besides, in this case, the research develops the scientific need by finding one important research.

Finally, the result of this research will be useful for the readers, especially English writing lectures who are interested to enrich and to enhance their sight about teaching by using writing assessment strategy.

G. Definition of the Key Terms

The terminology of the in this research can be defined as in the following:

1. Writing skill is one of four macro skills which are involved in productive skill, in which a student is able to develop ideas and feeling by considering some important components and writing processes.

2. Assessment strategy is defined as the on-going process of gathering information to identify student strengths and/or skills. Assessment is more informal than evaluation and provides a collage of the student’s work over a period of time. The goal of assessment is to observe and record positive outcomes. Assessment is a dynamic, continuous process leading to appropriate instructional goals.

3. A descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. Descriptive text also defined as a text or speech that is meant to give a verbal picture of an object, character, location, or event.
Descriptive text is a text which says what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, or thing.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE

A. Review of the Related Theories

1. Writing Skill

a. Nature of Writing Skill

According to Harper (2004), writing is one of four main macro-skills taught in the ESL classroom, besides reading, speaking, and listening. He (2004) also adds that writing is one of four basic skills which involved in productive (output) skill. Widdowson (1979:57) states that writing is a productive skill besides speaking. All of the four macro-skills can be considered important component of ESL, including writing skill.

In other point of view, Richard (2003:44) views “writing as a complex, recursive and creative process that is very similar in its general outlines for first and second language writers: learning to write requires the development of an efficient and effective composing process”. Teaching students to write well is one of t he most challenging tasks in education. Next, Karten (2005) also argues that writing itself is complex, often disorderly, and frequently frustrating. When teachers compare notes and approaches, they invariably conclude that need more than a fixed or single approach to teach writing, particularly if they are to address the needs of all students.

Moreover, Oshima and Hogue (1999) also state that writing is not easy, because students need to consider to some processes in order to produce a good writing. Those processes are also mentioned by Fitzpatrick (2005). Those are prewriting, revising, and writing final draft. In addition, Simon and Schuster (2003:8) add that a good writing does not happen overnight because it involves a process which consists of five steps: prewriting, writing a first draft, sharing, revising into a second draft, and editing into a final draft.

Based on the definitions above, it can be concluded that writing needs a process in order to produce a good writing. It is started from prewriting, writing first draft, sharing, revising, into a second draft and writing a final draft after editing. The process of writing should be done by students in order to get a good writing.

b. Components of writing

Reid (1994:81) states that writing is a complex skill. It is caused by some components that should be focused in writing, such as the purpose of writing and writer’s knowledge of writing (paragraph’s component and pattern organization). Besides, Malley (1996:142) finds four dimensions of writing as follows:

Ideas development / organization (focuses on central idea with appropriate elaboration and conclusion);
Fluency / structure (appropriate verb tense used with a variety of grammatical and syntactic structures);
Word choice (uses varied and precise vocabulary appropriate for purpose);
Mechanics (absence of errors in spelling, capitalization and function)

It is also mentioned by Weir (1993) that there are seven components in writing; relevance and adequacy of content, compositional organization, cohesion, adequacy of vocabulary for purposes, grammar, mechanical accuracy 1 (punctuation) and mechanical accuracy II (spelling), appropriateness of language to context, function and intention and appropriateness of layout. Jacob, at al (1981: 90) also mention five components in writing; content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanics. Content consists of understanding of the subject, main point, sufficient details, and interrelationships of the subject. Organization explains about coherence and cohesion, controlling idea and relationship of ideas within and between paragraphs. Vocabulary shows about vocabulary accurate, idiomatic, word form mastery, and appropriate register. Language use explains about verb tenses, effective complex construction, number, and word order. At last, mechanics consists of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, and handwriting.

c. Importance of Writing

Robert (1982: 2) emphasized the practical importance of the communication skills in writing, because communication skills enable students to fully express their thought and feelings. It is also echoed by Laksmi (2006:40) that writing does not merely mean applying grammatical rules; it is more students’ learning to communicate their ideas in written forms. Next, Hamp-Lyons (in O Malley, 1996:136) also explains that writing is a personal act in which writers take ideas and transform them into “self-initiated” topics. In short, writing is a way of learning and developing the students’ communication skill as one of the effective ways to develop students’ thinking, to understand their thought and feelings more precisely than just expressing them orally. Besides, writing can improve the students’ language and stimulate the students’ cognitive which is useful for students who learn a language.

