Evaluating the Designed Materials

From the results of the expert validation, all respondents agreed that the designed materials were well-established to help the learners developing their reading skills. The materials were appropriate for the learners and could motivate the learners to learn in the various activities. Nonetheless, the respondents gave some suggestions for the improvement of the designed materials. The suggestions were presented below: 1 The topics The topics in the designed materials were well-selected and well-arranged. Nevertheless, the writer should select topics which were familiar to the learners. 2 The texts There was one respondent who suggested the writer to choose the shorter, simpler and more interesting texts to be utilized in the designed materials. 3 The activities One respondent suggested that the learning activities should be started from the easiest activity. Besides, she also suggested the writer to create pair or group activities and to make reading games. There was also one respondent suggested the writer to give more exercises to develop comprehension. In addition, another respondent suggested the writer to check the use of grammar in the designed materials and the instruction of each activity should be clearer. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 4 The arrangement The topics and the learning activities should be arranged from the simplest ones to the more complex ones. 5 The layout The respondents suggested the writer not to use too many different font types and size. Meanwhile, one of the respondents also suggested avoiding the use of unnecessary pictures. 6 Other suggestion One of the respondents suggested revising the learning indicators for some of them referred to the process not the product of learning. The respondents’ opinion of the expert validation could be illustrated in Table 4.9. Table 4.9 Results of the Expert Validation in Percentages No. Questions Responses Percentages 1. Are the topics selected properly? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 100 2. Are the topics well-arranged? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 66.6 33.3 3. Are the learning goals well-formulated and suitable with the target learners? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 66.6 33.3 4. Are the learning indicators also well- formulated to meet the goals-set? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 33.3 33.3 33.3 5. Are the learning activities interesting and a. Yes 100 No. Questions Responses Percentages varied? b. Not sure c. No 6. Are the learning activities well- established in accordance with the learning goal? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 66.6 33.3 7. Are the learning activities easy to understand? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 66.6 33.3 8. Are the reading texts easy to understand? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 33.3 33.3 33.3 9. Are the reading texts suitable with the target learners? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 100 10. How is the layout of the materials? a. Good b. Not too bad c. Bad 66.6 33.3 11. Are the materials as a whole suitable with the learners? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 100 12. Are the materials interesting and well- elaborated? a. Yes b. Not sure c. No 100 Meanwhile, the strengths and the weaknesses of the designed materials were presented on Table 4.10. Table 4.10 The Strengths and the Weaknesses of the Designed Materials The Strengths The Weaknesses 1. The topics were relevant and up-to- date. 2. The designed materials had varied learning activities. 1. The designed materials had poor grammar especially in the reading comprehension session. 2. The designed materials did not focus on developing comprehension skill. The Strengths The Weaknesses 3. The designed materials were developed based on the needs analysis and the language learning theories. From the results of the expert validation, it could be concluded that the designed materials were applicable and appropriate to be used. Nevertheless, the writer needed to revise the designed materials as suggested by the evaluators. b. Learners’ Evaluation The learners’ evaluation was conducted as a substitution for materials try out. The writer was not able to conduct materials try out because of the limitation of time. This was conducted to get feedback from the learners. Therefore, the writer distributed the designed materials and the evaluation questionnaires to the three Biology teachers of SMAN 3 Yogyakarta. The questionnaires contained semi-structured questions. Like in the expert validation, the writer also conducted the unstructured interviews to gain more information about the learners’ responses. They were asked to give their responses and suggestions about the designed materials. The results of the learners’ evaluation were presented on Table 4.11. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI Table 4.11 Results of the Learners’ Evaluation No Aspects Responses 1 Topics 9 The respondents agreed that the topics were interesting enough. 9 The topics such as HIV-AIDS, Mercury and Global Warming were interesting for the learners because those kinds of topics were always actual in society. 2 Learning Activities 9 The learning activities were varied and were interesting for there was ‘materials-crossing’. 9 The learning activities such as doing crosswords and having discussion were interesting and were able to motivate the learners to learn. 3 Reading Texts 9 The reading texts were interesting enough. However in the topic Biology as Science, it would be better to utilize the reading texts which were about the application ones. 9 The reading texts were neither too easy nor too difficult to understand. 4 Layout The layout of the designed materials was interesting especially the illustrations such as the cell structure in the reading texts. 5 Materials as a whole 9 The designed materials were interesting enough. 9 The designed materials were also easy enough to understand. The respondents’ opinion of the learners’ evaluation could be illustrated in the Table 4.12. Table 4.12 Results of the Learners’ Evaluation in Percentages No. Questions Responses Percentages 1. Are the topics interesting? a. Yes b. No 100 2. Are the learning activities interesting and varied? a. Yes b. No 100 3. Are the reading texts interesting and easy to a. Yes 66.6 No. Questions Responses Percentages understand? b. No 33.3 4. Are the materials as a whole easy to understand? a. Yes b. No 66.6 33.3 5. Are the materials as a whole interesting? a. Yes b. No 100 6. Is the layout of the designed materials interesting? a. Yes b. No 100 In summary, the learners liked the designed materials since the topics and the learning activities were interesting. The learners were interested in words- game like crosswords for it could enable them understand the meanings in convenience way. They also liked the discussion activity for it could enable them share their understanding of the learning content. Furthermore, they gave some comments and suggestions related to the designed materials. The comments and suggestions were as follows: 1 The unity of the designed English reading materials which raised Biology topics was interesting because they were related to the daily life. 2 The writer should create the learning activities which could develop the learners’ creativity. For example, in the topic Reproduction, the learners were presented with texts about technology of reproduction. 3 The writer should give more pair work or discussion activities.

