well as improving students’ language skills, content learning, and cognitive abilities.
d. Procedure in Project-based Learning
There are five steps in conducting project-based learning in the classroom. They are:
1. Lead-in activities
The teacher should create the activity that can be used to introduce the topic. The activity conducted should help the teacher demonstrate what the students
are supposed to do. Bridging activities should prepare students for cooperative working, open-ended tasks, communicative language production
or they can be used for practicing specific language skills. Haines in Fragoulis, 2009.
2. Planning
In this stage, the teacher and the students discuss and consider the ideas, topics and theme of the project. It is highly important that students are
allowed to make choices and decisions from the very beginning because any decisions that the children make will help foster a feeling of ownership of and
responsibility for the project and increase their motivation Phillips, 1999. Besides, the teacher and the students also discuss about the due time to end
the product.
3. Carrying out the project
When all the preparations are done, the students can start to develop the project. Teacher’s roles during the development of the project are to monitor
and check the progress of the project.
4. Creating the final product
In this stage, the students use their knowledge and abilities to produce something real. When the students can produce a final product, they can gain
a sense of achievement that is important for their motivation Rousova, 2008.
5. Evaluation
Evaluation refers to the assessment of the activities from participants and discussion about whether the initial aims and goals have been achieved,
implementation of the process, and final products Brinia in Fragoulis, 2009. In the evaluation phase, the teacher and the students reflect on the project
they have done.
e. The Roles of the Teacher in Project-based Learning
Project-based Learning Handbook 2006 defines teacher’s role as the heart of successful project-based learning PBL is teacher’s ability to support and
direct students. This requires instructional, organizational, interpersonal and communication skills, as well as the ability to define the agenda for the class and
push a project through to a successful conclusion. It also includes being sensitive to the fact that students finish work at different rates, with different abilities,
aptitudes, and learning styles. PBL requires the teacher to adopt a new, enthusiastic attitude, to acquire a wide range of skills and to leave traditional
supreme position. During the project, the teacher should take on the role of facilitator, which involves becoming a source of ideas and advice, a referee
helping to resolve arguments or disagreements, chairperson during groups’ reports to the whole class.
B. Related Studies
There are some studies related to the use of project-based learning to improve students’ writing skills. The first is a study conducted by Kornwipa
Ponpoon 2011. The researcher studied the use of project-based learning to enhance the students’ English skills at a Thai university. The result showed that
through project-based learning, students’ English skills were improved. The second is the study conducted by Tezi 2006. The result of his study
showed that the children’ writing ability of his experimental group students was significantly higher than that of another group which was taught using traditional
teaching.
C. Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework of this research was made based on the theoretical review and theories of the relevant research. As mentioned before,
writing is one of the skills that students have to master in order to develop their communicative competence. This is affected by some factors; the classroom
which lacked of interesting activities and the students which have low writing ability. These problems were also found at SMPN 11 Magelang. The students of
SMPN 11 Magelang got difficulty in producing the text. Most of them found difficulties in choosing appropriate words and connectives to be used. Writing is a
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