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pictorialand colourful books that contain interesting
stories and plots.
Yacoob’s study (2008: 1) suggests that the use of
the big book in language learning fosters students’
interest and participation. They contribute to the
discussion and spontaneously comment on the
content of the story. Images in the big book are very
interesting, and the language is easy to read. These
features have increased students’ interest and
motivation for reading. As this study of using big
book is limited in the Indonesian context, this paper
aims to see how far the ability of students in reading,
especially the ability to recite reading, knowing
difficult words, knowing punctuation, understanding
and summarizing the readings are poured in the form
of writing. Thus, this study illustrates the deeper
reading ability as seen in the learning process of
each cycle.
2 METHODS
The methodology used in this research is Action
Research, which is doing an action and studying the
action (Coghlan and Shani, 2005; Bargal, 2008).
Because the research is done in the classroom, the
objective is to improve the learning process. This
method is applied considering the reading ability of
the first grade students in MI Al-Ikhwan is low,
where most of the students are able to read text only.
Not all students are able to understand the contents
of reading, the use of punctuation and vocabulary.
There are even six students who have not been able
to read clearly. Therefore, the big book approach is
expected to improve students' reading ability. The
subjects of this study are third grade students of MI
Al-Ikhwan Bandung-Indonesia regency. There were
17 students consisting of 10 men and 7 women from
various socio-economic background involved in this
study.
Observations and tests were conducted to collect
data. Observations were performed during the
learning process of reading by using a big book, and
the focus of observation is the activity of teachers
and students. The activity is then scored. Tests were
performed orally and in writing. Oral tests were
done in the form of performance, and the focus of
assessment is the pronunciation, fluency and
understanding of the text. Meanwhile, the writing
test was done by answering some questions in the
form of essay. The test focused on grammar,
vocabulary, understanding and concluding text.
The research procedure is carried out in a
cyclical form. This design used a model known as
the self-reflection spiral system that begins with the
plan, action, observation, reflection and re-planning
is the basis for a solution to the problem-solving
(Kemmis and McTaggart 1988, Berg; 2004).
The design of the research on cycles 1 to 3
begins with planning stage. This stage included
preparing material and big book media to be used at
the time of action and the lesson plan to be used at
the time of learning. Besides, this stage prepared
observation instruments in the form of observation
observation sheet, and made evaluation tools, such
as writing test and oral test. Students were tested
individually to see improvement of students reading
skill after applying big book.
The second stage was implementation. The
actions set in the lesson plan have been prepared at
the planning stage, and teaching is done by the
teacher in accordance with the steps in the RPP. The
third stage is observation, which was conducted
during the process of actions. Observations were
used to collect data on teacher and student activities
during the learning process. Observations were made
by colleagues at the school. The fourth stage is
reflection. At this stage the researcher analyzes all
the information recorded in the learning process
through observation and test format.
These four designs continued until three cycles
because in the cycles the reading ability is expected
to be achieved. Data analysis was performed by
calculating the observed activities and counted in
percentage. Each activity item contained in the
observation sheet was scored 1 for the activity that
has been done and 0 for the activity that has not been
done, and the overall result was then averaged. For
the analysis of test data the researcher used the
technique of mastery analysis of individual learning
and classical learning completeness. Individual
learning completeness was meant to measure the
level of each student's ability while the completeness
of classical learning was to know the overall mastery
of student learning.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Results
The results of cycle 1 show that at the planning stage
the lesson plan was made based on learning
indicators that focused on how students can predict
the story, recognize difficult words, understand the
story content, and summarize the story content. The
media used was a big book with the theme "a week
with grandpa". At the observation stage all the
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