TEACHING WRITIG BY COMBINING LOOPING AND ROUND ROBIN STRATEGIES AT THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
By:
NOVI MAHARNIS *)
**) Hevriani Sevrika, M.Pd Staff PengajarProgram Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat
ABSTRAK
Bahasa Inggris adalah mata pelajaran yang harus dipelajari di Indonesia sejak sekolah dasar sampai perguruan tinggi. Walaupun bahasa Inggris telah dipelajari bertahun-tahun, tapi para siswa masih memiliki kesulitan khususnya dalam writing. Untuk membuat sebuah paragraf yang menggunakan bahasa Inggris siswa banyak mengalami masalah. Siswa mengalami masalah serius di dalam struktur bahasa Inggris, kurangnya penguasaan vocabulary dan susah menimbulkan ide kreatif dalam menulis serta sulitnya menggunakan grammar dan kata hubung yang tepat dalam bahasa Inggris. Dalam makalah ini penulis membahas bagaimana mengajarkan writing dengan menggunakan dua strategi yaitu Looping dan Round Robin. Looping adalah salah satu strategi yang dapat digunakan untuk mengembangkan kemampuan writing. Strategi ini merupakan strategi yang tepat untuk membantu para siswa meningkatkan kemampuan menulisnya. Sehingga siswa tidak kesulitan untuk memulai menulis karena guru akan mengembangkan ide-ide siswa berdasarkan perspective yang ada dalam Looping strategi. Round Robin adalah juga salah satu strategi yang sangat bagus untuk menunjang kemampuan writing siswa karena dengan menggunakan strategy ini, semua siswa akan tahu bagaimana cara menggabungkan beberapa kalimat menjadi sebuah paragraph yang baik dan benar.
Dalam makalah ini penulis berharap kepada guru, siswa dan semua pihak yang terkait dapat mengaplikasikannya dalam proses belajar mengajar,dan menggunakan penggabungan dari dua strategi ini.
Key word: Looping and round robin strategies at the eight grade junior high shool Writing is a productive skill that
requires student‟s ability in producing a language to communicate, as productive skill writing becomes one of the focuses in learning English. Furthermore, writing is an activity to explore the ideas in form of a paragraph, a text, a story, and so on.
Through writing, the writer can inform, share, and express their ideas to others.
Nunan (2003:88), explains writing is the
mental work of inventing idea, thinking about how to express them, and organizing them into statements and a text that will be clear to the reader. It means that the writer can help the reader to catch and understand what the meaning and purpose of the ideas in the text.
In addition, writing is one of the skills at school. It is stated on School Based Curriculum (kurikulum tingkat
satuan pendidikan, 2006), the purpose of learning English at Junior High School is to increase students ability in written language correctly in the form of transactional such as; asking/giving help, good, fact, opinion, invitation, agree / disagree and complement. Fungtional text such as; short massage, invitation, announcement, notice and short letter.
Monolog text particularly such as;
descriptive text and recount text. It means that the students are to be able to improve and develop their ability and skill in writing form.
Meanwhile, the writer found that the students take some problems in writing skill. It is based on the writer‟s experience while practice teaching at SMPN 38 Sijunjung, writing seems difficult subject for the students to be developed and to be learned. There are several factors that make the students have problem in mastering writing skill.
First, problem cames from the students
themselves. In writing activity, some of the students often got difficulties in developing their ideas, it means that could give information and feedback in teaching learning process. Thus, they did not able to organize their ideas in writing class.
Second, the students had low motivation in writing, it is caused by poor of vocabularies and grammar. The problem came from the strategy which is used by the teacher. Some of the students could not understand the teachers explanation, then they could not express their ideas to write the sentences into text.
Really with the problems above, the writer suggests to use a new strategy to improve students writing skill. There are some strategies offered to solve problem is Think Pair Share strategy, T- chart strategy, RAFT strategy and Group Critiques strategy. First, Think Pair Share strategy is students to think through question. This strategy has three district steps. Think is about students think independently about question. A pair is
about how the students work in pairs to discuss their thoughts. Thus, Share is the students share their ideas in a larger group. Second, T- chart strategy, it is the strategy that allows students to create the different topic that is like “T” that can involve the students writing to develop knowledge to identify the topic. Thus, it is easy for the students to know what is tell about. Third, RAFT strategy is strategy that is to generate the ideas by guiding students in four aspects such as role, audients, format, and topic that help students to understand a topic from different perspective. This strategy provides a focused writing assignment in which the students think about the content of their writing. In this paper, the writer tries to combine strategies between Looping and Round Robin strategies.
