this way would be effective to make them more conscious about the mistakes they made.
4 Showing a Slide Show as a Guidance
As suggested by the English teacher, in the next cycle a slide show would be shown to the students before the activities of drawing mind map and writing text.
The slide show would be used as guidance for them during the joint construction of the field. The slide show would consist of several pictures about certain topic. I
would ask some questions regarding the pictures on the slide show to make the students get better understanding to the topic. This activity would also be useful to
give them some new vocabularies and expressions to convey their ideas.
b. Actions and Observations
In this cycle, I still acted as the teacher, while the English teacher and the collaborator as the observer. The actions in Cycle 2 were conducted in three days
of class meeting on September 2
th
, 2014, September 4
th
, 2014 and September 9
th
, 2014. Each meeting was described below.
1 The First Meeting in Cycle II
The first meeting of Cycle I was conducted on September 2th, 2014. The lesson was started with a greeting, and checking the students’ presence. The
students were also asked some opening questions to check their readiness and remind them about previous lessons.
I then gave the worksheets to the students. First, the students were asked to do the first task. It required them to fill the blanks with suitable words provided in
the table. The students were allowed to open their dictionaries to do this task. The second task was about ordering jumble sentences into a good order. There were
only a few students who still had difficulty in doing the task 2. After the students and I discussed the correct answers together, I guided them to identify the generic
structure of the text. After that, the students had to answer some questions based on the text. The last task required the students to work in pairs. They had to
choose the correct verbs to complete the blanks. This task aimed at making the students more aware of grammar use.
The lesson continued by discussing some mistakes that the students still made in their previous writings. I wrote the sentences on the white board and
guided the students to analyze the mistakes. Most of their mistakes were about the language use. There were also a few mistakes the students made in their mind
maps. The students actually had already understood the steps of making mind map, but a few students still made some mistakes in putting the key words in the
branches. For example, the key words in main branches did not match the additional branches. I then showed them the correct way to put the key words on
the mind map. At the end of the lesson, they were asked if they had any questions and
something that they did not understand. There was no question from the students at that time. I also reminded them to bring pencil colors in the next meeting. Then,
the lesson was ended.
2 The Second Meeting of Cycle II
The second meeting of Cycle II was conducted on September 4th, 2014. The lesson was started with a greeting, and checking the students’ presence. The
students were also asked some opening questions to check their readiness and remind them about previous lessons.
As planned in the planning stage, in this cycle a slide show would be used as guidance for the students. The slide show was about “Malioboro”. Before
showing the slide show, the students were informed that at that day they would work in groups. Then the students were asked to make a group of four.
Considering the time and the effectiveness, they were only allowed to make groups with their friends who sat in front of them. The students were informed
that they should make a note about difficult words related to the slide show. During the activities of watching the slide show, the students were asked some
questions concerning the topic such as, “Do you know where it is?” “Have you ever gone there?” “What transportations can you use to go there?” The students
looked very enthusiastic and tried to answer those questions orally. Then the students were asked to write important things like vocabulary and difficult words
of the topic. The lesson continued by asking the students to make a mind map about the
topic in the slide show with their groups. The students then had to write a descriptive text based on the mind map. I distributed papers for each group and
informed them that from that day, they should make simpler mind map. They did not need to make it perfectly by adding many pictures and colors. The students
were told that the mind map was supposed to help them in writing text so they had to remember the function of the mind map itself. The students were also given
limited time in drawing the mind map and also writing the text. I informed them that they had to finish their works on time because their works should be collected.
During the activities, I walked around the classroom to check the students’ works. There were only some of them who bring the dictionaries. Some of the
students were also asking some questions when they faced difficulties in writing the texts. However, the students were more quiet and serious. They seemed to be
easier in writing the text since they already had clear image and also vocabulary of the topic from the slide show shown before. They also could draw the mind
maps faster than before. When all the students had finished writing the texts, they were asked to
exchange their works with the other groups. The students were asked to check the language use, mechanics, vocabulary, content and organization in the other groups’
writings. I also asked them to check whether the mind maps and the texts match or not. However, the students were still difficult in giving corrections towards their
friends’ works. They were still confused and asking for help. I then helped them by writing some common mistakes of the students in the white board and
explained them. Finally, the time was up. The students’ works were collected although there
were some of the students who had not finished revising their friends’ works. The students were asked whether they had any questions or not. The students had no
question at that time. Then, the students were also asked to study at home and
reminded to bring pencil colors again in the next meeting. Finally, the lesson ended.
Figure 6: The students work in groups
3 The Third Meeting of Cycle II
The third meeting of Cycle I was conducted on September 9th, 2014. The lesson was started with a greeting, and checking the students’ presence. The
students were also asked some opening questions to check their readiness and remind them about previous lessons. In the previous meeting, they were asked to
make mind maps and write texts in situation given. They also showed significant improvements in writing the text and drawing the mind map. Therefore, in this
meeting, the students were asked to make a mind map and write a text about one of their favorite tourism objects. They might have the same topic they wrote
before. First, the students were informed that they had to work individually at that
day. Papers were distributed to each student. The students had more time to finish
their works in this meeting. I gave them time to draw the mind maps until the first hour of the lesson end and the next hour to write the texts.
The students were able to draw mind map and write the text faster as expected. I monitored them by walking around the class as usual to check the
students works and help them if they find difficulties. When the bell rang, all the students had already finished their works. Then, the students works were
collected. Before ended the lesson, I thanked the students for the participation so far. I then said goodbye and walked out the class.
c. Reflection
