THE EFFECT OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION
THROUGH DIRECTED READING
–
THINKING ACTIVITY
(DRTA) STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ NARRATIVE TEXT
ACHIEVEMENT AT THE FIRST YEAR OF SMP PGRI 2
KATIBUNG LAMPUNG SELATAN
By
MEIZI FITRIANA
0613042035
A Script
Submitted in a Partial Fulfillment of The Requirement for S-1 Degree
In
The Language and Arts Department of Teacher Training and Education Faculty
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
LAMPUNG UNIVERSITY
i ABSTRACT
THE EFFECT OF TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH DIRECTED READING – THINKING ACTIVITY (DRTA) STRATEGY ON STUDENTS’ NARRATIVE TEXT ACHIEVEMENT AT THE FIRST YEAR OF SMP PGRI 2 KATIBUNG LAMPUNG SELATAN
By
Meizi Fitriana
Reading is the interaction between the words that are written and how they trigger knowledge outside the text.Narrative text is a story about fictional or real events, which follows a basic standard format. Narratives include a plot, setting,
characters, structure (introduction, complication, resolution), and theme. The
Directed Reading Thinking Activity is a comprehension strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text, making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. Students must improve their ability in reading comprehension, so they can get information from the text by means of
understanding the main idea, specific information, inference, reference and vocabulary.
The objective of this research was to find out whether there is significant increase in students’ reading comprehension achievement of narrative texts taught through Directed Reading – Thinking Activity Strategy. Reading test in the form of
multiple choices was used as the instrument of the research and repeated measures t-test was accomplished to analyze the data. The sample of the research was the first year students of SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan in the year 2012/2013.
The result of the test shows that there is a significant increase from pre-test to post-test after being taught through Directed Reading-Thinking Activity. The increase is from 70.84 up to 77.51 and the gain is 6.67. The result of the computation shows that the value of the two tailed significance is 0.000. This means that H1 is accepted and H0 is rejected since 0.000 < 0.05. This proves that the treatments given by the researcher has a positive effect on the students’ achievement, which meansDirected Reading-Thinking Activity can increase
2. Lesson Plan I ... 83
3. Lesson Plan II... 88
4. Lesson Plan III ... 93
5. Pre Test ... 98
6. Post Test ... 107
7. Reliability Analysis of Upper Group Tryout Test ... 116
8. Reliability Analysis of Lower Group Tryout Test ... 117
9. Reliability Analysis of Tryout Test... 118
10. Difficulty Level and Discrimination Power of the Tryout Test ... 119
11. Coefficient of the First and the Second Group... 120
12. Result of Students Score of Pre Test... 121
13. Result of Students Score of Post Test ... 122
14. Students’ Score of Pre Test and Post Test ... 123
15. Table of Frequency of Pre-test ... 124
16. Histogram of Pre-test Scores... 125
17. Table of Frequency of Post-test ... 126
18. Histogram of Post-test Scores ... 127
19. Graph of Increase from Pre-test to Post-test Scores ... 128
20. Analysis of the Hypothesis ... 129
21. Graph Increases of Each Aspects of Reading ... 130
22. Result of Students Specification of Reading Aspects in Pre-Test ... 131
23. Result of Students Specification of Reading Aspects in Post-Test... 132
24. Highest Score of Pre-Test ... 133
25. Lowest Score of Pre-Test ... 134
26. Highest Score of Post-Test... 135
I. INTRODUCTION
This chapter introduces the beginning of this research. In the background of the
problem, the writer states how students’ reading comprehension skill is still low.
The writer also identifies the problems, limits the problem, formulates the
problem and gives the objective and the uses of this research. She also explains
the scopes of this research and definitions of every related term.
1.1.Background of the Problem
In Indonesia, English is an important subject that students must learn at school.
Students learn English from elementary school through university. The students
are expected to have language skills in English. One of the important skills is
reading. Students must improve their ability in reading comprehension, so they
can get information from the text. As a matter of fact, the students’ ability in
reading comprehension is still far from the goal being expected, as stated in the
syllabus of KTSP that students must be able to understand the meaning of
functional text and simple short essay in form of narrative related to their
environment. Based on the teacher’s information in the school when the writer
observed the school for her research, many students have difficulties in
the information from the text. Besides that, finding the details, finding the main
ideas, the answer to questions based on the text and making inferences from the
text are some other obstacles they face. And as a result, the students got
difficulties in retelling or in transferring the information from the text.
Standard and basic competence of KTSP indicates that there are many kinds of
text in reading comprehension, such as descriptive, narrative, recount, spoof,
report, review, etc. In this research, the writer focused on narrative text of reading
comprehension, because narrative text is one of reading texts that is mostly used
in the reading test. The text is simple but many students in the first year of senior
high school do not really understand this sort of text. They have difficulty in
finding the main idea and specific information of narrative text.
The students’ failure in comprehending the reading text may be influenced by
many factors, such as: lack of vocabularies, the media, the technique being used
by the teacher, and the facilities. Due to this, the writer wants to underline one of
those factors that are technique. Based on the teacher’s information of the writer’s
observation, in fact English teachers in school do not teach reading
comprehension using an effective technique in helping students understand
reading comprehension easier. Because of that, the writer is interested in applying
Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) for the solution. In DRTA, most
students require explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies (Tierney,
They also make adjustments to what they think will come next based on the text.
DRTA is a strategy that explicitly teaches students to good reading habits.
The DRTA strategy is one of reading strategies which has been proved, through
many studies, to have been able to improve students’ reading comprehension. The
DRTA strategy is developed by Stauffer in 1969 to help the students in
comprehending a text. The DRTA strategy has many advantages in the teaching
and learning of reading. First, the DRTA strategy can help to develop critical
reading skills. Second, the strategy can encourage the students to be active
readers. Third, it can activate the students’ prior knowledge. Then, the strategy
can monitor students’ reading comprehension as they are reading. Finally, the
strategy can enhance students’ curiosity about particular texts or text types. From
the statements above, it is obvious that the DRTA strategy is effective to improve
the students’ reading comprehension; so it is appropriate to be used by English
teachers in teaching reading.
