Increasing Students’ Motivation and Ability to Write Descriptive Text Using Social Media and Photo Comics in PBL Method

Students always have difficulty in writing composition using English. This encourages teachers to conduct research. The purpose of study is to improve students' motivation and ability in writing descriptive text, using social media and photo comics. The social media used in this research are Youtube and Whatsapp which support the learning process. Meanwhile, the photo comic used in this study is expected to be of interest to students, so that it can encourage students to be motivated in learning English, including being eager to write Descriptive Text. Because students interested in photo comics and make them easy to write. Students are helped to make some sentences by images of photo comic. The method used in this research is Project Based Learning (PBL). The subjects are 7th grade students of SMPN 8 Surakarta in second semester 2021/2022. Students had to achieve the Base Competence of English Curriculum 7 th grade 4.7.2 that is Compiling oral and written descriptive texts, very short and simple, related to people, animals, and objects that they like by paying attention to social functions, text structure, and linguistic elements, correctly and in context. The results showed that social media and photo comics are very effective in increasing students' motivation and ability to write descriptive text. They are very interesting and effective sources of ideas for students in writing the text. Finally, students increased their motivation and ability in writing Descriptive Text, and also can reach the Base Competence of English curriculum of 7 th grade (KD 4.7.2.).


BACKGROUND
As we all know, that English is an international means of communication.So that in the current millennial era, the ability to use English both orally and in writing must be mastered by students.Internet technology is currently developing rapidly, even changing every time in a matter of seconds, which also uses a lot of English in written texts, like information sources of all kinds of knowledge.In fact, all sectors, in the economy or industry as the world of work, are also fully connected using English both orally and in writing.It can no longer be avoided that it is very important to equip our students who are the next generation of the Indonesian nation to be able to communicate using English orally or in writing properly and confidently.
Meanwhile, the reality that occurs in the classroom when English learning is taking place includes: (1).Students always complain of difficulties when given the task of writing English text, (2).The scores of many students are still below the KKM (Minimum of Standart Score in the school).The learning outcomes of students are still low where the percentage of students who achieve mastery learning is only 35% of the total students.While the ideal classical completeness is 85%, even what the teacher expects is actually 100% of the total number of students.(3).The low motivation for student learning is seen by students not actively asking the teacher (4).Students do not try to find solutions to the problems they face when they get into trouble.
So to overcome the problems that occur to students in the learning process, the teacher as a writer and researcher conducts this Best Practice research by utilizing social media and photo comics in the PBL (Project Based Learning) method.So, the formulation of the problems in this Best Practice are: (1) How to increase the students' motivation to write Descriptive Text by utilizing social media and photo comics in the PBL method for grade 7 students of second semester of school year 2021/2022 at SMPN 8 Surakarta.(2) How to increase the students' ability to write Descriptive Text by utilizing social media and photo comics in the PBL method for grade 7 students of second semester of school year 2021/2022 at SMPN 8 Surakarta.
While the objectives of this Best Practice are: (1) To increase students' motivation to write Descriptive Text by utilizing social media and photo comics in the PBL method for grade 7 second semester os school year 2021/2022 at SMPN 8 Surakarta (2) To increase students' ability to write Descriptive Text by utilizing social media and photo comics in the PBL method for grade 7 second semester os school year 2021/2022 at SMPN 8 Surakarta.
Researchers used social media, because during the Covid-19 pandemic, learning in Indonesia almost entirely applied by online.Meanwhile, photo comics use, because this media is very easy to make by students, familiar and attractive to students, so it is believed to increase students' motivation and ability in writing Descriptive Text.
The Project Based Learning (PBL) method is used in research because it is considered to be able to increase students' motivation and ability in writing descriptive text, because there are works from students' writings that will be recorded into photo comic books for learning English.And the main benefit of this research is to be able to achieve the expected competencies in basic competencies of KD 4.7.2Compiling oral and written descriptive texts, very short and simple, related to people, animals and objects that students like by paying attention to social functions, text structure, and linguistic elements, correctly and in context.