Looping is a strategy that can help the students differentiate between and then prioritize the main idea and supporting ideas in a text. Then, Round robin is to improve students‟ knowledge to develop ideas them.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Writing is one of skills is in communication. According to Nunan (2003:88), writing is the mental work of inventing ideas, thinking about how to express them, and organizing them into statement and paragraph that will be clear to a reader. It means that writing is a way to develop their ideas that doing in learning activities and it can make the students more active in writing skill.
Meanwhile, sikolik in Linse (2005:98) mention that writing is a combination of process product. The process refers to the art of gathering ideas and working with them until they are presented in manner that is polished and comprehensible to readers. It means to express their idea in their paper, have meaning and comprehensible.
Moreover, Harsyaf (2009:3) adds that writing is transforming thoughts into language.It means that need to think about the content of our writing first and then can arrange the ideas using appropriate language
grammar and vocabulary. The students must learn about organizational skills in writing like grammar, spelling and punctuation correctly and support with vocabulary. Thus, the students will be easy and enjoy to write.
Based on the views above, the writer concludes that writing is a process of thinking in our mind and it can be used to communicate to others without talking with someone. In addition, to share ideas in written form, the writer should consider many things.
They are content, organization, and structures.
The content in writing is about something to tell in writing. Organization is about how to arrange the ideas in good way and understandable. Then, structures are about the using of grammar, spelling and punctuation correctly. So, the students will be easy and enjoy to write anything and be able to transfer their thinking.
In writing, the writer always busy with the process of the writing. It can be said that writing is a process because when he/she writes, the writer always have the changes of
ideas whether about the order of sentences, the content of writing, and many other aspects such as the use of conjunction and punctuation.
According to Allman (2000), that writing as a process enables your students to use writing rather than just produce it. A process approach to writing instruction involves five stages:
a. Prewriting. Activities to generate ideas for writing. Motivate students to write by means of discussions, questions, games, illustrations, brainstorming activities.
b. Drafting. The first writing. As they begin to write, tell your students to keep in mind their audiences and their purposes for writing. They should also consider the form in which their work will be published. At this stage, allow your writers to focus on expressing thoughts and feelings, do not worry about the mechanics of the writing. Offer your writer support and encouragement, answer questions, and confer with them.
c. Revising. Reevaluation and editing for content and style. Teach your students to consider the suggestions of their peer, rearrange ideas, and make changes to make their writing more clear. Give them time to rethink how to communicate their ideas more effectively.
d. Proofreading. Checking grammar, spelling, mechanics and neatness. Guide your students to find as many errors as they can on their own,then have them pass their work on to peers for rechecking. Your writers can then correct errors as they prepare final drafts.
e. Publishing. Sharing writing with an audience. Publishing the writing may take any number of forms, such as displaying it, reading it aloud, recording it on tape, performing it, illustrating it, setting it to music, or talking about it with others.
Based on process writing above. It means that, in this activity the teacher measure the students‟ achievement in the writing process. Thus, in writing process, the
students are asked to put ideas into draft, then based on the draft, the writing is constructed.
Furthermore, Kendall and Outey (2006:4), mention that the process of writing is virtually the same of all writers that have five steps like prewriting, drafting, reviewing, editing, and publishing. It means that the teacher should use five steps in process writing that can manage the teacher when they the activity in the classroom. It will run way if the teacher applies in teaching writing and get good feedback from students. It makes the students to understand and interesting in learning activities.
In addition, Oshima (2007:3), explains that are four main stages in the writing process: prewriting, planning, writing and revising drafts. When the teacher gives some materials for the students, the teacher should give brainstorming to the students to make their attention with their study and can improve their thinking and get new knowledge. Beside, the teacher leads the students what should prepare in writing and
after their write, the teacher and students check what is correct grammar or spelling in writing. Finally, the students write well and copying the correct grammar. It means that, writing process describes the ways to create a piece of writing andallows students to work through a step-by-step process to succeed at their own pace.