The DRTA is a strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text,
making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. The
DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing
their comprehension. Then benefit of a DRTA strategy may be used with an
individual, a small group, or a whole class. This activity can be easily adapted for
a variety of subjects and reading levels. This strategy helps strengthen reading and
students to determine the purpose for reading and making adjustments to what
they think will come next based on the text.
Realizing the effectiveness of using DRTA strategy in reading, the writer is
interested in using this strategy. The writer assumes that reading comprehension is
an important skill for senior high school students and DRTA strategy is an
interesting strategy that can be used in teaching student’s reading comprehension.
Therefore, the writer tries to propose the topic to find out whether there is any
significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement through
DRTA strategy or not.
To implement the teaching strategy above, the writer chooses SMP PGRI 2
Katibung Lampung Selatan as the setting of her research. Based on her pre
observation, she finds that the students have difficulty in comprehending an
English reading text, such as: the students have difficulty in finding the main idea
of the passage with long sentences, main topics, and explicit and implicit specific
information in reading text.
1.2 Identification of Problems
In reference to background of the problem, the following problems can be
identified:
1. Students get difficulties in comprehending the reading text. They get
the main ideas, the answer to the questions based on the text and making
inference from the text. As the results the students got difficulties in
retelling or in transferring the information from the text.
2. Students get difficulties in comprehending English materials because there
might be some misunderstandings between students with their English
teacher in the teaching learning interaction.
3. Students’ motivations in learning English are still low. So it is necessary to
improve their English ability well.
4. Students have negative attitude in learning English. So it is difficult for
them to learn English well because they regard that English is difficult to
be learnt well.
5. Teachers use inappropriate materials in teaching English. So it is difficult
for students to improve their English ability well.
6. Teachers use inappropriate technique in teaching English. So it is difficult
in helping students understand reading comprehension easier.
1.3 Limitation of the Problem
The writer realized her capability in doing her research. Therefore, the writer
focused on the students’ difficulties in comprehending the reading text. As the
solution to overcome their difficulties, the writer was interested in investigating
students’ reading achievement by using of DRTA strategy which was assumed to
be an effective way in helping students understands reading comprehension
1.4 Formulation of the Problem
Based on the limitation of the problem above, the research question is: Is there
any significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement after
being taught using DRTA Strategy at SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan?
1.5 Objective
In relation to the research question, the objective of this research is to find out
whether there is significant increase of students’ reading comprehension
achievement taught using DRTA Strategy or not at SMP PGRI 2 Katibung
Lampung Selatan.
1.6 Uses of the Research
The uses of the research are:
1. Theoretically, the result of this research is expected to verify the previous
theories dealing with teaching reading using DRTA Strategy and to be
used as a reference for further research.
2. Practically, the results of this result hopefully can give contribution to the
English teachers about the effectiveness of DRTA Strategy in increasing
1.7 Scope of the Research
This research has been conducted at SMP PGRI 2 Katibung Lampung Selatan.
The subject of the research is the first year students of SMP PGRI 2 Katibung
Lampung Selatan. In this research, the writer focused on the implementation of
DRTA as a teaching strategy in developing students’ reading comprehension. The
variables of the research were DRTA as the independent variable and the reading
comprehension of narrative text as the dependent variable. The research focused
on the activities of reading comprehension of narrative text taught by DRTA. The
students were expected to be able to comprehend some reading aspects: main
idea, vocabulary, specific information, reference and inference. The materials
were taken from English Book based on the School Based Curriculum (KTSP) of
SMP. To find out the improvement of students’ reading comprehension
achievement of narrative text, the writer measured the score of a set of pre-test
and post-test.
1.8 Definition of Terms
There are some terms used by the writer and to make them clear, the writer gives
some definitions as follow:
1. Effect is a change which is a result or consequence of an action or other
2. Reading Comprehension is defined as an active cognitive process of
interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish the
meaning (Silberstine, 1987,Simanjuntak, 1988:15)
3. Narrative text is a sequence of events, which is based on life experience
and is person-oriented using dialogue and familiar language.
4. DRTA (Stauffer, 1969) engages students in a step-by-step process in which
the teacher gives examples of how to make predictions. Students preview
the passage, make and record predictions. As students read, they stop
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter contains some crucial elements of reading skill related to the topics
under discussion. In this part, the writer gives explanations on the variables used
in this research, the procedures in this research and the hypothesis.
2.1. Concept of Reading Comprehension
There are two kinds of reading activity, namely reading aloud and silent reading.
What the readers are doing in silent reading is to use our eyes and our ability to
understand the meaning of the written sign, thus comprehending the text will be
given more emphasize in silent reading.
Clark and Silberstein (1987) state reading as an active cognitive process of
interacting with print and monitoring comprehension to establish meaning. While
Mackay (1979) in Simanjuntak (1988: 15) defines reading is an active process.
The readers from preliminary expectation about the material then select the
fewest, most productive cues necessary to confirm or reject the expectation. This
is a sampling process in which the reader takes advantage of his knowledge of
interaction between taught and language. Moreover, Nuttal (1982:12) defines
reading as the meaningful interpretation of printed or written verbal symbols.
These concepts basically state that reading always deals with printed materials,
which stresses on the grasping meaning from the printed language. It means that
reading activity is the interaction between the perception of the graphic symbols
that represent the language and the readers’ language skill, cognitive skills and the
knowledge of the world. In this process, the reader tries to create meaning
intended by the writer.
Someone has a purpose when he is reading. Usually the purpose of reading a
passage is to find ideas from the reading passage. As Suparman (2005:1) states
that there are two major reasons for reading (1) reading for pleasure; (2) reading
for information (in order to find out something or in order to do something with
the information readers get).
At the same time, Richard (1986) defines comprehension as the process by which
the person understands the meaning of the written or spoken language. Moreover,
Williams (1981) says that comprehension is mind’s act or power of understanding
what has been written. From these statements, the writer concludes that
comprehending is the process of mind’s act understanding the meaning of written
or spoken language.
According to these views, it is clear that reading and comprehension are regarded
progress of activity of mind. In other words, reading comprehension is an activity
to grasp the meaning of written materials with fully understanding.
