THE USE OF CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE IN TEACHING DESCRIPTIVE TEXT TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ WRITING PERFORMENCE AT SMPN 5 KALIS

Eka Marselina N.S. 2024. The Use of Clustering Tehnique In Teaching Descriptive Text To Improve Students’ Writing Performance At VIII SMP N 05 Kalis with a total of 23 students. Thesis, English Language Education Study Program, STKIP Persada Khatulistiwa Sintang. Advisor I : Sijono, M.Pd. Advisor II Ilinawati,
M.Pd Keywords: Descriptive text, Clustering Technique, Writing Performance.This research was motivated by the necessity to improve students' participation and paragraph writing in the classroom. The purpose of this research was to elaborate the student participation and describe the process of learning descriptive text, as well as to find out students' improvement in writing performance by using the Clustering Technique. This research was conducted at SMPN 5 Kalis. In this research, the researcher used Classroom Action Research, which consisted of two cycles, each with four stages: planning, observation, action, and reflection, the subject of this researcher 23 eighth-grade students at SMPN 5 Kalis The researcher used observation, interview, documentation and measurement as technique to collect data, and also employed observation checklist, field notes, interview guideline, student test, and video as instrument. There were two kinds ofdata in this research: qualitative and quantitative. To analyze the qualitative data, the researcher used data reduction, data display, conclusion drawing, and verification. For analyzing the quantitative data, the researcher used descriptive statistics. In the first cycle,
the student's participation rate of 75% and writing performance score of 61.19in this research did not meet the research success criteria, prompting continuation to the second cycle aimed at enhancing students' writing ability. The result of the second cycle demonstrated marked improvement in both participation rate of 88% and writing performance 80.23 compared to the first cycle, indicating the effectiveness of the clustering technique in fostering better writing skills. The researcher recommend familiarizing oneself with the clustering technique's procedures beforehand to ensure proper preparation and direction in organizing paragraph writing. The researcher conclude that the clustering technique is effective in improve students’ writing performance. The researcher suggests that teacher implement this technique in their teaching practice, especially for teaching
descriptive text.