Finally, based on the explanation of the definitions, the components and the functions above, it is concluded that writing skill is able to develop ideas and feeling by considering some important components and writing processes.

2. Descriptive Text

a. Concept of Descriptive Texts

Wishon and M. Burks (1980) say that the descriptive text is a description reproduces the way things look, smell, taste, feel, or sound; it may also evoke moods, such as happiness, loneliness, or fear. They (1980) state that description of text used to create a visual image of people, places, even of units all time – days, times of day, or seasons. The others state that description is a piece of writing or speech that says what someone or something like. (Sofyanda (2007): p. 40). This descriptive text is a text which lists the characteristics of something. (Larson (1984: 366).

Furthermore, based the definition above, the concept of descriptive text can be concluded that description a piece of writing or speech that says what someone something is like where it can create a visual image of people, place, even of units all time – days, time of day, season, of lists of the quality and the characteristic of something.

b. Elements of descriptive texts

According to (Sofyanda (2007): p. 40) the element of descriptive text is divided into two kinds are definition and description. Definition is similar meaning with classification which is used for introduces person, thing, or place that will be described. Description is the pictures of the characteristic of the person, the thing or the place that’s talked about.

In the other word, the structures of description mostly use simple present tense, but sometimes it uses simple past tense when the person, thing, or place that is talked about no longer exists. Tolkien (2010) states that descriptive text writing, sometimes called "showing writing" is writing that describes a particular person, place or event in great detail. Descriptive writing uses a lot of flowery adjectives and adverbs to describe what is going on or how something appears. So, the elements of descriptive text is used the definition and classification for introduces person, thing, or place that will be described and description describing for the pictures of the characteristic of the person, the thing or the place that’s talked about.

3. Writing Assessment Strategy

a. Concept of Writing Assessment Strategy

According to Flynt & Cooter. (1995) Writing strategy assessment is defined as the on-going process of gathering information to identify student strengths and/or skills from the writing activity. They (1995) also add writing strategy assessment is more informal than evaluation and provides a collage of the student’s work over of the students writing skill in a period of time and writing strategy assessment is a dynamic, continuous process leading to appropriate instructional goals in teaching writing skill. Brown (2004) states the writing strategy assessment is an ongoing process that includes a much wider domain in writing skill. He (2004) also says the writing strategy assessment is going on students responds to a question, offers a comment, or try out a new word or structure, the teacher subconsciously makes an assessment of the student’s performance writing skill.

In the other hand, O’Malley and Friends (1996) state that writing assessment strategy is identify of the scoring student’s writing skill that proceed with instructional and writing assessment. They (1996) state that writing assessments with ELL meets at least three purposes. First, writing assessment in English used for identification and program placement in ESL or bilingual programs. Second, writing assessment can be used to monitor student progress. Finally, writing assessment with ELL is accountability. In addition, O’Malley and friends (1996) argue the writing assessment strategy is two kinds in classroom practice they are: Self-assessment strategy and Peer assessment strategy. Self-assessment strategy used for encouraging the type of reflection needed to gain increased control as a writer. Self-assessment encourages students to think about their purpose in writing and to reflect on what and how much they are learning. Besides, pees assessment strategy used for students who can evaluate each other’s writing through peer assessment as they participate in student writing conferences (Cramer 1982; Pierce 1983)

Moreover, Collin (2004) states the writing assessment strategy skill can be assessed by the Collin program which are divided into five steps: capture ideas; respond correctly, edit for focus correction area; peer edit for focus correction area; and publish. Poulton (2004) says the writing assessment strategy is one of power for the teacher to assess students writing through the structure of their writing. Besides, writing assessment strategy is not only used for identification and program placement in ESL, but also writing assessment can be used to monitor students’ progress and determine if changes in instruction are required to meet students need, and writing assessment is accountability for all students.

