THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CLUSTERING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION OF RECOUNT TEXT

The objectives of the research were to describe the process of improving students’ reading comprehension of recount text and to find out the improvement by implementing clustering technique at Eight Grade of SMPN 18 Tangerang. The research methodology was Classroom Action Research (CAR) by using Kemmis and McTaggart model. The subject of this research was the students of 8.6 class consisting of 40 students. The instruments used in data collecting were test, observation, and documentation. There were two meetings and one post test in every cycle. The result showed that there was improvement between pre-test and test in cycle one. The result of pre-test was 66, 53 and in the test of cycle one was 81, 40 but there were some students still got score under KKM=75. So, the researcher decided to continue to cycle two.  The result of test in cycle two was 90, 10 and all students passed KKM. So, the students’ score from pre-test to the test in cycle one improved about 14, 87 (22, 53%) and from the test in cycle one to the test in cycle two improved about 8, 7 (10, 68%). Besides, based on observation sheet that filled by the researcher and teacher, there was improvement in students’ motivation before and after CAR. The students were more interested in learning reading comprehension. They were enthusiastic in joining the class. They did not shy to ask the teacher when they felt confused or difficult in learning. From the result of the test above, the researcher conclude that using clustering technique can improve students’ reading comprehension especially of recount text.

Keyword: Reading Comprehension, Clustering Technique, Recount Text, CAR