Jurnal SMART Volume 1 No. 1, Januari 2015 Hlm. 10-16 Diterbitkan Oleh: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung 10 INTEGRATING ROUNDTABLE BRAINSTORMING INTO TEAM PAIR SOLO TECHNIQUE FOR IMPROVING STUDENTS’ PARTICIPATION IN WRITING OF DESCRIPTIVE TEXTS Sutarno English Department, STKIP Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung email: sutarno@gmail.com Abstract The objectives of the study are to find out the application of integration of roundtable brainstorming into team pair solo technique in writing of descriptive texts and to investigate the improvement of students’ participation and achievement after taught by using the integration of the techniques. This study was an action research which was carried out through a preliminary study, first and second cycle activities. The subjects of this study were VII grade students of State Junior High School no.1 Semaka, Tanggamus, Lampung consisting of thirty two students. To collect the data, the researcher used instruments inform of interview, observation sheets, writing tests, and questionnaires. The findings of the research showed that students’ participation improved from the preliminary study, first and second cycle. In the preliminary study there were twenty six students classified as poor, six students classified as fair and no student classified as good in participation. While in the first cycle there were three students classified as fair and twenty nine students classified as good in participation and in the second cycle all students were classified as good in participation. The students’ writing also improved. The average score of students writing in the preliminary study was 53.31, first cycle was 64.41, and second cycle was 72.56. Key words: Roundtable Brainstorming, Team Pair Solo Technique, Students’ Participation, Writing Descriptive Texts 1. INTRODUCTION In this modern era, mastering writing skill is as important as mastering speaking skill since in the context of education, it is worth remembering that most exams, whether they are testing foreign language abilities or other skills, often rely on the students’ writing proficiency in order to measure their knowledge (Harmer 2004:3). But, to master writing skill is not easy since it needs long process of learning and ongoing exercises. From the preliminary study conducted at State Junior High School 1 Semaka, Tanggamus, Lampung, the researcher found that most of the students were classified as poor in participation and also classified as poor in writing of descriptive text. Moreover, in the teaching learning process, they also faced problems in participation and in writing of descriptive text. The problems on participation were students’ passiveness in asking questions to the teacher during the teaching-learning process of writing, Jurnal SMART Volume 1 No. 1, Januari 2015 Hlm. 10-16 Diterbitkan Oleh: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung 11 students slow respond in the teaching- learning, and students’ passiveness in discussing a topic in writing, etc. Meanwhile, the problems on writing of descriptive text were students’ difficulty in generating and organizing the ideas, students’ difficulty in mastering grammar and word choice and also difficulty in composing a good descriptive text. In overcoming those problems, the researcher implemented two techniques of cooperative learning namely roundtable brainstorming and team pair solo technique. The purpose of roundtable brainstorming technique is to motivate the students to be active to participate in the teaching learning process. By using this technique, the students are trained to share their ideas and they are given a chance for expressing their ideas so they have same contribution and responsibility for the success of the group. Team Pair Solo is also sort of cooperative learning technique which can be used for writing class. Kagan (1992: 72) stated that this technique allows the students to work on problems first as a team, then with a partner, and later they will easily solve the problems by themselve. The previous technique was chosen to solve students’ difficulty in generating ideas. Then, the latter one focuses in overcoming students’ difficulty in creating a good writing. Related to the background above, the researcher formulated the research problems as follows: (1) What are the problems faced by the students in writing of descriptive texts? (2) How is the integration of Roundtable Brainstorming into Team Pair Solo technique applied in the teaching writing of descriptive texts? (3) How is the improvement of students’ participation and achievement in writing of descriptive texts after taught by using the integration of roundtable brainstorming into team pair solo technique? 2. METHOD This study is an action research which used spiral model proposed by Kemmis and Taggard (1988). Before conducted the study, the researcher conducted preliminary study to find out the problems faced by the students in writing of descriptive text. After he found the problems faced by the students, he conducted the study into two cycles. Each cycle consisted of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. This study was conducted at State Junior High School no.1 Semaka, Tanggamus, Lampung. It is located on Taman Nasional Street No. Jurnal SMART Volume 1 No. 1, Januari 2015 Hlm. 10-16 Diterbitkan Oleh: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung 12 123, Sukaraja, Tanggamus Regency, Lampung province. This study employed a class that was VII A as the subject of this study which consists of 13 male and 19 female students. For getting the data of the study, the researcher used some instruments like interview, observation sheet of students’ participation, writing test, and