Based on the concept above, it can be concluded that writing assessment strategy used for knowing the progress students’ writing skill and improving students’ skill through Collin program strategy like capture idea, respond correctly, edit for focus correction area, peer edit for focus correction idea, and publish. The Collin writing program strategy should be done by the teacher and students in order to get a good writing and to be able publish the quality of students’ writing product.

b. Application of Writing Assessment Strategy

To apply the writing assessment strategy, the teacher should prepare the best program to improve the students’ writing skill. The researcher uses the application of writing assessment as follow below:

The teacher uses Capture ideas: Type 1 writing gets ideas on paper -- it's brainstorming. Type 1 is timed and requires a minimum number of items or lines to be generated. Questions and/or guesses are permitted. And one draft is outcomes which are evaluated with a check (√) or minus (-).
The teacher uses Respond Correctly: Type 3 writing has substantive content and meets up to three specific standards called "focus correction areas" (FCA). Revision and editing are done on the original. And one draft is graded as a quiz.
The teacher uses Peer Edit for Focus Correction Areas: Type 3 writing has substantive content and meets up to three specific standards called "focus correction areas" (FCA). Revision and editing are done on the original. And one draft (save) is read out loud and reviewed to see if the draft completes the assignment, and is easy to read and meets standards set for the focus correction areas.
The teacher uses Peer Edit for Focus Correction Areas: Type 4 writing is Type 3 writing that is read aloud by someone else. Two drafts (save); Writing is critiqued by a peer and revised by the author.
The teacher uses Publish: Type 5 writing is of publishable quality. Multiple drafts (save); Published work

c. Advantages of Writing Assessment Strategy

Writing assessment strategy is a study that can very helpful for students in learning. It can be used to improve students writing skill and to expose their own knowledge through the process of writing. The process of writing that use in the writing assessment strategy is prewriting, writing a first draft, sharing, revising into a second draft, and editing into a final draft. In fact, the writing process can be assisted the students to determine the steps to use the Collin program. The prewriting, for example, helps the student to capture the ideas of the topic which is given by the teacher. After that, writing a first draft helps students to know something about the topic and able to arrange the writing sentence into the right topic sentence. The next step after writing a draft the students being the writer have to share their product to the others in order to know what should be revised from the students’ written product. After sharing the written product, the students revise it into second draft, and then editing to the final draft in order to go on the publish product. In the Collin program, the publish product show the students’ improvement in writing skill especially in writing descriptive text. So, from the explanation above it can be say that writing assessment is very useful for the students to improve their writing skill of descriptive text.

In the other hand, the emphasis on writing assessment strategy as a process is a reaction to the historical emphasis on assignment and assessment of student-written products without teacher intervention (Alexander 1990). The writing assessment strategy can be supervised the students’ writing skill in writing descriptive text. In the classroom process, the students improve their writing skill which is guided by the writing assessment strategy. In short, the writing assessment strategy helps the students to improve their writing skill without teacher intervention.

B. Review of Related Findings

Many studies and results have been developed on the descriptive text through the Collin program of writing assessment strategy. (Spandel, p:213) and (Elaine Soos (2010) concluded that Collin program is one of strategy would like to try present with students too much in order to get information from their writing without cutting a half and without cutting the content idea. They also found that Collin program writing effort to ask students to write long or too much to state their main idea in one sentence verbally and then to do it in writing using a “condense”, no words wasted. In brief, they state the students who have more reading they will better the idea of narrowing and focusing in their own writing.

In the other studies found that from Lawrence (2005), she found the Collin program was to improve students’ performance in their writing skill. She also said this approach has enabled the high school in Lawrence, Massachusetts significantly to improve student achievement and performance in English/Language Arts by training ninth- and tenth-grade teachers to use the Collins writing program.