Finocchiaro and Bonomo (1973:132) suggest that reading comprehension is
ability which depends on the accuracy and speed of grapheme perception, that is,
perception of written symbol, control of language relationship and structure,
knowledge of vocabulary items and lexical combination, awareness of
redundancy, the ability to use contextual clues and recognition of cultural
allusion.
2.1.1 Level of Comprehension
Comprehension is the result of reading. Moreover, they categorize reading
comprehension into three levels of comprehension:
1. Literal comprehension
Literal comprehension is the process of understanding the ideas and
information explicitly stated in the passage such as: knowing the meaning
of the words, recall of details directly stated or paraphrases in own words,
understanding of grammatical clues, subject, verb, pronouns, and
conjunction, so forth. Recall of main idea explicitly stated and knowledge
2. Interpretative comprehension
Interpretative comprehension means understanding of ideas and
information not explicitly stated in the passage. For example: to
understand the author’s tone, purpose and attitude, interfactual
information, main ideas, comparisons, cause-effect relationship and also
summarize the story content.
3. Critical comprehension
Critical comprehension is analyzing, evaluating and personally reacting
to information presented in a passage. For example: personally reacting
to information in a passage, indicating meaning to the reader, analyzing
the quality of written symbol or information in the terms of standard.
From the explanation above, it is quite clear that comprehension is important in
reading. Comprehension is the result of reading. By comprehension meaning that
we use our previous knowledge to response with the written text. In
comprehension, we process deeply information, so that we can make a meaningful
interpretation of it. In this research, the writer focused on the interpretative
comprehension.
Here the writer sees that in reading comprehension, it is important that the reader
should be able to interpret what they read and associate with their experience, not
only see and identify the symbol in front of them. This is necessary because when
a reader reads a text, the communication process between the reader and the writer
combined with the visual (written) information result in his comprehending the
text. In short, we can say that reading comprehension is a combination of
recognition intellect and emotion interrelated with prior knowledge to understand
the message communicated.
2.2 Concept of Narrative Text
A narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format (as a work of writing,
speech, poetry, prose, pictures, song, motion pictures, video games, theatre or
dance) that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events.
Narrative text is a sequence of events, which is based on life experience and is
person-oriented using dialogue and familiar language. The purpose of narrative
text is to amuse or entertain the readers with actual or imaginary experiences in
difference ways. Narrative is always deals with some problems which lead to the
climax and then turn into a solution to the problem.
The examples of genres that fit the narrative text structure:
1. Folktale is very old traditional story from a particular place that was
originally passed on to people in a spoken form, e.g., The Mighty
2. Fairy tale is an old story about magic things happened intended for
amusing and giving lessons, meanings, and moral values, e.g., Cinderella.
3. Fables is traditional short stories that teach moral lesson, especially one
with the animals as characters; these stories are considered as one group of
4. Myth is a story from ancient times, especially one that was told to explain
about natural events or to describe the early history of place or people,
e.g., Tower of Babel
Text organization of narrative text:
1. Orientation
(Refers to the characters, problem, place and time, such as: who is the
character in the text, what is the problem in the text and where does it
happen in the text)
2. Complication
(Denotes a crisis arises. It comprises initiating event, subsequent event and
climax aspects when the characters face the problems)
3. Resolution
(Shows that the crisis is resolved. In this part, the character does the act of
solving or settling the problem for better or for worse one)
4. Re-orientation
(Indicates the optional point. This mean that a story not always uses this,
and usually, it states the conclusions of the event based on the writer point
of view)
Language Features of narrative text:
1. Focus on the specific and individualized participants.
2. The use of noun phrases
3. The use of connectives
(First, before that, then, finally)
4. The use of adverbial phrases of time and place
(In the garden, two days ago)
5. The use of simple past tense
(He walked away from the village)
6. The use of action verbs
(Walk, sleep, wake up)
7. The use of saying verbs
(Say, tell, ask)
8. The use of thinking verbs, feeling verbs, verbs of senses
(She felt hungry; she thought she was clever, she smelt something
burning)
Example of narrative text:
Beauty and the Beast
Orientation Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl named Beauty. She lived with her father and her two sisters. She was a hard worker; she always helped her father on the farm.
Complication One day, her father set out for the city. He saw an old castle and went it. None was in but there was food on the table. Then he walked around the castle. He picked a rose from the garden for Beauty. Suddenly, an angry beast appeared. He wanted to kill Beauty’s father unless Beauty was brought to him. Beauty’s father told his daughter what had happened, Beauty’s sister ordered her to see the beast.
Beauty went to see the beast and had to stay at the castle. She left scared, lonely, and sad. She tried to run away but was stopped by the beast.
The beast treated the beast’s magic mirror. Beauty saw that her father was sick.
Resolution One night, Beauty had a dream; a fairy told her that the beast was sick. Beauty hurried saw the beast dying, she began to cry. Tears fell onto the beast, suddenly the beast change into a handsome prince. Beauty and the beast got married and lived happily ever after.
2.3Concept of DRTA (Directed Reading Thinking Activity)
The recent researches and speculation about the comprehension process that is
associated with DRTA theory seems to have had the most unique impact.
Because of its influence, it is important to define and review it.
DRTA is a reading comprehension strategy that is used in each of the three stages
of reading (pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading). It emphasizes
prediction (thinking ahead), verification (confirmation), and reading with a
purpose.
1. Pre-reading
Survey the text with the students, looking for clues about the content –
clues such as titles, section headings, key words, illustrations.
Help the students make predictions about the text’s content.
Have students write their predictions down on their paper, as you write
them on the board or overhead transparency.
Help the students establish a purpose for reading by directing them to read
the text to determine whether it proves or disproves their predictions.
2. During Reading
Have the students read the text, silently or aloud, individually or in groups,
3. Post-Reading
Have the students compare their predictions with the actual content of the
text.
Ask the students to analyze their prediction and determine how well they
predicted the content of the text.
