TEACHING WRITING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT BY COMBINING MIND MAPS STRATEGY WITH PICK, LIST, EVALUATE, ACTIVATE, SUPPLY, END AND
EVALUATE (PLEASE) STRATEGY AT JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
By:
Fitri Yenti *)
**) Dra. Yelliza, M.M.Pd. Staff Pengajar Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat
ABSTRAK
Makalah ini membahas tentang pengajaran writing melalui descriptive text untuk siswa menengah pertama. Dalam menulis descriptive text, sebagian besar siswa beranggapan bahwa menulis adalah salah satu hal yang membosankan. Mereka merasa kesulitan untuk mengungkapkan ide-ide mereka ke dalam bentuk tulisan.
Mereka juga sulit untuk mengerti cara menulis dengan baik. Kemudian, mereka juga kesulitan untuk memilih kata-kata yang tepat dalam penulisan bahasa Inggris. Oleh karena itu, dibutuhkan beberapa strategi untuk dapat mengatasi permasalahan tersebut. Penulis mengkombinasikan dua strategi yang dapat digunakan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan siswa dalam menulis, yaituMind Maps Strategy dengan PLEASE Strategy. Kedua strategi ini dapat membantu siswa meningkatkan kemampuan menulis mereka, khususnya dalam menulis descriptive text. Kedua strategi ini juga dapat membantu siswa menuangkan ide-ide mereka dengan cara mendekripsikan ciri-ciri dari topik yang diberikan oleh guru. Ciri-ciri tersebut dapat diperoleh dari ungkapkan ide-ide secara bebas tentang topik oleh siswa melalui sebuah kerangka atau bagan. Kemudian, kedua strategi ini dapat mengarahkan siswa untuk mengetahui proses menulis yang baik.
Key word: Descriptive Text, Mind Maps Strategy, PLEASE Strategy, Teaching Writing
INTRODUCTION
Writing is a process of communications which used to convey ideas to the readers. If the students cannot convey their ideas directly, the students can be share into written form. Here, the students can share everything about their feeling, their opinion, and their message to the readers by their writing. In this process, the readers must comprehend about their writing. It is so that in learning process, it not be missunderstanding between the writer’s mind and the readers.
Writing is one of the best ways to develop their ideas and they can share many
informations about the topic. In writing, the students may write everything in their mind.
After they produce a writing, the readers will read their writing and they make correction about the mistakes of the writer. So, the students can revise their writing to be a good writing. But, before the students make a writing, they must find a topic to develop into their writing.
In writing activities, the students can apply about their grammar and vocabularry into their writing. After that, they can make good sentences to be a paragraph by using their grammar skill. Besides that, the students
must choose the appropriate words or vocabularry in order to the content be coherent. Here, the students must be attention to every sentences so that their writing cannot be jumping ideas.
In the fact, writing is one of the important subjects that must be mastered by the students, especially at junior high school.
At junior high school, man found several kinds of texts, for example: narrative text, descriptive text, report text, and recount text.
All of them must be comprehend by the students in writing activity. Here, the teacher focuses on descriptive text in writing class.
Many students at junior high school have difficulties in learning English, especially in writing skills. In writing class, the students do not have self confidence to produce a writing, because they can not organize their ideas and informations about the topic, they do not comprehend about procedures of writing, and they can not put the sentences correctly.
Besides that, the teacher does not master to choose the good topics and strategies, it makes the students do not interested to write.
Based on the problem above, the teacher should choose a good material that related with the topic. Besides that, the teacher
must also choose the appropriate strategy to teach writing in the classroom. The strategy will help the students organize their ideas and many informations about the topic and it makes the students can produce good writing.
It is purposed to makes the students interested to write.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Generally, writing is described a process of sharing ideas and communication in the writing. There are some definitions of writing that given by experts. According to Hayes (1996:19) writing is a social because it is artifact and is carried out in a social setting.
What we write, how we write, and who we write to is shaped by social convention and by our history of social interaction. It means that before the students begin making a written, they must comprehend about their writing in order to their writing has social value. Here, the students also should be able to produce a written that needed by the readers.