Moreover, other kinds of research was conducted by Morris (1985) found that research since 1982, where he said that Collins Education Associates have conducted more than 15,000 workshops and established long-term teacher training and consulting relationships with school districts of every type and size. Tens of thousands of teachers and millions of students in 34 states have benefited from our work. During this time, teachers have identified our approach as the Five Types of Writing. (See www.collinseducationassociates.com) During the last five years, it has come to be called the “Collins Writing Program,”.

Plante (2005) conducted his research and investigated the results of Collin program writing studies that demonstrate the positive impact of student achievement and confidence in their writing in descriptive text. Additionally, they suggest the broad spectrum of potential future applications of the program in Collin program writing is an advanced placement and regular writing classrooms.

Finally, although many researchers would be done about writing assessment of the Collin writing program, it is important that more studies needed to be conducted. Therefore, in this research, the researcher will apply writing assessment of the Collin writing program in order to improve students’ skill writing.

C. Conceptual Framework

There has been assumption on this study that is the teaching writing to the students of VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak faced some problems. Students found that writing skill is not interesting and frustrating, which can lead them to an avoidance of writing and contribute to poor overall academic achievement (Karen Harris, 2008). For example, the students try to write the descriptive text in writing classroom where the teacher asks them to write it. They write the inconsistent of descriptive text. They do not understand how to find the main idea and how to develop the paragraph. In brief, the fact of the students’ attitude, they stop writing and leave that assignment.

As the result, logically, the students’ writing skill’s scores are considered low. From the interview and the fact taken from several students, they said that it is not easy to write the given topic from the teacher. It can be concluded that the significant problem is writing skill in developing descriptive text.

The researcher tries to find the solutions to solve the problem. After doing many reading in the library and browsing network, the researcher decided to take Writing Assessment by the Collin writing program strategy. Result from the earlier researches such as what have been done by Lawrence (2005), Morris (1985) and Plante (2005) on writing skill by implicating the Writing Assessment by the Collin writing program strategy can give benefit at improving students writing skill of descriptive text.

Based on this result, the researcher takes a conclusion that this strategy probably will work effectively in his classroom as well. It is hoped through applying writing assessment by the Collin writing program strategy; the students writing skill on descriptive text will improve. And the teacher teaching writing strategy is also enriched

In writing assessment by the Collin writing program strategy, there are main point’s activities that will be applied to students in order to comprehend the writing materials; capture idea, respond correctly, edit focus for correction area, peer edit focus for correction area, and publish are the elements and types of Writing assessment the Collin Writing Program strategy.

The conceptual framework of this research is as follow;

D. Operational Definition

1. Students’ writing skill of Descriptive text.

Students’ writing skill of Descriptive text is using the process of writing in order to get good writing. The writing skill of descriptive started from prewriting, writing first draft, sharing, revising, into a second draft and writing a final draft after editing. In brief, the process of writing should be done by students in order to get a good writing.

2. Writing Assessment Strategy

Writing assessment strategy used the Collin writing program to improve the students’ problem in writing descriptive text. The Collin writing program is as follow:

Capture ideas: Type 1 writing gets ideas on paper -- it's brainstorming. Type 1 is timed and requires a minimum number of items or lines to be generated. Questions and/or guesses are permitted. And one draft is outcomes which are evaluated with a check (√) or minus (-).

Respond Correctly: Type 3 writing has substantive content and meets up to three specific standards called "focus correction areas" (FCA). Revision and editing are done on the original. And one draft is graded as a quiz.

Peer Edit for Focus Correction Areas: Type 3 writing has substantive content and meets up to three specific standards called "focus correction areas" (FCA). Revision and editing are done on the original. One another draft (save) is read out loud and reviewed to see if the draft completes the assignment, and is easy to read and meets standards set for the focus correction areas.

Peer Edit for Focus Correction Areas: Type 4 writing is Type 3 writing that is read aloud by someone else. Two drafts (save); Writing is critiqued by a peer and revised by the author.

