PTK-(0004) IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH KWL STRATEGY AT THE EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMP
2.1 Theoretical Review
A scientific study should be based on some theoretical background and empirical evidences and should contribute practical significant the understanding of the present study is based on the discussion of the following theoretical framework: (1) The Conception of Reading Comprehension, (2) The Importance of Reading, (3) KWL Strategy, (4) The use of KWL strategy in Teaching Reading, (5) Assessment of Reading Comprehension.
2.1.1 The Conception of Reading Comprehension
Pang et al (2003:3) states reading is about understanding written texts. It is a complex activity that involves both perception and thought. Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one's spoken language. Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text. Snow (2002:3) states reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.
Reading is a complex process made up of several interlocking skills and processes (Tankersley in Wawryk 2003:32). These skills and strategies are employed before, during, and after reading. Reading is a process by which the reader makes personal connections with a text to construct meaning. Reading and responding to a text are integral parts of language learning. Effective readers employ a wide repertoire of meaning-making (comprehension) strategies that they can deploy independently with a range of texts. Effective readers understand and remember what they read. They can summarize and discuss the content and demonstrate their comprehension of the text. They can analyze and evaluate what they have read.
Another opinion, Klingner et al (2007:8) states that reading comprehension involves much more than readers' responses to text. Reading comprehension is a multicomponent, highly complex process that involves many interactions between readers and what they bring to the text (previous knowledge, strategy use) as well as variables related to the text itself (interest in text, understanding of text types).
Irwin in Klingner et al (2007:9) describes five basic comprehension processes that work together simultaneously and complement one another: microprocesses, integrative processes, macroprocesses, elaborative processes, and metacognitive processes, a. Microprocesses
Microprocessing refers to the reader's initial chunking of idea units within individual sentences. "Chunking" involves grouping words into phrases or clusters of words that carry meaning, and requires an understanding of syntax as well as vocabulary. For example, consider the following sentence: Michelle put the yellow roses in a vase.
The reader does not picture yellow and roses separately, but instead immediately visualizes roses that are the color yellow. The good reader processes yellow roses together. Selective recall is another aspect of microprocessing. The reader must decide which chunks of text or which details are important to remember. When reading only one sentence, it is relatively easy to recall details, but remembering becomes more difficult after reading a long passage. For example, the reader may or may not remember later that the roses were yellow. To some extent, whether this detail is remembered will depend upon its significance in the passage. In other words, does it matter in the story that the roses were yellow, or is this just an unimportant detail.
b. Integrative Processes
As the reader progresses through individual sentences, he or she is processing more than the individual meaning units within sentences. He or she is also actively making connections across sentences. This process of understanding and inferring the relationships among clauses is referred to as integrative processing. Subskills involved in integrative processing include being able to identify and understand pronoun referents and being able to infer causation or sequence.
c. Macroprocesses
Ideas are better understood and more easily remembered when the reader is able to organize them in a coherent way. The reader does this by summarizing the key ideas read. He or she may either automatically or deliberately (subconsciously or consciously) select the most important information to remember and delete relatively less important details. The skillful reader also uses a structure or organizational pattern to help him or her organize these important ideas. More proficient comprehended know to use the same organizational pattern provided by the author to organize their ideas (a story map that includes characters and setting/problem/solution in a narrative or a compare-and-contrast text structure for an expository passage).
d. Elaborative Processes
When we read, we tap into our prior knowledge and make inferences beyond points described explicitly in the text. We make inferences that may or may not correspond with those intended by the author. For instance, in the two sentences provided above about Michael, we do not know why he was afraid. But we can predict that perhaps he was worried that someone had followed him home, or maybe a storm was brewing and he was concerned about strong winds. When making these inferences, we may draw upon information provided earlier in the text or upon our own previous experiences (perhaps at some point the reader was followed home and hurried inside and quickly shut and locked the door). This process is called elaborative processing.
e. Metacognitive Processes
Much has been made of the importance of metacognition, that is, thinking about thinking. Metacognition is the reader's conscious awareness or control of cognitive processes. The metacognitive processes the reader uses are those involved in monitoring understanding, selecting what to remember, and regulating the strategies used when reading. The metacognitive strategies the reader uses include rehearsing (repeating information to enhance recall), reviewing, underlining important words or sections of a passage, note taking, and checking
understanding.
2.1.2 The Importance of Reading
Reading is an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader, which enhances the knowledge acquired, consistently. The habit of reading also helps students to receive new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations. The habit can become an ad to the information available on various topics. It helps students to stay in-touch with contemporary writers as well as those from the days and makes students aware to global issues.
According to Barth (2012:4) reading is both directly and indirectly connected to later educational achievement and it is critically important to a student's growth across all subject areas. Failure to achieve reading comprehension has also been linked to other factors that have an impact on academic success. The habit of reading can add to the information available on various topics. It also helps the readers to stay in-touch with contemporary information and makes them sensitive to global issues and helps them catch in hand what is going on around them. Generally, reading texts are good sources and wealth choices for self improvement and motivation. They have a great contribution towards proficient achievement. In addition, they are informational and reliable for what we may query for a long time without satisfactory answers.
Furthermore, Brath also states reading is essential to success in school, work, and society. A student's ability to make sense of grade level texts can ensure either success or failure in school, depending on the student's ability to comprehend. Comprehension is a complex process, in which many factors play a
role, including the active process of the interaction between the reader and the
CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL REVIEW
A scientific study should be based on some theoretical background and empirical evidences and should contribute practical significant the understanding of the present study is based on the discussion of the following theoretical framework: (1) The Conception of Reading Comprehension, (2) The Importance of Reading, (3) KWL Strategy, (4) The use of KWL strategy in Teaching Reading, (5) Assessment of Reading Comprehension.