10. Revising the Designed Materials

In this step, the writer revised the designed materials based on the results of the expert validation and the learners’ evaluation. The revision was to improve the designed materials. The revision included following aspects. a. The topics There was no changing in the selection and the arrangement of the topics. The topics were already familiar to the learners. b. The reading texts The writer re-adapted the reading texts by decreasing the length of the texts without changing the contents. Since the adapted text entitled “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome” was still too long, the writer adapted the text again to make it shorter by deleting some unnecessary sentences. c. The learning activities The writer added some learning activities so that the learners’ comprehension would be achieved. As suggested by some evaluators, the writer developed more learning activities by adding some comprehension questions and other learning tasks. The writer also made them simpler and rechecked the grammar. Besides, the writer re-arranged the sequence of the learning activities as well. The activities were arranged from simple ones to difficult ones. Furthermore, the instructions were re-checked in order to be clearer. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI d. The layout The writer reduced the use of unnecessary pictures. Additionally, the writer reduced the use of the varied font types and sizes in the designed materials. e. Other revision The writer rewrote the learning indicators in order that the learning indicators could reflect the product of learning. The previous learning indicators referred to the learning processes. Therefore, the writer rewrote the indicators so that they referred to the expecting attainment of learning.

B. The Presentation of the Designed Materials

This section was to answer the second research problem which was what the designed set of materials look like. The materials consisted of eight units. There were four main sections in each unit, namely Bring It to Mind, Let’s Start, Grammar Battle, and Completing Mission. The presentation of the designed materials is described in Table 4.13. Table 4.13 The Presentation of the Designed Materials Unit Topic Learning Indicators Learning Materials Learning Activities 1 Biology as Science Learners are able to: • answer questions about specific details and inferences of the text • find main idea of the text • identify the - Short text “What Is Biology?” and “Characteris- tics of Living Things” - Vocabulary related to the texts - Verbs main A. Bring It To Mind Answering guiding questions B. Let’s Start - Reading a text - Stating whether statements are true or false - Challenge Yourself: Answering Unit Topic Learning Indicators Learning Materials Learning Activities communica-tive purpose of the text • use some words related to the text • identify verbs used in the text • list important points from a text • express their ideas related to the topic in written way verbs and helping verbs questions - Naming pictures C. Grammar Battle - Studying verbs main verbs and helping verbs - Finding verbs in sentences - Classifying the verbs into main verb or helping verb - Underlining verbs used in the text D. Completing Mission - Reading another text - Choosing the right answer - Answering questions - Filling in the blanks - Finding an article in the newspaper and listing the important points - Giving suggestions andor comments 2 Repro- duction Learners are able to: • answer questions about specific details and inferences of the text • find main idea of the text • identify the communicative purpose of the text • match some words in the text with their meanings • use some words - Short text “Reproduction” and “Sudden Infant Death Syndrome” - Vocabulary related to the texts - Adverbs adverbs end in -ly and adverbs with no particular form A. Bring It To Mind Answering questions B. Let’s Start - Reading a text - Choosing the right answer in pair - Challenge Yourself: Answering question - Matching words with the related words, in pair C. Grammar Battle - Studying adverbs - Changing adjectives into adverbs - Making sentences using adverbs Unit Topic Learning Indicators Learning Materials Learning Activities related to the text • identify adverbs used in the text • express their ideas related to the topic in written way D. Completing Mission - Reading another text - Stating whether statements true or false - Answering questions - Filling in the blanks - Giving suggestions 3 HIV- AIDS Learners are able to: • answer questions about specific details and inferences of the text • find main idea of the text • identify the communicative purpose of the text • use some words related to the text • identify nouns used in sentences • list important points from a text • express their ideas related to the topic in written way - Short text “HIV Isolate from Kenya Provides Clues for Vaccine Design” and “The AIDS Fight: Looking Ahead to 2010” - Vocabulary related to the texts - Nouns countable nouns and uncountable nouns A. Bring It To Mind Answering questions B. Let’s Start - Reading a text - Answering questions in group - Challenge Yourself: Making a list - Finding words in text to complete sentences C. Grammar Battle - Studying nouns countable and uncountable nouns - Deciding the countable andor uncountable nouns used in sentences - Completing table with nouns used in text D. Completing Mission - Reading another text - Completing table with the important points in text - Answering questions - Filling crosswords - Finding an article in the newspapers or magazines - Listing important points from the article - Giving comments related to the article