IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION OF THE EIGHTH-GRADE STUDENTS OF SMPN 2 UBUD IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2022/2023 THROUGH KWL STRATEGY

Reading is important for students because they can get new information and knowledge. Students need to comprehend the text during reading process. In fact, most of the students in junior high school faced problem in reading comprehension. The objective of the present study was to find out whether the extent of reading comprehension of the eighth-grade students of SMPN 2 Ubud in academic year 2022/2023 could be improved through KWL strategy in classroom action research. There for to achieve the objective of the present study the researcher activities consisted of pre-test, post-test and questionnaire. Based on the result of pre-test which was carried out in the pre-cycle, it pointed out that subjects’ ability in reading comprehension especially in reading descriptive text was categorized is good. The present classroom action research was then carried out through KWL strategy. The result of the post-test I in second session showed that the subjects’ progress was decreased than pre-test before. In addition, the result of the post-test II in the last session there was significant progress concerning the subjects’ reading comprehension in which improved from the good level to excellent. This research furthermore showed that there was changing learning behavior as the result of the positive response concerning the technique applied in improving the subjects’ reading comprehension. To sum up, the present classroom action study proved that reading comprehension of the eighth-grade students of SMPN 2 Ubud in academic year 2022/2023 could be improved through KWL strategy. In addition, the subjects also responded positively.