Planning of the Second Cycle

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3. Second Cycle of CAR

The second cycle was carried out on March 8, 2013. It was followed by 36 students. Two of the students in VIIIB class were sick, so they could not follow the learning activities. This cycle was the continuation of the implementation process which had been done in the previous cycle. The learning process was more focused on practicing flash cards. The researcher conducted the second cycle from elaborating four stages of CAR. Those were planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. However, the researcher combined acting and observing into one stage which made the learning process more effective. In other words, the researcher employed the steps in action research which was similar to the first cycle.

a. Planning of the Second Cycle

The researcher began to make a lesson plan for the second cycle which was based on the reflection in the first cycle. It was expected that the teaching and learning process in the second cycle would give a better result than the first cycle. Based on the results of the first cycle, the researcher needed to verify the results. Hence, the researcher conducted the second cycle to verify whether the media, activities, and method used in the first cycle would work well in the second cycle or not. In this cycle, the researcher also planned more variations than the first cycle, such as the learning activities, learning methods, and learning materials. The researcher increased the students – students interaction in practicing the flash cards through group work and in pairs so that they could be more active and accustomed to the strategy implemented. 63 In this step, the researcher tried to make a variation of the learning activities in order to be more attractive and creative. He made the learning activities not to be monotonous as applied in the first cycle. The main focus of this planning was to explore the students’ ability in understanding the past forms of irregular verbs. The researcher did not forget to review the language feature which was used in a recount text. The researcher also planned a game, namely “whispering game”. It would be employed to lift the students’ energy in order to be active joining the lesson. In this game, the researcher would divide the students in VIIIB class into three groups, and then each group made a line. After that, the students had to whisper the sentence given by the researcher from the back until the front student. The front student had to write what sentence which was whispered by their friends. The example of the sentence was she saw a shark in the sea yesterday. This game was useful for the students to encourage them to be active, remain the past form of irregular verb, and increase their vocabulary. Scrivener 1994: 123 states that grammar practice activities are designed to focus on particular items of grammar. Similar to what the researcher did in the first cycle, he also arranged a set of learning activities. The researcher made a lesson plan which involved the cycles of classroom action research CAR which based on Kemmis and M cTaggart’s model 1988: 14. The standard of competence and basic competence used was focused on reading skills. In the planning of learning activities, the researcher planned the flash cards to attract the students. The flash cards were created in many colors which made the students interested. In this 64 meeting, the researcher also divided the learning activities into three parts, namely pre activity, whilst activity, and post activity. In the pre activity, the researcher and the students prayed together in opening the learning activities. Then, the researcher planned to review the materials about the steps of using flash cards and the past forms of verbs in the previous meeting. After reviewing, the researcher employed “whispering game” to lift the students’ energy in joining the lesson. He also explained what would be achieved by students in the learning process which was similar to what was achieved in the first cycle. In whilst activity, the researcher planned to make the different steps than the previous cycle in the learning activities. The researcher gave the worksheet first before practicing the flash cards. It aimed to know the students’ understanding about the past forms of verbs through completing the missing words in a recount text by changing the present verbs into the past verbs. The researcher emphasized practicing the flash cards in learning the past forms of verbs. It aimed to make the students accustomed to and easier to memorize the past forms of verbs. In this cycle, the researcher changed the instructions of using flash cards to make the students not bored in practicing the flash cards. Hopefully, it could be useful for the students to improve their irregular verb mastery. Finally, the students were also given a test in the second cycle. The test involved filling the past forms of regular and irregular verbs in the blanks in 20 sentences. In the post activity, the researcher covered the class by reviewing the materials. At that time, the researcher also gave a chance to the students who wanted to ask the materials and difficulties which they faced in the learning process. 65 As being planned in the previous cycle, the explanation above was also the summary of the lesson plan which had been implemented in the second cycle. In fact, the researcher and the teacher knew about the new steps of using flash cards in teaching the students about the past forms of verbs.

b. Acting and Observing of the Second Cycle