ACTION RESEARCH REPORTENGLISH PANEL SMK ALMA BUKIT MERTAJAM MASTERY LEARNING – A REWARD FOR BETTER COMPREHENSION IN LITERATURE COMPONENT OF FORM 1 POEMS FOR PMR CANDIDATES By: Puvaneswari Vadivelloo Guru Cemerlang Form 3 English Teacher SMK Alma, BM 2011 Putting this in my mind. BM 2011 ABSTRACT Language teachers are entrusted with a huge responsibility of developing language and communication skills among their students. Bukit Mertajam. However. The research was conducted in the month of June to July 2011 during their class English lesson. the best teaching approach is the learner-centered teaching approach. Based on these factors. Thus . towards learning English language and literature and the culturally oriented norm with a long tradition of unconditional obedience to the authority hinder the learner-centered teaching approach. lack of confidence. This study consists of 39 students of 3A2 who will be sitting for their PMR examination this year. these students seem to have very low confidence in answering the form one poem questions. negative attitude and motivation. mainly two periods in a week. The nature of our students with attributes such as limited language proficiency. mainly poems. . I have carried out a study on mastery learning ( learner centered) as the teaching approach in producing better results in literature component of Form 1 Poems for PMR candidates this year in SMK Alma. For maximum input. the potential to explore the learner-centered teaching approach is rather challenging in our Malaysian classrooms. In order to know what exactly I did…. to that of a learner-centered teaching to create independent learners do not seem encouraging in our second language setting.please read the report till the end. Because of these circumstances. Ideally. the move to make students to become independent learners is somehow hampered.MASTERY LEARNING – A REWARD FOR BETTER COMPREHENSION IN LITERATURE COMPONENT OF FORM 1 POEMS FOR PMR CANDIDATES By: Puvaneswari Vadivelloo Guru Cemerlang Form 3 English Teacher SMK Alma.a complete departure from the traditional teacher-centered and text-book driven teaching. I came out with the mastery strategy approach in order to make my students to master these section in the PMR Paper 1(questions 35 to 37). But the culture inherent in us and the nature of our students only permit us to use the teacher-centered teaching approach or a mixture of both learner centered and teacher-centered approaches when necessary. it is best to employ the learner-centered teaching approach in the classrooms. With the less motivation and confidence towards literature component. Mastery Learning Mastery learning refers to the idea that teaching should organize learning through ordered steps. 3A2 and 3A5 respectively. Students. Pn Manisah has placed a high hope on me as an educator. what sort of communicative needs they have.. typically 80%.no complaints and comments. I was impressed with 3A2 and a little bit unimpressed with 3A5. to tell the truth. work through each unit in an organized fashion. For this year. helps students identify what they have learned well and what they have not learned well. Which Class? So do I. Teaching methods and instructional strategies used are the teachers’ means and ways to help students clarify and understand the texts. In order to move to the next step. alone or in groups. before moving on to new material. small group discussions. 1986). students are given specific feedback about their learning progress at regular intervals throughout the instructional period. Students continue the cycle of studying and testing until mastery is met. Block (1971) states that students with minimal prior knowledge of material have higher achievement through mastery learning than with traditional methods of instruction. Additional time for learning is prescribed for those requiring remediation. Hence.. learning levels and multiple cognitive thinking types. So. or additional homework. goals and abilities of each learners vary and must be determined before decisions about method can be made (Richards & Rodgers. the first sight definitely will be. I applied mastery learning approach in teaching the techniques of answering questions 35 to 37 in PMR English paper one. The needs. Well.. ” Cited from Davis & Sorrel (1995): “ In summary. In a mastery learning setting. Moreover. According to Davis & Sorrel (1995): “ The mastery learning method divides subject matter into units that have predetermined objectives or unit expectations. what their current level of language proficiency is. and the circumstances in which they will be using English in the future (Richards & Rodgers. Traditional instruction holds time constant and allows mastery to vary while mastery learning or systematic instruction holds mastery constant and allows time to vary (Robinson. 1986). This feedback. my great principle. 