The process of writing has provides the students about procedures to produce the best writing. Gardner and Johnson (1997) desribe the stages of writing process
a. Prewriting. Students generate ideas for writing:
Brainstorming; reading literature; creating life maps,web, and story carts;
developing word banks;
deciding on form,audience, voice, and purposes as well as trough teacher motivation.
b. Rough draft. Students get their ideas on paper. They write without concern for convention. Written word does not have to be neat; it is a s’loppy copy.
c. Reread. Students proof their own work by reading aloud and reading for sensibility.
d. Share With a Peer Revisor.
Students share and make suggestions for improvement;
asking who, what,
when,where, why and how question about parts of the story the peaer does not understand; looking for better words; and talking about how to make the work better.
e. Revise. Improve what the narrative says and how it says
it: write addition, imagery, and details. Teke out unnecessary work.
f. Editing. Work together on editing for mechanics and spelling. Make sure the work is goof proff.
g. Final Draft. Students produce their final copy to discuss with the teacher and write a final draft.
h. Publishing. Students publish their written pieces.
Based on the expert’s explanation above, writing have a process before written be completed. There are some stages of the process, they are: prewriting, rough draft, reread, share with a peer revisor, recise, editing, final dratf and punblishing. The students must be seriously to follow each stages so that the students can produce a completed writing.
Teaching of writing is a process sharing information and knowledge about writing from the teacher to the students. An English teacher must teach writing to their students in order to the students able to explore their ideas into written language. According to
Brown (2001:335) teaching of writing is a simplistic view of writing would assume that written language is simply the graphic representation of spoken language. It mean that teaching writing is one of skills that more easy to be done. In this process the teacher only teach about procedures of the writing.
Descriptive text is one of kinds the text that the students learn. There are some definition of descriptive text by experts.
According to Rugayamanan (2012) descriptive text is which say what a person or a thing is like. Its purpose is to describe and reveal a particular person, place, and thing. It means that descriptive text is a text that explains about someting. Here, the writer explains the object specificly.
There are some generic structures of descriptive text by experts. According to Sudarwati and Eudia Grace (2005:34) say that generic sturtures of descriptive text are:
Identification; Identify phenomenon to be described. Description; Describe parts, qualities and characteristic.It means that procedures of descriptive text start from identify the topic. After that, the students can find general information in identification.
Next, the students can find specific informtions in description.
Mind Maps Strategy is a strategy that can be used by the teacher to teach the students in writing. Mind Maps Strategy help the students to develop the topic by their mind.
According to Bennet (1991:286) Mind Maps is a Strategy that will help the students to identify and visually recode current understandings and summarize key information, clarify relationship or associates between information and ideas and draw conclusions. It means that the students colect the some information based on their knowledge about the the topic. They can free to imagine and share anything about the topic.
Here, they can get many informations to write in their writing.
In this strategy, there are some procedures to be applied by the teacher to teaches the students in teaching writing. These procedures can help the students to know how to write a paragraph well. Some experts provide the procedures of Mind Maps strategy.
According to Rog (2011:50) provides the procedures of Mind Maps Strategy. They are;
a. Start with a blank piece of paper.
b. In the centre of the page, draws a picture or symbol to represent the main idea, theme, or topic of writing.
Label it with a working title.
c. Around outside of central picture, a draw additional labeled sketches of ideas that might be concluded with this topic.
d. Feel free to extend lines outward as your think of supporting details related to the main idea.
e. Include as many ideas as you want.
You can always sort and sift them later.
f. Use numbers or arrows to put the ideas in order that you might want to use them in your draft.
g. Remember that time is a tool from writing not a pretty pictures. Thus, the teacher gives instruction to the students in learning writing through step by step.
Based on procedures that be provided above, procedures of Mind Maps Strategy starts from make a empty piece of the students paper and in the middle of the page draw a picture or symbol to represent the main idea.
Then, the students around outside of the main
idea and they add the sketches of ideas that related with the topic. After that, they add their good ideas about the topic based on sketches that be given. The students be free to think the ideas to make supporting details related of main idea. Here, they will discuss to select the some ideas to be used to their writing. Besides that, they must use number or arrows to put the ideas that will they use in their draft. Finally, the students should be pay attention to the teacher’s instruction of step by step in learning process.