LITERATURE STUDY
As explained in the Junior High School English Subject Syllabus Model (Kemendikbud, 2017:1), which emphasizes that teaching English focuses on improving student competence to be able to use the language in achieving communication goals in various contexts, both oral and written.So it is clear that writing skills are one of the most important language skills that must be mastered by students.
Language is the system of communication in speech and writing that is used by people of a particular countries area.)(Hornby, 2010:862).This statement also strengthens that language is a system or means of communication in spoken or written language used by people in this world.
It also stated by Heaton (2013) Four major skills in communicating through lnguage are often broadly defined as listening and speaking, reading and writing.In many situations where English taught for general purposes, these skills should be carefully integrated and used to perform as many genuinely communicative tasks as possible.Writing ability usually in the form of letters, reports, memos, messages, instructions, and accounts of past events, etc.
As it is well known, that writing is a fairly complicated activity, where the activity of writing the text must go back and forth or repeatedly, starting from a small plan, then putting it in words on paper, pausing to plan it again, looking for ideas.We will think about the ideas again, then write them down again, and so on, even ideas can change again.Until you feel it is according to your wishes and ready to be read or displayed.So it can be concluded that writing is a language skill that comes from ideas of thought in such an arrangement as to be able to communicate them with readers.
According to Ridwan A. Sani (2016:49) Learning motivation is anything that can motivate students to learn.There are two types of motivation in learning: (1) Intrinsic motivation, namely internal motivation from within to do something (2) Extrinsic motivation, namely external motivation or influence from outside students, including: (a) task characteristics (b) incentives, rewards (c) teacher behavior, and (d) learning arrangements.Several ways can be done to increase the learning motivation of students, including increasing: (1) Attention (2) Relevance (3) Confidence (4) Satisfaction.An example of increasing attention is using media to complement learning, using real events for examples to clarify concepts.One example of increasing relevance is conveying learning objectives and what abilities students can acquire after participating in the teaching and learning process and the benefits of skills that will be learned related to work in the community and the world of work.One example of increasing self-confidence is by multiplying successful experiences and growing / developing students' self-confidence.One example of increasing satisfaction is by using verbal praise and informative feedback, as well as helping students who are still unable to master skills or knowledge.
The use of image media has a very positive effect on students, including it can arouse student activeness and motivation in writing text in English, because in addition to being interesting it can also inspire ideas in writing and make it easier to get vocabulary related to writing the text (Agustin, 2015:197) Descriptive Text is text that describes people, things, and places specifically.The purpose of writing descriptive texts is to provide information on a person or object and place in detail with the characteristics it has.In the Youtube video, the researher's channel: MBI Mudah Bahasa Inggris explains the material about the Descriptive text, namely the use of sentences with Present Tense patterns and material related to Descriptive Text.
Social Media in this Best Practice research, which is used is Youtube and Whatsapp.The YouTube channel owned by the researcher is MBI, which contains English language course material content.The author explains the English subject matter herself so that students can listen and continue to learn English during the Covid-19 Pandemic.In addition to utilizing the Youtube channel, the author also conducts class discussions by utilizing Whatsapp social media.In class 7.D has a special class of English subjects called PJJ English Class 7.D (Distance Learning).
Similarly with class 7.E, and class 7.F.Each class has a group of classes in Whatsapp, where the group becomes a place to express opinions and discuss when there are problems faced by learners related to learning English.
The use of photo comic images media in this Best Practice, because this media is very easy and cheap to provide.Photo media in this millennial era are very much produced from cameras available on cellphones.And cellphones are one of the most popular items today.Almost all students have a cellphone, due to the learning process during the Covid-19 Pandemic by online, which incidentally is using a cellphone.So that teachers can take advantage of the use of cellphones for the learning process, including with a camera for photos.And from the photos produced by students, then guided by the teacher (researcher) to make a photo comic accompanied by a word bubble containing English sentences.
Project-Based Learning what so called in Bahasa Indonesia as Pembelajaran Berbasis Proyek.Project-Based Learning or familiar with the title PBL, since the inception of this method, some scientists have concluded that the Project-Based Learning Method is an innovative learning model or approach, which emphasizes contextual learning through complex activities.Project-Based Learning focuses on the concepts and main principles of a discipline, engages students in problem-solving activities and other meaningful tasks, gives students the opportunity to work autonomously constructing their own learning, and ultimately produces work products which are valuable, and realistic.
Project-Based Learning as a cooperative and accommodating learning model for children's abilities towards free and creative thinking processes.Implementation of Project-Based Learning is the participation of learners in understanding the realities of life from the concrete to the abstract.This reality of life will be a source of inspiration and creativity in analyzing and building a vision of life.
John W. Thomas (2000) argues that PBL consists of the following activities: 1. Preparation Stage At this stage is the standard stage of introductory learning in which introductory information is conveyed and an assignment (project) schedule is created.Students or students try to understand each other by introducing themselves and collecting their hopes in all project activities.: 2. PBL process.
In this stage is the main-stage of learning and consists of a number of activities relating to the preparation and important steps of working on a project.This stage includes: (a) group formation and project selection, (b) information gathering, and (c) project work steps.