1992). The teachers normally decide the choice of teaching activities. teaching materials and learning activities after observing the actual needs of the students. peer monitoring. teaching methods. students have to master the prerequisite step. The student must reach a predetermined level of mastery on one unit before they are allowed to progress to the next. It is based on the concept that all students can learn when provided with conditions appropriate to their situation. Students must demonstrate mastery on unit exams. Yeah. this is what I told to myself. I was given two Form Three classes. “Do your job well”.” . mastery learning is not a new method of instruction.Introduction Teachers’ immediate concern when discussing the choice of teaching method focuses on who the learners are. Mastery learning engages the learner in multiple instructional methods. Once when the teachers’ receive their timetable at the beginning of the semester. To that. I agree with the above statement. I have to pacify myself because I have the title of Guru Cemerlang. Areas that were not learned well are allotted more time to achieve mastery. Students who do not achieve mastery receive remediation through tutoring. let me touch about poems with 3A2. that are: 1. the literary works are a medium of the writers to communicate and share about their lives. Literature is created from human activities and it is born of man’s timeless desire to understand. knowledge. like prose. These bunch of students tend to listen. They seem to be motivated during the time present and later tend to portray the attitude of no interest. The Dead Crow by A. During my English lessons. cultures and interests. Yet. giving personal pleasure to the readers (Lake Isle of Innisfree). They remembered the title but forgotten the poet or vice versa. The beauty of this class lies in the hands of the girls mainly and a few boys (maybe seven out of nineteen). I myself utilize this language during my teaching in order to give the clear meaning of the activity conducted in class. thoughts. follow and do what I say. The use of literature in language teaching gives many contributions to increase students’ achievement such as creative thinking. As product of culture. Somehow. According to the syllabus of form one literature component. it is important for the students to read and study literary works. Gosh! They are lost! They have forgotten all the poems that they covered in Form One. And the main problem was they did not know what was the poem about (message). Literary works reflect about parts of human lives such as values. and drama. no problem whenever I pose questions after each session or class. searching for main ideas and . in Malay and English. “ well if anyone tend to give any excuse for not doing or handing in your work you will face the concequencies. The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William B. and finally share experiences. A literary work. as time passes by. they usually sit quietly and pay attentive attention throughout the lesson. poetry. In English language teaching settings.. even though there are times I face jokers on and of. They usually say : yes. The main language used in class is none other than Bahasa Malaysia. understand . not forgetting English as the main communication tool. One of the genres of literature that is taught in language teaching is poetry. So. There are times where. feelings. can . students are exposed with these three poems. Samad Said 2. questions raised by this class can be counted. this class holds only Malay students. Therefore. express. and enjoyment. because literary works not only provide certain styles of language use but also they can increase and enrich students’ knowledge. morals.Background of 3A2 Comprising of 39 students (boys 19 and girls 20). experiences. motivation. experiences. It is usually this is what I say. The teaching of poetry should address the students to prepare them in visualizing. the meanings and of course the theme. I always make sure the instructions are said twice. may give a certain impression and contribution to the readers such as giving the readers about awareness of the truth of life as in The Dead Crow. Due to this magic words of mine. many literary texts are used as additional passages. Yeats Poerty in literature Literature is a product of culture. and problems to the readers. feeding heart of the readers (Life’s a Brief Candle). 3A2 is always up to date in sending in their task. experiences about human problems. With various background they are actually motivated but lack of confidence. majority of my students has the tendency speaking in English ( even with broken or Manglish). Life’s a Brief Candle by William Shakespeare 3. To my record. leaving the rest less hardworking. and helping the readers to be cultured man. the students read and identify important points or information of poems in which the information are useful for the students in improving their achievement and their literary competence of poems. The current data on the result of students’ test reveal that the students’ average score was 59. This study is designed to apply a strategy to solve the problems in poetry lesson especially improving students’ comprehension of poems. the dynamic strategy of teaching poetry should be considered. The numbers of the students are 39 students. The action research is classroom action research since the problems are found in the classroom. Let me state how each step was done during my research. most of them scored less than six over fifteen.understanding the poems. Mastery learning was the best choice. observation. Preliminary study aims at identifying the students’ problem in comprehending English poems and how the problems should be overcome. there