The DRTA strategy is one of reading strategies which has been proved, through
many studies, to have been able to improve students’ reading comprehension. The
DRTA strategy is developed by Russell Stauffer in 1969 to help the students in
comprehending a text. The DRTA strategy has many advantages in the reading
teaching and learning. First, the DRTA strategy can help to develop critical
reading skills, for example after pre-reading; students re-read the text to identify
elements like language usage, assumptions, and information. Second, the strategy
can encourage the students to be active readers for example teachers use pictures
displays as advanced organizers, as note taking devices, and as means for
summarizing the content of the reading. Third, it can activate the students’ prior
knowledge for example students read the title of the text, or tell them the topic of
the text then ask students to brainstorm a list of ideas that come to mind when
they think about the title or topic at least write those ideas on the board. Students
will be making predictions about what they will read about in the text. Then, the
strategy can monitor students’ reading comprehension as they are reading for
example students learn to draw on their prior knowledge about the topic of their
reading to aid in their understanding of the text, determine their own purposes for
realize that through reading they can confirm prior knowledge and also gain new
knowledge. Finally, the strategy can enhance students’ curiosity about particular
texts or text types for example when students making a prediction about what they
have read before. From the statements above, it is obvious that the DRTA strategy
is effective to improve the students’ reading comprehension, so it is appropriate to
be used by English teachers in teaching reading.
The DRTA is a strategy that guides students in asking questions about a text,
making predictions, and then reading to confirm or refute their predictions. The
DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers, enhancing
their comprehension. Then benefit of a DRTA strategy may be used with an
individual, a small group, or a whole class. This activity can be easily adapted for
a variety of subjects and reading levels. This strategy helps strengthen reading and
critical thinking skills. As the teacher guides the process, the DRTA teaches
students to determine the purpose for reading and make adjustments to what they
think will come next based on the text.
The DRTA (Stauffer, 1969) engages students in a step-by-step process in which
the teacher gives examples of how to make predictions. Students preview the
passage, make and record predictions. As students read, they stop periodically to
discuss and amend predictions.
The DRTA is a comprehension strategy that guides students in asking questions
predictions. The DRTA process encourages students to be active and thoughtful
readers, enhancing their comprehension.
The DRTA is often associated with the DRA (Directed Reading Activity)
developed by Stauffer (1969). As defined in the International Reading Association
Dictionary of Reading and Related Terms, the DRA is "a lesson plan which
involves a) preparation/readiness/motivation for reading a lesson; b) silent
reading; c) vocabulary and skills development; d) silent and/or oral reading; and
e) follow-up or culminating activities." While this is a useful plan for some
reading lessons and is essentially synonymous with the basal reading lessons of
the elementary grades (Tierney, 23, 1990), the DRTA is a much stronger model
for building independent readers and learners.
The hyphen in Directed Reading-Thinking Activity is intended to symbolize the
interdependence of the two terms, "Reading" and "Thinking," because in order to
be a good reader, one must also think. Unfortunately, the link between the two has
been lost for some students as evidenced in their replies to teachers' questions
about what they have "read."
The DRTA (Stauffer, 1969) engages students in a step-bystep process that guides
them through informational text. It is designed to move students through the
process of reading text. Questions are asked and answered, and predictions are
made and tested throughout the reading. Additionally, new questions and
While the teacher guides the process, the student determines the purpose for
reading. To introduce the strategy, the teacher gives examples of how to make
predictions. A preview of the section to be read is given by having the students
read the title and make predictions. Independent thinking is encouraged as
knowledge from previous lessons is incorporated into the predictions. All student
predictions should be recorded by the teacher, even those that will later prove to
be inaccurate. Misconceptions are clarified by the reader through interaction with
the text and in post-reading discussions. After reading small selections, the
teacher prompts the students with questions about specific information. It is
important for the teacher not to interrupt too often. The amount of reading is
adjusted depending on the purpose and the difficulty of the text. The reading is
broken into small sections, giving the students time to think about and process
information. The teacher makes sure students can identify and understand
important vocabulary. Words are explained in context.
This literacy strategy allows students to ask questions or make predictions using
their own words in a non-threatening environment. Everyone is on the “same
page” and has the information right in front of them. New concepts and ideas are
connected to those learned inprevious lessons.
As the reading continues, questions are answered and predictions are confirmed,
revised, or rejected. The predicting-reading-proving cycle continues throughout
the lesson. The format can be varied with different activities and by integrating
the end of the lesson as a closing activity. This review offers a comprehension
check. Questions such as, “Were you correct?” and, “What do you think now?”
help students examine the proof of their predictions.
Example of Narrative Text:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Across an ocean, over lots of huge bumpy mountains, across three hot deserts, and one smaller ocean there lay the tiny town of Chewandswallow. In most ways, it was very much like any other tiny town. It had a Main Street lined with stores, houses with trees and gardens around them. A schoolhouse, about three hundred people, and some assorted cats and dogs. But there were no food stores in the town of Chewandswallow. They didn’t need any. The sky supplied all the food they could possibly want. The only thing that was really different about Chewandswallow was its weather. It came three times a day, at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everything that everyone ate came from the sky. Whatever the weather served, that was what they ate. But it never rained rain. It never snowed snow. And it never blew just wind. It rained things like soup and juice. It snowed mashed potatoes and green peas. And sometimes the wind blew in storms of hamburgers.
The people could watch the weather report on television in the morning and they would even hear a prediction for the next day’s food. When the towns-people went outside, they carried their plates, cups, glasses, forks, spoons, knives and napkins with them. That way they would always be prepared for any kind of weather. If there were left-overs, and there usually were, the people took them home and put them in their refrigerators in case they got hungry between meals. The menu varied. By the time they woke up in the morning, breakfast was coming down.
After a brief shower of orange juice, low clouds of sunny-side up eggs moved in followed by pieces of toast. And most of the time it rained milk afterwards. For lunch one day, frankfurters, already in their rolls, blew in from the northwest at about five miles an hour. There were mustard clouds nearby. Then the wind shifted to the east and brought in baked beans. A drizzle of soda finished off the meal. Dinner one night consisted of lamb chops, becoming heavy at times, with occasional ketchup. Periods of peas and baked potatoes were followed by gradual clearing, with a wonderful Jell-O setting in the west.
The Sanitation Department of Chewandswallow had a rather unusual job for sanitation department. It had to remove the food that fell on the houses and sidewalks and lawns. The workers cleaned things up after every meal and fed all the dogs and cats. Then they emptied some of it into the surrounding oceans for the fish and turtles and whales to eat. The rest of the food was put back into the earth so that the soil would be richer for the people’s flower gardens.