Evaluation stage
The form of activity in this stage is to assess students.Feedback helps the teacher in interpreting students' mastery of the project they have worked on.
The focus of learning lies in the core concepts and principles of a discipline of study, engages students in investigative problem solving and other meaningful task activities, gives students the opportunity to work autonomously constructing their own knowledge, and reaches a peak of producing tangible products.
One form of assessment in Project-Based Learning is to use an assessment rubric.A rubric is a scoring tool that can specifically measure learner's tasks and is useful in explaining task descriptions, providing assessment weight information, obtaining fast and accurate feedback, and more objective and consistent assessments.

RESEARCH METHOD
This research was conducted in the form of Best Practice held in class 7.D, class 7.E, and class 7.F at SMP Negeri 8 Surakarta with the total of 96 students consisting of 46 male students and 50 female students.
This Best Practice was carried out for three months, from March 2022 to Mei 2022.The activities carried out were as follows, namely in March 2022 the researcher carried out the preparation of proposals and instruments for research.Furthermore, in April, Mei 2022 the researchers carried out data collection as material for making activity reports.Then proceed with data analysis and discussion of research activities for Best Practice reports.
The discussion includes activities from the beginning since the provision of material on Descriptive Text in grade 7 in the second semester of the 2021-2022 study year which is equipped with supporting data in this Best Practice.
The data used to make this Best Practice report are: The results of the student's Descriptive Text writing assignment, teacher / researcher notes, student conditions, and various kinds of documents related to students.
Meanwhile, the data sources used in this Best Practice are primary data sources and secondary data.Primary data is the main data of research subjects, namely students and English teachers obtained from teacher observations of the motivation and results of students' writing assignments in class 7.D, class 7.E, and class 7.F.This type of research data consisted of qualitative data derived from students 'motivation to learn English, what was observed was the students' creativity and discipline when working on and collecting assignments to make descriptive text.
While the quantitative data in this study were obtained from the value of the Descriptive Text writing assignment.And the Secondary Data Sources are data sources obtained from collegue, especially counseling teacher who participate in observing the development of students because of her job of accompanying students and as a counselor for students in their respective classes during the teaching and learning process during the Covid-19 Pandemic.
This Best Practice data validation used the Triangulation technique, in which counseling teachers at SMP Negeri 8 Surakarta were used as observers, to observe students and teachers in distance learning groups on Whatsapp during the teaching and learning process.
In this study, the data obtained were analyzed using the comparative descriptive technique, which is an analysis that describes the comparison of the learning process related to the motivation in the initial conditions before the use of social media and photo comics, and after the use of social media and comics photos in the PBL method during the learning process.Also, the value of the Descriptive Text writing assignment achieved by students from the initial conditions, as well as the final conditions.The researcher described comparing the data on the acquisition of Descriptive Text writing assignments that were achieved by students in the initial condition with the data on the values of the Descriptive Text writing assignments that were achieved by students in the final conditions.Then the data on the value of the Descriptive Text writing assignment that the students achieved from the initial condition were described and compared with the data on the value of the Descriptive Text writing assignment that the students achieved in the final condition.
The Best Practice report was made because of the classical success in achieving the standart of minimal score in school or KD 4.7.2,where all students in classes 7.D, 7.E, and 7.F have increased motivation and are able to write Descriptive Text in English by utilizing social media and photo comics in the PBL method.

A. Initial Condition (before)
In classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F the students' condition in the initial condition, when the learning process takes place, they tend to be inactive.Almost all students look passive, only want to be listeners in the Whatsapp group in PJJ (Distance Learning).They feel that by listening to the teacher alone, they will be able to absorb the lesson well.In fact, to be able to master English lessons, students should be more active in raising their skills in learning English, includes all in listening skills, speaking, writing, and also reading.
Likewise, from the list of classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F in the initial conditions, the data showed that when students were given the task to write text in English, many students scored below the standart of minimum scores at school or KKM that is 75.The lowest score of the students was even 0, because some students did not do it at all.And the achievement of the class average score is only 40.While the highest score is only 80.As we can see in Table 1 below