Publish: Type 5 writing is of publishable quality. Multiple drafts (save); Published work

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Kinds of the Research

This research is an action research. According to Kemmis (2005:6), action research is a form self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in a social (including educational) situation in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices and the situations in which practices are carried out. Action research is a cycle process. It means that a teacher can apply certain treatment in order to give improvement to the student. When there is no improvement after giving the treatment, the teacher can give more treatment by adding more cycles until the teacher sees a good improvement of the students.

In this research, the subject of the research is improving students’ writing skill of descriptive text through writing assessment strategy at grade VIII 1 of SMPN 23 Siak. It will be asked the students to write a descriptive text. It will be done in certain time with certain topics. After giving a test in order to find the based score, the students will be given some treatments as it was stated above. The treatments given will be dealing with the steps mentioned by Simon and Schuster (2003). There are five steps that would be done: writing the topic of a sheet of paper, listing everything that relate to the topic, letting ideas be creative, selecting the best ideas and grouping the ideas. In addition, this research would be done in three cycles, which consists of four meeting for each cycle. The procedures would be done in every meeting of treatment given. After treatment, a test was given with certain topics and times. Based on the result between the first and the further test, it can be seen whether there was an improvement or not of writing assessment strategy.

Based on the explanation of action research above, it is concluded that action research is a process to solve the teacher’s problems. The process is cyclonical and dynamic. Researcher takes the action research based on the collected reflection from her classroom situations in order to get better changes in teaching and learning process. The researcher also has to work with the researcher’s collaborator to change and to solve the problems that have been faced by the researcher during teaching writing process. In short, the action research helps the researcher by using writing assessment strategy to improve the students’ in writing descriptive text.

Subjects of the Research

The subject of the research is the students of grade VIII 1 at SMPN 23 Siak that consist of 33 students. The students of grade VIII 1 consists of 17 female 13 male.

Location

This study will be conducted in SMPN 23 Siak of Grade VIII 1 which is located in K.H. Ahmad Dahlan Street in Minas Siak.

Instrumentation

The key instruments of this actions research is the researcher himself. It will be conducted in three cycles (cycles one, cycle two, and cycle three). In order to collect the data of the research, some instrumentation would be used.

Test

Test will be given in each cycle with certain topics and times. In the based-test, the students are asked to write a descriptive entitled “I Have a Cat” in 2 x 45. Then, the students are given treatments by using writing assessment of the Collin writing program which consisted of three cycles and each cycle consisted of four meetings. In the first cycle, the students are asked to write a descriptive text entitled “The sea Eagle” in 2 x 45 minutes. In the second cycle, the students are asked to write a descriptive text entitled “Keiko, the Free Willy” in 2 x 45 minutes. In the third cycle, meeting one, the students are asked to write a descriptive text entitled “Nusa Tenggara” in 2 x 45 minutes. In doing the test, the students are also required to consider some components in their writing; content, organizing, vocabulary, language use and mechanics. Those aspects will be used to measure the students’ skill in writing. Besides, the students are not allowed to take the test home. It should be finished at school. In addition, the test will be assessed by using rubrics taken from Jacobs, et all (1981). Moreover, the researcher make the writing test to develop students’ writing skill, which consists of some instructions to direct students to write their descriptive text, such as;

Write descriptive text entitled “I Have a Cat”.
Please develop ideas of writing assessment result.
Marks will be awarded for content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and mechanic.
Please follow the organization of descriptive text (definition or Identification and Description).

