ABSTRACT
Hariadi, Anselmus Apri (2016). The Use of Digital Storytelling to Improve Narrative Writing Skill for 8th Grade Students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Writing is one of the important skills that people should have. It is used to communicate with others in daily life. Based on the KTSP curriculum, junior high school students are expected to be able to write a short narrative text with the correct rhetoric. There are a lot of approaches used to teach narrative writing. One of which is in a form of digital storytelling. It was implemented for the 8th grade, especially 8A students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta in academic year 2015/2016. This research was done to answer research questions in this research, namely: (1) Does the use of digital storytelling improve the 8th grade students’ narrative writing skill of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta? (2) How are the students’ perceptions on the use of digital storytelling in learning activities in class? The use of digital storytelling was expected to improve the students’ narrative writing skill and gave good perceptions to the students’ in learning English.
This research was in nature a Classroom Action Research (CAR). There was one cycle concerned with three meetings with different topics of digital storytelling. The students were asked to do a narrative writing task in each meeting. All narrative writing tasks were completely done by 20 students of 8A. The products of students’ narrative writing tasks were analyzed by considering four aspects: content, organization, language use and mechanics. In addition, the data were also gathered from the questionnaire done by 35 students of 8A class. The result of both data was concluded to see the students’ narrative writing skill improvements and their perceptions on the use of digital storytelling.
The result showed the students’ narrative writing skill improved after using digital storytelling. The improvements were limited to those four aspects of writing: content, organization, language use and mechanics. The improvements could be seen in terms of developing topic sentence, logical sequencing, tenses agreement and punctuation. From the data, it could also be concluded that the students had good perceptions of the implementation of digital storytelling in learning activities in class. They even recommend that digital storytelling should be applied in each meeting so that they can be more interested in learning English. Therefore, English teachers are suggested to use digital storytelling in their classes. The future researchers are recommended to conduct a research more than one cycle in order to see the improvements in more than those four aspects of writing.
Keywords: Digital storytelling, narrative writing skill, improvement, perception.
ABSTRAK
Hariadi, Anselmus Apri (2016). The Use of Digital Storytelling to Improve Narrative Writing Skill for 8th Grade Students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Menulis adalah salah satu dari beberapa keterampilan terpenting yang harus dimiliki setiap orang. Menulis digunakan dalam percakapan sehari-hari dengan orang sekitar. Berdasarkan kurikulum KTSP, siswa sekolah menengah pertama diharapkan untuk dapat menulis narasi pendek dengan langkah retorika yang benar. Terdapat berbagai macam pendekatan yang dapat digunakan dalam mengajar menulis narasi di sekolah. Salah satu diantaranya adalah digital storytelling. Digital storytelling digunakan untuk mengajar para siswa kelas 8, khususnya 8A di SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta pada tahun ajaran 2015/2016.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua rumusan masalah yaitu: (1) Apakah penggunaan digital storytelling dapat meningkatkan kemampuan menulis narasi bagi para siswa kelas 8A di SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta? (2) Bagaimana kesan dari para siswa tentang penggunaan digital storytelling dalam pembelajaran di kelas? Penelitian ini diharapkan dapat meningkatkan kemampuan menulis narasi di kalangan para siswa dan merangsang minat mereka dalam mengikuti pelajaran Bahasa Inggris.
Penulis menggunakan metode Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK). Penelitian ini berfokus pada satu siklus yang terdiri dari tiga pertemuan dengan topik yang berbeda. Para siswa diminta untuk mengerjakan tugas menulis narasi dalam setiap pertemuannya. Terdapat 20 siswa dari kelas 8A yang menyelesaikan keseluruhan tugas menulis narasi tersebut. Hasil dari tugas menulis narasi para siswa dianalisis dengan mempertimbangkan empat unsur: isi, organisasi, penggunaaan bahasa dan mekanik. Sebagai tambahan, data juga diperoleh melalui angket yang dikerjakan oleh 35 siswa kelas 8A. Hasil dari kedua data tersebut disimpulkan untuk melihat perkembangan kemampuan menulis narasi para siswa dan kesan mereka terhadap penggunaan digital storytelling.
Berdasarkan hasil analisis tugas menulis para siswa dapat dilihat adanya peningkatan dalam kemampuan menulis narasi mereka. Peningkatan ini hanya sebatas empat unsur menulis: isi, organisasi, penggunaan bahasa dan mekanik. Hal ini tampak dalam kemampuan mengembangkan kalimat utama, cara berpiki logis, penggunaan tata bahasa dan tanda baca. Data hasil angket juga menunjukkan bahwa para siswa memiliki persepsi yang baik dalam penggunaan digital storytelling di kelas. Mereka bahkan menyarankan agar metode pendekatan digital storytelling dapat selalu digunakan dalam setiap pertemuan di kelas sehingga mereka lebih tertarik dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu, guru bahasa Inggris diharapkan untuk menggunakan pendekatan ini di kelas. Peneliti selanjutnya diharapkan untuk memodifikasi penelitian ini lebih dari satu siklus untuk mencapai peningkatan lebih dari empat aspek menulis tersebut.
i
THE USE OF DIGITAL STORYTELLING
TO IMPROVE NARRATIVE WRITING SKILL
FOR 8
THGRADE STUDENTS OF SMP NEGERI 1
YOGYAKARTA
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Anselmus Apri Hariadi Student Number: 121214035
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
iv
I believe in the kindness of strangers. And
when I’m at war with myself I ride, I just ride.
-
Lana Del Rey
-
I dedicate this thesis to:
My parents, sister and friends who always
vii ABSTRACT
Hariadi, Anselmus Apri (2016). The Use of Digital Storytelling to Improve Narrative Writing Skill for 8th Grade Students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.
Writing is one of the important skills that people should have. It is used to communicate with others in daily life. Based on the KTSP curriculum, junior high school students are expected to be able to write a short narrative text with the correct rhetoric. There are a lot of approaches used to teach narrative writing. One of which is in a form of digital storytelling. It was implemented for the 8th grade, especially 8A students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta in academic year 2015/2016. This research was done to answer research questions in this research, namely: (1) Does the use of digital storytelling improve the 8th grade students’ narrative writing skill of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta? (2) How are the students’ perceptions on the use of digital storytelling in learning activities in class? The use of digital storytelling was expected to improve the students’ narrative writing skill and gave good perceptions to the students’ in learning English.
