| Research on Classroom Management II |
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Technique of Collecting Data In classroom action research, the most popular ways to collect data are questionnaires, interviews, observations, and documents (Schmuck, 1997: 52). In this study, the researcher used the document collection technique to collect the data. Freeman (1998: 93) defines document collections as sets of documents relevant to the research context, e.g. course overviews, lesson plans, students’ writings, classroom materials/texts, students’ profiles. The data in this study were students’ writings. In cycle 1, the researcher assigned the students to write two recount texts about their picnic. The topic was the same, yet the readers of every text were different. The readers of the first text were brothers or sisters (familiar audiences), while the headmaster of X (other audience) was chosen as the reader of the second text. Similar to the previous cycle, in cycle 2, the researcher assigned the students to write to two different readers. They were to write two announcements. The first announcement was for classmates or schoolmates (familiar audiences), while the second announcement was for teachers of X (other audiences). In line with the kinds of reader of the announcements, the topic of the announcements was school environment. In conclusion, in order to collect data in the form of students’ writings in every cycle, the researcher assigned every student to write two writings with the same topic to two different readers. One was for readers to whom the students are relatively close (familiar audiences), while the other was for other audiences. Research Procedures This classroom action research was conducted in two cycles during one-month teaching-learning activity. The procedures involved in this study were: planning the action, implementing the action, observing, and analysis and reflection.
Planning the Action As stated previously, this study was conducted in two cycles; the planning stage was explained by separating the two cycles. In cycle 1, the researcher did three things, they were: determining audience/purpose-related writing strategies, designing lesson plan, and making indicator of success. Determining audience/purpose related writing strategies, the researcher planned to give the action in the form of a writing assignment. Kroll (1984, cited in Widiati and Furaidah, 2000: 329) states that the development of students’ writing skill oriented to audience and purpose should be done by assigning students to write the same message/content/purpose to readers with different characteristics. Therefore, each assignment was addressed to two different readers. The first readers were the readers whom the students were close to or familiar with, while the second readers were other audiences. In assigning the students, the teacher explicitly mentioned who the intended audience was and what the purpose of the writing was (adapted from Widiati and Furaidah: 2000). In this cycle, the researcher asked every student to write two recount texts about picnic with the same content whose readers were brothers or sisters and the school headmaster. Designing lesson plan, the researcher used the school syllabus as the basis of the lesson plan. The lesson plan was aimed to teach reading and writing skill. It contained the standard competence and the basic competence to achieve. It also contained the procedure of presenting the lesson, activities, and assignments in each meeting. The focus of the lesson plan was to teach recount text. The researcher made the indicator of success which was aimed to assess the students’ ability in adapting the recount texts based on the purpose and audience. The indicator of success was made to determine whether the actions throughout the first cycle had been successful or not. In this case, the researcher adapted scoring rubric from Weigle (2000: 152). It would be considered successful if the students’ scores of writing reach at least band 3. The level was used in University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES, 2001, in Weigle, 2002: 152). The scoring rubric helped the researcher assess whether students’ writings had been appropriate to the purpose and audience. Here is the description of the scoring profile:
Description of the Scoring Profile
Action planning in cycle 2 was almost the same as it was in cycle 1, yet several differences appeared in determining audience/purpose-related writing strategies and designing lesson plan. The result of reflecting stage in cycle 1 showed that the actions did not successfully solve the problem in the classroom. Writing recount texts was considered difficult because students focused more on content rather than purpose and audience. Therefore, the audience/purpose-related writing strategies in cycle 2 was shown by assigning the students to write two announcements with the same topic whose readers were schoolmates or classmates and teachers of X. Besides the changing in writing activity strategies, the design of the lesson plan underwent the change as well. The lesson plan designed in cycle 2 focused on the teaching of functional text “announcement” since writing an announcement helped the students focus more on clear purpose and audience in writing.
Related Article: Research on Classroom Management I
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Tahukan Anda...
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Saya pernah mampir makan di sebuah warung di Jombang bersama sahabat saya. Biasa, ngobrol ngalor-ngidul selalu menjadi bumbu perbincangan diantara kami. Tengah asyik ngobrol, tiba-tiba ada orang memakai sarung dan berpeci menghampiri kami berdua. Orang itu kemudian berkata “Dik, di dunia jangan senang-senang, karena bersenang-senang itu tempatnya di syurga. Begitu pula, jangan terlalu susah-susah, karena susah itu tempatnya di neraka”. Kemudian dilanjutkan dengan pertanyaan “Nah bagaimana kalo kita di dunia? ”. kami berdua diam saja sambil senyum. Akhirnya beliau jawab sendiri “jadi selagi kita hidup di dunia, santai-santai saja” |