However, Brown and Hood in Harsyaf (2009:7), add that in fact there are three main stages of the writing process: preparing to write, drafting and revising. Before the students start their writing, they should prepare what is topic and they should make draft if their want to manage their idea. Then, they can arrange the ideas into some texts.
Finally, the students should know how much they wrong in writing like grammatical correctly, low vocabulary and spelling correctly. It mean that, writing is not only the process to think or getting ideas but also need consider the role in wtiting process.
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that process of writing have
some steps such as prewriting, drafting, reviewing, editing, and publishing. First, prewriting is motivating the students to write and can generate their ideas. Second, drafting is the students can begin to write their ideas, organize their thoughts and develop them and sequence their ideas and write into first draft.
Third, revising is reevaluation and editing for content. Fourth, proofreading is checking grammar, spelling and mechanics. The last, publishing is sharing writing with an audience.
There are some procedures about the Looping strategy. According to Atlee (1995:26), the procedure of looping strategy in teaching writing has three steps such as:
a. The students think about it continuosly for two to there minutes
b. Write all the ideas as they come into your head
c. Then continue to write the last word until your ideas flow again. After two to threeminutes, stop and read your
freewriting. Circle one word or phrase that stands out or means the most to you.
d. Continue to write using this selected idea as the focus of another free writing activity.
e. Then repeat the process until have complete a total of four freewriting loops
Based on the steps above,there are some steps of Loping strategy: First, the students think about the topic and write all the ideas.
Second, the students underline or circle the good ideas. Third, the students write some paragraph or sentence using the good ideas.
Finally, students repeat the process until have complete.
The procedure of Looping strategy is to help students to explore their thinking through writing and enable a student to move from unfocused to focused writing. In addition Elbow(1998), Looping has procedure as follow:
a. Start by having student write their initial thinking on a given topic.
b. Ask student to write nonstop for ten minutes. The key is to begin with the
firts thing that comes to mind and to not stop writing.
c. After ten minutes, have students reread what they have written thus far d. Have student highlight or cirle this
„‟hot spot‟‟ (good idea)
e. Begining with this new sentence ask student to write again for ten minute f. At the end of ten minutes, tell students
to find a new hot spot and again write a summary sentence
g. Keep looking until a focus or thesis emerges. Some time this will occur in a sigle loop
Based on steps above, thus in applying Looping strategy in classroom the teachers should know what the students need and prepare it. It can make them easly to avoid learning process. Thus, it makes the learning process be fun and interest activity for the students and also teachers.
Morever , Leki (2008:28), explains that in Looping strategy has steps are: The students write down the subject that want to
consider and keep the subject in front of their mind as they write continuosly for five minutes. Then focusing in your summary sentence and try to keep this sentence in they mind as they write continuosly for another five minute and then read what they have just written look for the mind idea or core toward which all the other ideas are turned and summarize that core idea in one sentence to write the sentence down. It means that Looping strategy improve and cover their mind ideas to write sentence or paragraph.
According to Kagan (1992), the procedure of Round Robin strategy in teaching writing is to have each pathner use a different colered writing tool when the paper is passed. This visually encourages all partners to contribute equally and allows the teacher to document individual contributions. Each terminate verbally contributes an idea to the group in a systematic, around the group fashion. Both variations on this strategy are typical Reflection stage activities, but if students have enough prior knowledge, they can be used as evication phase activities as well. It
means that Round Robin is divide student into some groups to think one topic to make paragraph or sentence.
In additions Frangenheim (2004:82). As follow:
a. Split the class into groups of 3-4 students . Each student has a response sheet and a pen/pencil
b. Each student is given the same problem or task to list alternative uses for ruber thongs
c. At a given signal, every learner begins to write response on their own piece of paper. No talking takes place. After one to two minutes give a signal to change sheets. Each student passes their paper to the person on their left , reads the new sheet and then continues to write more ideas on that piece of paper but may not repeat what was written on the first paper and may not repeat what has just been read
Based on step procedures above. It means that Round Robin strategy is began to divide students into some groups. After that teachers introduce the topic then each students passes their paper to the person on their left reads the new sheet and the continues to write more ideas.
Furthermore Gregory and Kunzimich (2007:88), state that procedure of Round Robin strategy in teaching writing has three steps such as:
a. Each person adds thought to the topic b. It may be written on a piece of paper or poster as it is passed around the table
c. It may be stated oraly as a recorder charts the ideas.