Life for the townspeople was delicious until the weather took a turn for the worse. One day there was nothing but Gorgonzola cheese all day long. The next day there was only broccoli, all overcooked. And the next day there were brussel sprouts and peanut butter with mayonnaise. Another day there was a pea soup fog. No one could see where they were going and they could barely find the rest of the meal that got stuck in the fog. The food was getting larger and larger, and so were the positions. The people were getting frightened. Violent storms blew up frequently. Awful things were happening.
The teacher begins the lesson by showing the book and saying:
The title of the book we're going to read today is Cloudy with a Chance of
Meatballs. What do this title and the picture make you think the story is about? There was a storm of pancakes one morning and a downpour of maple syrup that nearly flooded the town. A huge pancake covered the school. No one could get it off because of its weight, so they had to close the school. Lunch one day brought fifteen-inch drifts of cream cheese and jelly sandwiches. Everyone ate themselves sick and the day ended with a stomachache. There was an awful salt and pepper wind accompanied by an even worse tomato tornado. People were sneezing themselves silly and running to avoid the tomatoes.
The teacher now reads until the story describes a tomato tornado and then stops and asks questions again.
Teacher : So, what happens in the town of Chewandswallow?
Kayla : All kinds of food starts coming down. Some of it is yucky like peanut butter, mayonnaise, and Brussels sprouts. And sometimes just too much of it comes down, like when they had a tomato tornado. Everything was a mess because the food was going crazy.
Teacher : What do you think the town will do about it? Why do you think so?
Frank : I think that they will hire a magician to put a spell on the clouds so that the weather will get straightened out because sometimes in the stories they can do that.
Harold : I think that they have to leave if they can, before they all die. That's what I would do.
Nancy : I think they need to find out who is in charge of making it rain so that they can ask them to stop it and make things go back to normal.
Teacher : Those are good answers. Now I want you all to decide which of those you think is the most likely to happen and let's continue reading.
The teacher reads the rest of the book.
Teacher : Did the people do what you thought they would do? Did you like how they solved
their problem?
Harold : Yes, that's what I thought they should do.
Frank : No, I still think they should've called on somebody to help them so that they wouldn't have to leave Chewandswallow and have to buy groceries in the store.
John : It might be about an old man that makes a magic spell on the sky so that meatballs
come down when he wants to eat them.
Lisa : I think it might be about a place where any kind of food you want rains down from
the sky.
Teacher : Let's read and see how close your predictions are.
Teacher then reads until the town of Chewandswallow is described. Teacher : Now, do you still agree with your predictions?
Children : It sounds like it's going to be about a place like Lisa described.
Teacher : What makes you think so?
Jessica : Because they haven't talked at all about an old man, the author only described the town and how food rained down for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Teacher : Would you like to live in a town like Chewandswallow?
Susan : I think it would be fun because then you wouldn't have to wait for your mom to
cook dinner. You could just catch some extra food and eat when you were hungry.
Tyler : I wouldn't like it because what would happen if it rained something heavy like barbecued ribs and you got hit on the head and got knocked out or died.
Teacher : Tyler brought up a good point. Could there be some problems with living in this town?
Jeff : It could rain heavy things and hurt you.
Maria : If there were a storm of ice cream or something mushy it would get really messy.
Teacher : Good, now that you're thinking about what a place like Chewandswallow would be
like, let's read on to see what happens in the town.
She reads until the weather takes a turn for the worse.
Teacher : Now what do you think is going to happen in the story?
James : It's about a town that rains food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and then one day the food starts coming down funny.
Teacher : What do you mean by funny?
James : I think that maybe too much food started coming down.
Teacher : What makes you think that maybe too much food started coming down?
James : Well, in the picture there is too much spaghetti in the road and the cars can't move.
To use the DRTA, teachers give students a text selection and ask them to read the
title, a few sampled lines of text, and examine the pictures to develop hypotheses
about the text. Children generate hypotheses as they read from the text and from
their own experiential backgrounds. Teachers may adapt the DRTA in such a way
as to sample the most important elements of a narrative or exposition based on the
text structure employed. If the children are assigned a narrative or story to read,
the DRTA could be based on the important elements of a story grammar or map,
as suggested by Beck and McKeown (1981). These elements include setting,
characters, initiating events, problems, and attempts to solve problems, outcomes
or resolutions. For example, consider the sample DRTA lesson constructed using
the story Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett (1978).
The DRTA engages students in a step-by-step process that guides students
through understanding and thinking about text. DRTA also promotes active
comprehension. This metacognitive strategy teaches students to acquire and
activate their own purposes for reading and develops their reading and thinking
processes. During DRTA, readers are encouraged to review what they know about
a topic, make predictions about what they will learn, and follow through with an
evaluation of what they actually learned as well as how their assertions pertained
to what they read. DRTA extends learning to high-order thought processes and is
useful for processing all types of text (Tankersley, 2005). Some of the higher
order thinking skills that DRTA requires students to use include: making
connections between interrelated elements of text, justifying their thought process
practiced and refined to set the pathway toward independent reading and foster
learner responsibility (Richardson and Morgan, 1997).
In addition to building comprehension strategies, DRTA is a useful tool for
teachers to model accurate and appropriate reading skills (Richardson and
Morgan, 1997). The prediction component especially encourages active reading
and serves as a way for the reader to get involved and interested in the text.
Making predictions about the text can help improve understanding (Richardson
and Morgan) as well as help clear up any misconceptions about the topic
(Billmeyer and Barton, 1998). Almasi (2003), in her book Teaching Strategic
Processes in Reading, asserts that the DRTA, especially making predictions, helps
students focus their attention on the text and encourages active reading
2.3.1 Purpose of DRTA
1. To encourage readers to be more aware of the strategies they use to
interpret text.
2. To develop prediction skills.
3. To stimulate thinking and develop hypotheses about text which aid
interpretation and comprehension.
4. To increase understanding of the purposes and effects of the structures and
features of particular text.
6. To encourage students to listen to the opinions of others and modify their
own in light of additional information.