PLEASE Strategy is a strategy to teach the students step by step of writing process. This strategy can help the students to write be structured and cleared. There are some definitions of PLEASE Strategy by experts. According to Jensen (1990) PLEASE Strategy is writing strategy was developed as a metacognitive strategy for written expression, to assist students in planning and writing compositions by modifying a highly structured, step-by-step procedure. It means that in this strategy, the students express their ideas into written form. They develop their ideas as structured and they can do it step by step. The writing can be clear from begin until the last.
In PLEASE Strategy there are some procedures to be followed by teacher and students in writing class. According to Jensen and Welch (1990:33) procedures of PLEASE Strategy are:
a. Pick. Pick a topic, pick your audience, and pick the appropriate textual format given the topic, purpose and audience.
b. List. List ideas about the topic and this is to be used for sentence generation.
c. Evaluation. Evaluate your list of ideas, determine if it is complete, and plan the best way of organizing or sequencing the ideas that will be used to generate supporting sentences.
d. Activate. Active with a topic sentence to introduce the paragraph, and students are instructed how to write short and simple declarative topic sentences that will “active”
the written ideas for the reader.
e. Supply. Supply supporting sentences, use the list generated for supporting sentence ideas, and gradually enhance the idea by generating clarifying
“expansio”
f. End. End with a concluding sentence to summrize the paragraph and hold the ideas together.
Based on expert explanation above, procedures of PLEASE Strategy starts from take a topic which will be developed. The students should attention about who are the reader their written. Then, the students make the list ideas about the topic generally. After that, the students choose which one the ideas will be written. Next, the students take one of topic sentence based on the topic. Then, students supply the supporting sentences from topic sentence before. Finally, the students write their paragraph to be a complete paragraph.
DISCUSSION
Combining of Mind Maps Strategy with PLEASE Strategy
In this session, the writer will explain the steps of combining Mind Maps Strategy with PLEASE Strategy for teaching writing, especially descriptive text. So, the writer choose the procedures of Mind Maps Strategy by Rog (2011:50) with PLEASE Strategy by Welch (1992:20). The combination of procedures as follow;
1. Start with a blank piece of paper (Mind Maps Strategy)
2. Pick a topic (PLEASE Strategy) 3. In the center of the page, draw a
picture or symbol to represent the main idea, theme, or topic of writing.
Label it with a working title. (Mind Maps Strategy)
4. Around outside of the central picture, a draw addition lebeled sketches of ideas that might be included with this topic. (Mind Maps Strategy)
5. Fell free to extend lines outward as ou think of supporting details related to the main idea. (Mind Maps Strategy) 6. List your ideas about the topic.
(PLEASE Strategy)
7. Evaluate your list. Include as many ideas as you want. You can always
sort and sift them later. (PLEASE and Mind maps Strategy)
8. Used numbers or arrows to put the ideas in order that you might want to use them in your draft. (Mind Maps Strategy)
9. Remember that time is a tool from writing not a pretty pictures. (Mind Maps Strategy)
10. Active the paragraph with a topic sentence. (PLEASE strategy)
11. Supply supporting sentences.
(PLEASE Strategy)
12. End with a concluding sentence.
(PLEASE Strategy)
13. Evaluate your work. (PLEASE Strategy)
Based on combination above the writer choose the procedures of Mind Maps Strategy by Rog (2011:50) with PLEASE Strategy by Welch (1992:20), because these strategy is completed after it was combined.
These strategies are also be easy to apply in teaching-learning writing process. The teacher can guide students to organize student’s ideas.
Besides that, the students can share their mind to identify the topic. Then, the students make a
complete paragraph based on informations about the topic that be listed before.
