10 research that uses 8
th
grade of junior high school students. In contrast with Esleem 2012 who compared class A to B to analyze the data, the data of this research
are analyzed from students‟ narrative writing tasks that are conducted three times.
B. Theoretical Description
There are seven theories that support this research: Digital Storytelling, Writing Skill, Types of Classroom Writing Performance, Reasons of Teaching
Writing, Narrative Writing, Classroom Action Research, and Scoring of Writing.
1. Digital Storytelling
Digital storytelling becomes the main element discussed in this research. Because of its importance, elements of digital storytelling taken from experts are
introduced in order to comprehend what the digital storytelling is.
a. The Definition of Digital Storytelling
According to Behmer 2005, storytelling is believed as a tool to share about life values and knowledge between one and another person. It is a good way
of communication because with storytelling, people can exchange their own experiences to others. In this case, people can learn from each other experiences
through storytelling. Normann
2011, p. 1 defines digital storytelling as “the combination between spoken narrative, a number of visual, soundtrack and new technology to
share story.” It is understood as a concept that focuses on producing and sharing story based on personal experience. That activity of producing and sharing story is
11 different with the old storytelling because the storyteller does it indirectly through
technology. Normann 2011, p. 2 adds that the length of digital storytelling only takes
2-3 minutes. Since the length of digital storytelling is very short, the audiences are expected not get bored easily while following the plot of the story. Meanwhile,
digital storytelling can be linked to other people or interests. Personal touch in digital storytelling is different from the old way of storytelling that invites the
emotion of the audience and makes impact on them. In the same line with Normann 2011, Paul and Fiebiech 2002 state that
“digital storytelling can be presented in various formats such as all text web page, nonlinear interactive web site, digital song, video or movie.
” as cited in Chung, 2006, p. 5. From all those formats, digital song and video may suitable to be
applied in classroom teaching-learning activity. Those formats of digital storytelling become something new for some educators, but in fact it has been
practiced by media professional for over decade. According to Robin 2008, p. 224, digital storytelling can be found in
three types of aspects. They are personal narratives, historical documentaries, and stories that inform and instruct. However, according to KTSP curriculum, the
personal narrative is mostly used for 8
th
grade students of junior high school. Based on those explanations from experts, it can be said that digital
storytelling is a new way of sharing story to others in forms of media use. It is more interesting because the media use can be in forms of web-pages, music,
12 videos or even movies. Moreover, digital storytelling is believed can help students
to develop their ideas.
b. The Benefits of Digital Storytelling for Students
Ohler 2008, Ware and Warschauer 2005 explain that “the use of digital
storytelling not only helps to connect high-tech development nowadays and low- tech educational system, but also gives many benefits that cannot be achieved by
the use of traditional storytelling .” as cited in Miller, 2009, p. 12. Those benefits
are: 1
Providing students with the ability to achieve the „21
st
century s kills‟
Kajder, 2004; Robin, 2008; Ware, 2006. 2
Increasing students‟ motivation Ohler, 2008; Ware and Warschauer, 2005.
3 Making a new ideal strategy of telling personal stories Miller, 2009, p.
13. 4
Encouraging students to organize and express their ideas and knowledge in meaningful way Sadik, 2008, p. 490.
2. Writing Skill
Since this research focuses on the improvement of students in term of writing skill, this part provides several explanations about writing skill. Those
explanations are provided in order to understand about writing skill definition, its process and component.
