Selection of the Problems Based On the Level of Feasibility

46 There were many types of cooperative learning. In this case, the researcher specifically used Student Team Achievement Division STAD. This was the best choice among some other cooperative learning structures as STAD would be very effective for learners with different levels of ability. The above statement also became the reason why the pre-test results held an important part in this study for they were the base of how the researcher divided the students into groups. By using STAD, it was easier for the researcher to divide the students equally so that each group could accommodate learners who had different levels of writing skills. The students did a lot of writing activities whether they were in the form of simple tasks such as getting information from a sample of descriptive text, arranging jumbled words, filling in the blanks, or in the form of more difficult tasks like describing a picture in several simple sentences or a full paragraph. Furthermore, to increase students’ English language skills, the researcher also gave them integrated materials containing things such as vocabulary, grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. The researcher also needed to consult the plans to the teacher to get suggestions. Table 3. Necessary Actions to Overcome the Selected Problems No. Selected Problems Actions 1. The students had difficulties in generating ideas during writing process. STAD was used to stimulate students’ responses as their peers helped them in the process and prompt them to be more active in thinking as well as doing things writing. 2. The s tudents’ vocabulary mastery was low. The students were required to bring and use proper dictionaries. They were also given related vocabulary in several 47 tasks to make it easier for them in generating ideas a proper vocabulary could give them clues in thinking of ideas and constructing English sentences a wider range of vocabulary could help them express their ideas. 3. Many of the students found constructing English sentences hard to do. In every meeting, the researcher tried to provide some grammar lessons. She also did not forget to give students the copy of those integrated materials especially anything grammar-related so that they could re learn “the theory” at home and focus more on practicing writing while at school. 4. The students frequently made writing errors. When it came to writing, things like spelling, capitalization, punctuation marks, and all the details in writing often went unnoticed especially if the subject of that activity was still a child. This was why an emphasis on the mechanics of writing was really needed. The researcher used some specific strategies to overcome this problem. First, the researcher had to give the students material related to spelling, punctuation, and capitalization. After that, the researcher sometimes asked the students to give peer feedback and finish several tasks that were related to those subject matters. These were only the early stage of actions as these could be developed more if the improvement of the student s’ writing skills was still not as expected. The further development of these actions in cycle two would certainly touch the same issues but if the time made it possible, it could also graze some of the other problems as well. 48

B. The Implementation of Actions

1. Report of Cycle 1

The first cycle of this research was divided into three meetings as the researcher still needed to give the students some integrated materials as well as some practice. Cycle one was conducted starting from January 31 st , February 06 th , to February 07 th , 2015.

a. Planning

1 Implementing Cooperative Learning As the researcher considered difficulties in generating ideas to be the main problem, she would focus greatly on solving it which, in this case, was by using cooperative learning method. There were some structures which usually be used to facilitate cooperative learning but the researcher had decided that she would use Student Team Achievement Division STAD instead as it hopefully would give such an equal improvement among this group of students who had different levels of writing skills. Applying STAD would be quite easy as long as the researcher already acquired the pre-test scores for those would be used to understand the students’ basic writing skills. After getting the data, the researcher needed to pay attention to how the groups would be formed as she could not do it randomly. It was also really important that she made sure each group got 1-2 students with above-average writing skills in it as this was the essential key to an effective Student Team Achievement Division STAD that would lead to a greater result in solving the research problems.