TEACHING READING COMPREHENSION IN NARRATIVE TEXT

BY USING WINDOW NOTE STRATEGY

AT VIII GRADE OF JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
By:
Eniza Putri*)
eniza_putri06e@yahoo.co.id

**) Rina Susanti

ABSTRAK
Reading adalah sebuah aktifitas di mana siswa mendapatkan informasi dan
pengetahuan yang terdapat dalam sebuah bacaan atau teks yang dapat menambah halhal baru bagi siswa itu sendiri. Untuk dapat menambah ilmu pengetahuan dan
mendapatkan informasi sebanyak mungkin siswa harus bisa memahami teks yang
dibacanya dengan baik. Namun pada dasarnya, sebagian siswa terutama siswa
Sekolah Menengah belum bisa membaca kalimat bahasa Inggris dengan baik. Adapun
sebagian siswa dapat membaca kalimat bahasa Inggris dengan baik tapi mereka tidak
tahu makna dari apa yang dibacanya tersebut. Oleh karena itu, dalam makalah ini
penulis membahas mengenai Window Note Strategy sebagai salah satu strategy
dalam pengajaran reading.
Window note strategy merupakan sebuah strategy yang dapat meningkatkan
pemahaman siswa dalam membaca terutama pada teks narartive. Dalam penggunaan
strategy ini siswa diminta untuk dapat mengorganisir isi teks dan membaginya atau
memisahkan isi dari teks ke dalam bentuk idea, feeling, fact, and question sehingga
siswa tidak hanya memahami isi teks tersebut dan mengerti maknanya tetapi juga
memahami secara detail, fokus dan terorganisir.
Secara garis besar dapat disimpulkan bahwa strategy ini sangat bermanfaat bagi siswa
untuk meningkatkan kemampuan reading siswa terutama dalam memahami isi teks
yang dibaca oleh siswa. Siswa dapat dengan mudah memahami isi teks yang akan
dibacanya karena dengan strategy ini siswa dituntut dan dipandu untuk bagaimana
agar siswa tersebut dapat mendalami teks yang dibacanya dan kemudian dapat
menjelaskan teks sesuai dengan kelompoknya masing-masing yaitu idea, feeling, fact,
dan question. Selain itu, strategy ini juga melatih siswa untuk berpikir lebih kritis
untuk menerapkan strategy tersebut sesuai dengan prosedurnya.
Key words: Reading, Component of Language and Window Note Strategy
Keterangan:
*) Mahasiswa Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP PGRI Sumatera
Barat.
**) Pembimbing/ Staf Pengajar Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris STKIP
PGRI Sumatera Barat.

INTRODUCTION

of the text has different purpose form

In English there are four major skills

that should mastered, they are listening,
reading, speaking and writing. Reading

and generic structure. Therefore, it is

important for the students to have
reading skill.

is one of four major skills, which can

However,

help to get much information and

problems in learning reading, especially

increase readers knowledge in reading

in reading narrative text. Based on the

activity. The information find in many

writer observation at MTsN Durian

printed material because now many

Tarung Padang, the writer found there

printed material had written in English

are some problems in learn reading

language such as text book, magazine,

especially in narrative text such as: the

and new paper and so on.

students

Based

on

Curriculum)

KTSP

(School

2006,

the

Based
standard

competency of reading in Junior High

School is to understand the meaning of
the words and sentences from short
functional

text

or

essay.

In

understanding short functional text or

essay,

the students are hoped

to

comprehend the text accurately and

carefully. The students are not only
expected to be able to answer the
questions related to the text, but also to
know the meaning of the text explicitly
and implicitly. There are so many kinds
of the text that are learned by eighth
grade students such as: descriptive,
narrative, and recount text. Then, each

the

students

were

comprehending

get

some

difficult

in

reading

text,

the

because the students did not know the

main idea provide in reading text. The
students

were

comprehending

difficult
the

in

important

information and generic structure in the

text

because

the

students

less

vocabulary. The students got low scores

in reading because the text was not
interesting
problems

for

them.

above,

From

the

those

writer

has

assumption that the strategy that used by

teacher

in

teaching

reading

is

monotonous, less variety, and less

attractive so the students became bored,
not interesting in reading activities. So
the effect by students is the students got
low scores in reading items.

Based on the problems above, the

in which the reader tries to catch the

teacher

meaning in order to get new information

should

find

good

and

appropriate strategy in teaching reading.

about

There are some strategy to improve

interaction with the text. Reading is

students reading comprehension such

likewise a skill that teachers simply

as Note-Taking strategy, Structure Note-

expect learners to acquire (Brown,

Taking strategy and the last Window

2004). It means that reading is a process

Note. From those strategy above the

that

writer choose Window Note strategy,

information

because Window note strategy can help

reading text.

the

students

to

increase

their

comprehension in reading skill.

something

expects

as

the
or

reader

knowledge

result

to

of

get

through

Reading Comprehension
Reading is a process of comprehending

REVIEW OF RELATED

the text. The readers purpose of reading

LITERATURE

is to comprehend or get the meaning of

Reading is an active process in which

readers relate to the information of the
text to what they have already known.
Reading as interpreting meaning that
react to a written text as a piece of
communication

(Wallace,

1992).

It

means that reading as a communication

between the writer and the reader which
is the writer write a message in their
written

text.

