Designing reading blog for the tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta.

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DESIGNING READING BLOG FOR THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMA BOPKRI 2 YOGYAKARTA

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By Oliviana

Student Number: 061214152

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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DESIGNING READING BLOG FOR THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMA BOPKRI 2 YOGYAKARTA

A THESIS

Presented as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

By Oliviana

Student Number: 061214152

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY

I honestly declared that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the

work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations

and the references, as a scientific paper should.

Yogyakarta, March 8th, 2011 The writer

Oliviana 061214152

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ABSTRACT

Oliviana. 2011. Designing Reading Blog for the Tenth Grade Students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

As the technology developed rapidly, the lifestyle people live in is also changing. Internet has become a powerful media for people to fulfil their need of information, socialisation, entertainment, and even education. One medium to teach through internet is by using blog. Seeing this situation, the writer intended to design a reading blog for the tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. Therefore, this study aimed at answering these questions: 1) How is the reading blog for tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta designed? 2) What does the reading blog for the tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta look like?

To answer the first question, this study employed the R&D cycle proposed by Borg and Gall. The cycle included five steps. The first step is research and information gathering. The result of this step showed that the tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta were lack of interest in English reading activity and using internet as a learning medium was suitable for them. The second step is planning. In this step the writer selected the learning objectives, the contents, and the learning experiences which would be developed in the study. The third step is preliminary form of product development. The reading blog was designed in this step based on the information gathered and the planning from the previous step. The fourth step is preliminary field testing. The result showed that most elements of the materials were well developed except for the layout, teacher’s manual, time allotment, the material’s distinction with classroom materials. The fifth step is main product revision. In this step, the reading blog design was revised based on the result of preliminary field testing.

To answer the second research question, the writer presented the reading blog for tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. The whole materials consist of eight units for one semester. The writer developed four of them. They are “The Beauty of Indonesia,” “How to Do It?” “My Travelling Experience,” and “Tell Me a Story.” All reading materials were uploaded to the blog in Wordpress.

In conclusion, in this study, the reading blog was designed by employing R&D cycle. The reading blog consisted of four out of eight units for one semester and was uploaded in http://dontstopreading.wordpress.com. As a suggestion, the results of students’ exercise from the blog should be added into the English lesson final score to motivate the students.

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ABSTRAK

Oliviana. 2011. Designing Reading Blog for the Tenth Grade Students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta.Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Seiring pesatnya perkembangan teknologi, telah menjadi sebuah media yang berperan penting dalam pemenuhan kebutuhan akan informasi, kegiatan sosialisasi, hiburan, dan bahkan pendidikan. Salah satu media untuk mengajar melalui internet adalah dengan menggunakan blog. Melihat situasi ini, penulis bermaksud merancang sebuah reading blog untuk siswa kelas X (sepuluh) SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. Dengan demikian, penelitian ini bertujuan menjawab dua pertanyaan: 1) Bagaimana reading blog untuk siswa kelas X SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta dirancang? 2) Bagaimana bentuk reading blog untuk siswa kelas X SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta?

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, penelitian ini menggunakan siklus

R&D oleh Borg dan Gall. Siklus ini terdiri dari lima langkah. Langkah pertama adalah penelitian dan pengumpulan informasi. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan siswa kelas X SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta kurang tertarik dengan kegiatan membaca dalam Bahasa Inggris dan menggunakan internet sebagai media pembelajaran sesuai bagi mereka. Langkah kedua adalah perencanaan. Dalam langkah ini, penulis menentukan tujuan pembelajaran, konten, dan pengalaman pembelajaran yang akan dikembangkan dalam penelitian ini. Langkah ketiga adalah pengembangan bentuk awal produk. Pengembangan reading blog dilaksanakan berdasarkan perencanaan yang dilakukan pada langkah sebelumnya. Langkah keempat adalah pengujian awal di lapangan. Hasil pengujian awal ini menunjukkan sebagian besar elemen dalam rancangan telah dikembangkan dengan baik kecuali tampilan, manual untuk guru, alokasi waktu, dan perbedaan rancangan materi ini dengan materi yang digunakan dalam kelas. Langkah kelima adalah perbaikan utama produk. Dalam langkah ini, penulis merevisi rancangan

reading blog berdasarkan hasil pengujian awal.

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan kedua, penulis mempresentasikan reading blog untuk siswa kelas X SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. Keseluruhan materi terdiri dari delapan unit untuk satu semester. Penulis mengembangkan empat unit diantaranya. Unit-unit yang dikembangkan meliputi “The Beauty of Indonesia,” “How to Do It?” “My Travelling Experience,” dan “Tell Me a Story.” Seluruh materi ini diunggah ke blog di Wordpress.

Kesimpulannya, dalam penelitian ini, reading blog dirancang berdasarkan siklus R&D. Reading blog tersebut memuat empat dari delapan unit pembelajaran yang dirancang untuk satu semester dan diunggah ke http://dontstopreading.wordpress.com. Saran penulis adalah sebaiknya guru menambahkan nilai hasil latihan dari blog ke nilai akhir pelajaran Bahasa Inggris untuk memotivasi siswa.

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN

PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma:

Nama : Oliviana

Nomor Mahasiswa : 061214152

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:

DESIGNING READING BLOG FOR THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMA BOPKRI 2 YOGYAKARTA

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini yang saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta

Pada tanggal 8 Maret 2011

Yang menyatakan

Oliviana

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all I would like to thank Jesus Christ, my savior, for He has given me abundant blessings and guidance that I could finish this thesis. Without His

love and protection, I would not be able to go through it all.

My sincere gratitude goes to my sponsor, Christina Kristiyani, S.Pd., M.Pd., for her correction, guidance, and suggestions during my thesis accomplishment. I also would thank L. Suharjanto S.J. and C. Tutyandari, S.Pd., M.Pd., for being very kind evaluators. I also send my gratitude to all lecturers and secretariat staff of English Education Study Program for encouraging me to finish this thesis.

I would like to thank the English teacher of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta,

Samuel Sunu Nugraha, S.Pd., S.H., M.Hum., for his willingness to help me doing the research in SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. My gratitude also goes to the staff and students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta for helping me doing my research there.

My deepest gratitude goes to my parents, Fransiskus Yap and Mania Wati. I thank them for their care, support, guidance, and for keeping me sane during this painful process. The gratitude also goes to my siblings, Ipang, Icu, Andri, Agnes, my niece and nephews, Jejen, Jojo, Axel, Shavo, Nidji, and

Nesta. I sincerely thank them for cheering my days.

My special thanks are addressed to my best friends who are always by my

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Macan. I am truly grateful for the laughs, tears, and affections we shore these years. I also thank the Commediend family, Synergy and SLP group members especially Widuri, Guntur, Zita, Ade, and Ceye for motivating me. For the lovely fighters, Tita, Indy, Kajol, and Yoanna, I thank them all for the patience and determination they have taught me. I also would like to send a warm thank to

Nonok for her helping advices and to Zhou Jielun for cheering me up with his brilliant compositions.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who has helped me during my

study in Sanata Dharma University. May God bless us always.