If used effectively, DRTA has the potential to equip students with the abilities to
determine purposes for reading; extract, comprehend, and assimilate information;
examine reading materials based on purposes for reading; and make decisions
based upon information gleaned from reading. The DRTA can help students read,
think, understand, and remember what they have read.
2.3.2 Advantages of DRTA
1. DRTA can helps students become critical readers. In this case, DRTA can
give a freedom to the readers to examine their own thinking to raise
questions and seeks answer diligently and boldly.
2. DRTA help the student who has difficulty in justifying his answers with
information from the text since this strategy requires the reader to do so :
a. This helps develop critical reading skills.
b. Also helps students develop reading comprehension.
3. It encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers.
4. It activates students’ prior knowledge.
5. It teaches students to monitor their understanding of the text as they're
reading.
DRTA helps students realize that prediction and verification of predictions are
essential parts of the reading process. Students learn that by reading with a
purpose, they can more easily focus their predictions. Good readers automatically
predict and confirm what will or will not happen in the text and merge their
knowledge and ideas with the author’s. Poor readers do not make predictions or
verifications as they read. DRTA helps readers learn to make predictions before
they read and verify those predictions as they read. Use DRTA with students who
have difficulty comprehending text or who need help understanding that reading
is an interactive process between the author and the reader. Teach DRTA in-group
or one-on-one situations. After working through the strategy with the students
(guided practice), encourage them to use it independently. Below are the
guidelines for helping students apply DRTA in each of the three stages of reading.
2.3.3 Disadvantages of DRTA
1. Only useful if students have not read or heard the text being used.
2. Classroom management may become a problem.
According to writer opinion, DRTA is an active strategy coding strategy
necessary for facilitating the recall of knowledge. As new knowledge is perceived,
it is coded into either pre-existing schema or organized into a new script. In
essence schemata are organized mental structures that aid the learner’s ability to
understand and associate with what is being presented to them. DRTA is a reading
(pre-reading, during (pre-reading, and post-reading). It emphasizes prediction (thinking
ahead), verification (confirmation), and reading with apurpose.
2.4Teaching Reading Comprehension through DRTA Strategy in Narrative
Text
Based on Russell Stauffer (1969) DR-TA encourages students to make predictions
while they are reading. After reading segments of a text, students stop, confirm or
revise previous predictions, and make new predictions about what they will read
next.
Procedure:
1. Choose a text. This strategy works well with both fiction and expository
texts.
2. Activate students’ prior knowledge. Have students read the title of the text,
or tell them the topic of the text. Teacher asked students to build
brainstorm a list of ideas that come to mind when they think about the title
or topic. Teacher writes the ideas on the board. Students will be making
predictions about what they will read about in the text, so it is important
for teacher to activate students’ prior knowledge on a topic that will allow
them to make predictions about what might be included in the text.
3. Have students make predictions about what they will read about in the
text. Use all available clues, including the index, table of contents pictures,
charts, and tables in the text. Ask students to explain how they came up
questions (“Were your predictions correct?” What has changed since your
last prediction”, what do you think will happen next?”) And
comprehension questions (Who is…?” Why do you think the character did
that?”. “What would you do if you were in that situation?”) the last do not
accept “I don’t know” answers.
4. Have students read a section of the text. Either has student volunteers read
aloud, or have students read silently to themselves. If students are reading
to themselves, be sure to indicate where students should stop reading. The
teacher should predetermine stopping points. They should be points in the
text that lend themselves to making predictions. In expository texts, good
stopping points are often right after students have read a new heading or
subheading in the text.
5. Ask students to confirm or revise prior predictions, and make new
predictions. Students should be encouraged to explain what in the text is
causing them to confirm and/or revise prior predictions, and what is
causing them to make the new predictions they are making.
6. Continue steps 4 and 5 until students have finished reading.
7. When students have finished reading, ask questions that promote thinking
and discussion. Sample questions:
a. What is the main point the author is making in this story/article? What
supports your answer?
b. Do you agree with the author’s ideas or the character’s actions?
Explain why or why not.
d. What would you tell someone about this article/story if the person did
not have time to read it?
e. Is this like something else you have read? Explain.
Teachers should follow the steps when creating a DRTA:
1. Determine the text to be used and pre-select points for students to pause
during the reading process.
2. Introduce the text, the purpose of the DRTA, and provide examples of how
to make predictions.
3. Use the following outline to guide the procedure:
D = Direct. Teachers direct and activate students' thinking prior to reading a
passage by scanning the title, chapter headings, illustrations, and other materials.
Teachers should use open-ended questions to direct students as they make
predictions about the content or perspective of the text (e.g., "Given this title,
what do you think the passage will be about?").
R = Reading. Students read up to the first pre-selected stopping point. The
teacher then prompts the students with questions about specific information and
asks them to evaluate their predictions and refine them if necessary. This process
should be continued until students have read each section of the passage.
T = Thinking. At the end of each section, students go back through the text and
think about their predictions. Students should verify or modify their predictions by
1. What do you think about your predictions now?
2. What did you find in the text to prove your predictions?
3. What did you we read in the text that made you change your
predictions?
In the first lesson plan, narrative reading texts entitled “Brer Rabbit and the Tar
Baby” were distributed to the students. The first teaching – learning Activity
started with Pre-activity, the teachers started class with greeting. The teacher
giving the brainstorming the material based on their background knowledge. It is
used to build the students’ thought before they learn further about narrative text.
The teacher informed the material they are going to learn, the goals of learning to
achieve and reading strategy the students use. The second is Whilst-Activity,
teacher is displayed a poster showing pictures of the following important events of
the story, “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby”. The teacher explained to the students
that today they will be reading the story “Brer and the Tar Baby”, students are
asked to look at the background picture on the poster and teacher giving some
question based on the poster. The teacher explained to the students about the
important events based on the poster. Teacher asked one of the following
questions which will have them relate their own personal experience. For example
“Have you ever make someone angry?”. Next teacher asked students to answer
questions about each event that will predict what will happen in the story. For
example Event 1: Would Brer Rabbit angry to Brer Fox? Then students
brainstorming among their peers for the answer to these questions and write them
events to verify comprehension. Teacher has a question and answer session with
students having them review the main events in the story. Teacher closing the
meeting with review and asked students what they have learned and making some
summary based on the story.