Source: Teacher's data book
In Table 1 above, it appears that the students' highest score in the initial condition was only 80, and the lowest score was 0. At that time, when the teacher told the students the value in the writing assignment, the teacher asked students what difficulties they had experienced.by students when they do writing assignments , in this case the teacher also conducts oral interviews with students to gather information.Then most of them said that writing English text is very difficult.They said it was difficult because they did not know what to write, how to start, how to describe, and how to use the correct language structure or tenses.Of course, this makes them insecure and reluctant or lazy to get assignments to write English texts, and some didn't even submit writing assignments.
With the initial conditions in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F, where students are still not maximal in participating in learning activities and lack of motivation and selfconfidence in writing English texts, teachers as professional educators should find ways to overcome what becomes a problem for students so that a solution is immediately sought.For this reason, the teacher conducted this Best Practice Research as a way to overcome the learning problems faced by these students.Meanwhile, the results of observing the motivational aspects of the initial conditions can be seen in the table 2 below: Based on the table above, it can be analyzed that students who actively pay attention to the teacher's explanation in learning activities are 56 students or 58.33%.Meanwhile, 35 students or 36.45% of the disciplined students worked on the given assignments and actively discussed the questions with the enthusiasm of asking questions in completing the task as many as 25 students or 26.04%.
From the data in the Initial Condition, the motivation and ability to write English texts for students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F are still very low, in other words it can be improved.And, in this initial condition, the researchers still did not utilize social media and photo comics in the PBL method in the learning process.

B. Descriptin of Task 1
In Task 1, the teacher or researcher in the learning process utilizes social media and photo comics in the Project Based Learning (PBL) method.At the beginning of the lesson, the teacher conveyed the objectives of learning English for grade 7 KD 4.7.2, about writing English text "Descriptive Text" as well as motivating the students at the beginning that the students' written work would later be recorded into a collection of English learning photo comics.It was evident that the learning outcomes on Task 1 showed a significant increase not only in students' motivation in writing English texts, but also in improving the abilities of students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F, which could be seen from the results of the assessment of their writing assignments.
The data obtained from the results of the assessment of the task of writing English texts as well as teacher observations and peer assistance (Observers), showed an increase in the motivation and ability of students in writing "Descriptive Text".The following data from Task 1 can be seen in Table 3 and Table 4.The data from Task 1 shows an increase in the scores of the "Descriptive Text" writing assignment compared to the data in the Initial Condition.In the initial conditions, students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F had the lowest score of 0, while in Task 1 the lowest score for the assignments for students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F was 60.For the highest score on Task 1, it could be achieved by students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F are 85, while in the Initial Condition the highest score was 80.Likewise, the average has increased.In the Initial Conditions, the average score for classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F on the writing assignment score was 40, while the average writing assignment score for classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F on Task 1 was 75.And, there were still 26 students who had not been completed standart minimum score or KKM in Task 1, this is different from the Initial Condition where there were still many students (56 students) that have not been completed when the teacher has not used social media and photo comics in the PBL method.Whereas in the motivation aspect in Task 1, the increase can also be seen in table 4 below: Based on the observations of teachers and observers, there appears to be a very significant increase in the aspects of student motivation in learning to write English text "Descriptive Text" after the teacher utilizes social media and photo comics in the PBL method for classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F.In the initial condition, the aspects of student learning attention were only 56 children, while in Task 1 it increased to 75 children, almost all students in the class paid serious attention to the learning process that took place in the Whatsapp group of each classes.The increase also occurred in the aspect of task discipline, where in the Initial Condition, students who were disciplined in collecting writing assignments were 35 children, increasing in Task 1 to 70 children.And, students who actively discuss in their groups also increased, in the initial condition only 25 children were actively discussing, while in Task 1 it increased to 75 children who actively discussed in their groups.