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TITLE PAGE ……… i

APPROVAL PAGES ………... ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ………... iv

DEDICATION PAGE ..………..………... v

ABSTRACT …………...……….………..……….... vi

ABSTRAK

………...…….……… vii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK

KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

………... viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……… ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS ………... xi

LIST OF FIGURES ………. xv

LIST OF TABLES ………... xvi

LIST OF APPENDICES ………... xvii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

A. Research Background ……….……… 1

B. Problem Formulation ……….……….………. 4

C. Problem Limitation ……….……… 4

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xii

E. Research Benefits ……….. 5

F. Definition of Terms ……… 6

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Description ………...….………... 8

1. Instructional Design Model ………. 8

a. Kemp’s Instructional Model ……… 8

b. Taba’s Instructional Model ………. 12

2. Theory of Reading ………... 15

a. Purposes of Reading ………... 16

b.

Teaching

Reading ………... 16

1) Basic Principles in Teaching Reading ……….. 17

2) Characteristics of an Effective Reading Program in the Content

Area ………... 17

3) Comprehension Strategies ……… 18

4) Vocabulary in Reading ………. 19

3. School Based Curriculum ………. 19

4. Blogs ………... 21

a. Features of Blogs ……… 22

b. Blog Use in Education ……… 23

5. Materials Adaptation ……… 25

B. Theoretical Framework ………... 26

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

A. Research Method ……….... 30

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xiii

2. Planning ……….. 32

3. Develop

Preliminary

Form of Product ………... 32

4. Preliminary Field Testing ………... 32

5. Main Product Revision ………... 33

B. Research Respondents ……… 33

1. Research and Information Collecting ………. 33

2. Preliminary Field Testing ………... 34

C. Research Instruments ……….. 34

1. Research and Information Collecting ………. 35

2. Preliminary Field Testing ………... 36

D. Data Gathering Techniques ……… 36

E. Data Analysis Techniques ………... 37

1. Research and Information Collecting ………. 37

2. Preliminary Field Testing ………... 37

F. Research Procedure ………. 39

1. Research and Information Collecting ………. 39

2. Planning ……….. 39

3. Develop

Preliminary

Form of Product ………... 40

4. Preliminary Field Testing ………... 40

5. Main Product Revision ………... 40

CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

A. The Reading Blog Development ………... 41

1. Research and Information Collecting ………...… 41

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3. Develop Preliminary Form of Product ………. 52

4. Preliminary Field Testing ………..………... 53

5. Main Product Revision ………. 56

B. The Designed Reading Blog .………... 57

1. The Reading Materials ……….. 58

2. The Blog’s Description ………. 59

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

A. Conclusions ……….. 61

B. Suggestions ……….. 63

REFERENCES ………. 65

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 The Basic Features of a Blog ……… 22

Figure 4.1 Features of the Designed Blog ……… 60

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Degree of Agreement ……….. 38

Table 3.2 The Percentage of Respondents’ Opinion (Blank) ………….………….. 38

Table 4.1 Topics, Competency Standard, and Basic Competence ………...… 47

Table 4.2 Topics and Time Allocation ……….… 48

Table 4.3 Topics, Theme, and Subject Contents ………..…… 49

Table 4.4 Topics and Indicators ………...…. 50

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LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendices ………...………. 68

Appendix A ………... 69

Letter of Permission from

Dinas Pendidikan

………... 70

Letter of Official Statement from

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

………….... 71

Appendix B ………... 72

Questionnaire of Research and Information Collecting ………... 73

Questionnaire of Preliminary Field Testing ………. 79

Appendix C ……….…. 81

The Result of Research and Information Collecting ……… 82

The Result of Preliminary Field Testing ………...…... 89

Appendix D ………... 92

Syllabus ………. 93

Lesson Plans ……….... 114

Appendix E ………... 126

The Printed Reading Blog ………... 127

Appendix F ………. 165

Worksheets ………... 165

Appendix G ……….… 197

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter reveals the reasons why this research was conducted, the

problems to answer through the research, the objectives of this research, the

problem limitations in this research, the benefits of the research, and the definition

of terms which are used in this research.

A. Research Background

As the technology developed rapidly, Internet has become a powerful

medium for people to fulfil their need of information, socialisation, entertainment,

and even education. In the book “Information and Communication Technology in

Education”, UNESCO stated that Information and Communication Technology is

a part of the core of education, alongside reading, writing, and numeracy

(UNESCO, 2002: 1). Educational institutions and teachers all over the world have

started using internet as teaching learning media. As quoted by Anderson, Leu

(2002: 13) stated that “the Internet has entered our classrooms faster than books,

television, computers, the telephone, and any other technology for information

and communication” (Anderson, 2003: 2). The evidence is shown by the

appearance of numerous websites containing learning activities. Other than

websites, some of educational institutions and teachers also use weblog, which is

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Blog is “a web-based space for writing where all the writing and editing of

information is managed through a web browser and is immediately and publicly

available on the internet” (Godwin, 2003). Even though the use of blogs in

education, particularly in language learning, is still novel and there have not been

many formal studies done on this topic (Zhang, 2009), the studies showed positive

results. A study conducted by Oravec (2003) showed that the production of

weblogs motivates students to read, write, and research in class as well as

out-of-class. Some other studies also mentioned the effectiveness of using blogs in

language teaching contexts, for example in English as Second Language writing,

freshman college composition class, and high-intermediate Japanese language

class in the United States (Iida, 2009).

According to Teeler and Gray (2000: 81), a web-based material brings

many advantages to the learners. It may “not replace the classroom or the teacher

– or in fact, any of other classroom tools that are currently in use – but as a source

of material, an instrument for real communication, a supply of internationalism

and even a tool for edutainment.” The internet also provides the learners

up-to-date and authentic English materials. This enables the learners to discover

language for themselves in a more immediate way than by reading textbook.

Web-based material also brings advantages to material developers and to

the teachers. As proposed by Tomlinson and Masuhara (2004: 44), material

developers can obtain ideas for activities from the many websites which publish

learning materials, download authentic texts from the web to base their materials

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use of photos, illustrations and graphics from the web. Similarly, the teachers can

also download materials to use with their classes, download texts from the web to

replace in their course book to base their own materials on or for the learners to

use for extensive reading, supplement their lessons by referring the students to

relevant websites for follow up work, and put supplementary materials on the web

for their students to do after their course has finished.

In this study, the writer designed a reading blog for the tenth grade

students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta is an

example of a school which is suitable to use blog for the learning activities. Firstly,

the school provides internet connection for free which the teachers and students

can use to support learning activities. This way, the students are able to access the

blog for free at school. Secondly, the teachers support the use of internet in

learning activities because the students are more motivated when they have to use

internet. Based on this condition, the writer chose SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta.