This research was in nature a Classroom Action Research (CAR). There was one cycle concerned with three meetings with different topics of digital storytelling. The students were asked to do a narrative writing task in each meeting. All narrative writing tasks were completely done by 20 students of 8A. The products of students’ narrative writing tasks were analyzed by considering four aspects: content, organization, language use and mechanics. In addition, the data were also gathered from the questionnaire done by 35 students of 8A class. The result of both data was concluded to see the students’ narrative writing skill improvements and their perceptions on the use of digital storytelling.
The result showed the students’ narrative writing skill improved after using digital storytelling. The improvements were limited to those four aspects of writing: content, organization, language use and mechanics. The improvements could be seen in terms of developing topic sentence, logical sequencing, tenses agreement and punctuation. From the data, it could also be concluded that the students had good perceptions of the implementation of digital storytelling in learning activities in class. They even recommend that digital storytelling should be applied in each meeting so that they can be more interested in learning English. Therefore, English teachers are suggested to use digital storytelling in their classes. The future researchers are recommended to conduct a research more than one cycle in order to see the improvements in more than those four aspects of writing.
Keywords: Digital storytelling, narrative writing skill, improvement, perception.
viii ABSTRAK
Hariadi, Anselmus Apri (2016). The Use of Digital Storytelling to Improve Narrative Writing Skill for 8th Grade Students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Menulis adalah salah satu dari beberapa keterampilan terpenting yang harus dimiliki setiap orang. Menulis digunakan dalam percakapan sehari-hari dengan orang sekitar. Berdasarkan kurikulum KTSP, siswa sekolah menengah pertama diharapkan untuk dapat menulis narasi pendek dengan langkah retorika yang benar. Terdapat berbagai macam pendekatan yang dapat digunakan dalam mengajar menulis narasi di sekolah. Salah satu diantaranya adalah digital storytelling. Digital storytelling digunakan untuk mengajar para siswa kelas 8, khususnya 8A di SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta pada tahun ajaran 2015/2016.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua rumusan masalah yaitu: (1) Apakah penggunaan digital storytelling dapat meningkatkan kemampuan menulis narasi bagi para siswa kelas 8A di SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta? (2) Bagaimana kesan dari para siswa tentang penggunaan digital storytelling dalam pembelajaran di kelas? Penelitian ini diharapkan dapat meningkatkan kemampuan menulis narasi di kalangan para siswa dan merangsang minat mereka dalam mengikuti pelajaran Bahasa Inggris.
Penulis menggunakan metode Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK). Penelitian ini berfokus pada satu siklus yang terdiri dari tiga pertemuan dengan topik yang berbeda. Para siswa diminta untuk mengerjakan tugas menulis narasi dalam setiap pertemuannya. Terdapat 20 siswa dari kelas 8A yang menyelesaikan keseluruhan tugas menulis narasi tersebut. Hasil dari tugas menulis narasi para siswa dianalisis dengan mempertimbangkan empat unsur: isi, organisasi, penggunaaan bahasa dan mekanik. Sebagai tambahan, data juga diperoleh melalui angket yang dikerjakan oleh 35 siswa kelas 8A. Hasil dari kedua data tersebut disimpulkan untuk melihat perkembangan kemampuan menulis narasi para siswa dan kesan mereka terhadap penggunaan digital storytelling.
Berdasarkan hasil analisis tugas menulis para siswa dapat dilihat adanya peningkatan dalam kemampuan menulis narasi mereka. Peningkatan ini hanya sebatas empat unsur menulis: isi, organisasi, penggunaan bahasa dan mekanik. Hal ini tampak dalam kemampuan mengembangkan kalimat utama, cara berpiki logis, penggunaan tata bahasa dan tanda baca. Data hasil angket juga menunjukkan bahwa para siswa memiliki persepsi yang baik dalam penggunaan digital storytelling di kelas. Mereka bahkan menyarankan agar metode pendekatan digital storytelling dapat selalu digunakan dalam setiap pertemuan di kelas sehingga mereka lebih tertarik dalam belajar Bahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu, guru bahasa Inggris diharapkan untuk menggunakan pendekatan ini di kelas. Peneliti selanjutnya diharapkan untuk memodifikasi penelitian ini lebih dari satu siklus untuk mencapai peningkatan lebih dari empat aspek menulis tersebut.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I gratefully thank my Lord, Jesus Christ for His blessing given
to me so that I could finish this thesis. Every night, I always pray for His guidance
and love while facing problems in life. With His love, I could finally get through
all of my problems and see everything in a good side. I put my trust in Him for
every best thing that I do so that he will take the rest.
This thesis would have never been finished without the greatest help by
my sponsor Dr. Emanuel Sunarto, M.Hum. I would like to thank him for his patience in guiding me to finish my thesis. He always answered every question that came into my mind about this research. I really appreciate him for not only giving me the knowledge about this thesis, but also teaching me a lot about life lesson. I learn a lot from him. I also would like to thank all my PBI lecturers for
teaching me with the heart while studying in Sanata Dharma University. My college life journey would not be easy if the PBI staff did not help me to get what
I needed. I thank them for the cooperation and assistance given to me as a student of ELESP. I especially would like to thank Miss Vina, There, Tami, Cesa and Cendra, Martin for helping me to proofread this thesis and giving suggestions.
I would like to express my great gratitude to my family; my father Henricus Mulyadi, M.Pd., my mother Yuliana Suprihatin, S.Pd. who also
become real teachers for me and the one who always supported me from distance my sister Asteria Desi Natalia Hadiati, S.T. Nothing is going to change my love
x
My thank goes to the headmaster of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta Bapak Tyas Ismullah, S.Pd. and Bapak Ponijo, S.Pd. for welcoming and letting me do
this research in SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta. I was really appreciated while doing my teaching practice (PPL) because the teachers were very friendly and kind. This
research would not exist without the cooperation from 8A students who became the participants of this research. No word can express my pride of having them all
as my students and participants of this research.