Reading

is

usually

conceived of as a solitary activity in

which the reader interacts with the text
in isolation (Nunan, 1998). It can be
said that reading is a process of
interaction between reader and the text

what they read. Reading comprehension

as

process

of

simultaneously

extracting and constructing meaning

through interaction and involvement
with written language (Snow, 2002). In
reading comprehension process, a reader
engage

in

two

process,

they are

pronounce or produce a sound of words

and getting meaning of the words. So, to
be able to comprehend a reading text
well, the reader should be able to do
both process. If the reader only can
pronounce the sound of word but they
cannot comprehend the word meaning.
In other word, that the reader cannot do
reading comprehension.

Teaching Reading Comprehension

Window Note Strategy

In

reading

Window Notes is a focusing and

comprehension, the teacher wants to

organizational strategy that students

make the students are able to remember

engage in during reading.

what they have been read (Ediger and

read selected text, students asked to

Rao, 2000). It means that while doing

focus their attention and organize their

reading process, the students must

thoughts in four specific areas. During

understand and attach meaning relate to

their reading, they react to text relating

words that they read. On the other

to: facts, feelings, ideas (Asaro and

hands, in teaching reading process, the

Chute, 2007). This strategy the students

teacher should be able to make the

focus and organize their fact, feeling,

students comprehend what they have

idea during reading text. The students

been read. Unless, the students can state

should understand about their text in

what they has been read in their own

order to the student can apply window

words and also are able to answer any

note strategy and then student can

question about what the text about.

explain what the content of the text that

the

term

of

teaching

As students

they read after divide it into four

Narrative Text

specific areas.
Narrative is kind of the text to retell the
activity or event in the past, and give the
problematic experience and resolution
to amuse and give writer moral to the
readers (Pradiyono, 2007). He also adds
that

the

rhetorical

structures

for

narrative texts are: orientation, sequence

of events that leads to conflict-climax,
resolution, coda.

Procedure of Window Note Strategy

There are some procedures of window
note strategy (Asaro and Chute, 2007),
there are:
1. Students read a text and organize
their

thoughts

into

four

corresponding quadrants as they read.

2. Students

read

the

text,

surface

questions, and note these questions in

preparation, they are:

choosing topic,

media, and time allocation. In preteaching reading activities, the teacher

the corresponding quadrant.

3. Students work

can do some activities as follow: such

in small groups

sharing their ideas, facts, feeling and

as:

the teacher greets the students, the

teacher checks the students attendance

list and the teacher gives brainstorming

questions

to the students do show the pictures

4. Teachers circulate the room listening

for

vocabulary

use,

related to the material example:

correct

articulation of the BIG IDEAS as

apposed to literal facts, reactions in

The students tell about one of the

the form of feelings, and to the level

pictures. In whilst-teaching reading

of questioning posed and answered

activities, teacher applies procedures of

window note strategy that have been

by students.

combined before. The teacher and the

5. Teachers have students report out one

students discuss about the material that

thought shared from each quadrant

they have learnt. In post-teaching

reading activity, the teacher give some

that the group agrees is significant

learning.

assignment to students or homework.

CONCLUSION

6. Students complete an exit

card
Referring with the description above,

responding to: What was the huge

learning from todays activity?

the writer can b e concluded, that

reading is an activity to find new ideas
and as a communication between the

DISCUSSION
Before

doing

writer and reader through a message in

pre-teaching

reading

their written text. By reading from many

activities, teacher has to make some

materials resources, such as newspaper,

science book, and magazine, we can

difficulties in reading comprehension of

enrich our knowledge and we can get

narrative text.

some information that we want. So

reading is very useful to increase our
knowledge and information.
In teaching reading, there are some
kinds of genre or text that related with
reading. One of it is Narrative Text that
related with story. Teaching reading
comprehension of narrative text need
collaboration among teacher creative,
students active, selecting material and
strategy. Window Note strategy is a
strategy that used by teacher to teaches
in reading comprehension of narrative
text, in order to the learners more active
act and engagement of mind. This
strategy asks student what they think
and lets them have their own opinion.
The learner can organize the text based
their think into feel, fact, question, and

REFERENCES
Asaro, Guzzardo Lisa and Barry Chute.
2007. Window Note. New York:
Macomb Intermediate School
District.
Brown, H. Douglas. 2004. Language
Assessment: Principles and
Classroom Practice. New York:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Depdiknas. 2006. Kurikulum Bahasa
Inggris ( KTSP 2006). Padang:
Depdiknas.
Ediger, Marlow & Rao D. Bhaskara.
2000.
Teaching
Reading
Successfully.
New
Delhi:
Discovery Publishing House.
Nunan,

David.
1998.
Language
Teaching
Methodology:
A
Textbook for Teachers. New
York: Longman.

Pradiyono. 2007. Pasti Bisa: Teaching

Genre-Based
Writing.
Yogyakarta: Andi Offset.

idea during reading the text. It can make

deepening comprehension of students in
reading. In addition, Window Note
strategy helps students to collaborate

Snow, Catherine E. 2002. Reading for

Understanding: Toward an R &
D
Program
In
Reading
Comprehension. Santa Monica:
RAND.

their prior knowledge with the text that

they read. It can be concluded that
Window Note strategy is one of
effective ways to solve the students

Wallace, Catherine. 1992. Language

Teaching: A Scheme for Teacher
Education. New York: Oxford
University Press.