Reading skill was chosen to be developed in this study because of the

students’ lack of interest in English reading activity. Even though the teachers

stated that the students showed interests in the English activity at school, most of

the students said they were not really interested in it. The students tended not to

read English text except in English lesson at school. In fact, reading skill is

important for senior high school students. According to Grabe and Stoller (2001:

187), reading is assumed to be the central means to learn new information and

also to gain access to alternate explanations and interpretations. Moreover, the

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the primary means for independent learning, which will be useful when the

students are studying in the university.

Therefore, providing a reading blog for the students of SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta was an effective way to raise the students’ interest in English reading

activity. Since the main function of the reading blog was as a learning medium

outside the school time, the reading blog was designed as a supplementary

material. Thus, the students would have a medium to practice their English

reading skill outside the lesson at school.

B. Problem Formulation

In order to address the background above, this study would answer the

following questions.

1. How is the reading blog for tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta designed?

2. What does the reading blog for tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta look like?

C. Problem Limitation

This study was limited to the development of the reading blog for the

grade ten students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. Therefore, the materials

included in the blog are covering only reading skill. The reading blog is a source

of supplementary materials to vary the learning activities and to improve the

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(Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan, commonly abbreviated into KTSP) as the

basis for the materials development.

D. Research Objectives

The objectives of this research are as follows.

1. To design a reading blog for the tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta

2. To present a reading blog for the tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta

E. Research Benefits

The result of this research is expected to be beneficial for:

1. The students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

Even though it was targeted to the tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta, the blog is applicable for students in higher grades. For the tenth

grade students, the blog is a source of supplementary material to improve their

reading skill. Similarly, for the higher grade students, besides providing

supplementary materials, the blog functions as a source of materials to review

what they have learnt in the previous years. Moreover, the various activities

provided in the blog will avoid boredom in learning.

2. The English teachers of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

This blog helps the teachers of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta to enrich their

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assignments, and anything the teachers have posted in if the teachers use the blog

themselves to teach English.

3. Other researchers

The result of this research might help other researchers who are interested

in a similar topic or in the same field of research.

F. Definition of Terms

1. Blog or Weblog

Originally, the word ‘blog’ derived from ‘weblog.’ However, through its

development, the name has been abbreviated into ‘blog.’ According to Barger

(1999), “a weblog is a webpage where a weblogger (sometimes called a blogger,

or a pre-surfer) 'logs' all the other webpages she finds interesting.” Thus, in a blog,

people can post anything. While according to Godwin (2003), “A weblog is a

web-based space for writing where all the writing and editing of information is

managed through a web browser and is immediately and publicly available on the

Internet.”

In this study, the word ‘reading blog’ refers to a web log or blog

containing reading materials in which the students are to learn about reading in

English.

2. Reading

Wallace (1992: 4) defined reading in three stages. At the first stage,

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to decode the text; that is to read aloud. The last stage, reading is the ability to

understand what is read.

In accordance to Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) or School

Based Curriculum, the meaning of reading ability is to comprehend meanings in

short functional essays and simple essays in forms of recount, narrative, and

procedure texts in daily life context.

3. Tenth Grade Students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

Tenth grade students are students of high school with age range around 15

years old. They are categorized as adult learners. In his book, Dean (2004)

mentioned some criteria to define the word ‘adult.’ To say that someone is an

adult, the things should be considered are physical development and maturity,

legal-age definition, and the social roles which expected to be played by adults.

This study involved tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta as

participants, since the reading blog is designed for them. The participants were

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CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter reveals the literature related to the study, which is divided

into two parts. The first part is theoretical description and the second is theoretical

framework.

A. Theoretical Description

This part discusses more deeply about the key points used in the study

which include the Instructional Design Model, Theory of Reading, School Based

Curriculum, Blogs, and Materials Adaptation.

1. Instructional Design Model

In designing the reading blog, the writer adapted two instructional models

by Kemp and Taba. The instructional design models are important since they give

the systematic steps or framework to design the reading blog.

a. Kemp’s Instructional Design Model

Kemp (1977: 7) stated that instructional design is “the process of

systematic planning that establishes a way to examine instructional problems and

needs, sets a procedure for solving them, and then evaluates the results.” This

study adopted Kemp’s instructional design model. Kemp (1977: 8) proposes eight

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1) Considering goals and listing topics

This stage includes identifying goals, selecting topics, and listing general

purposes. Goal has the broadest scope, it is what the learners are expected to

achieve at the very end of the learning process. Meanwhile, the scope of topic

is in the course program, it is the basis for the instruction. Topics are sequenced

according to a logical organization, knowledge and skills learners have

acquired previously, and according to subject preferences or teaching

experiences of the teachers.

2) Enumerating the important characteristics of the learners for whom the

instruction is to be designed

There are some factors needed to take into account: learners’ academic and

social factors, learning conditions, and learning styles. Learning conditions are

groups of factors that can affect the learners in learning process, including

physical, emotional, sociological environments, and the learners’ physiological

makeup. Learning styles are how each person learns effectively using their own

method.

3) Specifying learning objectives to be achieved in terms of measurable student

behavioural outcomes

Students’ behavioural outcomes can be measured from their cognitive,

psychomotor, and affective domain. Cognitive domain includes objectives

concerning knowledge, or information, and thinking. Psychomotor domain

includes the skills of physical activities. Affective domain involves objectives

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are closely related in the way that one objective can involve learning in two or

more domains, and attitudinal development may precede successful learning

the other domains.

4) Listing the subject content that supports each objective

This stage comprises the selection and organizing of the specific knowledge,

skills, and attitudinal factors of any topic. Although subject contents can be

organized in various ways (from simple to complex, concrete to abstract,

specific to general –or vice versa, etc.), it is possible to choose and order them

according to the general purpose of the instruction.

5) Developing pre-assessments to determine the student’s background through a

prerequisite test and to present level of knowledge about the topic through a

pre-test

The results of pre-requisite test can be viewed as an indicator showing the

students’ readiness in learning a topic concerning their previous knowledge.

Meanwhile, the result of pre-test shows the students’ familiarity to the present

topic. The pre-assessments may be necessary to eliminate, modify, or add

objectives to the program after the results are analyzed.

