school were low, so the researcher decided some actions to be carried out which aim was to improve the writing ability. The researcher also
interviewed the English teacher. Besides, to get the whole picture of the class she joined the class to see the learning and teaching process. The
problems were identified and discussed with the English teacher to find the solution.
The interviews, observations and the discussion were done not only in the beginning of the research, but also in the process of the research. It
was to identify and monitor the improvement of the writing ability of the students after the implementation of the planned actions through the use of
cooperative learning to improve the writing skills. The interviews were conducted with the students in the class after the implementation of the
actions to know how their feelings towards the actions implemented and whether the actions helped them to improve their writing skills. The
interviews were recorded and done in Bahasa Indonesia. At the end, the researcher conducted a writing test for the students.
3. Data Collection Instruments
Instruments were some documents used in the data collection. The instruments used in this research were observation checklist, interview
guidelines, writing tests and rubrics of the students’ writing performance. To keep the validity of the data, the researcher also used a recorder and
photographs during the interview and observations of the teaching and learning activities in the classroom.
The rubrics of the students’ speaking performance were used to assess the students’ writing ability in the pre-test and post-test. The tests
were used to measure the improvement of the students’ writing skill and in the form of texts. The tests in the pre-test and post-test had the same
level of difficulties. The rubrics were focused on five aspects namely organization, logical development of ideas content, language, vocabulary,
and mechanics. The researcher adapted them from writing scoring rubric by Jacob 1981 that is cited in Weigle 2002 that is scaled 13 to 30 for
the content aspect, 7-20 for the organization and vocabulary, 5-25 for the language use, and 2-5 for the mechanics aspects.
Meanwhile, the observation and interview guidelines were used in the reconnaissance and the observation during the implementation of the
action. In the reconnaissance step, the observation guideline was used to find out the relating problems. In the action step, the observation
guidelines were used to see the implementation of the action. It covered the instruments of the lesson, the learning and teaching process, and class
situation. These main parts covered some sections. The instruments of the lesson included the lesson plans and the syllabus. The pre-teaching, whilst-
teaching, and the post teaching became the parts of the learning and teaching process. The class situation were needed to observe since it was
also one of the things needed to improve in this research. The class