Based on steps above. It means that, Round Robin strategy is giving students opportunity to charge and improve their ability in writing. Because writing by using Round Robin strategy cover ideas the students in teaching writing.
In conclusion, the writer concludes that teaching writing Round Robin is good
strategy that can motivate students to write by allow them to get the main idea that will be developed. The steps of Round Robin strategy is creating of students writing when they develop their ideas. It will provide to the students to their result of writing and combine them into some essay or text. The students can evaluate when they write something. In this paper, the writer uses steps in Round
DISCUSSION
Teacher will face many cases in the teaching. Related to this reason the things needed must be fulfilled by the teachers. They should know everything related to the process of teaching activity. It can be helped if the teachers are able to apply appropriate strategy, approach, method, or technique in their teaching. As a result, it is suggested for the teachers so that they have a good way in doing their teaching for making the students are interested in learning. Thus, in the process of teaching, the teachers must practice the ways to present the lesson to the students
properly for reaching the successful in teaching.
The writer will describe about the procedure of teaching writing by combining Looping and Round Robin strategy at Junior High School students. In Looping those strategies, the teacher will lead the students to get the best situations to put the students are interested in written form. Then Round Robin strategy is treated the students to write about what they have known about the material in group. The procedure will consist of three main parts, they are: preparation, implementation and evaluation. Firstly, preparation is important for the teacher before starting their teaching. The teacher prepares all of things related to their teaching activity so that it eases the teacher in teaching and learning process. Secondly is implementation, it consists of three parts, they are: pre- teaching activity, whilst-teaching activity and post-teaching activity. Finally is evaluation.
The teacher evaluates the achievement of students‟ result in writing.
Preparation of Teaching
Before the teacher begins the teaching and learning process in their classroom, they should prepare the material before and everything which is needed in teaching. The teachers should consider the factors in their teaching, such as:
1. Prepare a topic
The teacher should prepare an interesting topic descriptive text with Looping and Round Robin strategy that will be helped the students to stimulate their spirit in writing.
2. Select material
The teacher should select the appropriate material to be taught in the classroom. Interesting material can give motivation to students in constructing their writing. And the material is descriptive text.
3. The teacher should prepare a lesson plan.
Before the teacher starts the teaching, the teacher should prepare the lesson plan,
because the lesson plan includes directions and the rules of teaching and learning process.
4. The teacher prepares the goal of teaching to support the teaching itself. The teacher should motivate the students and present their teaching based on the goals to be reached. Walk on the aims of the teaching process is very useful for the students‟ achievement.
5. Time allocation
The teacher should be able to predict and limit the material time consuming during the teaching and learning process.
Time distribution : 2 X 45 (minute) 6. Media
The teacher should prepare media that suitable with the combination of Looping and Round Robin strategy.
There are media can be used in this combination such as: video, real object, picture and card. But in this
case, the teacher uses a picture as media to be wrrite based on the picture to make paragraph or sentence.
Procedure of Teaching
In the implementation section, the writer will write about the steps of teaching writing through Looping and Round Robin strategy at Junior High School students. It consists of three main parts. They are pre- teaching activities, whilts-teaching activities, and post-teaching activities.
1. Pre-Teaching Writing Activities (15 minutes)
Pre-teaching activities are done at beginning of the teaching process. It is used for building the students‟
background knowledge and develop their confidence. In other words, pre- teaching activities have several functions. They are building students‟
knowledge, increasing students‟
concentration, and stimulating their curiousity. Besides, the students can
understand about what they are going to do in their learning process.The steps in pre-teaching activities as follow:
a. The teacher greets the students.
b. The teacher checks the students‟
attendance.
c. The teacher asks students about their previous material
The teacher brainstorms the students by giving questions related to the picture.
2. Whilst-Teaching Activities
Whilst teaching activity are the activities which are done while the teacher presenting the strategy in teaching process. There are three steps of this whilst-teaching activities as follow : Exploration, Elaboration, and Confirmation. It will ease the teacher in doing their teaching in the classroom.
Thus , the teacher have to teach the students as the sequence steps.
a. Exploration
In this session of the learning, the teacher uses Looping strategy which has some procedures. The procedures are:
1. Select a topic, subject, or part of a subject. This can be a person, a scene, an event, an object, a problem, an idea, or an issue. It is started by having students to write their initial thinking on a given topic.