6) Selecting teaching-learning activities and instructional resources that will treat

the subject content so students will accomplish the objectives

There are three basic patterns of teaching and learning methods: presentation to

a group, individualized learning, and teacher-student interaction. Skinner

introduced principles of learning which should be applied to those three

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a) Pre-learning preparation: students should have satisfactorily achieved the

learning that is prerequisite to the lesson.

b) Motivation: various learning experiences encouraged the students.

c) Individual differences: learning experiences should enable the students to

learn at their own paces and on their own levels of ability.

d) Instructional conditions: clearly-stated and carefully-sequenced objectives

lead to successful learning.

e) Active participation: students should be directed systematically to

participation activities.

f) Successful achievement: learning must be structured in such a way that the

student is mentally challenged and frequently successful.

g) Knowledge of result: motivation for learning can be increased when

students are informed of how well they are doing during the course of a

lesson.

h) Practice: teaching-learning activities should provide opportunities for the

students to use their newly acquired knowledge and skills in many

situations.

i) Rate of presenting material: the rate and amount of material to be learned

at any one time or in any one lesson must be related to the complexity and

difficulty of the material in terms of the abilities of the students.

j) Instructor’s attitude: the instructor’s attitude influences the students’

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Similar to the selection of teacher and student activities, the selection of

supporting materials can also motivate students and effectively explain and

illustrate subject content. The media should be presented appropriately and be

able to communicate content or provide student experiences, in terms of an

objective within a chosen teaching-learning pattern.

7) Coordinating such support services as budget, personnel, facilities, equipment,

and schedules to carry out the instructional plan. These factors are important

because without their existence, the plan will be limited.

8) Evaluating students’ learning in terms of their accomplishment of objectives

with a view to revising and re-evaluating any phases of the plan that need

improvement

The evaluation can be conducted through written, performance, or media-based

tests. A formative evaluation is conducted to know whether or not the program

has successfully obtained the objectives. It takes place during development and

tryouts. On the other hand, a summative evaluation is concerned with

evaluating the degree of students’ final achievement of the objectives.

Feedback from both evaluations should be used for revising and improving any

parts of the instructional plan that need it.

b. Taba’s Instructional Design Model

Taba (1962: 345) proposed eight stages in planning a teaching-learning

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1) Diagnosing needs

The purpose of this stage is to analyze problems, conditions, and difficulties in

order to generate new emphasis and ideas about the curriculum. It is done by

mixing together the existing and the new information to create a new approach

or to fulfil the needs.

2) Formulating specific objectives

In this stage, the general objectives of the school are translated into more

specific objectives as what the results of need diagnosis indicated. It is

important to recognize that in planning specific objectives not all objectives are

equally achievable in every unit.

3) Selection of content

The content selection is conducted in accordance to the need analysis results

and the objectives formulated in the previous step. This stage is divided into

three parts. The first is selecting topic. The nature of the topics or units within a

course determines the scope of the study, how to organize the content, and also

the learning experiences. The second part is selecting basic ideas. The basic

ideas represent the knowledge that students should master. The last part is

selecting specific content. The specific content should be drawn from the

general idea and they should be related with the topic.

4) Organizing content

In this step, the topics, the basic ideas, and the specific contents are organized

based on a teaching thinking in which the ideas are generated inductively.

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apply the knowledge. The contents are organized to enable the students achieve

the objectives, not the content mastery. It is also necessary to organize content

based on what content need more attention based on the need diagnosis

because it affects the content development and learning experience.

5) Selecting learning experiences

Contents are not enough to achieve the objectives, the students need learning

experiences or activities to support the effort. It is important to create effective

learning activities which are able to serve multiple objectives. In doing so, it is

important to consider whether or not the activities are (1) appropriate for

learning the main ideas and for the maturity level, (2) effective and efficient,

and (3) promote active learning. The learning experiences should be various

and represent the process of thinking and learning.

6) Organizing Learning Experiences

An adequate learning experience is not merely an inductively ordered activities

but it is organized appropriately to attain concepts and attitudes as well:

introduction, development, generalization, and application. Introduction

includes activities which provide diagnostic evidence to the teacher, help the

students make a connection with their own experience, arise interest, provide

concrete descriptive data from which to get a preliminary sense of the problems

to be dealt with, and create involvement and motivation. Development is the

period of extending the learning experiences, organizing study, and acquiring

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in which students draw conclusions. Finally, learning experience is ended with

applying, assessing, and evaluating what have been learned.

7) Evaluating

Evaluation consists of determining the objectives, the diagnosis, or the

establishment of baselines for learning and appraising progress and changes.

8) Checking for balance and sequence

After the outline is completed in writing, it necessary to check the over-all

consistency among its parts to minimizes flaws in the plan itself. Evaluations

in other aspects are also important: an evaluation of time allocation, a check to

whether the organization is sufficiently open-ended to provide alternatives

both for content detail to be used and for ways of learning to allow for special

needs, and practical considerations to make sure the plan can be applied at any

school circumstances.

2. Theory of Reading

The theory of reading is divided into two parts. The first part reveals the

purposes of reading, which explains why reading is important in academic and

daily life. The second part reveals the theories about teaching reading or how

reading materials should be created or developed.

As edited by Celce-Murcia (2001: 187), Grabe and Stoller stated that “in

academic setting, reading is assumed to be the central means for learning new

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Not only reading bases the synthesis and critical thinking, it also promotes

independent learning.

a. Purposes for Reading

Wallace explained (1992: 6) three purposes of reading. The first is reading

for survival. ‘Survival reading’ is a kind of reading in order to fulfil immediate

needs, for example the sign ‘exit’ for a tourist. The second is reading for learning.

This kind of reading does not have to be related to school. The main point is that

reading extends the reader’s knowledge. The third is reading for pleasure.

Different from ‘survival reading’ which helps people to deal with their

environment, and ‘reading for learning’ which has clear objectives – to gain

knowledge, reading for pleasure is done merely to the readers’ liking.

Grabe and Stoller (2001: 187) stated that people read for various purposes

such as to get the main idea and to locate specific information. However,

commonly people read to learn information, to get general comprehension, and for

pleasure. Grabe and Stoller explained that English for Academic Purposes (EAP)

reading curriculum should fulfil the students’ various reading purposes including

(1) to search for information, (2) for general comprehension, (3) to learn new

information, and (4) to synthesize and evaluate information.

b. Teaching Reading

This part reviews the theory of teaching reading and how reading materials

should be created or developed. The theories included the basic principles in

teaching reading, the characteristics of an effective reading program in the content

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1) Basic Principles in Teaching Reading

Cushenbery (1985: 3) proposed nine principles of teaching reading. These

aspects are important for teachers since the principles affect their perspectives in

lesson planning, giving time allotment for teaching reading skills, and in

positioning reading in the curriculum. This study adopted four out of nine

principles.

a) In developing a meaningful program of content area reading instruction, the

teacher needs to keep in mind that students have various learning modalities

which are preferred for mastering various reading skills.

b) The reading curriculum should be broadly based and include such important

areas as word attack, comprehension, vocabulary, and study skills.

c) There is no one method of teaching reading which is totally sufficient to meet

the needs of all students.

d) Finally, one of the most basic principles of the reading curriculum is to be sure

that all curricular activities are directed toward the fact that all reading

activities should be geared to help insure that reading is a pleasurable and

enjoyable activity for the student.

2) Characteristics of an Effective Reading Program in the Content Area

According to Cushenbery (1985: 12), there are number of characteristics

of an effective reading program which might be utilized in the content areas.

