Assisting Students to Write an Introductory Paragraph of an Argumentative Essay Using Bloom’s Taxonomy’s Based Questions
Name &Institution: Titih Ratih Safitri Ridwan, S.Pd / LBPP LIA Buah Batu Bandung
Ø Abstract
Writing is considered a somewhat tricky language skill since it forces the students to produce a piece of work that shows their thinking pattern. As a matter of fact, writing output equals students’ reading input; it means if they read a lot, they will write effortlessly. Meanwhile it seems that reading is still not students’ cup of tea which inevitably affects their ability as well as quality of writing.
Argumentative essay is the highest level of writing piece because students must persuade readers to believe in their thought. This kind of writing obliges them to expose and compile facts and formulate them into their belief written as a thesis statement. Besides, they also have to be able to state their mind clearly in an attempt of grabbing powerful opinions of the issue. In order to help them to construct a good introductory paragraph consisting general statements and a thesis statement, the writer uses leading questions based on Bloom taxonomy’s level of thinking.
This classroom action research applied three stages in data analysis, namely pre treatment; while first of all, students were assigned to write an introductory paragraph without the help of the leading questions. Then it came to the second assignment to write by the guidance of the leading questions until four times. In the final treatment students were given a questionnaire as a feed back to the writer.
Based on the findings, it shows that the comparisons between the students writing piece in the beginning without the guidance of the leading questions and those which are with the guidance are somewhat different. Before the treatment, students thinking pattern was tangle and unstructured. They simply stated what came to their mind without any consideration of putting the statements into a correct order. Meantime, having answered the leading questions for four times, the students began to show their ability to write smoothly. Their pieces of writing were written in a good order, narrowing down from the general statements to a specific one which is the thesis statement. Moreover, the result of the questionnaire showed that most of the students thought that the questions based on Bloom taxonomy were helpful.
To sum up, every teacher is supposed to be able to find a solution to each problem faced by students. Formulating and adapting Bloom taxonomy level of thinking is one of the solutions to help students construct an orderly introductory paragraph of an argumentative essay. It indicates that students are able to achieve certain level of language skill if they are guided from the lower stages to the higher ones.
Ø Background
One of the language skills should be mastered by the students in our institution is writing. The students are expected to be able to do a writing piece well. They are demanded to apply the theory about writing they have learnt .However, the students find it uninteresting compared to other skills. They are reluctant to perform this assignment. Furthermore this task requires the mastery language elements such as mastery of vocabulary, grammar and many more. They cannot write ideas systematically, narrowing down general ideas into specific ones. This condition results in unclear and hard to understand piece of the writing. As a result to be able to write well the students need to work hard and so do the teachers who should teach them how to write well. That is why, the writers decided to conduct a simple research, a classroom action research, by adapting Bloom’s taxonomy’s question based for assisting students in performing writing task. We use the revised Bloom’s taxonomy because, according to, it provides an even more powerful tool to fit today’s teacher’s need. The structure of the Revised Taxonomy Table matrix "provides a clear, concise visual representation" (Krathwohl, 2002) of the alignment between standards and educational goals, objectives, products, and activities.
This study chooses students of LIA at level Intermediate three, which consists of 17 students during term three that started from early July until late September in 2010.. It looks a small sample, though; a large sample tends not to be as necessary apparently because linguistic behavior is more homogenous than any other types of behavior studied by surveys (Sankoff, 1980 cited in Rismanto, 1997: 8).
The technique of Bloom’s taxonomy’s question based was given before the students do the assignment. Hopefully, it would benefit the students in doing the assignment so they can produce a good piece of writing. This study was undertaken to find out whether the technique of bloom’s taxonomy’s questions’ based into assisting students to write an introductory paragraph works well. Research into one of language skills, especially writing, is worth doing since it will help students figure out the appropriate technique to write well. Specifically, this study narrows its scope into an argumentative essay, which requires more critical thinking from the students. Last of all, this study is looked ahead to give an additional implication to English pedagogy and to enrich the reference of foreign language study too.