Observation

In this research, a collaborator is needed. The collaborator will be Irdawidiah, S.Pd as one of English teacher who teaches English in SMPN 23 Siak. The collaborator will observe both the teacher and the students during teaching learning process by filling the observation sheet. It is very important in order to know whether the process of teaching learning is done properly and correctly. The specific activities that shall be done by both students and the lecturer can be seen more detail in plan. In this case, the collaborator would be have to give checklist to some items written in observation sheets it the students and the teacher do the process.

a. Table. 1. Checklist of indicator of writing skill

Variable

Indikator

Checklist

Students’ Writing skill of Descriptive Text

Content (idea development)

Organization

Vocabulary

Language use

Mechanics

b. Table. 2. Checklist of indicator of Collin Writing Assessment Strategy

Variable

Indikator

Checklist

Writing Assessment of The Collin writing program in Descriptive text

Capture Idea

Respond correctly

Edit Focus Correction Area

Peer Edit Focus Correction Area

Publish

c. Table. 3. Checklist of steps of teaching

No	Steps of Teaching	Checklist
1	Prewriting
	Teacher explains about what writing statement of capture idea is
	Teacher explains about the procedures of capture idea strategy
	Teacher asks the students to make group of four
	Teacher asks the students to take a sheet of paper and writes the topic given in the centre of the sheet of paper
	Teacher asks the students to write the purpose of the assignment at the top
	Teacher asks students to write down a lists of everything they can think of that related to the topic
	Teacher asks the students not to evaluate of criticize any answer until the writing capture idea strategy has been done
	Lecture asks the students to select the ideas which they like best
	Teacher asks the students to look for any answers that are repeated or similar, group like concepts together, eliminate responses that definitely do not fit, and discuss the remaining responses as a group
2.	Writing a first draft still capture idea
	Teacher asks the students to begin developing and forming their ideas or using capture idea.
3.	Sharing or respond correctly
	Teacher asks the students seek other friend to feedback
4.	Revising into a second draft or respond correctly
	Teacher asks he students to use the feedback to rewrite their essay
	Teacher asks the students to pay more attention to grammar
5.	Editing into a final draft or use edit focus correction area and peer focus correction area until the essay publish
	Teacher asks the students to smooth out the rough draft
	Teacher asks the students to read their essay aloud to themselves or other friends
	Teacher asks the students to take one last proofread for stray errors before handing there work in Lastly, teacher asks the students to publish their product or work and save.

Field Notes

The use of observation sheets is not enough in order to collect the real data. There are some points that cannot be in checklist, but they need such an explanation, for instance, when there are some students who make a noise during the teaching learning process or there is one of them is sick, the collaborator cannot check it in observation sheets, except with a field note. In addition, the collaborator will use the field notes as direct observation of everything happen both oral and action of the teacher and the students.

Interview

The essay tests are not enough to compare between the students’ process before and after teaching the writing assessment strategy. Interview is needed in order that the teacher, the students and the readers can see that there are some treatments given which influence the students’ writing skill. The questions that are asked to the students as follows:

a. What do you think about capture idea?

b. Do you understand about capture idea?

c. How do you respond your idea correctly?

d. How do you get the edit focus correction area?

e. How do you continue peer edit focus area?

f. How do you revise your writing product?

g. After writing what do you do?

h. Were you happy to study writing through The Collin Writing Assessment?

i. Which parts did you like? (Mention the indicators)

j. Did you like the topic of narrative text?

k. Did you practice the Collin Writing Assessment out of classroom?

l. Did you know how to express ideas after studying The Collin Writing Assessment?

m. Could you write the narrative texts easily?

Procedure of the Research

The research will use classroom action research. So, the researcher will use cycles that where developed by Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) in doing the research. There are four steps of classical process; plan, action, observation, and reflection. The four steps can be described as follows:

Plan

The researcher and his collaborator made the lesson plan to start the cycle. And the lesson plan is in the index column.

Action

The researcher will be implemented the lesson plan to do the action in his classroom.

And the implementation of the lesson plan described as follow:

Observation

While doing the action, the collaborator will observe the teaching and learning process by using the instrument (observation checklist and field notes)

Reflection

The researcher and his collaborator will evaluate the learning process results to revise the plan for next actions

Based on the cycles above, the researcher has three cyclical processes in this research. Each cycle will have four meeting. Every meeting had 2 x 45 minutes. The research is done in once a week for each meeting. It means that the researcher will do the research for almost 3 months.

