Enhancing the Eighth Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension by Using Snowball Throwing Approach at SMP Bany Khozin Bangsalsari Jember in The 2017/2018 Academic Year

Reading as one of the language skills must be mastered by the students since it is the basic skill in learning English. However many students still difficult to learn and practice in reading, it’s because there is no motivation for them. Therefore, it is important to do a research entitled “The Use of Snowball Throwing to Improve the Eighth Grade Students’ Reading Comprehension”.
In this research, the problem is “can the use of Snowball Throwing improve the Eighth A grade students’ reading comprehension at SMP Bany Khozin Bangsalsari Jember in The 2017/2018 Academic Year.?” and the objective of the research is to know whether or not Snowball Throwing can improve the VIII A grade students’ reading comprehension at SMP Bany Khozin Bangsalsari Jember in The 2017/2018 Academic Year.
Based on the research problem and the relevant theory, the action hypothesis of the research is Snowball Throwing can improve the VIII A grade students’ Narrative text reading comprehension at SMP Bany Khozin Bangsalsari Jember in The 2017/2018 Academic Year. The design of the research is classroom action research with cycle model. The subject of the research are VIII A grade students of SMP Bany Khozin Bangsalsari Jember that consist of 30 students, in the second semester 2017/2018 academic year. The research target is 70. The actions in cycle covered 1) planning of the action, 2) implementing of the action, 3) observing of the action and 4) reflecting. The instrument used the test item and observation field notes. In order to analyze the data students reading score, average formula is used.
The results of this research are as follows: The average score of their class in reading comprehension test is 70 after being taught reading comprehension using Snowball Throwing in cycle 1. There were 70% or 21 of students who get score ≥70 from 30 students. In the cycle 2, the result of the average score of the students’ in reading comprehension test is 77. There were 80% or 24 of students who get score ≥70 from 30 students. The score improved from cycle 1 that is 70 to 77 in cycle 2 and from 70% to 80%.
Based on the result above, the researcher could interpret that students had been able to comprehend the passage. Finally, the researcher concluded that Snowball Throwing can improve students’ reading comprehension by giving chance the students to explore their vocabulary, stimulating the students to ask and answer and also cooperative in learning.
Key words: Snowball Throwing, Reading Comprehension.