IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH KWL (KNOW, WANT TO KNOW, LEARN) STRATEGY

Abstract

This article is a report of a classroom action research that aimed at finding out how KWL strategy could be implemented effectively in improving the students’ reading comprehension, to what extent KWL strategy could improve the students’ reading comprehension, and how the classroom situation was when KWL strategy was implemented in the reading class. The classroom action research was conducted in two cycles. Each cycle comprised planning, acting, observing and reflecting. The qualitative data were collected through observations, questionnaires, and interviews while the quantitative data were obtained through tests. Some findings are obtained in this research. The first finding is that KWL strategy could be implemented effectively because of the students’ ability to use their prior knowledge and activate their critical thinking to predict the text, all of which caused them to have better performance in comprehending the text. An effective way of implementing KWL strategy could be developed and applied due to a) a clear explanation of KWL steps to the students, b) the use of new and familiar topics, c) the use of visual representations of the assigned text, d) the use of group discussions and individual activities, and e) the teacher’s guidance during the teaching and learning process. The second finding is that the strategy could improve the students’ reading comprehension in their skills of finding main ideas, explicit information, implicit information, and word references, and understanding word meanings based on the context. The third finding is that the strategy promoted a better classroom situation.