In the implementation, the teacher will describe activities about teaching and learning process by using two strategies. In this session, the teacher’s acivities will be divided into three parts of implementation. There are; pre- teaching activity, whilst-teaching activity, and post-teaching activity. The activities as follow:
1. Pre-Teaching Activities (15 minutes) Pre-teaching activities is the activity at the beginning of the study. It aims to makes the students concentration and motivate the students before start the lesson. Then, it is to stimulates the student’s background knowledge, and introduce the students about the topic which the teacher teach. There are some activities that will be done by the teacher. The activity as follow:
a. The teacher greets to the students.
b. The teacher asks the students to pray.
c. The teacher checks attendance list.
d. The teacher tells about the purpose of the lesson.
2. Whilst-Teacihng Activity (60 minutes)
Whilst-teaching activity are the activities which are accured after pre-teaching activities. The teacher explains and discuss about the material that is learnt by students. In this paper, the writer teaches writing of descriptive text by using combining procedures of Mind Maps Strategy by Rog (2011:50) with procedures of PLEASE Strategy by Welch (1992:20). Here are some activities that can be done by the teacher, as follow:
a. Exploration
In exploration part, teacher uses procedures of Mind Maps Strategy and PLEASE Strategy. Before that, the teacher explains about descriptive text.
b. Ellaboration
In the ellaboration, teacher continues procedures of Mind Maps Strategy by Rog (2011:50) with the procedures of PLEASE Strategy by Welch (1992:20). The activities are:
1. The teacher asks the students to make a blank piece of paper.
2. The teacher tells the topic and gives the picture related with the topic to the
students. The teacher asks the students to identify it.
3. The teacher asks the students to write topic in a piece of paper in the middle of page.
4. The teacher asks the students make sketches to develop their ideas about the topic.
5. The teacher asks the students to make ideas about the sketches before.
6. The teacher asks the students to make list of their ideas.
7. The teacher asks the students to evaluate their list of ideas based on their want.
8. The teacher asks the students to use the number to put the ideas in the oder to you might want to use them in your draft.
9. The teacher asks the students to find the topic sentence based on the ideas.
10. The teacher asks the students to make supporting sentences based on the topic ideas that be found.
11. The teacher asks the students to make concluding sentence to end their paragraph.
12. The teacher asks the students to collect their paper after they finish your writing.
13. The teacher takes one of the students’
writing to evaluate.
14. The teacher checks the each sentences of the text.
15. The teacher and students discuss about identification and description of the text.
16. The teacher and students discuss about topic sentence, supporting sentences, and concluding sentence.
c. Confirmation
1. The teacher asks the students’
difficulties about the lesson today.
2. The students give feedback to the lesson today.
3. Post-Teaching Activity (15 minutes) The post-teaching is the last process of teaching. There are activities as follow;
1. The teacher gives a picture to students as exercise.
2. The teacher asks the students to make descriptive text about “Cinta Uya” (the daughter of Uya Kuya).
3. The teacher asks the students to collect their exercise.
4. The teacher asks the students difficulties about the material.
5. The teacher appreciates for the students’ words.
CONCLUSION
In this paper, the writer concludes that writing is a product which the students produce in learning English. In the other skills like listening, speaking and reading the students only know about the text,but in writing skill the students learn how to write a text. They can produce each texts that they have learn before. They can also share anything about their ideas. In teaching writing, the teacher should know principle and purpose of teaching writing as a skill that have to be learned by the students, especially for students at junior high school. In fact, the students still have problems in teaching writing. It caused by some problems that students have difficulty in arrangement their ideas in writing. Then, the students do not know how to write paragraph correctly because the teacher’s strategy is not suitable with the students’ condition. Besides that, the purpose of writing is to help the students are able to write a paragraph or text and know how to share their ideas into written form.
To solve the problem, the teacher should consider a good teaching writing strategy. The teacher not only used one strategy, but also combining two strategies in teaching writing, such as: combining Mind Maps Strategy with PLEASE Strategy in descriptive text. Mind Maps Strategy is a strategy to develop main idea/theme with collecting many informations about the main idea by the students. In this strategy, the students can provide free ideas to identify the topic. Besides that, PLEASE Strategy is a strategy to develop the students ideas and help the students to know how to share their ideas into written form. These strategies can help the students learn step by step of writing process, especially in descriptive text. The writer believes that these strategies can help the students to improve their writing ability.
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