2.1.1 The Conception of Reading Comprehension
Pang et al (2003:3) states reading is about understanding written texts. It is a complex activity that involves both perception and thought. Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension. Word recognition refers to the process of perceiving how written symbols correspond to one's spoken language. Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text. Readers typically make use of background knowledge, vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, experience with text and other strategies to help them understand written text. Snow (2002:3) states reading comprehension as the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.
Reading is a complex process made up of several interlocking skills and processes (Tankersley in Wawryk 2003:32). These skills and strategies are employed before, during, and after reading. Reading is a process by which the reader makes personal connections with a text to construct meaning. Reading and responding to a text are integral parts of language learning. Effective readers employ a wide repertoire of meaning-making (comprehension) strategies that they can deploy independently with a range of texts. Effective readers understand and remember what they read. They can summarize and discuss the content and demonstrate their comprehension of the text. They can analyze and evaluate what they have read.
Another opinion, Klingner et al (2007:8) states that reading comprehension involves much more than readers' responses to text. Reading comprehension is a multicomponent, highly complex process that involves many interactions between readers and what they bring to the text (previous knowledge, strategy use) as well as variables related to the text itself (interest in text, understanding of text types).
Irwin in Klingner et al (2007:9) describes five basic comprehension processes that work together simultaneously and complement one another: microprocesses, integrative processes, macroprocesses, elaborative processes, and metacognitive processes, a. Microprocesses
Microprocessing refers to the reader's initial chunking of idea units within individual sentences. "Chunking" involves grouping words into phrases or clusters of words that carry meaning, and requires an understanding of syntax as well as vocabulary. For example, consider the following sentence: Michelle put the yellow roses in a vase.
The reader does not picture yellow and roses separately, but instead immediately visualizes roses that are the color yellow. The good reader processes yellow roses together. Selective recall is another aspect of microprocessing. The reader must decide which chunks of text or which details are important to remember. When reading only one sentence, it is relatively easy to recall details, but remembering becomes more difficult after reading a long passage. For example, the reader may or may not remember later that the roses were yellow. To some extent, whether this detail is remembered will depend upon its significance in the passage. In other words, does it matter in the story that the roses were yellow, or is this just an unimportant detail.
b. Integrative Processes
As the reader progresses through individual sentences, he or she is processing more than the individual meaning units within sentences. He or she is also actively making connections across sentences. This process of understanding and inferring the relationships among clauses is referred to as integrative processing. Subskills involved in integrative processing include being able to identify and understand pronoun referents and being able to infer causation or sequence.
c. Macroprocesses
Ideas are better understood and more easily remembered when the reader is able to organize them in a coherent way. The reader does this by summarizing the key ideas read. He or she may either automatically or deliberately (subconsciously or consciously) select the most important information to remember and delete relatively less important details. The skillful reader also uses a structure or organizational pattern to help him or her organize these important ideas. More proficient comprehended know to use the same organizational pattern provided by the author to organize their ideas (a story map that includes characters and setting/problem/solution in a narrative or a compare-and-contrast text structure for an expository passage).
d. Elaborative Processes
When we read, we tap into our prior knowledge and make inferences beyond points described explicitly in the text. We make inferences that may or may not correspond with those intended by the author. For instance, in the two sentences provided above about Michael, we do not know why he was afraid. But we can predict that perhaps he was worried that someone had followed him home, or maybe a storm was brewing and he was concerned about strong winds. When making these inferences, we may draw upon information provided earlier in the text or upon our own previous experiences (perhaps at some point the reader was followed home and hurried inside and quickly shut and locked the door). This process is called elaborative processing.
e. Metacognitive Processes
Much has been made of the importance of metacognition, that is, thinking about thinking. Metacognition is the reader's conscious awareness or control of cognitive processes. The metacognitive processes the reader uses are those involved in monitoring understanding, selecting what to remember, and regulating the strategies used when reading. The metacognitive strategies the reader uses include rehearsing (repeating information to enhance recall), reviewing, underlining important words or sections of a passage, note taking, and checking
understanding.
2.1.2 The Importance of Reading
Reading is an activity that involves greater levels of concentration and adds to the conversational skills of the reader, which enhances the knowledge acquired, consistently. The habit of reading also helps students to receive new words and phrases that they come across in everyday conversations. The habit can become an ad to the information available on various topics. It helps students to stay in-touch with contemporary writers as well as those from the days and makes students aware to global issues.
According to Barth (2012:4) reading is both directly and indirectly connected to later educational achievement and it is critically important to a student's growth across all subject areas. Failure to achieve reading comprehension has also been linked to other factors that have an impact on academic success. The habit of reading can add to the information available on various topics. It also helps the readers to stay in-touch with contemporary information and makes them sensitive to global issues and helps them catch in hand what is going on around them. Generally, reading texts are good sources and wealth choices for self improvement and motivation. They have a great contribution towards proficient achievement. In addition, they are informational and reliable for what we may query for a long time without satisfactory answers.
Furthermore, Brath also states reading is essential to success in school, work, and society. A student's ability to make sense of grade level texts can ensure either success or failure in school, depending on the student's ability to comprehend. Comprehension is a complex process, in which many factors play a
role, including the active process of the interaction between the reader and the