In the second lesson plan, narrative reading texts entitled “The Monkey and The
Crocodile” were distributed to the students. The first teaching – learning Activity
started with Pre-activity, the teachers started class with greeting. The teacher
giving the brainstorming the material based on their background knowledge. It is
used to build the students’ thought before they learn further about narrative text.
The teacher informed the material they are going to learn, the goals of learning to
achieve and reading strategy the students use. The second is Whilst-Activity,
teacher is displayed a poster showing pictures of the following important events of
the story, “The Monkey and The Crocodile”. The teacher explained to the students
that today they will be reading the story “The Monkey and The Crocodile”,
students are asked to look at the background picture on the poster and teacher
giving some question based on the poster. The teacher explained to the students
about the important events based on the poster. Teacher asked one of the
following questions which will have them relate their own personal experience.
For example “Did u ever lie?”. Next teacher asked students to answer questions
about each event that will predict what will happen in the story. For example
Event 1: What did the monkey do in order to save his life? Then students
brainstorming among their peers for the answer to these questions and write them
events to verify comprehension. Teacher has a question and answer session with
students having them review the main events in the story. Teacher closing the
meeting with review and asked students what they have learned and making some
summary based on the story.
In the third lesson plan, narrative reading texts entitled “The Little Mailman of
Bayberry Lane” were distributed to the students. The first teaching – learning
Activity started with Pre-activity, the teachers started class with greeting. The
teacher giving the brainstorming the material based on their background
knowledge. It is used to build the students’ thought before they learn further about
narrative text. The teacher informed the material they are going to learn, the goals
of learning to achieve and reading strategy the students use. The second is
Whilst-Activity, teacher is displayed a poster showing pictures of the following important
events of the story, “The Little Mailman of Bayberry Lane”. The teacher
explained to the students that today they will be reading the story “The Little
Mailman of Bayberry Lane”, students are asked to look at the background picture
on the poster and teacher giving some question based on the poster. The teacher
explained to the students about the important events based on the poster. Teacher
asked one of the following questions which will have them relate their own
personal experience. For example “Have you ever got a letter?”. Next teacher
asked students to answer questions about each event that will predict what will
happen in the story. For example Event 1: What do you think in the second
pictures? Then students brainstorming among their peers for the answer to these
poster, review the main events to verify comprehension. Teacher has a question
and answer session with students having them review the main events in the story.
Teacher closing the meeting with review and asked students what they have
learned and making some summary based on the story.
2.5 Theoretical Assumption
Based on the literature review, it is assumed that DRTA is an effective technique
to be used in teaching reading in order to improve the students’ achievement in
reading comprehension of narrative text. As has already stated that in reading
activity the students make contacts and communication with ideas that relate to
their own thinking. It is important that students are able to interpret what they read
and associate with their experience, but also see and identify the symbol in front
of them. DRTA strategy requires the learners to be actively involved in teaching
learning process based on the previous knowledge that the students have to
construct their own understanding.
Therefore, the writer assumes that after doing a process on the information
contains in the text, automatically the students will get better understanding on the
text, and as the result, it assumes that DRTA can be an effective strategy in
2.6 Hypothesis
Based on the theories and the assumptions above, the writer formulates the
hypothesis as follows:
Teaching through DRTA strategy can give a positive effect on students’ reading
III. RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter discusses the design of this research and how to collect the data on
reading comprehension. The writer encloses the data collecting technique and the
procedures of this research. The writer also gives the scoring system and how the
data are analyzed.
3.1Research Design
The writer used one group pretest-posttest design (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:20).
She used one class as the experimental class and another one as a try out class.
This research is intended to see whether there is an increase of students’ reading
comprehension in narrative text after being taught using DRTA strategy.
The pretest was conducted to measure students’ reading comprehension
achievement before treatments, and the posttest was conducted to find the
students’ reading comprehension achievement after being taught using DRTA
strategy. Then, the means of both pretest and posttest was compared to find out
This research design conducting includes pretest, treatments, and posttest. The
research design is represented as follow:
T1XT2
T1 : Pre-Test
T2 : Treatments
T3 : Post-Test
(Hatch and Farhady in Setiyadi 2006:131)
Firstly, a pre-test was administered to the students. Then, the students were given
three treatments by using DRTA strategy. After that, a post-test was administered
to identify students’ reading comprehension achievement after they were taught
through DRTA technique. If the average score of the pre-test (mean) is higher
than the average score (mean) of the post-test, it indicates that DRTA strategy
cannot be used to increase students’ reading comprehension achievement of
narrative text. However, if the average score (mean) of the post-test is higher than
the average score of the pre-test (mean), it shows that DRTA strategy can be used
to increase students’ reading comprehension achievement of narrative text.
3.2Population and Sample
The population of the research was the first year students of SMP PGRI 2
Katibung Lampung Selatan in first semester of 2012/2013 academic year. In this
research, the writer chose the first year students to be investigated. The writer
class. In determining the experimental class, the writer used random sampling
technique by using lottery, so that all the first year classes got the same chance to
be sample in order to avoid subjectivity and to guarantee every class had the same
opportunity.
3.3Data Collecting Technique and Instrument
In collecting the data the writer used the following strategy:
1. Giving Try-Out Test
It was done in order to know the level of difficulty and discrimination power,
and also to find out the reliability. Therefore, 40 items were arranged and
made before the students were given for pre-test and post-test items. The same
items were used for the pre-test and post-test taken from try-out items.
2. Giving Pre-Test
Pre–Test was given before treatments in order to know the basic of students’
reading comprehension of narrative text.
3. Treatments
The treatments were given three times.
4. Giving Post-Test
Post-Test was given after giving treatment. The students were given the
post-test in order to know the result of the class in teaching learning process
3.4Procedures of Collecting Data
In conducting this study, the writer conducted the following procedures:
1. Planning
There were some steps that were planned in order to make the research run well.