is an urgent need to implement a strategy or technique that can help solve these problems. they sit in groups and divide the task among themselves. The strategy also may attract the students’ attention toward comprehension of poems and increase their motivation by actively involving in learning. Worst. I planned the action by dividing the students to groups of five. it indicates that most of the students still have low comprehension of poems. The Problem The problems of teaching poetry commonly place on the use of materials. Accordingly. namely planning. and reflection. Before implementing the four steps. Considering the facts above. In addition. I conducted a preliminary study to know the real problems in poetry lessons. It can guide and facilitate learning process in order to enable the students learn and create a better atmosphere of learning. Each group is asked to search questions related to the poems. The students must be addressed on comprehension of poems both the structure and the contents. A short test was conducted as my early step in this research. Then. I distributed a sheet of questions comprising only the three poems stated above (appendix 1). . Research Method The research design of the study is action research. Well.7 (fifty nine point seven). Step 1 : Planning In this phase. the use of appropriate strategy in teaching poetry can solve the problems occuring in poetry lesson. and students’ comprehension of poems. In comprehension process. the students’ comprehension of poems is not satisfactory. Therefore. implementation of action. In this case.The first problem is the students have low ability in comprehending poems both its structure and its content. They are assigned to give at least 10 questions for each poem. All students have the same treatments in the teaching and learning process. The design of this classroom action research is a cyclical process adapted from the model proposed by Kemmis and Taggart (1988). the use of teaching technique. The subjects of the study are 3A2 students of 2011. It comprises four main steps. the breaking news was none of my 39 students manage to obtain all correct answer. The data and findings of the study were presented based on the result of student’s understanding. At this point. practice makes perfect. The Lake Isle of Innisfree Step 3 : Observation At this phase. I only facilitate and comments. as the saying goes .Step 2 : Implementation of action Collected questions of the stated poems are pasted in A4 papers according to the titles. they are exposed to the same and similar questions over and over. The strategy provides some procedures that should be followed by the teachers and the teachers should give more attention how to control students’ discussion in groups or with other groups. The future researchers are suggested that they can use this research as a . students observe the questions ( students’ centred). They seem to obtain the correct answer even though they have not finished reading the question. Mainly there will be a group of : 1. Well. The implementation of this strategy is used to increase students’ achievement in scoring correct answers for poem questions. The outcome from this strategy was extra ordinary. according to the three poems. so to say three points are already in their hands. They might answer similar questions over and over (mastery). my students are really good in questions 35 to 37. Now. students are placed in three groups. In conclusion. Life’s a Brief Candle 3. Students managed to score correct answers for the questions on poems. I succeeded in implementing this mastery learning. Then. Step 4 : Reflection This will be more on class discussion to determine the correct answer. Research Findings The research findings are presented on the analysis of the collected data deriving from the implementation of the strategy in improving students’ comprehension of poems. The teachers of literature are recommended that they use mastery strategy to improve the students’ comprehension of poems or short stories. Teachers from other fields are also recommended to use this strategy for their subject such as history or mathematics. The real outcome was during the Trail PMR. these suggestions are addressed to English teachers and the future researchers. Students run the whole task. This will improve the cognitive thinking levels of students’ and they tend to get familiar. all findings showed that mastery learning strategy especially in poems was successful in improving students’ and promoting students to be involved actively. they discuss within their group and answer the questions. the number of students scored correct answer for this section was higher compared to other sections. Further Suggestions Based on the conclusion above. The Dead Crow 2. At this stage. Through this method. They also have positive attitudes towards group work in order to complete the purpose of learning. Davis. T. Paper prepared for PSY 702: Conditions of Learning. G. S. Anthony. Bhd. New York. 47–63).reference for conducting further research in the same field or other literature subjects by following its procedures. 113(1).. & Taggart. J. Mastery learning: Theory and practice (pp. 17(2): 63-67. Vol. T. and technique. April 2005. J. Richards. W. 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