My college life journey would be boring without the existence of close
friends. I would like to thank Tami, Keke, Shierly, Joy, Rara, Mirra, Resty, Ina
and all PBI students batch 2012 especially class A. I thank them for spending
and sharing their college life with me. I would like to thank Yanse, my teaching
practice friend who always supported and pushed me up to finish this thesis. I
thank him for inspiring me to be grateful for everything I have. Not to forget, my
9-year and still counting friends, Ivan, Tius, Akbar. I thank them so much for
helping and supporting me a lot whenever I needed help and support. I am so
blessed to have them as my friends who like to listen to all my problems in life.
xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGES ... ii
STATEMENTS OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ... iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... v A. Review of Previous Studies... 8
B. Theoretical Description ... 10
xiii
C. Research Participants ... 35
D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ... 35
E. Data Analysis Technique ... 38
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION A. Research Results and Discussion of Students’ Narrative Writing Skill Improvements through the Use of Digital Storytelling. ... 40
B. Research Results and Discussion of Students’ Perceptions on the Implementation through the Use of Digital Storytelling ... 72
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS A. Conclusions ... 78
B. Recommendations ... 80
1. English Language Teachers ... 81
2. Students ... 81
3. Future Researchers ... 82
REFERENCES ... 84
xiv
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1 Components of Writing ... 15
2.2 Composition Profile of Writing Scoring Rubric ... 27
4.1 The Results of Students’ Narrative Writing Skill ... 41
4.2 Students who Finished the Whole Narrative Writing Tasks ... 43
4.3 The Results of Students’ Organization Based on the Narrative Macro Structures ... 49
4.4 The Result of Questionnaire ... 73
4.5 The Questions that belong to Planning ... 75
xv
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
xvi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Page
Appendix 1. The Letter of Inquiry to Conduct Research ... 88
Appendix 2 The Letter from the Governor of DIY. ... 90
Appendix 3 The Lesson Plan for the Whole Three Meetings ... 92
Appendix 4 Pictures Sequences ... 100
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of six sections to discuss. There are research
background, research questions, problem limitation, research objective, research
significance and definition of terms.
A. Research Background
According to Harmer (2001, p. 79), writing is a form of communication to
deliver or express feeling through written form. People can communicate with
each other not only by speaking directly, but also by writing in a piece of paper to
express what they want to talk about. People usually write information in order to
know each other by sending a letter or short message. In this case, writing really
takes part in sharing information to others.
Jonah (2006, p. 14) states that writing can be used as an indirect
communication to convey information. Nowadays, people can inform to others by
using social media such as WhatsApp, Blackberry Messenger and Line. They
have to type some texts to use those social media for communication. This activity
requires writing ability but in a form of informal communication.
Meanwhile, Harris (1993) argues that “writing is a complex activity of
fundamental importance to learning, personal development and achievement in
important role in an educational system. Generally, students must be able to write
in order to express their ideas through what they learn. It is also very useful in
literary work because the students can learn to write with their own style.
From those three experts, writing is concluded as an important skill that
everyone should have in order to communicate, share or even express their feeling
indirectly to others. Writing skill is as important as other skills like listening,
reading and speaking. Especially for students, they must have the ability to write.
Based on KTSP curriculum, generally, 8th grade students must be able to understand some kinds of texts such as narrative and recount. In this case, a
narrative writing is focused in this research. According to Dumais (1988) as cited
in Kristanti (2002, p. 20), narrative writing is a kind of writing which tells a story.
The story in narrative writing must be supported by conflicts and resolution.
In conducting this research, digital storytelling is used as an approaching
media to raise students’ interest in improving their narrative writing skill. The
digital storytelling may be suitable to be applied in learning narrative writing
since it consists of story in a form of digital video.
Robin (2008, p.220) explains that “digital storytelling is used as a
powerful teaching and learning tool that engage both teachers and students.” It
really takes contribution in the education field. It is more effective because it
connects the approaching media with the development of technology.
Miller (2011, p. 4) states that “in the old way of storytelling, storytellers
often alternate between narrating a story, going into character and even singing.”
speech and movement while telling a story to listeners. The movements or
conversational speech is used to make the story becomes more interesting. In this
case, the storytellers should be really careful to keep the story becomes
interesting.
In contrast with the old one, digital storytelling offers an easier way of
storytelling. Storytellers can put their voices indirectly by putting them while
recording. They can even edit pronunciation and repeat a story whenever they
make mistakes.
The use of digital storytelling becomes one of the benefits of technology
development in education field. Some pictures, music, sound effects and even
videos can be added through the digital storytelling. Those features may attract students’ interests through the digital storytelling rather than the story that they
usually find in workbook.
Through this research, the writer wants to know whether or not the use of
digital storytelling helps 8th grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta to improve their narrative writing skill. The measurement of this research is taken from the students’ narrative writing tasks results that are conducted three times.
Three examples of digital storytelling are provided with different kinds of stories
in each meeting. They are taken from the internet especially from YouTube by
B. Research Questions
After knowing the research background and the purpose of this study, the
writer formulates the problem into two research questions:
1. Does the use of digital storytelling help 8th grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta to improve narrative writing skill?
2. How are the students’ perceptions on the use of Digital Storytelling in
learning activities in class?
C. Problem Limitation
The research is conducted in SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta. Focusing on the
use of digital storytelling, 20 students of 8th grade, specifically 8A of SMP Negeri
1 Yogyakarta are chosen as participants of this research. The reason why the 8th
grade students are chosen is because they can have more practice in narrative
writing skill rather than the 9th grade students that must focus on the National
Exam. In addition, considering the KTSP curriculum, the 8th grade students have
to learn about narrative text. It may be interesting for the students to learn
narrative in a merrier way by using digital storytelling.
This research uses Classroom Action Research (CAR) because it observes
the use of media that requires 8th grade students as participants in classroom activities. It involves planning, implementing, observing, analyzing and reporting
the teaching-learning activity, students’ writing tasks and data from questionnaire.
D. Research Objectives
The objectives of this research is to twofold, namely whether or not the
use of digital storytelling helps 8th grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta to improve their narrative writing skill, and to identify the students’ perceptions on
the use of digital storytelling in learning activities in class.