interview. In observing students’ participation, the writer used participation rubric which was adopted from Gronlund (1994) with some modification. There were five aspects in measuring students’ participation namely receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization by a value complex. The scores were 0 to 4; 0 means never, 1 means seldom, 2 means several times, 3 means often and 4 means always. Then, students’ participation total score is classified into four classifications; poor, fair, good, and excellent. A student is classify into poor if he/she get 0-25 %, classify into fair if he/she got 26-50%, classify into good if the percentage of the score is 51-75%, and classify as excellent if the percentage of the score is 76-100%. Meanwhile, in analyzing students’ writing the researcher employed writing scoring guidelines proposed by Broadman and Frydenberg (2002) which consists of five aspects namely content/ideas, organization, grammar/structure, word choice/word form, and mechanics. 3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Student’s Problems in Preliminary study From preliminary study which was conducted by the researcher, there were some problems faced by the students in the teaching learning process. The problems on participation were students’ passiveness in asking questions to the teacher during the teaching-learning process, students slow respond in the teaching-learning process, and students’ passiveness in discussing a topic in writing, etc. Then, when they practice to write the descriptive text, most of the students still got difficulty in generating ideas; they also have low grammar and vocabulary mastery, and also have low of mechanics of writing mastery. Moreover, from the observation on students’ participation in the preliminary study, it gained that there were 26 students (81.25 %) classified as poor in participation and 6 students (18.75%) classified as fair in participation. Besides observed and valued students’ participation, in the preliminary study the researcher also gave the students writing assignment. Based on the result of students’ writing of descriptive text in the Jurnal SMART Volume 1 No. 1, Januari 2015 Hlm. 10-16 Diterbitkan Oleh: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung 13 preliminary study there were no students which passed the passing grade 70, the researcher also reported that the highest score was 63.00, the lowest score was 35.00 and the average score was 53.31. The Application of Integration of Roundtable Brainstorming into Team Pair Solo Technique in the Teaching Writing of Descriptive Texts This action research was conducted in two cycles. Cycle one was conducted in three meetings on May 16 th , May 17 th , and May 18 th , 2013. In this cycle, the researcher explained the material, gave example of the descriptive text, and applied the integration of the technique in writing of descriptive text through the stages of writing. Cycle 2 was also conducted in three meetings on May 30 th , May 31 st , and June 1 st 2013. This cycle was conducted with the aim in overcoming the weaknesses in cycle 1. In cycle 1, students’ participation showed positive improvement, but in writing descriptive text, the students still had difficulties in grammar. In cycle 2 the researcher explained the material about simple present tense, gave the example of simple present tense and applied the integration of the techniques in writing of descriptive text. The integration of roundtable brainstorming into team pair solo technique was applied in two cycles during the teaching writing of descriptive text, by doing some steps: (1) Team step; in this step the students discussed and generated ideas on the topic given and also answered some questions related the topic posed by the teacher (2) Pair step; in this step, the students developed the ideas got from the previous step into some sentences; (3) Solo step; in this step, the students organized and developed the sentences into some paragraphs and then composed a descriptive text through the process of writing starting from writing the rough draft, revising, writing the second draft, revising the second draft, and writing the final draft. Students’ Improvement on Participation and Achievement in Writing of Descriptive Texts Based on the observation, the integration of the techniques could improve students’ participation and achievement in writing of descriptive text. From the observation on students’ participation in cycle 1, it gained that there were 3 students (9%) classified as fair in participation and there were 29 students (91%) classified as good in participation. Then, based on the result of Jurnal SMART Volume 1 No. 1, Januari 2015 Hlm. 10-16 Diterbitkan Oleh: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung 14 students writing in cycle1, there were 12 students (37.50%) passed the passing grade of writing, and there were 20 students (62.50) did not pass the passing grade of writing. The highest score got by the student was 76.00, the lowest score was 55.00, and the average score was 64.41. Next, from the observation on students’ participation in cycle 2, it gained that all of the students/ 32 students (100%) were classified as good in participation. Based on the result of students’ writing in cycle 2, the researcher reported that there were 29 students (90.63%) passed the passing grade of writing and there were 3 students (9.37%) did not pass the passing grade of writing. The highest score was 85.00, the lowest score was 60.00 and the average score was 72.56. The summary of the improvement of students’ participation from the preliminary study, cycle 1, and cycle 2 could be seen from the following table; Preliminary study Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Most