1. Description of Cycle 1
The more details description of the implementation of the classroom action research at the cycle 1 can be seen in the following section. It begins from
the plan action, observation, and reflection stages.
a. Plan stage
After the problems were identified on the pre-research, the researcher decided to conduct an action research. The action plan for the first cycle was
based on this. To solve the problems related to students‘ writing skills and class situation, the researcher decided to focus on improving their writing skills first. If
it improved well, automatically it would change the class situation it self. Before going to class, the researcher prepared the lesson plan included A
Four-Phase Technique, writing strategies, class activities, several tasks, media and teaching materials that would be designed like following:
1 Dividing the teaching-learning activity into four phases Teaching is a process of transferring messages from teacher to students.
Teaching is said successful if the learners receive complete messages from teacher. Therefore to be succeeded, it is planned carefully by preparing
progressive steps to achieve the aims of teaching. At least four phases need to be considered when organizing messages of learning to be well received and
understood, 1 gain attention first, 2 assure that messages becomes needs of the receiver, 3 visualize them to reinforce their comprehension, and 4 take action
as what teachers asked to do. Thus the steps of teaching-learning were divided
into four phases, i.e. Attention phase, Need phase, Visualization phase, and Action phase.
Each of the phases consisted pre-teachings, whilst, teaching, and post teaching. In pre-teaching, the teacher greeted the students to create good
atmosphere of learning. It was followed by praying together and checking students‘ attendance to establish class routines. In whilst-teaching, the teacher did
the main activity such as Attention phase for the first meeting, Need phase in the second meeting, Visualization phase on the third meeting, and Action phase at the
fourth meeting. While in post-teaching, the teacher summed up the activity by restating what had been learned and what would be the next. Finally the captain
led the class to pray together to end up the lesson. 2 Using shared, interactive, guided and independent strategies
In carrying out the messages of learning, it needs good strategies to make the process of transmission messages to be effective and in an efficient way.
Firstly it was shared to receivers of messages or learners, that they were joined in a whole group consisted of all class members to make sure that the materials of
teaching were well understood. Secondly they joined into big groups for more guidance to make them on the right track of learning. Thirdly the strategy should
be interactive to make the students cooperated well with others. Fourthly, when they were ready, they would work independently.
3 Using controlled to freer activities In Oral composition, students followed the events of the story based on
sequences of pictures. The teacher controlled the activity by directing the students
to build up story events in sequence. Then in sentence writing, they had to write the ideas come up from the teacher and students to record the results in order to
become the models of constructing the story. The activity of cooperative writing was somewhat freer but still controlled by the teacher. The teacher facilitated the
collaborative process but still referred to the models build up by class. Finally in Written composition, it was freer activities as the students were free to express the
elements of the story using accurate grammar and writing mechanics, to organize and to link them into paragraphs of the story using good sentences, expression,
and words choice. 4 Preparing materials and portfolio tests
The first material was taken from Composition through Pictures written by J.B. Heaton. The reason was that this source provided complete pictures to depict
the events of the story. They we re suitable to students‘ background knowledge as
the pictures are inspiring, funny, and easy to display and to be copied. The students could express their enthusiastic by coloring and decorating pictures in
order to be good looking. The characters, settings, plot and theme of the story we
re suitable with the students‘ schemata as they were simple, not complicated. To arouse their inspiration and imagination besides using pictures, the
teacher set instrumental music and sounds to create the real-like situation of the story. By doing this, the students could use their sense to develop their writing to
be massive and vivid. The tasks were then designed to facilitate the students building up their schemata or their background knowledge. They were task 1 to
preview the story, task 2 to understand intrinsic elements of the story, task 3 to
chain the story, task 4 to build vocabularies used in constructing the story, task 5 to build sentences correctly, task 6 to record the chain story results, task 7 to
reconstruct the story vividly, and finally task 8 to write the complete story enriched with details of sentences, expression and dictions.
After doing task 8, the students had a portfolio test. The test was a collection of
students‘ works which were constructed based on the sequence of the writing activities and were assessed to portrait the development students‘ skills. In
here the students wrote a short story from simple to complex models. Besides for assessing the success of the students, the portfolio test was also done for making
adjustment in the lesson plan for the next meeting. The form of the test, rubric score and blue print could be seen in the appendix.
b. Action Stage
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