E. Research Significance
This research gives positives contribution for 8th grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta. The students are expected to improve their narrative writing
skill especially in rewriting stories from digital storytelling. In this case, they can
learn narrative writing through the use of digital storytelling. The use of digital
storytelling can be interesting for the students because it uses animation video and
sounds that can help them easy to understand.
For teachers, they can use the examples of digital storytelling to be applied
in teaching-learning activity in class. It can be a new alternative way to improve students’ narrative writing skill. It also becomes an interesting way to introduce
narrative writing through animation videos that are provided in the digital
storytelling.
Hopefully, this research is beneficial for ELESP students or other
researchers who are interested in conducting the same topic of this research. They
hopes that it can motivates other future researchers to do further research related
to the use of digital storytelling in education field.
F. Definition of Terms
There are five terms used in this research that need to be defined. They are
as follows:
1. Digital Storytelling
According to Salpeter’ (2005), digital storytelling is defined as the
“modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling.” It means the development
of technology really contributes to the making of digital storytelling. He adds the
development of technology produces an art to modify the story using some
pictures, sounds effect and videos to make the story becomes more alive. In this
study, digital storytelling refers to an approaching media that is to help 8th grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta to improve their narrative writing skill.
2. Improvement
Based on Competitive Solutions (n.d.), improvement also called as
Continuous Improvement (CI) is defined as “ongoing effort to make incremental improvements to products, services, or processes over time.” (as cited in Duncan,
2011). This research uses students’ narrative writing tasks as products to improve.
Conceptually, the use of digital storytelling helps the students improve their
quality of narrative writing skill. The activity of implementing digital storytelling
is supported by operational improvements concerned with content, organization,
3. Perception
According to Altman et al (1985, p. 85), perception is defined as “the way
stimuli are selected and grouped by a person so that they can be meaningfully interpreted.” In other words, perception is a person’s view of reality. In this study,
the perceptions of 8th grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta are required to answer one of the research questions. Regarding to whether or not they have good
perceptions on the use of digital storytelling in learning activities in class.
4. The 8th Grade Students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta
SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta is located in Jalan Cik Di Tiro Yogyakarta. The
school has 24 classes that are divided into 3 grades. There are 7th, 8th and 9th grades. The 8th grade consists of 8 classes with 35 students in each class. This research focuses on the 8A class as participants of this research. The 8A students
are such good students. They are really cooperative while following English class
activities. They get involved enthusiastically in the implementation of digital
storytelling in the class.
5. Classroom Action Research (CAR)
Hopkins (2008, p. 47) defines action research as “an action discipline by
enquiry, a personal attempt at understanding while engaged in a process of improvement and reform.” In this study action research refers to an action of
implementing an approaching media in order to improve students’ narrative
writing skill. It consists of one cycle only with five steps to follow as procedure of
8 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
A. Review of Previous Studies
There are five previous studies that closely have the same topic with this
research. In this part, the previous studies done by five researchers are compared
with this research. Those five researchers had different focus of studies.
Septian (2009) in “Designing Storytelling Learning Activities to Enhance
English Speaking Skill for Senior High School Students” used some theories like:
Instructional Design, Educational Research and Development, Storytelling,
Learning Activities, Speaking Skill, Communicative Language Teaching and
Learners‟ Characteristics. The result of this research found that the students really
enjoy learning to speak English by using storytelling because it was fun.
The research about “The Effects of Using Digital Storytelling in English
Classroom on Korean ELL Learner‟s Attitude” was done by Yoon (2013). The
participants were from the 5th grade of students. While doing this research, Yoon asked those respondents to do pre and post-test to measure their mastery of
English. This research found that the students got involved in the story not only
because of the motivation to participate in English class activities, but also the
students became more confident in learning English.
In 2013, Kestha did a research that focused on “The Teachers of
Using Digital Storytelling”. The respondents were from the teachers themselves.
She interviewed 60 teachers with different degrees of education and teaching
period. The researcher found that digital storytelling made the students happy and
easy to memorize stories from the digital storytelling. According to those
teachers, the greatest difficulty was on the lack of time duration when the class
was started.
Esleem‟s research (2012) focused on “The Effectiveness of Using Story
Grammar Approach to Develop Reading Skill in the 9th Grade Students of URWA Schools”. The researcher compared class A to B with different method to
approach the students. It said that there are some differences between the pre-test
and post-test of the experimental groups compared to the control groups‟ results.
Other previous study was done by Abidin et al (2011). They observed the
effect of using digital story on understanding English as a second language. Their
respondents were from 6-year-old preschool children in Penang, Malay. From a
listening section, a result was revealed that the use of internet-based technology
by the 6-year-old preschool children improved their understanding of spoken
English as their second language.
This research focuses on the improvement of students‟ narrative writing
skill through the use of digital storytelling, while other previous studies focused
on speaking skill. The observing media is different with Septian (2009) who used
the old way storytelling and Esleem (2012) who used story grammar approach.
This research uses digital storytelling. Comparing to Yoon (2013), Kestha (2013),
research that uses 8th grade of junior high school students. In contrast with Esleem (2012) who compared class A to B to analyze the data, the data of this research
are analyzed from students‟ narrative writing tasks that are conducted three times.
B. Theoretical Description
There are seven theories that support this research: Digital Storytelling,
Writing Skill, Types of Classroom Writing Performance, Reasons of Teaching
Writing, Narrative Writing, Classroom Action Research, and Scoring of Writing.
1. Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling becomes the main element discussed in this research.
Because of its importance, elements of digital storytelling taken from experts are
introduced in order to comprehend what the digital storytelling is.
a. The Definition of Digital Storytelling
According to Behmer (2005), storytelling is believed as a tool to share
about life values and knowledge between one and another person. It is a good way
of communication because with storytelling, people can exchange their own
experiences to others. In this case, people can learn from each other experiences
through storytelling.
Normann (2011, p. 1) defines digital storytelling as “the combination
between spoken narrative, a number of visual, soundtrack and new technology to
share story.” It is understood as a concept that focuses on producing and sharing
different with the old storytelling because the storyteller does it indirectly through
technology.