of students never: - Ask questions - Describe - Reply - Answer question - Discuss - Explains - Proposes, etc. Most of students often: - Ask questions - Describe - Reply - Answer question - Discuss - Explains - Proposes, etc All of students often: - Ask questions - Describe - Reply - Answer question - Discuss - Explains - Proposes, etc In the preliminary study there were 26 students (81%) classified as poor in participatio n and there were 6 students (19%) classified as fair in participatio n. In cycle 1 there were 3 students (9%) classified as fair in participatio n and there were 29 students (91%) classified as good in participatio n. In cycle 2 all students (32 students) (100%) were classified as good in participation. Moreover, the summary of the improvement of students’ writing of descriptive text from the preliminary study, cycle 1, and cycle 2 could be seen from the following table; Jurnal SMART Volume 1 No. 1, Januari 2015 Hlm. 10-16 Diterbitkan Oleh: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung 15 Test Low est scor e High est scor e Aver age scor e Pass passi ng grade 70 Not pass passi ng grade Preli mina ry 35 63 53.3 1 0 (0%) 32 (100 % Cycl e 1 55 76 64.4 1 12 (37.5 0%) 20 (62.5 0%) Cycl e 2 60 85 72.5 6 29 (90.6 3) 3 (9.37 %) Students Response on Questionnaires After conducted the study in two cycles, the researcher gave questionnaires to the students. The aim of giving questionnaire was to find out the students’ perception toward the implementation of integration of roundtable brainstorming into team pair solo technique. From the questionnaires it gained that there were 23 students (72%) stated that learning English is very important to them and 9 students (28%) stated that writing is important to them. Then, there were 16 students (50%) stated that they did not face difficulty in writing of descriptive text by using the techniques introduced by the teacher, 15 students (47%) stated that they sometimes faced difficulty in writing of descriptive text by using the technique introduced by the teacher, and 1 students (0.3%) stated that they often faced difficulty in writing of descriptive text by using the techniques introduced by the teacher. Moreover, there were 18 students (56%) stated that the material that delivered by the teacher was very interesting and there were 14 students (44%) stated that the material was interesting. Furthermore, there were 12 students (38%) stated that they felt very happy in using the technique introduced by the teacher in writing of descriptive text and 20 students (62%) stated they felt happy in using the technique in writing of descriptive text. Then, there were 7 students (22%) stated that the using of the technique of teaching by the teacher was help them to participate in teaching- learning process and 25 students (78%) stated the using of the technique was very help them to participate in writing of descriptive text. Furthermore, there were 27 students (84%) stated that the using of the technique by the teacher in writing of descriptive text was very help them in composing the text and there were 5 students (16%) stated that the using of the technique by the teacher was help them in composing a descriptive text 4. CONCLUSION From the preliminary study, the researcher found that most of the students were classified as poor in participation in Jurnal SMART Volume 1 No. 1, Januari 2015 Hlm. 10-16 Diterbitkan Oleh: http://ejournal.stkipmpringsewu-lpg.ac.id/index.php/smart Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP Muhammadiyah Pringsewu Lampung 16 learning writing of descriptive text. Most of them were inactive during the lesson. The kinds of the students’ passiveness were in form of students’ reluctant in asking and slow in responding. They also seemed unenthusiastic and bored in following the lesson. Moreover, most of the students also classify as poor in writing of descriptive text. Most of them got difficulty in creating a descriptive text in form of generating ideas, got difficulty in mastering the organization of the writing, got difficulty in mastering grammar and word choice and got difficulty in composing a good descriptive text. The integration of Roundtable Brainstorming into Team Pair Solo technique was done during the teaching of writing of descriptive text, by doing some steps: (1) Team step; in this step the students discussed, generated ideas on the topic given and answered some questions related to the topic posed by the teacher (2) Pair step; in this step, the students developed the ideas got from the previous step into some sentences; (3) Solo step; in this step, the students organized and developed the sentences into some paragraphs and composed a descriptive text through the process of writing starting from writing the rough draft, revising, writing the second draft, revising the second draft, and writing the final draft. The application of integration of roundtable brainstorming into team pair solo technique was able to encourage the students to be more active to participate in the teaching writing of descriptive text. In conclusion, the implementation of the techniques in the teaching writing of descriptive text improved students’ participation and achievement in writing of descriptive texts. 5. REFERENCES Broadman, C., and Frydenberg, J. 2004. Writing to Communicative Paragraph and Essay. 2 nd edition. New York: Longman. Gronlund, N.E. 1994. How to Write and Use Instructional Objectives. 5 th Edition. Englewood: Prentice Hall PTR. Harmer, J. 2004. How to Teach Writing. New York: Longman Group Ltd. Kagan, S. 1992. Kagan Cooperative Learning. San Juan Capistrano: Kagan Publishing. Kemmis, S., and McTaggart, R. 1992. The Action Research Planner. 3 rd edition. Victoria: Deakin University Press.