Briefly, the characteristics suggest the teachers, the curriculum, and the students

be related one to another to create an effective reading program. This study

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a) Every teacher needs to understand that a program of developmental, corrective,

and remedial reading instruction must be a part of the total instructional plans.

b) To meet the reading needs of all students in the content area, a large number of

diverse and interesting reading materials must be utilized.

3) Comprehension Strategies

As quoted by Ambruster and Osborn (2002), the National Panel Report

defined comprehension strategies as “specific procedures that guide students to

become aware of how well they are comprehending as they attempt to read and

write” (Ambruster and Osborn, 2002: 69). The strategies are retelling, drawing

inferences, getting the main idea, summarizing, and visualizing. These strategies

are best used in classroom reading activities. Since the reading materials designed

in this study will be used not for classroom activities, the writer used two out of

five strategies.

a) Drawing inferences. Drawing inferences can be done in two ways. First,

readers deduce relationships among the ideas in a text. Second, they use their

prior or background knowledge to deduce what the text does not explicitly state.

Teachers can help students draw inferences by asking questions which require

inferences with a help of appropriate scaffolding, or they can ask questions

whose answers are stated in the text, or from the students’ prior knowledge, or

combination of them.

b) Getting the main idea. To get the main idea, knowledge about the structure of

text is important for helping readers distinguish important from less important

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expository texts because the important information is seen through text

structures. Text structure is effectively taught using visualizations such as maps.

4) Vocabulary in Reading

Vocabulary mastery or word recognition skill in reading is important.

According to Stanovich, “Skill at word recognition is so central to the reading

process that it can serve as a proxy diagnostic tool for instructional methods”

(Stanovich, 1950: 208). It is possible for learners to have adequate word

recognition skill and poor comprehension abilities but not the reverse. It had been

proved that inadequate word recognition skill led to learners’ difficulties in

developing reading comprehension abilities and the language use (Stanovich,

1950: 208, Nation, 1990: 2).

I.S.P. Nation proposed two approaches to vocabulary learning, direct and

indirect vocabulary learning. The direct vocabulary learning forces learners to

focus on the words while the indirect vocabulary learning focuses on other

features. The vocabulary exercises in the designed materials used direct

vocabulary teaching in order to enable learners to learn numbers of new words in

a relatively short time. Moreover, the direct vocabulary is best done individually

(Nation, 1990: 119). The direct vocabulary learning exercises include guessing

words from contexts and matching words and meanings.

3. School Based Curriculum

School Based Curriculum or Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP)

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2007/2008. The implementation of KTSP is based on Undang Undang No 20

Tahun 2003 about National Education System and Peraturan Pemerintah

Republik Indonesia No 19 Tahun 2005 about National Education Standard.

Peraturan Pemerintah Republik Indonesia No 19 Tahun 2005 mentions some

standards which are the minimum criteria of education system in the entire

Republic of Indonesia. The national education standards include the content

standard, process standard, graduates Competence standard, teachers standard,

facilities standard, and management standard.

To form the syllabus, each school in Indonesia has to refer to Peraturan

Menteri Pendidikan Nasional No 22 Tahun 2006 about Content Standard (Standar

Isi), Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional No 23 Tahun 2006 about

Competence Standard (Standar Kompetensi), and Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan

Nasional No 24 Tahun 2006 about the implementation.

According to KTSP, English literacy consists of several levels. They are

Performative, Functional, Informational, and Epistemic level. In Performative

level, people read, write, listen and speak using symbols. In Functional level,

people are able to use the language to fulfil the daily life needs, for example to

read newspaper. In Informational level, people are able to access knowledge using

the language mastery, while in Epistemic level, people are able to express

knowledge to the target language. In KTPS, senior high school students are

expected to gain the English competence in Informational level.

In details, by learning English, it is expected that the students are able to (1)

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Informational literacy, (2) be aware of the nature and the importance of English to

level up the nation’s competitive ability in the global world, and (3) to expand

students’ understanding about the connection between language and culture.

The Competence Standards of English reading skill for tenth grade senior

high school students in semester one are (1) to understand meanings of short

functional written text in daily life context and to access knowledge, and (2) to

understand meanings of short functional text and simple essays in forms of

recount, narrative, and procedure in daily life context and to access knowledge.

While the Basic Competences are as follows.

a. to respond meanings of formal and informal short functional texts, for example

announcement, advertisement, invitation, etc. accurately, fluently, and acceptably

in daily life context and to access knowledge

b. to respond meanings and rhetoric essays accurately, fluently, and acceptably in

daily life context and to access knowledge in forms of recount, narrative, and

procedure text

4. Blogs

The word ‘blog’ originally derived from the word ‘weblog’. According to

Barger (1999), a blog is “a webpage where a blogger ‘logs’ all the other webpages

she finds interesting.” Winer (2003) stated, “A weblog is a hierarchy of text,

images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in

an HTML browser” while Godwin (2003) stated that a weblog is “a web-based

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(41)

b. Blog Use in Education

Jones (2007) stated that in teaching practice, blogs play the role as learning

journals, learning logs or thinking journals, reflective journals, audio learning logs,

reflective writing journals, visual learning logs, group discussion and

collaborative writing spaces, knowledge management, dialogue for group work,

and electronic portfolios. Stanley (2005) revealed the reasons for using blogs in

education, such as to provide real audience for student writing, to provide extra

reading practice for students, to increase the sense of community in a class, to

encourage students to participate, and to create an online portfolio of student work.

Campbell (2003) proposed three types of blogs for use in ESL classrooms.

The first is the tutor blog. It is run by the teacher for the students. The purposes of

tutor blog are as follows.

1) To give daily reading practice to the learners. Teacher can post some links to

online reading sources which suit the students’ interests. This way, the teacher

avoids students’ boredom in reading.

2) To promote exploration of English websites

3) To encourage online verbal exchange by use of comment buttons. Using the

comment buttons at the bottom of each entry, teacher can create lively

interactions with the students by asking questions, giving riddles, challenge

their views to stimulate the students’ responses.

4) To provide class or syllabus information. Teacher can post announcements,

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discussion topics. Teacher can also follow up on difficult areas of classroom

work that might need review or clarification.

5) To serve as a resource of links for self-study. Teacher can add links to online

quizzes, English news cited, audio and video files for the students to practice

outside the classroom.

The second type is the learner blog. This type of blog can be for individual

or a group of students to work together. The concept of learner blog is that

learners will be able to explore new things by establishing a blog since it may

encourage the use of search engines and net surfing in English to find the

appropriate sites to which links can be made. It also forces the learners to read

more.

The third type, class blog, is the result of collaborative effort of an entire

class with some possible uses.

1) It could be used as a free-form bulletin board for learners to post messages,

images, and links related to classroom discussion topics.

2) It might be useful for facilitating project-based language learning.

3) It could be used as a virtual space for an international classroom language

exchange.