Normann (2011, p. 2) adds that the length of digital storytelling only takes
2-3 minutes. Since the length of digital storytelling is very short, the audiences are
expected not get bored easily while following the plot of the story. Meanwhile,
digital storytelling can be linked to other people or interests. Personal touch in
digital storytelling is different from the old way of storytelling that invites the
emotion of the audience and makes impact on them.
In the same line with Normann (2011), Paul and Fiebiech (2002) state that
“digital storytelling can be presented in various formats such as all text web page,
nonlinear interactive web site, digital song, video or movie.” (as cited in Chung,
2006, p. 5). From all those formats, digital song and video may suitable to be
applied in classroom teaching-learning activity. Those formats of digital
storytelling become something new for some educators, but in fact it has been
practiced by media professional for over decade.
According to Robin (2008, p. 224), digital storytelling can be found in
three types of aspects. They are personal narratives, historical documentaries, and
stories that inform and instruct. However, according to KTSP curriculum, the
personal narrative is mostly used for 8th grade students of junior high school. Based on those explanations from experts, it can be said that digital
storytelling is a new way of sharing story to others in forms of media use. It is
videos or even movies. Moreover, digital storytelling is believed can help students
to develop their ideas.
b. The Benefits of Digital Storytelling for Students
Ohler (2008), Ware and Warschauer (2005) explain that “the use of digital
storytelling not only helps to connect high-tech development nowadays and
low-tech educational system, but also gives many benefits that cannot be achieved by
the use of traditional storytelling.” (as cited in Miller, 2009, p. 12). Those benefits
are:
1) Providing students with the ability to achieve the „21st century skills‟ (Kajder, 2004; Robin, 2008; Ware, 2006).
2) Increasing students‟ motivation (Ohler, 2008; Ware and Warschauer,
2005).
3) Making a new ideal strategy of telling personal stories (Miller, 2009, p.
13).
4) Encouraging students to organize and express their ideas and knowledge in
meaningful way (Sadik, 2008, p. 490).
2. Writing Skill
Since this research focuses on the improvement of students in term of
writing skill, this part provides several explanations about writing skill. Those
explanations are provided in order to understand about writing skill definition, its
a. The Definition of Writing Skill
Byrne (1988, p. 1) states that “writing is clearly much more than the
production of graphic symbols. The symbols have to be arranged according to
certain conventions to form words, and words have to be arranged to form
sentence.” It means that writing is not just putting some characters into words or
sentences, but a writer has to consider the word spelling or sentence structures.
Johnstone, Ashnaugh, and Warfield (2002) argue that “writing is
considered as one of the most difficult skills.” (as cited in Javed, M., Juann, W.
X., Nazli, S., 2013, p. 130). This statement is supported by Byrne (1988, p. 1)
who notes that writing produces sequence sentences arranged and linked in certain
ways. It is not easy to make a good writing that is coherent between each
sentence. A writer must pay attention toward each sentence.
From all those experts, it can be concluded that there are many aspects that
should be put into consideration in writing. One of which is the writer should not
only pay more attention to the structure of sentences, but also make coherence
between each sentence. From those sentences, it should be hand in hand with the
purpose of writing which is to share information or ideas.
The definition of skill is taken from Hornby (1979) that defines skill as
“the ability to do something well.” (as cited in Dyan, 2009, p. 20). Thus, writing
skill is defined as an ability to arrange characters into words and sentences. The
arrangement of sentences is considered by the linguistics aspects such as the
spelling of words and sentence structures in order to communicate or share ideas
b. The Process of Writing
Before the activity of writing, the teachers need to pay attention to the
process of writing. The process of writing should be followed by the students in
order to make a good writing. This part provides the explanation of the process of
writing that guides students in writing activities.
Harmer (2001, p. 257) states that in writing, teachers‟ focuses should be
on two things: the product of the writing and the writing process. When focusing
on the product, the teachers should consider the aim of a task. In order to make a
good product of writing, McCrimmon (1984, pp. 10-11) divides the process of
writing into three stages:
1) Planning
Planning is a series of strategies designed to find and produce information
in writing. In this early stage of writing, a writer can discover what to write. It
helps the writer start thinking about selecting the topic and gathering a lot of
information to be put on the writing.
2) Drafting
Drafting is a series of strategies designed to organize and develop a
sustained piece of writing. After planning the topic, a writer should be able to see
those subjects of topics in different perspectives. The writer can decide which
subject of topics can make better understanding so that they can organize and
develop into meaningful clusters. From those clusters, the writer should study the
3) Revising
Revising is a series of strategies designed to re-examine and re-evaluate
the choices that have been created in a piece of writing. In this stage, after
finishing the draft, a writer can make sure what they have done by re-evaluating
their writing to be the most productive one. Revising can be done for several
times in order to get the fixed writing that has well-constructed grammar,
punctuation, diction, and coherence.
c. Components of Writing
In order to judge whether the writing is good or bad, the components of
writing should be considered. A good content of writing should include some
components in it. Table 2.1 shows six components of writing adapted from J.D.
Brown (1991) as cited in Brown (2000, p. 357).
Table 2.1 Components of Writing
Content
topic sentence (adapted from thesis statement) related ideas
development of ideas through personal experience, illustration, facts, opinion
Table 2.1 Components of Writing (continued)
3. Types of Classroom Writing Performance
In conducting this research, the writing activities belonged to classroom
writing performances that were done by 8th grade students of junior high school. In this case, guided writing and free writing were used as types of classroom
writing performance. The explanations are described as follows:
a. Guided Writing
Since 8th grade students belong to the beginner level of writing, they need some technics to stimulate their abilities and interests in writing. Guided writing is
one of the technics to help the students to recall their memories related to the
stories to write. In this part, the descriptions of guided writing are explained.
Department for Children, Schools and Families (2007, p. 6) defines guided
writing as set of additional supported steps toward independent writing. In guided
writing, the students are given a specific topic of writing by the teacher. The
purpose of guided writing is to help the students to improve their writing skill and
to work with increasing independence. Discourse
Brown (2000, p. 344) argues that “guided writing does not depend on the
teacher‟s control, but it still needs the teacher‟s role as a stimulator.” The teacher
needs to guide the students by giving series of questions related to the story they
hear or watch using media. Those series of questions are expected to help the
students to understand the sequence of the story better.
