improve the situation, or not. The researcher decided to do 2 cycles of the research and then shared the result as part of her professional development.
B. Subject of the Research
The subjects of this research were the students of grade VIIID of SMPN 1 Rembang in the academic year of 20132014.
C. Research Setting
1. Place of the Research
The research was conducted in SMPN 1 Rembang. It is located in Losari, Rembang, Purbalingga. It is 2 km from Jendral Soedirman Monument
and 27 km from the main district, Purbalingga. 2.
Schedule of the Research The research study was conducted in the second semester of the
academic year of 20132014. The observation was done on January 27
th
, 2014.
D. Instruments of the Research
The instruments consist of several documents. According to Burns 1999:17, documents in action research are relevant to the research questions
which can include students ’ written works, student record and profiles, course
overviews, lesson plans, and classroom materials. The documents used in this research are students
’ written works, and questionnaires student record and profiles.
In order to gain the valid data on the students writing performance, some instruments were used. They were the rubrics for the students written
performance, field notes, questionnaires, and interview. To collect all the data, a camera was utilized to record the teaching and learning process in the
classroom. The rubric of the students writing performance was used to assess the
students writing skills. It was used twice. The first performance assessed was when the students had not received the treatment or pre-treatment, while the
second performance assessed was when the students had received the treatment or post-treatment.
By having field notes, the researcher were able to record everything happened in the class during the action. The collaborator also noted the field
situation that could not be seen by the researcher in the teaching and learning process. From the field notes, the researcher and the collaborator would be
able to find the weaknesses of the action and the obstacles faced during the teaching and learning process.
The questionnaires were only distributed to the students. The questionnaires were distributed twice. The first one was before the planning
of the action to find out the students’ learning style preference. The second
one was after the actions were already implemented. The purpose of distributing the questionnaires after the implementation of the actions was to
explore the students ’ satisfaction after cue cards were used to teach writing in
their class. In this case, the researcher used close questions where the students only needed to choose one of the options available.
E. Data Collection Techniques
The data in this research study were obtained from the instruments. All the data needed in this research were the writing scores, opinions, obstacles,
and the expectation of the action implemented from the research members. They were both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data used
were the students writing scores, both before and after the action was implemented, and the questionnaires score using Likert scale. It described the
students writing skills improvement. To assess the students work, the researcher worked collaboratively with the English teacher. The type of
questionnaire distributed to the students were closed questionnaires where the students only have to pick one among the options and they were not asked to
give answers other than the options given. The qualitative data were obtained through interview transcripts and field notes during the observation in the
classroom. It was direct observation. According to Schunk 2009:6, direct observation is the instance of students
’ behaviour that is observed to determine whether learning has occurred. The field notes were discussed with
the collaborator first before the researcher comes to a conclusion. From the analysis of the data, the researcher and the collaborator
decided whether the result was successful or not. Finally, from the findings and interpretations, the conclusions and suggestions of the research were
made.
F. Data Analysis Technique
Firstly, the researcher looked up at the findings as genuine data such as
