IMPROVING STUDENT READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH COOPERATIVE LEARNING (SNOWBALL THROWING) AT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

ABSTRACT


Introduction
Nowadays, the number of learning methods provided by the teacher makes it easier for students to understand the lesson (Sirelkhatim & Gangi, 2015), but not a few also sometimes many teachers who can not adjust which learning methods are suitable to be given based on students' abilities.In teaching reading lessons, teachers must know the extent of their students' ability to understand the material being read because some of their students are merely reading but do not know the content or purpose of the reading.cooperative learning method is considered as a method that is able to make students easier to understand reading because with the cooperative learning method students can discuss at the same time solve problems in a reading.According to (Sabatini et al., 2013) also stated that reading is thebasicfoundationinallaspectoflearning.Other aspect in learning came first from reading.Soreadingcomprehensionisveryimportant for the students of English as foreign language.The purpose of this study was to determine the benefits of cooperative learning using snowball throwing games, and to improve student performance in groups.The reason for doing this research is because currently the students' low reading habits and abilities make students feel lazy to do reading activities, so that researchers want to develop reading interest in an exciting way and create active reading habits (Rasiah et al., 2011).
Cooperative learning has developed through scientific research (Gillies, 2014), so that learning can be applied at all levels of education such as materials and other English language activities.Most teachers prefer to apply intermediation in the cooperative learning process.Each member of the team is only responsible for learning what is taught, and at the same time helping teammates learn, so as to create a sense of accomplishment.Students complete the homework directly until all group members are lucky enough to understand and complete it.Cooperative learning is also a teaching strategy in which student groups use various learning activities to improve their understanding of the subject.Each member of the team is not only responsible for learning what is taught, but also for helping teammates learn.Therefore, it is necessary to create an environment of achievement and practice.In this sense, even if the team members have different ability levels (Hurtado et al., 2015), all members of the team will work together to produce a common product.
In this strategy, snowball means a paper kneads into ball and because the color was white, that's why we call it snowball.Snowball throwing strategy was one kinds of cooperative learning model.Another expert as cited in (Meilinda, 2018) states that snowball throwing is a technique that requires active students in teaching and learning activities.In this teaching technique of each student create two distinct groups.Each group represented materials provided by teachers.The material is also not far from what has been given by teachers to the students.Learning environment and management system of snowballing cooperative learning provides opportunities for learning democracy, enhances students' appreciation of academic learning, and prepares students for learning collaboration and social skills through the active participation of learner groups.Provides learning opportunities.It establishes a positive relationship between teachers, students and students, and creates better opportunities to learn English more effectively (Richards & Bohlke, 2011).
This model activated the leadership potential students in the group and skill to create and answer questions that modified with imaginative game, creating and throwing the snowball.By this strategy it might increase the students's reading score.Snowball throwing technique iseasier technique for students so that they can understand and also study the text to prepare questions and answers during the teaching and learning process (Indriani, 2019).
By using the snowball throwing method, students can easily discuss and understand with the group how to solve problems in reading, and also increase their creativity in learning in a more exciting way.Then they can also more active to answer and give questions to other groups so that with this activity they do not feel difficult in understanding the reading and do not feel bored because they have to focus on one reading, in snowball throwing strategy all students work together in one group and help each other.
Darusmin, Delfi, and Masyhur as cited in (Apsari, 2018)defined snowball throwing as one modification of an interesting game that is mutually throwing snowballs which contains questions to fellow friends which focuses on the ability to formulate question.
According to (Gani et al., 2017), the snowball throwing technique focuses on involving the students to working groups and gives chances to them to construct some questions based on the task or reading text given by the teacher.As a consequence, students not only try to ask some questions and talk but they also do physical activities,that is one of activities in throwing some paper to another student.
For English Teacher,the researcher hoped that the findings can provide knowledge of snowball throwing to teach reading and improve student reading skills also make the teacher aware about the student comprehension in reading.For the Student, the researcher hoped that the srategy to be useful to help students improving their reading skills.
For students this research is useful to make it easier for students to carry out reading activities so that students no longer have difficulty solving problems in reading either individually or in groups.Based on the results obtained before and after the research was conducted, some students prefer to learn by using learning methods and at the same time becoming games in the learning.