Ø Theoretical Framework
The most important factor in writing exercises is that students need to be personally involved in order to make the learning experience of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in the exercise, while at the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills he/she is trying to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide on which means (or type of exercise) can facilitate learning of the target area. Once the target skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then proceed to focus on what topic can be employed to ensure student participation. By pragmatically combing these objectives, the teacher can expect both enthusiasm and effective learning. With both the target area and means of production, clear in the teachers mind, the teacher can begin to consider how to involve the students by considering what type of activities are interesting to the students; Are they preparing for something specific such as a holiday or test?, Will they need any of the skills pragmatically? What has been effective in the past? A good way to approach this is by class feedback, or brainstorming sessions. By choosing a topic that involves the students the teacher is providing a context within which effective learning on the target area can be undertaken.
Finally, the question of which type of correction will facilitate a useful writing exercise is of utmost importance. Here the teacher needs to once again think about the overall target area of the exercise. If there is an immediate task at hand, such as taking a test, perhaps teacher guided correction is the most effective solution. However, if the task is more general (for example developing informal letter writing skills), maybe the best approach would be to have the students work in groups thereby learning from each other. Most importantly, by choosing the correct means of correction the teacher can encourage rather discourage students.
The language skill investigated in this research is writing, in which the purpose of writing itself is argumentative essay. There are three core elements in an essay, namely first is an introductory paragraph, second is a body paragraph, and third is a concluding paragraph. The writers will merely focus on an introductory paragraph, which contains of two main components: general statements and a thesis statement.
In order to analyze the issue of this study, it will adept and modify Bloom’s taxonomy. According to Benjamin Bloom, and his colleagues, there are six levels of cognition:
- Knowledge: rote memorization, recognition, or recall of facts
- Comprehension: understanding what the facts mean
- Application: correct use of the facts, rules, or ideas
- Analysis: breaking down information into component parts
- Synthesis: combination of facts, ideas, or information to make a new whole
- Evaluation: judging or forming an opinion about the information or situation
Ideally, each of these levels should be covered in each course and, thus, at least one objective should be written for each level. Depending on the nature of the course, a few of these levels may need to be given more emphasis than the others.
Moreover, Bloom’s Taxonomy divides the way people learn into three domains. One of these is the cognitive domain, which emphasizes intellectual outcomes. This domain is further divided into categories or levels. The key words used and the type of questions asked may aid in the establishment and encouragement of critical thinking, especially in the higher levels.
In the writing process, Bloom’s Taxonomy may be viewed at two levels: Evidence and Argument. The first three objectives (Knowledge, Comprehension, and Application) correlate to evidence, while the last three educational objectives (Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation) correlate to argument. Therefore, the writer should be careful to pay attention to the action verbs in an assignment that signal each of the higher thinking skills associated with Bloom’s Taxonomy:
Analysis: analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer.
Synthesis: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite
Evaluation: assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize
Analysis refers to the ability “to break down material into its component parts” so that its “organizational structure” may be understood. This may include the “identification of parts, analysis of the relationship between parts”, and recognition of the “organizational principles involved”. Learning outcomes here represent a higher intellectual level than comprehension and application because they require an understanding of both the “content” and the “structural form” of the material. (K.Prabhakar: 2006).
Synthesis refers to the “ability to put parts together to form a new whole”. This may involve the production of a unique communication (theme or speech), a plan of operations (research proposal), or a set of abstract relations (scheme for classifying information). In this area, creative behavior, with major emphasize on the formulation of new patterns or structure. write a well organized theme, gives a well organized speech writes a creative short story (or poem or music), propose a plan for an experiment, integrate learning from different areas into a plan for solving a problem, formulates a new scheme for classifying objects (or events, or ideas). (K.Prabhakar: 2006)
Evaluation is concerned with the ability to judge the value of material (statement, novel, poem, research report) for a given purpose. The judgments are to be based on definite criteria. The criteria may be internal criteria or external criteria. Learning outcomes in this area are highest in the cognitive hierarchy because they contain elements of all the other categories, plus conscious value judgments based on clearly defined criteria. judge the logical consistency of written material, judge the adequacy with which conclusions are supported by data, judge the value of a work (art, music, writing) by the use of internal criteria, judge the value of a work (art, music, writing) by use of external standards of excellence. (K.Prabhakar: 2006)
In accordance with the three chosen level of thinking skills namely analysis, synthesis, and evaluation; the writer has formulated approximately eight leading questions as follow:
1. What is the topic of your essay?
2. What are the ideas that you will include to support your topic?
3. Which ideas will you choose to support your topic?
4. Can you explain each of your chosen ideas into a sentence?
Those four preliminary questions are intended to lead the students to form the general statements. While the rest four questions are for the students to figure out the thesis statement, and they are the following:
5. Is the topic arguable?
6. What is your opinion about the topic?
7. What is the thesis statement you can possibly draw from the topic?
8. What alternatives can you propose to the issue of the topic?
Therefore, this research is purposed to answer the following questions:
· Can the students write a good introductory paragraph with a good thesis statement?