4) For reading and writing classes, it might involve the use of knowledge

management software that allows for a great of threaded discussion behind the

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5. Materials Adaptation

Materials adaptation is “changing existing materials so that they become

more suitable for specific learners, teachers or situations” (Tomlinson &

Masuhara, 2004: 11). There are reasons for adapting materials as stated by

Tomlinson and Masuhara. The reasons include the teaching environment, the

learners, self preferences, the course objectives, and the materials.

The techniques for materials adaptation are divided into three categories.

The first category is Plus Category. The modifications in Plus Category include

addition (add different text and/or activities) and expansion (increase the length,

difficulty, depth, etc.). The second is Minus Category, which includes deletion

(delete some text and/or activities altogether), subtraction (decrease the number of

sentences in a text or part of an activity), and reduction (decrease the length,

difficulty, depth, etc.).

The last category is Zero Category or modification without changing

quantity. This category includes modification (change the instructions),

replacement (swap one activity with another), reorganisation (change the positions

of texts and illustration), re-sequencing (change the sequence of the activities),

and conversion (change the genre of the text –from narrative to poem, or move the

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B. Theoretical Framework

This part explains how the theories reviewed in the Theoretical

Description are used to conduct this study. To design the reading blog, the writer

combined Kemp’s and Taba’s Instructional Design (ID) Model. The details are as

follows.

1. Diagnosis of Needs

In this step, two steps of Kemp’s ID model are merged with Taba’s first

step. According to Taba, the purpose of this stage is to analyze problems,

conditions, and difficulties in order to generate new emphasis and ideas about the

curriculum. To do so, it is necessary to have the information about the learners

including their characteristics (Kemp’s step 2) and their level of knowledge

(Kemp’s step 5).

Thus, to start the research, the writer conducts a survey to gather

information about the students’ needs and interests in learning English. However,

the writer adapts Kemp’s fifth step. The information about learners’ level of

knowledge is not attained by conducting pre-assessment but through a survey. The

survey was conducted in SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta by employing the tenth

grade students and the English teachers as respondents.

2. Specifying Learning Objectives

This step employs Kemp’s first step and Taba’s second step. The main

focus of this step is to decide the specific objectives and topics for each unit. The

learning objectives are specified in forms of Competency Standard and Basic

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relies on School Based Curriculum 2006 and the curriculum of SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta. The results of this step are the topics, Competency Standard, Basic

Competence, and the time allocation for each unit.

3. Selection of Content

This step is an interpretation of the third and fourth steps of both Kemp’s

and Taba’s ID model. The first thing to do in this step is specifying the indicators

as stated in Kemp’s third step. The next is selecting and organizing subject

contents (Kemp’s step 4 and Taba’s step 3 and 4).

Selection of content is conducted by considering two main resources. The

first is the result of Needs Diagnosis. The result is important in the way that it

describes the students’ needs and interests. The second is the Competence

Standard and Basic Competence. In addition, the writer take into consideration the

reading purposes stated in the theoretical description to select the content. The

consideration is that the content of the reading materials will be useful not only in

academic setting but also in the learners’ daily life. The outputs of this step are the

theme, subject content, and indicators of each unit.

4. Selection of Learning Experiences

This step merges Kemp’s sixth step with Taba’s fifth and sixth steps.

Similar to Kemp’s sixth step, Taba’s fifth step suggest the selection of

teaching-learning activities. The activities are selected to enable the learners to attain the

learning objectives. After selecting the learning experiences, as stated in Taba’s

sixth step, the learning experiences are organized appropriately to attain concepts

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Referring to Competency Standard, Basic Competence, indicators, topics,

theme, subject content, time allocation, and the analysis result of Needs Diagnosis,

the writer defines the learning experiences for the students. Students’ learning

experience is important since a well-designed learning activity will support the

learning materials and guide the students to achieve the learning objectives. In this

step, the writer relies on Cushenbery’s principles of teaching reading and the

characteristics of an effective reading program to design the learning experiences.

In order to form effective and meaningful learning experiences, the writer

refers to reading comprehension strategies stated by Ambruster and Osborn.

Therefore, comprehension exercises will be added to the learning experiences.

Also, to enrich the learning experiences, the writer adds vocabulary exercises as

proposed by I.S.P. Nation. The vocabulary exercises will be in forms of guessing

words for contexts and matching words and meanings. The main output of this

step is the learning experiences for the reading materials.

5. Designing the Blog

Having finished the previous steps, the designing process begins. In this

step, the writer works on two major tasks. The first is designing the reading

materials using the results of previous steps as the framework of the whole design.

Since the texts used in the materials are taken from many sources, the writer refers

to the materials adaptation techniques proposed by Tomlinson and Masuhara.

Having the reading materials ready, the writer designs the blog using the theories

about blog. Referring to Campbell, writer develops the tutor blog for the tenth

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6. Product Evaluation

The product evaluation is adapted from Kemp’s eighth step and Taba’s

seventh and eighth steps. While Taba suggested checking the over-all consistency

among all parts of the plan so that it is ready to be applied at school, Kemp

suggested the instructional plan evaluation by the students. However, in this step

the writer decides to do the instructional plan evaluation not by evaluating

student’s achievement.

In order to obtain better blog design, the writer distributes questionnaires

to three English teachers of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta and two lecturers of

English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University. The main purpose

of this step is to gain suggestions and feedbacks from the respondents.

7. Final Product Revision

This step is taken from Kemp’s eighth step. Kemp’s eighth step suggests

revisions and improvements based on the feedback from the evaluation. Therefore,

employing the result of Product Evaluation analysis, the writer revises the blog.

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the writer provides the detail description of the methodology

used in the research. It includes the research method employed, the research

respondents, the research instruments, the data gathering technique, the data analysis

technique, and the research procedure.

A. Research Method

Aiming at answering the questions of 1) How is the reading blog for tenth

grade students of

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

designed?, and 2)

What does the

reading blog look like? , the writer employed the Research and Development (R & D)

method. Educational research and development is “a process used to develop and

validate educational products” (Borg and Gall, 1983: 772). To simplify the research

objectives, the writer formulated a universal objective of the research which was to

create an educational product which brings benefits for

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

.

In this sense, R & D method was suitable for this research since R & D was required

to bring about educational change and increases the potential impact of basic and

applied research findings upon school practice by translating them into usable

educational products (Borg and Gall, 1983: 773). Besides, R & D provided steps

which enabled the systematic sequence of developing educational products.

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The steps proposed in R & D, commonly referred to as the R & D Cycle,

include research and information collecting, planning, develop preliminary form of

product, preliminary field testing, main product revision, main field testing,

operational product revision, operational field testing, final product revision,

dissemination and implementation (Borg and Gall, 1983: 775). However, this study

was conducted only until the fifth step because the nature of the blog was as a

supplementary material for

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

, while the focus of

conducting dissemination and implementation was on the conceptualisation and

development of large-scale curriculum products using the R & D cycle of

develop-test-revise (Borg and Gall, 1983: 786). In this study, the R&D cycle was incorporated

with the Instructional Design models proposed by Taba and Kemp as stated in the

Theoretical Description in Chapter 2.