Research Methods
This research was conducted through quantitative and qualitative analysis.The main aspect in which the researchers wanted to solve the students' problem was not only text but content.The data from student answer and the process by employing integrative image rather than numeric data because this study to know how senior high school student reading comprehension in the classroom.Qualitative research question isan interrogative sentence that usually contains questions about several processes, then a problem or a phenomenon to be explored.This research will be conduct in Kedamean Senior High School especially in the class of Tenth graders.The researcher choose Tenth graders because in Tenth graders students likely would not interfere compared to Twelve graders which might have more exams so it would interfere with the teaching and learning process.Then in Tenth graders students still really want the teaching and learning process in groups such as learning for junior high school students.In the class there are 30 students and researcher applies the snowball throwing method to the 30 students, at the end of the study researcher will see the results whether the 30 students understand the reading given using the snowball throwing method.1.For the instrument the researcher use : Field notesat the beginning of conducting research by noting how the condition of school, then starting to enter the classroom and noting how the classroom situation and about the character of students.

Questionnaire results
The researcher distributes a questionnaire to students about learning using the snowball throwing method, then students fill out the questionnaire according to their opinion regarding the snowball throwing method.
The function of a qualitative questionnaire is to produce research that has been criticized because not all interviewees participated in representing the class at the time the research was conducted.For researchers and readers who use this method, it is important to remember that the materials it generates rarely form the basis of generalization.Like other qualitative methods, its advantage lies in the insights that can be obtained from its materials; the respondent's answers.Another criticism involves strict control over what is included in the answers clearly expressed in the instructions of the information provider.
For analyzing the data, the researcher takes notes as field note to add brief information related with the student's learning activities during readingcomprehension.And then the researcher looked at the answers from the questionnaire results.After getting the results from questionnaire also field notes, the researcher will analyze the student's learning strategies based on the data that has been taken.The researcher used open-ended questionnaire to get additional information that might not be found in the answer choices.

Results and Discussion
According to the observation about the situations of the school, the researchers decided to take into account by applying STT in Kedamean senior high school Pre-test was distributed to the students which meant to identify and select students' comprehensive knowledge in reading comprehension.On this part, asking students to introduce themselves one by one in front of the class was needed.After going through this selection, the scores required were as follows:

