Implementing Integrated Project Based Learning to Enhance Students’ Writing Skill

Abstract

Writing in English is important for vocational high school (SMK) students to prepare their future career so that they can compete with other job seekers both in Indonesia and other countries. However, the students find that writing is difficult to learn due to some cases: (1) they are less interested in it because it is not correlated with their major, (2) the limited time availability (3) the teaching learning process is less meaningful, and (4) they are lack of feedback due to the big number of students in one class. To overcome this problem, it is advisable to apply what so called integrated project based learning (PBL) by integrating writing to recount the project dealing with the students’ major. This paper describes how the integrated PBL can enhance the students’ writing skill through two main stages: (1) preparation stage. It is embodying grouping, determining the project work, determining the schedule, and learning the content as well as how to write a recount text in the classroom. (2) individual writing activity which covers (a) free writing; (b) drafting; (c) evaluating (peer reviewing and teacher learner conference); (d) revising; (e) post writing; (f) publishing in a social media; and (g) responding the social media reader’s comment.