Cycle 1, 2 and 3

a. plan

In planning, the researcher will prepare all things that are needed for the action such as:

1. Prepare the topics that will be the materials for writing descriptive text.

a. I Have a Cat

b. The sea Eagle

c. Keiko, the Free Willy

d. Nusa Tenggara

2. Design the lesson plans, this included the activities or steps in applying The Collin Writing Assessment.

In cycle one at the first and the second meeting; the researcher will prepare a topic entitled “I Have a Cat” It was done 2 x 45 minutes. The students are needed to follow some procedures of writing processes from prewriting or using the capture idea, writing a first a draft or still using capture idea, sharing with friends or using respond correctly, revising into a second draft or using edit focus correction area and editing a final draft or using peer edit focus correction area. In prewriting, the students apply The Collin Writing Assessment from writing the topic a sheet of paper, listing everything that relate to the topic, letting the ideas be creative, selecting the best ideas and grouping the ideas. In cycle one at the third and the fourth meeting; the researcher will prepare a topic entitled “The sea Eagle” It was done 2 x 45 minutes. The students are needed to follow some procedures of writing process from prewriting or using the capture idea, writing a first a draft or still using capture idea, sharing with friends or using respond correctly, revising into a second draft using edit focus correction area and editing a final draft or using peer edit focus correction area. In prewriting, the students applied The Collin Writing Assessment from writing the topic a sheet of paper, listing everything that relate to the topic, letting the ideas be creative, selecting the best ideas and grouping the ideas. The same processes will be done in the second and third cycle.

b. Action

In this step, the researcher will apply his lesson plan to teach the students about descriptive texts. The collaborator will sit at the back to observe teaching and learning activities.

c. Observation

The collaborator will do the observation for all cycles. He will use observation checklist, filed notes to monitor the activity. The collaborator also will note all things that happened during teaching and learning process.

d. Reflection

The researcher and the collaborator will evaluate the problems that have not been solved yet. It is used for doing action on the next cycle. In reflection, the researcher and the collaborator will check whether the instruments had been used optimally or not. The researcher also will notice the result of each meeting by interpreting the graphics he will use on the tests and to find out what factors influenced the problems.

F. Technique of Collecting the Data

The quantitative data will be collected through evaluation such as tasks and tests. Tasks are administered to the students every meeting after or during the lesson. The tests are given after finishing every cycle. The tasks and tests given by teacher consist of items that can assess their writing skill. The tasks and the test given are in form or writing skill questions.

Meanwhile, the qualitative data are acquired through observation checklists, field notes, and interview. It will be conducted by the teacher as the researcher together with collaborator during teaching and learning process at every meeting. Collaborator fills the observation checklist, and field note provided. For the other case, interview, the data will be collected after the teaching and the learning process at every meeting by the researcher and collaborators by asking the students’ opinion.

Technique of Analyzing the Data

There are two kinds of data from this research:

Quantitative Data

In quantitative forms, the data will be taken from the result of descriptive writing tests. The test will be conducted at the end of each cycle. They will be analyzed by using scoring guide of essay writing proposed by Jacob, et al (1981) and are described on the graphic forms. The analytic scoring guide is used to get the results quantitatively. They are as follows:

Table. 4. The essay writing scoring rubric

No	The aspect of writing to be evaluated	The score range	Level
1.	Content	13-16 17-21 22-26 27-30	Very poor Fair to poor Good to average Excellent to very good
2.	Organization	7-9 10-13 14-17 18-20	Very poor Fair to poor Good to average Excellent to very good
3.	Vocabulary	7-9 10-13 14-17 18-20	Very poor Fair to poor Good to average Excellent to very good
4.	Language Use	7-9 10-13 14-17 18-20	Very poor Fair to poor Good to average Excellent to very good
5.	Mechanics	7-9 10-13 14-17 18-20	Very poor Fair to poor Good to average Excellent to very good

Mayned

Rabu, 18 Mei 2011

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puisi

contoh proposal penelitian dan thesis (skripsi)