89 positive as the class was usually calmer and more conducive after the movies
were played. The situation is illustrated in the following vignette. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I greeted the students as usual and then prepared the LCD and laptop. I started by playing a short movie. The students were excited and as the movie ended, they
paid attention to what I said. The movie was a motivational and educational movie about a problematic boy who was somewhat depressed in his teenage year yet got
a little attention from their parents. The character was involved in a juvenile act, got arrested by the police, and sent to prison. When he was locked in jail,
however, he did not lose hope. He learned public speaking diligently and when he grew up he became a famous public figure.
As the movie ended, I asked the moral of the story. The students seemed to be able to relate to the story and were calmer throughout the rest of the lesson, even
the usually noisy students.
See appendix, interview
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c. Evaluating the Teaching and Learning Process in Cycle II
Upon the completion of the implementation of actions on cycle II, I together with the collaborators evaluated the teaching and learning process to see
how it was going and reflected on the actions. The quantitative data on the results of the students‟ writing performance
by the end of cycle I showed that the students had some improvements, compared to the results on the pre-test. Their writings improved on the five aspects being
assessed, i.e. content, organization, vocabulary, language and mechanics. The following
is the comparison between the results of students‟ writing performance in pre
–test, cycle I and cycle II.
90 NO.
Aspects Mean
Pretest Cycle I
Cycle II 1.
Content 2,75
3,64 3,75
2. Organization
2,01 2,36
2,8 3.
Vocabulary 1,61
2,64 2,67
4. Language use
1,16 2,42
2,42 5.
Mechanics 1,25
1,78 1,92
Table 7. Comparison of Students’ Writing Performance before the
Actions, by the End of Cycle I, and by the End of Cycle II
Progress on students‟ writing performance is presented in the chart below.
Figure 9. Comparison of Students’ Writing Performance before the Action, by the End of Cycle I, and by the End of Cycle II
The table and chart indicated that the students‟ writing skill had improved. Although the improvement on the aspects of mechanics, vocabulary, and language
use were not so significant compared to the improvements on the content and organization of the text. However, the process of the implementation of actions
needed to be evaluated as well as to see which actions were effective on the
0,5 1
1,5 2
2,5 3
3,5 4
Content Organization Vocabulary
Language use
Mechanics Pre-test
Cycle I Cycle II
91 improvement and which ones were not. Analysis on the effectiveness of actions
was performed by reflecting on the teaching and learning process. The collaborator and I analyzed the data from the observations of actions
which were documented in the vignettes, field notes, and the interview transcripts to evaluate the actions. The evaluation covered several aspects including the
material design, use of media, the techniques and strategies, the classroom management and classroom interaction.
The material was designed in a sequence from easy to difficult, from simple to complex. As the teaching in cycle II focused on the descriptive text,
similar to cycle I, some language features used in the descriptive text —despite
already being given in cycle I —were repeated and reviewed in cycle II. It aimed
to strengthen students‟ mastery on the area. The materials were designed in a sequence that was suitable for slow learners to be able to learn gradually, bit by
bit. However, since the materials were designed in small chunks, it resulted in
the larger capacity of tasks. Repetitive and high frequency tasks sparked problems i.e. the students got bored, tired and lost interest in learning. Such problems, yet,
could be overcome by changing the learning pace by proposing games when the students began to show disinterest. The games were meant to be an icebreaking
activity as well as a bridge that connects to the next activity, although the main purpose of the game was to avoid boredom and alternated students‟ disruptive