1. Research and Information Collecting

This step included the diagnosis of needs proposed by Taba and Kemp (step 2

and 5). First of all, the writer did review of literature. Secondly, the writer conducted

a survey by distributing questionnaires to collect the information concerning the

students’ background, studies related to educational blog, implementation of using

blog in classrooms, and other information related to education blog. The writer

involved 100 tenth grade students of

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

and three English

teachers in the school to gain background information.

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2. Planning

As stated by Borg and Gall (1983: 779), the most important aspect of planning

a research-based educational product was the statement of the specific objectives to

be achieved by the product. The planning step is a combination of instructional

design model steps by Kemp and Taba which was stated in the theoretical framework.

The steps are specifying learning objectives, selection of content, and selection of

learning experiences. Therefore, in this step the writer defined the learning objectives,

selected the contents, and selected the learning experiences based on the School

Based Curriculum 2006.

3. Develop Preliminary Form of Product

This step included the preparation of instructional materials. By interpreting

the data collected, writer developed a reading blog which answers the students’ needs

and suitable to the curriculum used in

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

.

4. Preliminary Field Testing

Based on Kemp’s and Taba’s instructional design models, this step is the

product evaluation step. The preliminary field testing was carried out by one English

teacher of

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

and two lecturers of English Education Study

Program, Sanata Dharma University. The main objective of this step was to gather

opinions, feedbacks, and constructive suggestions for the education blog through

questionnaires.

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5. Main Product Revision

This step is the realization of Kemp’s final product revision step. Using the

input gathered from the Preliminary Field Testing, the writer revised the blog.

B. Research Respondents

To gain data from different perspectives, the writer used two groups of

respondents. The first group consisted of 100 tenth grade students of

SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta

, representing the target users of the blog. The students were in their first

semester. The respondents in this group were randomly chosen among the tenth grade

students in eight classes to keep the objectivity.

The second group consisted of one English teacher of

SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta

and two lecturers of English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma

University. The English teacher of

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

was chosen because

the respondent was in charge of English lesson for the tenth grade students in the

school. Therefore, it was expected that he could give opinions, feedbacks, or

suggestions related to the implementation of the materials. The lecturers of English

Education Study Program Sanata Dharma University were chosen to give opinions,

feedbacks, and suggestions related to the material design since they had the

competency in related study.

1. Research and Information Collecting

To gain information about the background setting and expectations of the

students, in this step the writer involved the first respondents group. However, in the

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second group, the lecturers of English Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma

University were not involved since they did not have background information needed

related to

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta.

2. Preliminary Field Testing

In this step, input and feedbacks were obtained only from the second group.

The objective of doing so was to gain feedback from “the teachers” point of view.

Moreover, it was less time consuming.

C. Research Instruments

This research occupied questionnaire as the main instrument. “Questionnaires

are printed forms for data collection which include questions or statements to which

the subject is expected to respond, often anonymously” (Selinger and Shohamy, 1989:

172). Selinger and Shohamy mentioned a number of advantages in using

questionnaires as research instruments: a) They are self-administered and can be

given to large groups of subjects at the same time, which means they are less

expensive to administer than other procedures such as interviews. b) The assured

anonymity helps the research subjects to share information of a sensitive nature more

easily. c) The data are more uniform and standard. d) Since they are usually given to

all research subjects at exactly the same time, the data are more accurate.

According to Selinger and Shohamy, there are two types of questionnaires.

The first is unstructured questionnaires, with low degree of explicitness, containing

open questions to which the subjects will be expected to respond in a descriptive

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manner. The data obtained from unstructured or open questionnaires are descriptive

and open nature, such as essays or narratives. The second is structured questionnaires

which require the subject to mark responses, to check agreement or disagreement or

disagreements, or to select among a number of alternatives. Structured questionnaires

are considered to be more efficient than the open ones. However, it is possible to use

different types of questions, open and closed, in the same questionnaire (Selinger and

Shohamy, 1989: 172).

The questionnaires used in the research were combined questionnaires. Each

set of questionnaire consisted of two types of questions, open-ended and close-ended.

The writer chose questionnaire as one of the research instruments because

questionnaires enabled the writer to gain information in relatively short time from a

large number of respondents. In other words, using questionnaires was effective for

this research.

The instrument was used to gain information and/or feedback in research and

information collecting and preliminary field testing.

1. Research and Information Collecting

In this step, the writer distributed questionnaires to 100 respondents from

group one, and three respondents from group two. The items of questionnaires for

group one were different from the ones for group two since each group had different

perspectives. The items in questionnaire for group one focused on the students’

interest in English subject, specifically in reading, and their habit in using internet.

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The questionnaire for group one was divided into two parts. The first part consisted

of multiple choice items and the second part was in a Likert scale form.

On the other hand, the items for group two focused on students’ English

reading skill, English reading teaching-learning activities, and the teachers’ opinion

of using internet in teaching-learning activities. The questionnaire was divided into

two parts, the first part was in a form of multiple choice items and the second part

consisted of open-ended items. The questionnaires for both group one and two were

written in

Bahasa Indonesia

to avoid misunderstandings.

2. Preliminary Field Testing

Aiming at collecting the feedbacks, the writer distributed questionnaires to all

respondents of group two. The items in the questionnaires focused on the respondents’

opinion on the content and layout of the designed materials and the learning activities.

The questionnaire was divided into two parts. The first part was in a Likert scale form,

while the second part contained open-ended questions.

D. Data Gathering Techniques

In order to gather the data in this research, the writer used some techniques. In

research and information collecting step, the writer firstly did a literature review to

gain information related to developing materials in form of blog to teach reading. The

information includes the theory of instructional design methods, the purpose and

techniques in teaching reading, school based curriculum, the nature of blog, and its

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use in educational field. In compiling the data, writer referred to printed and online

books, journals, and articles.

Secondly, to collect information about the background setting and expectation

of the students, the writer distributed questionnaires in

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta.

The questionnaires were distributed to 100 tenth grade students of

SMA BOPKRI 2

Yogyakarta

to gain the information of students’ interests in English Language subject,

reading activity, and their familiarity to blog. The writer also distributed

questionnaires to three English teachers in

SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta

. The purpose

was to gain information about the students from the teachers’ perspective and the

teachers’ opinion of using internet as a medium to teach English subject.

E. Data Analysis Technique

Since there were two types of questions in the research instruments

(questionnaires), the data were analyzed into two forms of data, which were

numerical and narrative description data.

1. Research and Information Collecting

The data collected from close-ended questions were presented in a form of

table, showing the percentage of each item in the questionnaires. Meanwhile, the

results of open-ended questions were presented in a form of narrative description.

2. Preliminary Field Testing

The questionnaires for preliminary field testing were in a form of Likert scale

items, which “assess attitudes toward a topic by asking respondents to indicate

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whether they strongly agree, agree, are undecided, disagree, or strongly disagree with

each of a series of statements about the topic” (Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh, 1990: 234).