The procedure of making planning of this research could be seen as follows:
a. Preparing the Try-out
A kind of test (called Try-out test) that was given to the students was
prepared. It used an objective test in form of 40 multiple choice items in 60
minutes time. It was done in order to know the level of difficulty,
discrimination power and also to find out the reliability. Split-half method was
used to measure the reliability in which requires the writer to provide the
items into two same groups, first half and second half.
b. Preparing the Pre-Test
A kind of test (called Pre-Test) that was given to the students was prepared. It
used an objective test in form of 30 multiple choice items in 40 minutes time.
It was done to know the students’ reading comprehension before treatments.
c. Determining the material to be taught
The material that should be taught to the students was determined. The
material was about narrative text. Each treatment was held for 80 minutes.
d. Preparing the Post-Test
A kind of test (called Post -Test) that was given to the students was prepared.
It was done to know the result of students’ reading comprehension after
achievement after taught through narrative text. The researcher used an
objective test in form of 30 multiple choice items in 40 minutes time. It was
done to find out whether there is any significant increase of students’ reading
comprehension achievement after the treatments.
2. Application
After making the planning, the writer procedure which had been planned was
applied. There were some steps that had been applied:
a. In the first meeting, try-out was given.
The test papers were administered to the students and the students were asked
to do the test and the last, they answered in their answer sheet. This test was in
the form of multiple choices that consisted of 40 items.
b. In the second meeting, pre-test was given.
This test was in the form of multiple choices that consist of 30 items.
c. After giving the pre-test, the treatments consisting of three meetings were
conducted.
d. In the last meeting, post-test was given.
The test papers were administered to the students and the students were asked
to do the test and the last, they were answer in their answer sheet. This test
was in the form of multiple choices that consists of 30 items.
3.5 Research Instrument
The research instruments for collecting the data were pre-test and post-test. The
writer used an objective test ; it was a multiple choice (MC) test which items
score. The material was about narrative text, the researcher used 30 items for
pre-test and 30 items for post-pre-test.
3.6 Try Out of Instrument
In doing this research, to prove whether the test items were applicable or not, the
writer found the validity, the reliability, the level of difficulty and discrimination
power of the test. It was done in order to know that 40 items before being given
for pre-test and post-test items had a good quality or not. There are four criteria of
a good test should be met: validity, reliability, reliability, level of difficulty, and
discrimination power.
3.6.1 Validity of the Test
Validity refers to the extent to which the test measures what it was intended to
measure. This means that it relates directly to the purpose of the test (Shohamy,
1985; 74). Validity is concerned with the study's success at measuring measure. In
this research, to measure whether the test had good validity or not, the researcher
analyzed its content and construct validity.
Content validity means that the test is good reflection of what has been taught and
the knowledge which the teacher wants the students to know (Shohamy, 1985:74).
It means that the items of the test should present the material being discussed.
Then the test is determined according to the materials that have been taught to the
students. In other words, the test is based on materials in the English curriculum,
so that it can be said that the test has content validity since the test is good
Construct validity examines whether the test is actually in line with the theory of
what it means to know certain language skill (Shohamy, 1985:74). It means that
the test item should really test the students or the test items should really measure
the students’ ability in listening comprehension. Therefore to know the construct
validity of test, then the researcher used table of specification to judge the validity
of the test in order to know whether the test represented the materials that were
discussed.
Table 1. Specification of the Validity test
No Skills of Reading Items Numbers Percentage
of Items
5 Vocabulary 2,4,8,9,14,15,16,21,27 30%
3.6.2 Reliability of The Test
To find out the reliability of the test, split-half technique was used. It required to
split the test in two similar parts, first and second half (Hatch and Farhady,
1982:246). To measure the coefficient of the reliability between first and second
half, Pearson Product Moment formula was used (See Appendix 11).
Where,
Then to know the coefficient of the whole items, the writer used Spearman Brown
Formula:
3.6.3 Level of Difficulty
To know whether the test items were easy or difficult from the students’
perception who took the test, then the researcher found out the level of difficulty.
To see the level difficulty, the researcher used this formula:
The criteria are :
LD < 0.30 = Difficult LD = 0.30 – 0.70 = Satisfactory LD > 0.70 = Easy
(Heaton, 1986:178)
3.6.4 Discrimination Power
To see the discrimination power (see Appendix 10), the writer used the following
formula:
DP = the proportion of upper SS – the proportion of lower SS
½ total number students
(Shohamy, 1985: 81)
The criteria are:
1. If the value is positive, it has discrimination because a large number or
more knowledgeable students than poor students get the item correct. If
the value is zero, it means no discrimination.
2. If the value is negative, it has negative discrimination because more
low-level students than high low-level students get the item correct.
3. In general, the higher discrimination index, the better, in the classroom
situation most items should be higher than 0.20 index.
(Shohamy, 1985: 82)
3.7 Scoring System
In scoring the results of students’ work, the researcher used Arikunto’s formula
(1997: 212). The writer gave score for each correct answer 10 and calculated the
Where:
S : The score of the test
R : The right answers
N : The total items
3.8 Data Analysis
In order to know the students’ progress in attempt to master the reading
comprehension of narrative text through DRTA strategy, the researcher computed
the students’ score by doing three activities:
a. Scoring the pre-test and the post-test
b. Tabulating the results of the test and calculating the score of the pre-test and
post-test.
c. Data analysis was done by tabulating the result of the test given, that was by
statistically analyzing the data using statistical computerization i.e. repeated
measures T-Test of SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 16.0
for Windows to see whether or not the difference between pre-test and the
post-test was significant, in which the significance was determined by p <
0.05. It was used as the data come from the same sample or known as paired
data (Hatch and Farhady, 1982:114). To find out the significant difference of
students’ reading comprehension of narrative text, the researcher used T-Test,
while to find out the significant increase of students’ reading comprehension
100
achievement of narrative text, it can be seen from the gain score of pre-test
and post-test.
3.9 Hypothesis Testing
After getting the mean of the pre-test and the post-test, the data was analyzed by
using repeated measures T-Test in order to know the significance of the treatment
effect. Hypothesis of this research:
“There was significant increase of students’ reading comprehension achievement
of narrative text after they are taught through DRTA strategy.”
The hypothesis was statistically analyzed by using Repeated Measures T-test that
was used to draw the conclusion at the level of 0.05 (p < 0.05). It can be seen
from 3 treatments result of try out, pre-test and post-test, because there is increase
