IMPROVING STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH STAD (STUDENT TEAM ACHIEVEMENT DIVISION) AT THE EIGHTH GRADE OF SMPN 1 TUNJUNG TEJA (A Classroom Action Research)

The objectives of this research is to describe the implementation of teaching reading comprehension through STAD to improve students’ reading comprehension . The subject of the research was the eighth grade of SMPN 1 Tunjung Teja. There were 30 students. The researcher carried out three steps. The first step was the pre-test. The second step was the action. The action consisted of two cycles. The difference between these cycles was on topic of material. Each cycle consisted of teaching and learning process and a test. The last steps were the post-test. The instruments used test, observation sheet, and documentation. The result of the data showed that there is improvement of the students’ achievement in the pretest and post-test. In the pre-test, students’ average score was 53.3. While after the researcher used the treament in the cycle 1, the result of the students’ post-test average score was 73,3. Then in the cycle 2, the result of students’ post-test average score was 87,5. Based on the result of the test, the improvement of cycle 1 was 27% and the improvement in cycle 2 was 16%. The researcher concluded that STAD (Student Team Achivement Division) technique could improve students reading comprehension.

Key words: Reading comprehension and STAD (Student Team Achievement Division)