1 Enhancing The VIII-B Students' Reading Comprehension Achievement on Recount Text by Using Jigsaw IV Technique at SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Rambipuji Ahmad Subhan, Sugeng Ariyanto, Eka Wahjuningsih Language and Arts Education Program, The Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Jember University Jln. Kalimantan 37, Jember 68121 E-mail: hans90ahmad@gmail.com Abstract This classroom action research was intended to enhance students’ active participation and their reading comprehension achievement by using Jigsaw IV technique. The subjects of this research were VIII-B students of SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Rambipuji. The area and the subjects of the research were determined by using purposive method. The data collection methods of this research were reading test, observation checklist, documentation, and interview. The collected data were analyzed statistically by using percentage . This research was conducted in one cycle. The cycle 1 was done in three meetings including the reading comprehension test. The result of this research showed enhancement at the students’ reading achievement and active participation. The result of the observation on the students’ participation in the cycle 1 were 66% students were active in meeting 1 and 81% students were active in meeting 2. Further, from the reading comprehension test result, it was found that the students who got the score at least 75 reached 81%. The improvement could be seen from the percentage of the students who got score at least 75 that was 44% in previous scores to 81% in cycle 1. Considering the result in cycle 1, since the gratification had been achieved in cycle 1, the action was discontinued. And finally, it could be concluded that Jigsaw IV technique could enhance the VIII-B students’ reading comprehension achievement on recount text at SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Rambipuji. Keywords: Classroom Action Research, Jigsaw IV Technique, Reading Comprehension Achievement, Students’ Participation. I. Introduction According to Hanafi [1], among the four skills, reading becomes one of the important skills that the students should master first in order to support the process of mastering the other skills and improving knowledge. Based on the researcher’s observation during teaching and learning activity, students still have lack of comprehension on the text since they usually experience difficulties in interpreting the content of the text. In this case, the students still find difficulties to gain the main ideas and the supporting details of the paragraphs. Then, the students also find difficulties in grasping the idea to finish reading the text due to the lack of vocabularies they have. To cope with this, an appropriate technique should be used in order to overcome those problems. In this case, Jigsaw technique is considered to be the appropriate technique to be applied to teach reading skill. Kagan [2] states that each participant in Jigsaw technique is given some of the information necessary to solve a problem, so they have to cooperate to be successful. Jigsaw is a teaching technique which was designed by Aronson in 1970s. It is one of the techniques in Cooperative Learning. In Jigsaw technique, each group member has the same chance to participate actively in their group. According to Slavin [3] the members of different teams who have studied the same sections meet in “expert group” to discuss their section. Then, the students return to their home groups. The most complete version of Jigsaw is Jigsaw IV which was developed by Holliday [4]. Jigsaw IV technique has been developed to minimize the weaknesses on the previous versions of Jigsaw. In order to gain maximum result of this research, the researcher uses Jigsaw IV technique. Based on the statement explained before, a classroom action research is needed in order to know how the technique solves the students’ problem in learning English, especially on reading skill at SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Rambipuji. Since Jigsaw IV technique offers a chance to solve the problem in learning English, especially in reading skill, the researcher is interested in conducting a classroom action research by using this technique to enhance students’ reading comprehension achievement. The title of this classroom action research is “Enhancing The VIII-B Students’ Reading Comprehension Achievement on Recount Text by Using Jigsaw IV Technique at SMP Muhammadiyah 3 Rambipuji”. 2. Related Literature Review 2.1 Theoretical Framework Reading can be defined as a process of gaining and interpreting information from a text. Cline, Johnstone and King [5] argue that reading is the process of deriving meaning from text that involves decoding written text. In addition, Alyousef [6] states that reading can be seen as an interactive process between a reader and a text that happen