the colourful cards since they rarely use any media in the classroom. Furthermore, the cue cards used as the media were colourfully printed.
It would also be more exciting and easier for the students to write by observing the cue cards since that would be the first time they used cue
cards in the classroom. The whole process of planning the actions also included some other
important actions including writing the lesson plans, course grids, planning the writing activities, learning materials, and preparing the cue
cards. The teacher and the consultant gave some feedbacks for them to be better and then they were revised before being used.
2. Actions and Observations of Cycle 1
The actions were carried out two times on March 17
th
and 18
th,
2014. The schedule of Cycle 1 can be seen in the table below.
Table 4.4: Schedule of Teaching and Learning Process in Cycle I Meeting
Day and Date Time
Material
1 Monday,
March 17
th
, 2014
2 x 40 minutes 08.35
– 10.10, including break
for 15 minutes Descriptive text
2 Tuesday,
March 18
th
, 2014
2 x 40 minutes 11.10
– 12.30 Descriptive text
The actions were focused on applying cue cards as the media to teach writing. The researcher acted as the teacher in the classroom, while
the teacher became the observer. The data in Cycle 1 were gained from the
classroom observations, interview, and the students’ works. The further explanation is provided below.
a Implementing Cue Cards as an effort to stimulate the students’ ideas
The researcher used cue cards in all of the meetings in Cycle 1. Some were done in pairs, while the others were done individually. The cue
cards given were in two different forms. In the first meeting, the researcher used a single picture while in the second meeting, the researcher used a set
of pictures for more detailed writing. In the practice process, the students helped each other and worked together while the researcher also looked at
their work one by one while correcting them once in a while. They completed some descriptive texts. Some of the tasks required the students
to complete a text based on their partner’s physical appearance. When the students did this, they
observed each other’s physical appearance and corrected each other if there were mistakes. In the production stage, they
were asked to write their own text individually. In the first meeting, the material was descriptive text, but the text
was simpler and the students just needed to fill the blank areas. Before doing the tasks, the students, together with the researcher discussed the cue
c ard about a person’s physical appearance first. There were different
opinions at first but then the researcher gave them posters of different parts of a person’s physical appearance so the students could compare their
answer with the poster. It helped them unify their answer. After that, they were asked some questions regarding the
person’s description.
After doing the warming-up and explaining the materials, the researcher gave the students the real paragraph describing that person in
the picture to check their answers previously. After that they were given another cue card for another text and fill the blank areas based on the cue
card. By using the poster, the students could check the description of the person from the cue card easily. It can be seen from the interview below.
Next, the researcher and the students discussed the answers. Some students have different opinions but then after they discussed it, they
agreed on one answer. The researcher asked if there was anything the students were still confused about so the researcher could explain it.
Previously, the students were asked to describe someone they did not see at the meantime. It was difficult for the students to find ideas. When
the cue cards were used, the students wrote more effectively because they could observe it directly. The students observed the picture carefully when
they were writing their texts. Even though they were still confused R: Tadi gimana pelajarannya? What do you think about the
activities? S: ...
R: Gimana? Apa seneng, mbosenin, apa biasa aja? What do you think? Is it boring, exciting, or there is no difference from the usual
one.
S: Seneng, ada gambarnya. It’s exciting because we use cue cards.
Interview Transcript 9, March 18
th
2014