In order to score the scale, the response categories must be weighted. For

favorable or positively stated items the numerical values 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, respectively, are

assigned to the response categories beginning at the favorable end. For unfavorable or

negatively stated items the weighting is reversed because disagreement with an

unfavorable statement is psychologically equivalent to agreement with a favorable

statement.

Furthermore, to analyze the data gathered, the writer used percentage to

measure the respondents’ opinion on the content and layout of the designed materials

and the learning activities.

Table 3.2 The Percentage of Respondents’ Opinion (Blank)

No Respondents’

Opinion

Number and Percentage

1 2 3 4 5

Note: Formulation to find the percentage

1 %

Statements

Strongly

Agree

Agree Undecided

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Positive

5 4 3 2 1

Negative

1 2 3 4 5

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1. The traders’ ships dock along the coast.

. After her father’s death, the princess ruled the kingdom.

. The old man chews his food carefully.

. Young children are always curious about new things.

. The dirty room disgusted the hotel’s guests.

. How hard she tried, she would never exceed her rival’s ability.

. The prisoner tried to escape from jail. B. Checking Your Understanding

Answer these questions based on the story “The Origin of Danau Lipan”! (No. 2: 5 points, Nos. 1, 37: @3 points, Total: 23 points)

1. What kind of folktale is the story? Is it a myth or a legend?

It is a legend because it has the proof, the place called Danau Lipan. Also, the main characters are human beings.

. Decide the orientation, complications, and resolution of the story!

The Origin of Danau Lipan Title

In Muara Kaman City, about 1 km from Tenggarong, Kutai Kartanegara in East Borneo, was a famous place called Danau Lipan. Even though it is called danau lake , it is not a lake. Danau Lipan is a large field.

Long time ago, Muara Kaman City and the surrounding places are ocean. The coast is in Berebus, Muara Kaman Ulu Village, or known as Benua Lawas. There lies a kingdom which was well known as the place for trading.

The king has a beautiful daughter named Princess Aji Bedarah Putri. She was named so because when she chewed betel sirih leaves and swallowed

Orientation

Place: Tenggarong,

East Borneo

Time: Long time ago

Character: Princess

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231 them, people could see the red betel flowing through

her throat.

The story of Princess Aji Bedarah Putri was spread and heard until China. A king from China was curious about her and came to Muara Kaman, intended to propose the princess.

The princess did not directly accept the proposal. She firstly invited the king to a dinner. At the dinner, Princess Aji Bedarah Putri was feeling disgraced because the king ate like a dog. The princess was disgusted by the king’s act and refused the proposal.

The king was angry and sent his army to attack Muara Kaman Kingdom. The power of Muara Kaman’s army could not exceed their enemy’s power and one by one, the Muara Kaman’s army died. The princess was broken hearted seeing her people died. She prayed, If I am really an incarnation of a god, may all the spits of the betel from my mouth become centipedes that will destroy all our enemies!

Suddenly, thousands of centipedes appeared and attacked the enemy’s army. The king and his army tried to escape. They ran toward their ship but the centipedes ran after them and killed all of them.

Complications 1. A king from China intended to propose the princess

. The princess invited the king to a dinner but felt disgraced by him

. The princess refused the proposal

. The king was angry and attacked the kingdom

. The princess turned her betel spits into centipedes and killed enemies.

After all of the enemy died, the princess magically gone and the ocean dried. The place was later called Danau Lipan centipede .

Resolution

The enemy lost, the kingdom disappeared, the placed is called Danau Lipan

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. Where is Danau Lipan located?

Danau Lipan is located in Muara Kaman City, about 120 km from Tenggarong, Kutai Kartanegara in East Borneo.

. Why was Princess Aji Bedarah Putri famous?

Princess Aji Bedarah Putri was famous because when she chewed betel leaves and swallowed them, people could see the read betel flowing through her throat.

. Why did not the princess accept the king’s proposal?

The princess did not accept the king’s proposal because she was disgusted by the king’s act.

. What did Princess Aji Bedarah Putri do to help her people in the battle?

Princess Aji Bedarah Putri turned her spits of the betel into centipedes to destroy the enemies.

. What is the theme of this story?

If we do for something wholeheartedly, our wish will come true. (The Princess’s prayer was answered; her spits turned into centipedes and defeated the enemies)

Other answers are possible.

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233 Score

Warming up (@1 point x 42) : 42 points

Digging Deeper

Part A (@1 point x 10) : 10 points

Part B (5 points + 4 points) : 9 points

Focusing on Grammar

(@2 points x 6) : 12 points

Mastering the Text

Part A (@2 points x 7) : 14 points

Part B (@5 points x 1)

(@3 points x 6) : 23 points

Total Point : 110 points

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ABSTRACT

Oliviana. 2011. Designing Reading Blog for the Tenth Grade Students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.

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ABSTRAK

Oliviana. 2011. Designing Reading Blog for the Tenth Grade Students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta.Yogyakarta: Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.

Untuk menjawab pertanyaan pertama, penelitian ini menggunakan siklus

reading blog berdasarkan hasil pengujian awal.

Designing reading blog for the tenth grade students of SMA BOPKRI 2 Yogyakarta.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE ……… i

APPROVAL PAGES ………... ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY ………... iv

DEDICATION PAGE ..………..………... v

ABSTRACT …………...……….………..……….... vi

ABSTRAK

………...…….……… vii

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK

KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

………... viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……… ix

TABLE OF CONTENTS ………... xi

LIST OF FIGURES ………. xv

LIST OF TABLES ………... xvi

LIST OF APPENDICES ………... xvii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

A.

Research Background ……….……… 1

B.

Problem Formulation ……….……….………. 4

C.

Problem Limitation ……….……… 4

E.

Research Benefits ……….. 5

F.

Definition of Terms ……… 6

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Description ………...….………... 8

1. Instructional Design Model ………. 8

a. Kemp’s Instructional Model ……… 8

b. Taba’s Instructional Model ………. 12

2. Theory of Reading ………... 15

a. Purposes of Reading ………... 16

b.

Teaching

Reading ………... 16

1) Basic Principles in Teaching Reading ……….. 17

2) Characteristics of an Effective Reading Program in the Content

Area ………... 17

3) Comprehension Strategies ……… 18

4) Vocabulary in Reading ………. 19

3. School Based Curriculum ………. 19

4. Blogs ………... 21

a. Features of Blogs ……… 22

b. Blog Use in Education ……… 23

5. Materials Adaptation ……… 25

B. Theoretical Framework ………... 26

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

A. Research Method ……….... 30

2. Planning ……….. 32

3.

Develop

Preliminary

Form of Product ………... 32

4. Preliminary Field Testing ………... 32

5. Main Product Revision ………... 33

B. Research Respondents ……… 33

1. Research and Information Collecting ………. 33

2. Preliminary Field Testing ………... 34