C. Description of Task 2
The results of the "Descriptive Text" Writing Task Assessment on Task 2 can be seen in Table 5 below: The data obtained in Task 2 shows an increase in the value of the assignment to write "Descriptive Text" compared to the data in Task 1.In Task 1, in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F the lowest score was 60, while in Task 2 the lowest score for the assignment students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F was 75.For the highest score on Task 1, students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F were able to achieve score 85, while in Task 2 the highest score was 100.The average also has increased, on Task 1, the average grade for classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F on the writing assignment score was 75, while the average writing assignment score for classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F on Task 2 was 85.And, on Task 2 there weren't any students who need to be remedied, because all students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F have passed the standart minimum score or KKM 75.Meanwhile, the motivation aspect in Task 2 can also be seen increased as in table 6 below: Based on the data from the teacher's and observer's observations in Task 2, there appears to be a very significant increase in the aspects of student motivation in learning to write English text "Descriptive Text" after the teacher utilizes social media and photo comics in the PBL method for students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F When compared with Task 1, the aspect of student learning attention was still 75 students, while in Task 2 it increased to 96 students, all students in the class paid serious attention to the learning process that took place in online group class.The aspect of students who actively asked the teacher if there were difficulties also increased, from the initial condition of 25 students, up in Task 2 to 95 students who actively asked questions.One child was not very active in asking questions because she already understood and was able to do the task of writing "Descriptive Text" quickly, well and correctly.The increase also occurred in the aspect of task discipline, where in Task 1 students who were disciplined in collecting writing assignments had reached 70 students, increasing again in Task 2 to 96 students.It was proven that all students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F were able to write quickly so that they could collect writing assignments for "Descriptive Text" according to the time given by the teacher.
Overall, the increase in motivation and ability to write "Descriptive Text" by utilizing social media and photo comics in the PBL method for students in grades 7.D, 7.E, 7.F can be seen in the comparison starting from Initial Conditions to ending in Task 2 in Table 7 and Table 8 as   It is proven from the results of this Best Practice Research that there was a very significant increase from the Initial Condition to the end of Task 2 on the motivation and ability to write Descriptive Text for students in grades 7.D, 7.E, 7.F after utilizing image media and the PBL method.This is in line with the opinion of Maija Aksela and Outi Haatainen that the teachers found PBL very useful to use in their instruction such that it promotes (i) students' or teachers' learning and motivation, (ii) student-centered learning, and (iii) brings versatility for their instruction (Aksela and Haatainen, 2018).

CONCLUSION
From the whole series of actions taken in Task 1 and Task 2, it turns out that it gives very good results for students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F in the learning objectives according to KD 4.7.2.This Best Practise research on this classes of 96 students proved the success in increasing motivation and ability to write Descriptive Text by utilizing social media and photo comics in the Project Based Learning (PBL) method of second semester 2021/2022 at SMPN 8 Surakarta.
Factually that the best practice research results obtained in Task 1 and Task 2 from classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F show that the use of social media and photo comics in the PBL method has a very positive effect on students.Social media and photo comics in the interesting PBL method will make students happy and excited to write or describe people, animals and objects they like by paying attention to social functions, text structures, and linguistic elements, correctly and in context.
During the implementation of Task 1 and Task 2 there were no students who complained and said they could not do when given a writing assignment, so it could also be concluded that the use of social media and photo comics in the PBL method turned out to be motivating, increasing students' confidence that they were able to master good writing skills.This is evident, even though the writing assignment is carried out individually, it turns out that the results of each writing are different and more diverse in making and composing sentences.Because the final results in the form of student work will be collected which will then be recorded as a comic photo collection of English lessons.
As already explained to students at the beginning on learning the Descriptive Text material, the method used is the Project Based Learning (PBL) method.Researcher also concluded that PBL in this learning is a method that is oriented towards the end result of a work.In this PBL method students also experience a complete learning process, namely knowing and understanding the theory of knowledge, as well as putting it into practice so that students also gain experience to be able or skilled in practice or implement its application.
It is also proven in this study that the use of social media and photo comics in the PBL method for students in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F can actually improve their ability to write Descriptive Text in English.Because social media and photo comics in the interesting PBL method can provide students with inspiration for story ideas and the use of vocabulary related to the descriptions they write.The more attractive the pictures used, the easier it is for students to come up with ideas for making sentences to describe them.
So based on the development of theoretical studies, a framework of thinking followed by the hypothesis proposed by the researcher, as well as the results of the Best Practice research conducted in classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F of second semester 2021/2022 at SMPN 8 Surakarta, it can be concluded that: 1.By using social media and photo comics in the Project Based Learning (PBL)

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.One examples of student photo comic worked on Task 1

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. One examples of student photo comic worked on Task 2 follows :

Table 1 .
: Results of task assessment of writing english text initial condition

Table 2 .
The motivational aspects of the initial conditions of classes 7.D, 7.

Table 3 .
Results of the task assessment for writing English text on Task 1

Table 5 .
Results of task assessment of writing English text on Task 2

Table 7 .
The results of the assessment of writing text in English in Initial Condition, Task 1, and Task 2

Table 8 .
Motivation , it can increase the motivation in writing Descriptive Text for students of classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F second semester 2021/2022 at SMPN 8 Surakarta.2. By using social media and photo comics in the Project Based Learning (PBL), it can increase the ability in writing Descriptive Text for students of classes 7.D, 7.E, 7.F second semester 2021/2022 at SMPN 8 Surakarta.After the students' work and the teacher's work are recorded in a collection of photo comics of learning in English that has ISBN produce work, it is hoped that the school