· Is giving Bloom’s taxonomy questions based before writing the introductory paragraph effective?
Ø Data Analysis
a. Pre Treatment
In gathering primary data, the writers will distribute a list of Bloom’s taxonomy’s questions’ based to the object of this study. This stage will endure at least five times.
Before I began the treatment, I actually conducted a trial. After explaining about introductory paragraph of an argumentative essay, I assigned the students to write an introductory paragraph with a free topic that they like the purpose was of course in order that they did it effortlessly as well as wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, the result showed that most of them did not write smoothly; they found it difficult ordering their ideas to general statements to the thesis statement. Their sentences were often are not related to one another and not represented the topic and the title itself. The thesis statement was not specific and not in full sentence and not written as the main idea of the paragraph.
The first treatment was conducted on August 18th 2010 wherein there were only four students coming. Actually, I did not question why the rest of them were absent that day. I then just focused on them in giving instructions what to do. I distributed a piece of leading questions to each pupil and I had them listen to my explanation. I exposed the first question which is about the topic that they would have. In the first two treatments, I was the one who decided the topic with the aim of easing students to construct their ideas to the writing; to make them not too long deciding the topic they are into.
The second treatment was on August 23rd 2010. There were eleven students attending the class and were assigned to follow the previous instruction in order to fill out the piece of leading questions. They seemed understand that they would put their answers of the questions to the introductory paragraph, exactly the same as they answered. But somehow there were a few of them still not able to follow the instruction precisely.
The third treatment was carried out on August 25th 2010. There were thirteen students coming and did the assignment.
The four and last treatment was given on September 1st 2010. There were fourteen students conducting the same treatment as the former ones. And this time, they did not need any more explanation about how to answer and put the answers into the paragraph. To sum up, they were getting used to the procedure.
b. Whilst Treatment
After the students answer the questions, they were assigned to write an introductory paragraph.
In the first treatment, in which there were only four students attending, they seemed bewildered since they had to answer the questions first right before they were allowed to write the paragraph. They still had no idea how to answer the questions which actually would lead them to write the paragraph that they want to. In other words, answering the questions is quite similar to building an outline before writing, yet it is more specific since they have to answers that would be written in their paragraph later on.
In the second treatment, eleven students followed the instruction of how to answer the leading questions and exposed to the purpose of the techniques as well so that they were motivated to do so.
Twelve students attended the third treatment; as the previous activity, they had to answer the leading questions systematically. They were free to choose the topic they were interested at.
In the last treatment, fourteen students followed the former instruction. They were getting used to do all the procedure; answering the questions began from the lowest number to the highest one systematically.
c. Post Treatment
The last stage is the data analysis. The data gained is in the form of students’ writing pieces focused merely on an introductory paragraph.
Ø Result and Discussion
1. Comparison between the guided piece of writing and non guided piece of writing
As mentioned previously, the initial treatment given to the students was that they had to write an introductory paragraph conventionally or after being taught about how to write well they were assigned right away. And the result was quite disappointing since it shows students’ lack ability in arranging and narrow-downing the general statements into a thesis statement in a good order. They were also found perplexed to decide their position in one problematic and intriguing topic, even this nuisance was found in topic they were into.
When it comes to the first treatment, students were found slightly surprised to fill out the form of leading questions. They made some mistakes because of their misunderstanding; they did not utilize the answers in order to build the introductory paragraph. It seemed that the leading questions were futile and clueless for them. Nevertheless, I explained the procedure over and over again until they found it meaningful and they were consistent to write their answers in the whole paragraph. In the second time they were getting used to the technique; they were busy answering entire questions. And they did the same way in the third and last treatment.
From their writing pieces of the first treatment, there was half of the students’ result show that they were new to the technique. Compared to the proceeding results indicated that they were quite accustomed to the procedure and they were familiar with the type of questions. In the last two treatments, they were able to be plunged to do it by themselves.