In line with Brown (2000), another expert Reid (1993, p. 25) mentioned
types of guided writing exercises widely used in textbooks. These types are
usually used by common teacher. They are namely Model Paragraph,
Comprehension Questions, Language Based Exercises, Oral Composition, and
Written Composition.
From those explanations, it can be said that guided writing is an activity of
independent writing given by a teacher. This activity uses media in order to help
students to improve their writing skill and understand the sequence of the story
better. The types of guided writing are used to help the students to memorize the
sequence of the story from the media given by their teacher.
b. Free Writing
Brown (2000, p. 348) notes that free writing is one of the technics that is
applied in term of pre-writing activity. The pre-writing stage encourages the
generation of ideas in writing. As a consequence, many teachers apply free
writing in the beginning of the study in order to do warming up activity for the
students.
Brown (2000, p. 350) adds that “free writing is designed to generate free
be worried about their spelling, punctuation and grammar while they are doing
free writing. Even when they run out of things to write, they are allowed to
continue writing whatever comes into their minds. Those are allowed to help the
students to focus on generating ideas.
In contrary with Brown (2000), another expert Reid (1993, p. 25) argue
that in free writing “free was essentially misnomer, however; in general, the
freedom was guided.” The free writing is limited to structuring sentence and the
result of which looked like. Usually, free writing is limited to the teacher‟s topic
then the students may write based on the topic that is given to them.
Based on those explanations, free writing is defined as a technic that is
used to help the students to generate their ideas. It is usually applied in the
beginning of the study. Since its name is free, the teacher cannot limit the
students‟ work because it inhibits the free flow of their ideas. Besides, the theme
or topic of the writing is decided by the teacher.
4. The Reasons of Teaching Writing
As it is mentioned in “How to Teach English” by Harmer (1998, p. 79),
there are four reasons of teaching writing to students, namely:
a. Reinforcement
Some students usually think that the most important way of learning
language is by learning orally, but Harmer (1998, p. 79) states that people will get
more benefit by seeing the language written down. It is proven by the usefulness
b. Language Development
The process of writing included the activity in order to get a proper written
texts is also the process of learning experience. The writer can develop the
language by arranging words into a good writing.
c. Learning Style
Writing is suitable for those who need a little longer time to produce a
language. It also becomes a quite reflective activity compared to direct
communication done by looking and listening through something to produce the
language.
d. Writing as a Skill
Writing is as important as other skills like listening, speaking and reading.
By writing, students can develop their abilities to write letters, put written reports
together and use electronic media appropriately. In this case, writing becomes a
very important skill because the writer needs to know some writing conventions
like punctuation and paragraph construction.
5. Narrative Writing
The activities that are used in this research deals with narrative writing. They are
used to see the students‟ improvements. In order to support the activities, the
writer provides the explanation of narrative writing taken from some experts.
a. The Nature of Narrative Writing
Dumais (1988) states “narrative is a kind of writing which tells a story – a
series of connected incidents, or an action - process of an action.” (as cited in
events. By those connected events, the problems are clearly found in the story.
They affect to the focus of the story which is sequence of actions.
In line with Dumais‟ statement (1988), Hudak (2008) argues that “a
narrative paragraph is a group of sentence that tells what happens, how the action
happens, and in what order the events occur.” (as cited in Yantu, 2013, p. 8). The
detailed of sequencing events should be clearly described in narrative writing.
They are used to enrich the reader in understanding the story.
Derewianka (1990) explains the purpose of narrative is more than just to
entertain the readers.
The basic purpose of narratives is to entertain, that is to gain and hold the readers interest in a story. But narratives may also seek to teach or inform, to embody the writer‟s reflections on experience, and to nourish and
extend the readers‟ imagination. (as cited in Kristianti, 2002, p. 20).
Thus, based on those explanations above, it can be concluded that a
narrative writing is an activity of writing story that includes serial of connected
events in it. The connected events should be written in details by telling the
readers how the events happen and solve. Moreover, the narrative writing has
purposes not only to entertain the readers, but also to develop the writer‟s
experience in a written form.
b. The Macro-Structure of Narratives
Every kind of text has its own structure. The structure of the text is used to
differentiate kind of texts. For example, the structure of descriptive text is
different with narrative text. Since the focus of this research is narrative, the
structure that is often called “Macro-Structure” of narrative text is described in
Fabb (1997, p. 165) defines macro-structure of narratives as one of the
aspects of narrative form whose basic element is from developing complication to
final resolution of that complication. The complication is generally called as
conflict of the story that may successfully catch the readers‟ attention while
reading narrative text. While after coming to the conflict, the resolution of that
conflict that is called resolution is expected to be included in the story.
In addition, Labov and Waletzky (1967) find that there are various
components that supplement the storyline of narrative. (as cited in Fabb, 1997, p.
165). They are namely Abstract, Orientation, Complication, Evaluation,
Resolution and Coda. Those components are common to be considered as narrative writing requirements while writing a story.
Besides, Labov and Waletzky (1967) state that “not every narrative will
have every component, though at least the complication and resolution are usually
present because these make up the basic storyline.” (as cited in Fabb, 1997, p.
166). In this study, from those three of six narrative macro-structures are focused
by considering the level of 8th grade junior high school students. Those three macro-structures of narratives are Organization, Complication, and Resolution.
c. Requirements of Narrative Writing
Since the use of digital storytelling belongs to narrative writing that tells
stories to the students as audiences, there are some requirements needed in
narrative writing. According to Bram (1995), Kammer (1949), McCrimmon
(1) Unity
Bram (1995, p. 20) explains unity as “oneness”. The whole sentences in a
paragraph should focus in one unity. This will be achieved if a paragraph has a
clear topic sentence. The clear topic sentence in a paragraph will help the readers
understand the information from the writing. He also suggests the writers to put a
clear topic sentence in the very beginning of the paragraph. The topic sentence
must be explained by supporting sentences. The writers‟ job is to explain and
clarify “the problem” found in the topic sentence to the whole paragraph. The
writing should be understandable and interesting to read by the readers so that the
readers do not need to solve the message of the writing by themselves.
