43
observing stage as the initial stage of a scientific approach to grab students’
attention. However, she never used a certain method or strategy to improve reading comprehension.
In regards to text types, she admitted that analytical exposition texts were the most difficult ones. Students usually found difficulties in
understanding the flow of the arguments in the text. Based on the summary of the interview, the researcher then designed the activities in the class in the
form of a lesson plan. The researcher also consulted the text and the exercise which would be used in the first cycle to the English teacher. Besides, the
researcher taught the students and acted as a teacher-researcher.
2. Cycle 1
The researcher conducted the first cycle on Friday, April 8, 2016. In this cycle, the researcher applied the stages of CAR which consisted of the
planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In conducting the activities in the class, the researcher also referred to the scientific approach which was one of
the main characteristics in Kurikulum 2013.
a. Planning
In the planning stage, the researcher designed the lesson plan Appendix D1, p. 105 to help the researcher conduct the teaching and
learning process in the class. The lesson plan was also helpful for the researcher to control the time allotment in each stage of the scientific
approach. Besides, the researcher also prepared an analytical exposition text PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
44
that would be given to the students as well as the reading comprehension exercise. The researcher consulted the materials to the English teacher on
Wednesday, April 6, 2016.
b. Acting
The researcher conducted the first cycle in one meeting. The researcher was helped by three peer-observers to record and write down everything
happened in the class. In the meeting, there were seven students who were absent and thus the total number of present students were twenty-four. The
researcher presents the results in the acting stage in a form of a story as the researcher only reported what had happened in the class.
After entering the class, the English teacher told the students that there would be another teacher that would teach them. The researcher then greeted
the students and introduced herself as well as the observers. After that, the researcher asked the students about the difficulty of reading. Most of them
answered that reading was not really difficult but there was almost no particular method or strategy to help them understand the text deeper.
However, when the researcher stated that they would read a text today, some students seemed to complain and express their disinterest. This reaction might
indicate students’ reading habit which was still low and it had been informed by the English teacher in the preliminary study. The researcher also added that
they were going to try a strategy called the Venn diagram to help them in reading the text.
