Improving Students' Reading Through The Use of Illustration Pictures at Class VIII B of SMP Negeri 2 Kragan

This research aims to know whether the use of illustration pictures improves the reading comprehension of Class VIII B students at SMP Negeri 2 Kragan who found it difficult to achieve the passing grade of 75, has a rowdy classroom and mostly inattentive because they are unable to adapt to regular classroom environment from years of e-learning. The grand theory of the research is based on the DCT Theory by Clark and Paivio. The researcher used Collaborative Classroom Action Research with the researcher acts as collaborator, conceptor, and observer, while the teacher acts as the implementator. The technique used in this research is illustration pictures. This research consists of two cycles, with each cycle consists of planning, action, observation, and reflection. Each cycle of the study consists of four meetings. There are 32 students as participants. Three research instruments that are utilized in this research are test (which consists of pre-test and post-test at the beginning and the end of the cycle), observation, and interview. Methodological and investigator triangulation are used to check the validity and the credibility of the data. The findings of the research demonstrates that the use of illustration pictures to improve the students’ reading comprehension resulted in success. The students’ average score in pre-test is 50,625, the students’ average score in post-test 2 is 79,125, which means growth from the pre-test to post-test 2 is 56,29%. This research also resulted in students become more attentive to the classroom activity and the classroom condition is more suitable to let the students adapt from e-learning to regular classroom environment. A conclusion can be made that illustration pictures technique is successful to improve students’ reading comprehension.