In line with Bram (1995), Kammer (1949, p. 175) argues that “unity
guides the writer in putting those things together that belong together and keeping
those things apart that should be kept apart.” From this statement, the writer has
the right to decide which sentences should be kept together or kept apart in order
to see the unity of the paragraph.
(2) Coherence
According to McCrimmon (1984, p. 209), a paragraph can be considered
as coherent when the reader can move easily from one sentence to another and
read the whole paragraph than in each separate sentence. In this case, coherence
has related to the connection in each sentence the writer makes. The paragraph
that does mot connected between each sentence will be confusing to read.
Bram (1995, p. 21) states that coherence plays a crucial role in making
connectors between each paragraph to be connected each other. Those connectors
are however, although, finally, and nevertheless.
Another expert, Kammer (1949, p. 186) explains that coherence means
“sticking together”. This coherence can be found in a paragraph in which one idea
follows another idea in a good order. Those ideas help the reader understand the
meaning of that paragraph.
(3) Mechanics
Mechanics are the important things that the writer tends to forget in
writing. The content of the writing will not be good if the writer has really bad
mechanics of writing. Due to its importance, this part provides the explanation of
mechanics aspect of writing.
According to Cali (n.d.), the mechanics aspects of the middle school
students are spelling, punctuation and paragraphing. The spelling focuses on
acquiring the specialized content-area of vocabulary. It is taught by using new
strategy so that the students can identify the potentially misspelled words found in
writing. In order to help them, Cali states that they can use the dictionary or
spell-checker. The students must pay attention to other mechanics aspect such
capitalization as it is mentioned by Cali.
Meanwhile, Bram (1995, p. 92) explains punctuation as indispensable to
careful writing. The writer has to pay attention to the correct use of punctuation in
a sentence in order not to make different meaning. Because of its importance, the
(4) Sentence Structure
Sentence structure focuses on the use of grammar correctly, structurally
sounds and meaningful sentences. The grammar that is used in narrative writing is
simple past tense. The writers have to pay attention to the use of grammar in order
to make clear meaning of their writing. Meanwhile, the development of sentences
is required to make meaningful sentences.
(5) Character and Setting
Character and setting are found in narrative writing. They become
essential requirements that must be included in it. The development of character
can be in forms of convincing dialogue and reactions to other characters. While in
the setting, the writers are expected to develop a sense of place, time and
atmosphere.
6. Classroom Action Research (CAR)
Focusing on the use of digital storytelling in classroom teaching-learning
activity, Classroom Action Research is used as a method of this study. In this part,
the explanations of Classroom Action Research (CAR) are divided into two parts.
They are the definition of Classroom Action Research and the characteristics of
Classroom Action Research.
a. The Definition of Classroom Action Research
McNiff (2002, p.6) states “action research refers to a particular way of
looking at your own work to check that it is as you would like to be.” (as cited in
individuals or practitioners to reflect their own works. The results of the reflection
can be good or bad.
Bogdan and Biklen (1982, p. 215) define action research as “evaluative
and reflective as it aims to bring out change and improvement in practice.” (as
cited in Burns, 1999, p. 30). In line with McNiff (2002, p. 6), the reflective is
needed to find out what things to improve in the teaching-learning activity. Not
only the improvement, but also the understanding of the practice is also expected
in classroom action research.
Hughes (2000) states that action research may consist more than one cycle
in order to achieve the expected answer of the research.
Some action research projects start off with fuzzy questions. The first action research cycle may provide fuzzy answer to lead less fuzzy questions, less fuzzy answers and so on, until later cycles are able to provide precise answer to specific questions. (as cited in Vaccarino, 2006, pp. 13-14).
From those explanations, it can be concluded that classroom action
research is a method of a research that requires reflective on the process of study
in the class. The reflection is used to change the practice into good quality. The
improvement on that quality becomes the aim of this method. In order to achieve
the improvement, action research consists of more than one cycle.
b. The Characteristics of Classroom Action Research
Holter et al (1993) find that there are six characteristics and principles of
action research: Problem solving, Practical Experience, Change in Practice,
Reflexive critique, Theory development, and Public result. (as cited in Vaccarino,
action research that the researcher can focus on one of which he/she wants to
achieve.
Meanwhile, Kemmis and McTarget (1998) mention four essential steps of
classroom action research, namely Planning, Action, Observation and Reflection.
(as cited in Burns, 1999, p. 32). The researcher develops a plan to improve what is
already happening. The implementation of the plan belongs to the action process.
After implementing the action, the results of data are observed to find out the
purpose of the research. In the last process, the result of data observation is
concluded in the reflection process of this method.
7. Scoring of Writing
Scoring of writing is needed to measure the students‟ understanding in
writing activities. It is also used to see the students‟ improvement after they do
writing tasks. This part describes the importance of scoring writing and explains
what kind of scoring that is used in this research.
According to Weigle (2002, p. 108), the scoring procedures are really
important because the score is ultimately used in making decision and inferences
about writers. By doing the scoring, the improvement of the students‟ narrative
writing skill after implementing the digital storytelling can be seen. The
improvement is compared from the first to third students‟ writing task.
As mentioned on the book of “Assessing Writing” by Weigle (2002, pp.
112-114), there are two types of scoring: holistic scoring and analytic scoring.
Holistic scoring assigns a single score to a script based on the overall impression.
training, but they are not limited and recognized as good practice in a writing
assessment.
Unlike holistic scoring, analytic scoring focuses on the assigning of
several aspects of writing. It provides more detailed information about the
test-taker‟s writing task in many aspects of writing such as content, organization,
cohesion, register, vocabulary, grammar or mechanics. Each aspect of writing has
its own criteria to analyze.
In assessing students‟ writing tasks, types of analytic scoring rubrics by
Jacobs et al (1981) are used. The scripts of the rubric consist of five categories of
writing: content, organization, vocabulary, language use and mechanics. Those
four aspects were applied without taking vocabulary of writing category because
it had already provided on the students‟ handouts. Those four categories are
shown in Table 2.2
Table 2.2 Composition Profile of Writing Scoring Rubric
No Aspects Score Criteria
30-27 Excellent to very good:knowledgeable,
substantive, through development of topic sentence, relevant to assigned topic.
26-22 Good to average:some knowledge of subject,
adequate range, limited development of thesis, mostly relevant to topic but lacks detail.