Figure1 Comparison score
Having said about the results from the table, the improvement of students' speaking skill through STT (snowball throwing technique) can be seen.From the calculation of both scores, the presentation can be displayed below: Source: Data processing 2020 Natasya Meyla Mufida Based on the above calculations, it can be said that the students' reading comprehension was improved from pretest score and posttest score through cooperative learning (snowball throwing) Furthermore, seeing the qualitative side of pretest through the implementation of cooperative learning displayed through observation checklist, field notes and documentation.By looking at the first result of pre-test, students were seen unhappiness when the researchers tested them reading spontaneously.They looked bashful in interpreting themselves through their own sentences.When teaching started at first, the students did not fully understand to carry out cooperative learning (snowball throwing) in their classroom.They lost attention and could not follow the instruction given.The observation appeared that students did not fully proper in reading English as expected.Hence, the researchers ensured to build up the atmosphere in English class as the first step to make students enjoyable with the learning process.The researchers found some doubts, such as "umm" or "eee" followed by before and after answering the questions delivered.Besides that, they faced some difficulties facing themselves to read in English.During the learning process, the researchers observed that they could not concentrate to follow the learning situation in case of indolence made by them.As the impact, there were only several students paid attention and followed the instruction as well practiced to speak in English responsively.At the last meeting, students appropriately wanted to improve their ability to follow the instruction through STT (snowball throwing technique).The paper balls that they were using was quietly fun and made them excited.Unfortunately, due to their excitement, the class was sometime uncontrolled.They started screaming and made their voices louder to each other.
Researchers provide cooperative learning through snowball throwing games.Starting from the first group throwing a question to the second group, then the second group throwing a question to group 3 and group three throwing a question to the first group, then each group is given time to answer, the researcher sees how they work together to find the right answer.Until in the end each group has an answer to be corrected together.
According to (Styawati & Rizal, 2017) snowballthrowing is a teaching technique to improve students attention to comprehension of the text.Through the snowballthrowing model, students are invited to find information in general, and the group leader is determined to preside over the group discussion.Each group writes a question to the other group, and the other group answers the questions and draws conclusions from the group's answers to the questions they received.The snowball mode is conducive to let students not only understand the text to be asked and asked in the process of teaching and learning.
According to Hardian's opinion, using the snowball throwing method can improve students' understanding of the text being read.Hardian also said that the snowball throwing method can make students concentrate that they must be prepared to ask questions or receive questions because in this method all students play an active role as question givers and recipients, so they must understand the reading text in order to answer questions correctly andgive the good questions.
Through the cooperative learning method students can increase their reading comprehension well, not only that but the cooperative lerning method can also improve students' ability to think in public and also provide responses, criticisms and also suggestions.Students with poor denial abilities are less involved in the text, and their overall grades are lower than their peers.Therefore, it is very important to improve the motivation of students to read.Through cooperative learning, students can better understand textbooks or reading, so that students can enjoy reading without being forced, and can also enjoy the process of reading, thus bringing benefits to students.
Reading ability can be defined as a sensory system related to reading, which allows learners to approach or avoid reading situations.Matthewson pointed out that reading ability determines the decision to read.There are two factors that affect reading decisions, one is external motivating factors and the other is personal emotional state.Students with active reading skills like reading activities and benefit from them.Their understanding of the course materials has increased, and they also feel that they are better prepared for the exam, and they have achieved better results in reading compared to students with negative reading ability.(Styawati & Rizal, 2017) (Styawati & Rizal, 2017)argues that "Reading is understanding."They also found that recognizing words, reading text fluently, or defining words correctly did not guarantee that the reader is a good reader.The reader has to reconstruct the author's message.If readers can read the words of the text but don't know anything about what they are reading, they are not really reading.
According to (Pattanpichet, 2011) said that Collaborative learning involves learners working in pairs or groups.They share information.It is a team whose participants must work together to successfully achieve their goals.This means that learners have more opportunities to actively participate in learning, ask and challenge themselves, share and discuss their ideas.Learning together can help students participate in classroom activities and make them more active by increasing their confidence, motivation and empathy.Some of the challenges of collaborative learning include letting go of learning controls, managing noise levels, resolving conflicts, and assessing student learning.Serious structured activities can help students learn the skills of effective collaboration, while structured discussions and reflections on group processes can help avoid some problems.
Snowball throwing is a method that can be used in teaching reading.This method is a cooperative method that focuses on group discussions.This method prioritizes group discussions where each group prepares answers and also asks questions then each student answers each question from a different group.According to (Andri Siahaan et al., 2020) addsmore that Through the snowball throwing technique, students usually invite them to find information and decide that the principal is responsible for the discussion in the group.Each group will write a question to the other group, and then the other group will answer the question and draw a conclusion based on the group's answers to the questions they received.
According to (Roth et al., 2010), Regardless of age (from preschool to university) and/or course, the benefits are the same.When interacting with others, students will learn to ask questions, share ideas, clarify differences, solve problems and build new understandings.Compared with working alone, students who work together are more motivated to achieve success.
According to (English, 2011)students get some knowledge including academic knowledge, then advanced knowledge such as how groups work, how students function as part of the group and also how other members work in groups.According to respondents, group work strengthens empirical and theoretical learning.

Conslusion
Based on my research, it can be concluded that the cooperative learning method using the snowball throwing game can make it easier for students to understand reading.This can be seen from the research I did on the first day to the last day by seeing the progress of students' reading comprehension which was increasing.Snowball throwing increases students' creativity in making questions and also answering a question so that students can easily understand and cooperate with each other in the group.
The cooperative learning method also makes it easier for students to understand the contents of the reading because in the cooperative learning method students are taught in detail in analyzing the readings but in a way that is more exciting and not too encouraged in books.In this way students will feel more free, not depressed and the learning atmosphere will be much more relaxed and not boring so that students will more easily absorb the learning given by the researcher.
Based on the results of the questionnaire given by the researcher to students, most students gave the answer that they could understand the learning given using the snowball throwing method compared to individual learning that did not involve group work.Most students find it difficult to read a reading and understand it themselves and also students feel bored more quickly, so that the cooperative learning method with this snowball game is able to solve students' difficulties in understanding the reading and answering questions.
Researcher hope with this method students can be more active in learning and also more active in reading.Researcher also hope that teachers are more creative in processing learning so that students can more easily understand and learning becomes a pleasant situation for students so that students do not feel overwhelmed or bored.