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.