(Teacher shows the picture on the board and asks the students to think about the picture)
(teacher asks students to make some hot spot/ideas to place a ststement on the board that requires students to have opinion)
2. Limit your writing to three to five minutes for each perspective. The whole activity should take no more than half an hour.
“The teacher gives some questions to students based on each perspective.”
b. Elaboration
In this part, the teacher uses Round Robin which has some procedures. The strategy‟s procedures are:
3. As you write from each perspective, begin with what do you know about your subject.(Teacher splits class into groups 3-4 students)
(The teacher asks students to make their idea in group)
4. Write two or three words based your ideas (in group or pair)
5. Ask students to combine the word to sentence
3. Discuss all suggestions and write all acceptable sentences produced by students on the board.
4. Provide oral practice with the sentences before asking the students to combine them in writing.
5. Reread what you have written. Look for bright spots, surprises. Recall the part that was the easiest for you to write.
6. Take sentences directly from a student‟s written work
c. Confirmation
Confirmation is the end of whilst- teaching activity. In this stage, teacher becomes a facilitator that guides students learn independently in groups. This stage also allows teacher to check students understanding of what they discuss during elaboration activity.
In corfirmation session, the teacher and students do the activities as follow:
a. Teacher and students correct all writings and complete all ideas and information and repair some errors for getting a good writing.
5. Teacher and students make the conclusion of the lesson
6. The teacher ask the students about their difficulties in understanding the material
3. Post Teaching Writing Activities (15 minutes)
After explaining the material, teacher should do some activities in post-teaching activity. The activity will be done before the teacher closes the teaching and learning process. The teacher allocates about 15 minutes for these activities. The activities include:
a. The teacher leads the students to make the conclusion of the material.
b. The teacher evaluates students achievement.
c. The teacher gives feedback for the student‟s achievement.
d. The teacher asks the students to study at
home, because next meeting will review the same lesson.
Finally, the teacher closes the class In teaching writing
Conclusions
Writing is an activity to deliver ideas, thoughts, and meaning in written form. By writing, the writer can express what she/he thinks in written form. For expressing the ideas and thoughts in writing, the writer should create a form of a communication between the writer and the texts which will be produced based on its ideas. For expressing ideas in written form and produce writing well, students in school must have ability in writing. Writing is done for making the students be able to express their ideas in written form. Therefore, all students must have ability and competency in writing. One way to improve the student‟s writing ability is the combination of Looping and Round Robin strategy.
There are some activities which can be done by teacher in teaching writing by combining Looping and Round Robin. They are: pre-teaching activities, whilst-teaching activities, and post-teaching activities. Pre- teaching activities are the activities while teacher brainstorms the students mind as the beginning of the process teaching activity. In whilst-teaching activities, the teacher presents the material by applying the steps through combining Looping and sentence Round Robin strategies. In this process, the teacher guides the students to do writing and provide them to improve their writing ability. Finally, in post-teaching activities, the teacher takes the students writing product, checks the errors of their writing, and evaluates their writing continuously to get a good writing.
Thus, the writer concludes that the combination of Looping and Round Robin strategies can be used in teaching writing, especially for improving the students‟ writing ability. Teaching writing by combining Looping and Round Robin strategies provides
the students an opportunity to do writing easily. The activity of using the strategies combination is begun with introduced topic to the students. Then teacher explore ideas by students appropriate with perspective in Looping strategy. The students could complete their writing into a good paragraph by knowing sentence Round Robin strategy.
In doing sentence strategy, their writing of Round Robin will be developed into paragraphs and united to be a complete writing. Thus, the use of combining Looping and Round Robin strategy can motivate students in mastering the process of writing and provide them with a good ability in writing.
Suggestions
Dealing with the conclusion above, the writer suggests to the English teacher. The teacher should use the appropriate combination strategies in teaching writing.
One important thing, combining Looping and Round Rubin strategies in teaching writing is a good way for the students at Junior High
School. It makes students more interesting in learning and they are can improve the writing ability and can get ideas and information in the text.
The English teacher had better tried out to combine several strategies in teaching writing skill. In other words, they do not just apply a strategy in teaching but also the teacher can combine two or more strategies in teaching writing. The teacher should know that the procedure of there strategies are combined to make the teaching writing run successfully. The last is the teacher should have knowledge about students‟ needs in writing, in order to catch the goal of writing.
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