Table 2.2 Composition Profile of Writing Scoring Rubric
No Categories Score Criteria
2
clearly stated/supported, succinct, well-organized, logical sequencing, cohesive.
17-14 Good to average: somewhat choppy, loosely
organized but main ideas stand out, limited support, logical but in complete sequencing.
13-10 Fair to poor: non-fluent, ideas confused or
disconnected, lacks logical sequencing and development.
9-7 Very poor: does not communicate, no organization, or not enough to evaluate.
3
constructions, few errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions.
21-18 Good to average: effective but simple
constructions, minor problems in complex constructions, several errors of agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions but meaning seldom obscured.
17-11 Fair to poor: major problems in simple/complex
constructions, frequent errors of negation,
agreement, tense, number, word order/function, articles, pronouns, prepositions and/or fragments, run-ons, deletions, meaning confused or obscured.
10-5 Very poor: virtually no mastery of sentence
construction rules, dominated by errors, does not communicate, or not enough to evaluate.
4 conventions, few errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing.
4 Good to average: occasional errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization. Paragraphing but meaning not obscured.
3 Fair to poor:frequent errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, poor handwriting, meaning confused or obscured. 2 Very poor: no mastery of conventions, dominated
by errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, handwriting, illegible, or not enough to evaluate.
C. Theoretical Framework
This research uses Classroom Action Research as a method of the study. It consists of one cycle only concerned with three meetings.
First Narrative
In this part, the theories with the data analysis are synthesized. Those
theories are used to support the data analysis. The results of data analysis are
concluded to answer the research questions. They are students‟ narrative writing
skill improvements and students‟ perceptions on the use of digital storytelling in
learning activities in class.
Since the first research question is to find out the improvement of
students‟ narrative writing skills through the use of digital storytelling, the
theories of digital storytelling are used to understand its definition and benefits.
According to Behmer (2005) and Normann (2011), they define digital storytelling
as a tool to share knowledge and life value in form of spoken narrative and a
number of visual through technology. While Ohler, Ware, and Warschauer (2005)
mention the benefits of digital storytelling that one of them is to increase students‟
motivation.
The theories of writing skill by Byrne (1988) and Johnstone, Ashnaugh,
and Warfield (2002) are used to enrich the knowledge about writing skill. They
explain that writing is much more than putting some characters into sentences and
considered as one of the difficult skills. The process of writing theory by
McCrimmon (1984) is also used to give steps of students‟ writing process in class.
Those processes consist of Planning, Drafting and Revising.
Types of Classroom Writing Performance theory provide the explanation
of guided writing by Brown (2000), Department for Children, Schools and
definition of guided writing and show the types of guided writing that can be
applied to students. Based on Reid (1993), one of those types of guided writing is
comprehension questions. It is used to guide the students after watching the video
of digital storytelling. Besides, the theories of Free Writing by Brown (2000) and
Reid (1993) are used to understand the meaning and the function of free writing to
be placed in the beginning of the study in class.
The theories of Classroom Action Research (CAR) by McNiff (2002),
Bogdan and Biklen (1982), and Hughed (2002) are used as a method of this
research. There are four steps of Classroom Action Research, namely Planning,
Action, Observation and Reflection. Those steps are modified and synthesized by
adding Analyzing step after doing Observation step. Those steps guide the writer
in conducting this research.
The theory of Narrative Writing by Dumais (1988) and Derewianka (1990)
are used to give understanding on narrative writing. The requirements of narrative
writing theory by Bram (1995), Kammer (1949), McCrimmon (1984) are used to
understand the requirements that are needed in narrative writing. The students are
expected to write consider on those requirements. The macro-structures of
narrative writing by Labov and Waltezky (1967) and conceptual components of
writing by Brown (1991) in J.D. Brown (2000) are used to support the research
results and discussion of the result of students‟ narrative writing assessment.
The theory of scoring writing is used to assess the students‟ narrative
and mechanics. Those aspects are provided on the writing scoring rubric by
Jacobs et al (1981). The students‟ narrative writing improvements can be seen
from the scores given in each aspect of writing.
In order to answer the second research question, The Process of Writing
by McCrimmon (1984) and The Reasons of Teaching Writing by Harmer (1998)
are applied. The process of writing provides three steps in writing activity. The
reasons of teaching writing emphasize the importance of teaching writing to
33 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter provides the information about how the data were gathered
and analyzed. It consists of five parts. They are research method, research setting,
research participants, instruments and data gathering technique, and data analysis
technique. The outline of research procedure is provided on the instruments and
data gathering technique.
A. Research Method
There were two research questions of this research: (1) does the use of
digital storytelling help 8th grade students of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta to improve their narrative writing skill? and (2) how are the students’ impressions of
the implementation of digital storytelling in the learning activity in class? In order
to answer those research questions, classroom action research was used.
The classroom action research aimed to help 8th grade students, specifically 8A of SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta to improve their narrative writing
skill. Those narrative writing skill improvements were limited in terms of content,
organization, language use and mechanics. In this case, the aim of this research
was in line with Bogdan and Biklen (1982, p. 215) who mentioned the classroom
This research focused on one cycle only because of the available of time
while the writer was doing teaching practice (PPL) in SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta.
It was on the contrary with Hughes (2002) who explained that classroom action
research was conducted in more than one cycle to get precise answer to specific
questions.
However, the cycle consisted of five steps, namely planning,
implementing, observing, analyzing, and reporting. Those steps were modified
and synthesized from Kemmis and McTarget (1998) who mentioned four
characteristics of Classroom Action Research. The characteristics of classroom
action research that were used in this research also in line with Holter et al (1993)
that belonged to the problem solving and practical experience.
In order to answer the second research question, the questionnaires were
used. The purpose of using questionnaires is to gather information related to the students’ impressions through the use of digital storytelling in the learning activity
in class. The results of the questionnaires were shown in percentages in forms of
tables and figure.
B. Research Setting
This research was conducted in SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta. It is located in
Jalan Cik Di Tiro Yogyakarta. SMP Negeri 1 Yogyakarta is one of the best
schools in Yogyakarta. The students were well-facilitated by their parents. The
