Approaches in Teaching Writing

Table 1: Core Competence and Basic Competence of Writing Skills of SMPMTS Grade VIII Semester 2 The next point which needs to be highlighted in teaching writing junior high school students is the students’ age range. The age range of the students of Junior High Schools is between twelve and eighteen that is also called as puberty Brown: 2001:91. Students are in that age range categorized into a teenager. They are in the phase of the age of transition, confusion, self-consciousness, growing, and changing bodies and minds. As a result, the characteristics of teenagers stated previously will become teachers’ concerns in teaching their students. According to Brown 2001:92, one of the most important concerns of the secondary school teacher is to keep self- esteem high by 1 avoiding embarrassment of students at all costs 2 affirming each person’s talents and strengths 3 allowing mistakes and other errors to be accepted 4 de-emphasizing competition between classmates, and 5 encouraging small-group work where risks can be taken more easily by a teen. Another important thing that must be considered by teachers in teaching writing in the junior high school level is the success of teaching writing itself. The Kompetensi Inti Kompetensi Dasar 4. Mengolah, menyaji, dan menalar dalam ranah konkret menggunakan, mengurai, merangkai, memodifikasi, dan membuat dan ranah abstrak menulis, membaca, menghitung, menggambar, dan mengarang sesuai dengan yang dipelajari di sekolah dan sumber lain yang sama dalam sudut pandangteori 4.18. Menangkap makna teks naratif lisan dan tulis, berbentuk fable pendek dan sederhana penggunaannya. teaching and learning writing for the eight grade students of junior high school must be designed based on the students’ learning styles, their needs, and their characteristics in order to help them to improve their writing skills. Brown 2000:346 mentions principles for designing writing techniques, they are: a. Incorporate practices of “good” writers, b. Balance the process and product, c. Account for culturalliteracy background, d. Connect reading and writing, e. Provide as much authentic writing as possible, f. Frame the techniques in terms of prewriting, drafting, and revising, g. trying to provide interactive techniques in writing responding to and correcting the result of students’ writing h. giving students with instruction on the theoretical, formal conventions of writing. In addition, teaching methodology is a matter that cannot be separated from the teaching and learning process as well. In Curriculum 2013, the teaching learning process uses scientific approach. As stated in Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan no 58 tahun 2014 , the teaching and learning process follows the Scientific Approach. The scientific approach has 5 steps. They are observing, questioning, collecting information, associating, and communicating. They are explained as follows. a. Observing The main activity in this stage is doing observation. It employs the senses. They do observation by seeing, reading, or listening. At this stage, the teacher facilitates them to train them to see, read or listen to texts that are important from the input given.