In term of the ability to arrange their idea into a good order to construct an introductory paragraph, the students’ before treatment writing pieces were found too many flaws and mistakes in determining the general statements and deciding the thesis statement. They were not able to put their idea into a good structure. In the meantime, the treatment writing results show that they grab the understanding and comprehension regarding the process of building a good introductory paragraph. It can be seen that they took the procedure of answering the leading questions into consideration; in other words, they found it was a fruitful attempt.
2. Implication of students’ view of the technique from the questionnaire
Right after the last treatment given to the students, they were asked to answer the questionnaire regarding the technique. At that time, there were fourteen students coming. The questionnaire itself consisted of five questions, the first one is are all the questions understandable?. Thirteen students answered yes. The second question is are there difficult questions? (what number?). Eight students answered yes. One of them chose question number one and eight as difficult ones. Two students thought number seven and eight as difficult questions, the other two students preferred only number eight. Question number three is Do the questions help you to write an introductory paragraph? Thirteen students answered yes. The fourth question is After answering the questions so far, do you think you can construct a thesis statement easily? Twelve students answered yes. The last question is Do you think you can write an introductory paragraph without the help of the questions? Eight out of fourteen students answered yes.
According to the result of questionnaire, it indicates that most of the students have found the technique of answering the leading questions based on Bloom taxonomy is helpful. They were helped by their answers of the questions in order to form a well-arranged introductory paragraph.
Ø Conclusion
In every assignment, students need to be led by the teacher in order to achieve the goal that has been determined. The teacher’s help will inevitably release them from ambiguity and shackle to understand certain task and execute particular language skill performance. Writing argumentative essay is one of the most complicated skills to obtain since it comprises the thinking process and the determining position of belief. The process of treatment was aimed to meet students’ need to revise their writing pieces. Writing thesis statements that are clear and precise requires this kind of careful revision. The revision process should be continued until the student has no further ideas of how to make the thesis statement more detailed. This research has achieved what it desires to gain, which is helping students at level Intermediate three to write introductory paragraph of an argumentative essay effortlessly. As a matter of fact, the list of leading questions formulated and adapted from Bloom taxonomy is effective for students to construct general statements as well as a thesis statement in a good order of thinking.
Ø References
Allyn and Bacon, Boston, MA. Copyright (c) 1984 by Pearson Education.
Adapted by permission of the publisher.
Adapted by permission of the publisher.
Bloom B. S. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives, Handbook I: The cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.
Bloom B. S. Taxonomy of educational objectives.
Paul, R. W. (1985a). Bloom's taxonomy and critical thinking instruction, Educational Leadership (Vol. 42, pp. 36): Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
Rismanto. (1997). Students’ Communicative Competence in Classroom-Activities: An Ethnographic Study of The Fourth Grade Students of English Education Department of IKIP Bandung. English Education Department, UPI: Unpublished Paper.
http://learners.ncu.edu/writingprogram/writing_center.aspx?menu_id=84
South Carolina State Department of Education (2005). Myscschools.com: South Carolina State Department of Education: Taxonomy for teaching, learning, and assessing: (A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives). Retrieved March 12, 2005 from http://www.myscschools.com/offices/cso/enhance/Taxonomy_Table.htm
Ø APPENDIX
No. | Leading Questions | Your Answers | |
1 | G E N E R A L S T A T E M E N T S | What is the topic of your essay? | |
2 | What are the ideas that you will include to support your topic? | ||
3 | Which ideas will you choose to support your topic? | ||
4 | Can you explain each of your chosen ideas into a sentence? (write them into sentences) | ||
5 | T H E S I S S T A T E M E N T | Is the topic arguable? | |
6 | What is your opinion about the topic? | ||
7 | What is the thesis statement you can draw from the topic? | ||
8 | What alternatives can you propose to the issue of the topic? (e.g. I believe there are two ways to …) |
No | Questionnaire | Answers | |
Yes | No | ||
1 | Are all the questions understandable? | ||
2 | Are there difficult questions? (what number?) | ||
3 | Do the questions help you to write an introductory paragraph? | ||
4 | After answering the questions so far, do you think you can construct a thesis statement easily? | ||
5 | Do you think you can write an introductory paragraph without the help of the questions? | ||
