The Concept of SLOW CaPS Strategy
The Definition of Strategy
The word “strategy” at the first time is known in the military as the strategy of war. But, in the education context strategy is used as the planning to reach the purpose of education. Talking about strategy there are three terms that must be differentiated because these terms used in teaching learning activity and people often confuse with these terms, they are approach, method, technique, and strategy.
According to Brown, he defines that technique as any of a wide variety of exercises, activities, or tasks used in the language classroom for realizing lesson activities.
Additional definition according to Edward Anthony, he identified three levels of conceptualization and organization, which he termed “approach, method, and technique”. The organizational key is that technique carry out a method which is consistent with an approach.
According to Kemp, he explained that “learning strategy is learning activity done by teacher and students to reach the purpose of learning effectively and efficiently”.
According to Gerlach and Ely, they stated that “learning strategy are ways choosen by the teacher to teach learning material for students in the certain environtment of learning”.
Based on the experts explanations above, the researcher conclude that strategy is implementation which actually takes place in a classroom of doing an activities and ways, that is done by the teacher to make use of learning resources so that reach the purpose of learning effectively. This statement is supported by Kozma, explained that “strategy as the activity that is done by the teacher to fasilitate (teacher as the fasilitator) students so that the purpose of learning can be reached”
So, SLOW CaPS is one of the strategies in teaching writing because it is a teachers’ strategy which implemented in the classroom.
The Definition of SLOW CaPS Strategy
According to Steven and Angeleque, they say that “SLOW CaPS (Show the type of paragraph in the first sentence; List the type of details you plan to write about; Order the details; Write the details in complete sentences and cap off the paragraph with a Concluding, Passing, or Summary sentence) is used to facilitate step memorization”.
SLOW CaPS Strategy is good way to improve students’ skill in writing a text and essay. It can turn a board subject into a limited and more manageable topic for short essay or text.
According to Mason and Graham, they state that “teacher should use mnemonic writing strategies to assist exceptional education students”. Then Graham and Perin state, that “there are various examples of mnemonic, such as; PLAN (Pay attention to the prompt, List the main ideas, Add supporting ideas, Number your ideas), WRITE (Work from your plan to develop your thesis statement, Remember your goals, Include transition words for each paragraph, Try to use different kinds of sentences, and Exciting), SLOW CaPS (Show the type of paragraph in the first sentence, List the type of details you plan to write about, Order the details, Write the details in complete sentences and cap off the paragraph with a, Concluding and, Passing or, Summary sentence), PENS (Pick a formula, Explore words, Note the words, Search and check), COPS (Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, Spelling), and ANSWER (Analyze the Action words in question, Notice the requirements of the quest, Set up an outline, Work in the detail, Engineer your answer, Review your answer)”.
In general, mnemonic is a memory aid, such as an abbreviation, rhyme or mental image that helps to remember something. It is suitable with Merriam Webster statement, she state that “mnemonic for English language learner is something (such as word, a sentence, or a song) that helps people remember something (such as a rule or a list of names)”.
From the explanation above, it can be known that SLOW CaPS is the one of kinds of mnemonic for English language learner. This strategy is effective to help students in memorizing the words and the ideas.
Furthermore, according to Russel, Turner, and Stewart, they state that “the students can follow the SLOW CaPS mnemonic for paragraph specific writing strategies”.
From the previous concept stated before, it can be known that SLOW CaPS is effective for improving the students’ skill in writing paragraph. SLOW CaPS is an acronym from eight strategies for each letter, those are; S for Show the type of paragraph in the first sentence, L for List the type of details you plan to write about, O for Order the details, W for Write the details in complete sentences and cap off the paragraph with a, C for Concluding, P for Passing, and S for Summary the sentence.
SLOW CaPS strategy can be used to generate material for a paper. It is a useful strategy in writing because it permits the student to develop a topic with an open mind.
In this chapter the researcher focus on SLOW CaPS strategy because it is more appropriate to helps the students in organizing the word. This strategy can help the students to stimulate their ideas and to organize them before they develop it into paragraphs.
The teacher can teach the students how how to use SLOW CaPS in helping the students to write a text. The teacher can adapt this strategy and use it in writing a text, because basically this strategy is the same with writing process. This strategy guide the students how their start writing and generate their idea.
Furthermore, the researcher conclude that the application of SLOW CaPS strategy in teaching, begins with a key word or the type of paragraph that placed in the first sentence which the student list the type of details plan to write, then jots down the words into a simple paragraph or short phrases. By applying this strategy in teaching writing a descriptive text, can improve the students’ motivation to write, to generate their ideas, and to make them interested in learning writing a descriptive text.
The Purpose of SLOW CaPS Strategy
According to Aldenderfer and Blashfield, they classify the goals of SLOW CaPS strategy into four categories :
1) To facilitate strategy step memorization.
2) To develop a typology or classification.
3) To investigate useful conceptual schemes for grouping entities.
4) To aid in the generation of hypotheses.
5) To test hypotheses
From the explanation above, the researcher conclude that SLOW CaPS strategy is able to give suggestions about how specific sets of words are organized or correlated. Then, the categories or classes are very important as they are the basic elements to build new concepts, and concepts are the basis of human knowledge.
The Steps to Teach Writing Descriptive Text Using SLOW CaPS Strategy
A In SLOW CaPS, basically this strategy is the same with writing process. This strategy guide the students how their start writing and generate their idea. It is possible to help them in exploring the ideas by adding the specific words related to the topic.
According to Brown, there are several steps in writing strategy in common pre-writing techniques using SLOW CaPS strategy, such as:
1) Prepare two sheets of paper.
2) Place the central topic at the center of the paper. It will serve as the central image.
3) In the first sentence, show the type of paragraph.
4) As quickly as possible, think of as many ideas as you can answer the question on the sheet.
a) Take between five and ten minutes to list every idea that comes to your mind.
b) Do not evaluate your idea, that will come later. Just order the details.
5) When you have written down everything you can think of, go over the list to evaluate what you have written. Cross out the ideas that don’t fit.
6) Write the details in complete sentences.
In applying this strategy to write a text, there are some steps that should be revise, such as activate the text with an introduction, and supply the supporting detail.
So, the full step in using SLOW CaPS strategy in writing descriptive text are place the central topic at the center of paper, list the ideas about the topic, order the details that have written down, write the details in complete sentence to activate the text with an introduction, supply the supporting detail, the last, end the writing paragraph or text with a concluding, passing or summary sentence and evaluate the work.
According to liza, the procedure in using SLOW CaPS strategy in teaching writing is covered by three steps, such as; pre-teaching activities, whilst-teaching activities, and post-teaching activities. The stages are explained as follows :
1) Pre-teaching Activities
Pre-teaching activities are done at the beginning of the classroom, which is done in order to build the students background knowledge about the topic that they are going to study. In this activity, the students are introduced to the topic, for example describing thing. This activity is also trying to get the students’ attention and interest.
2) Whilst-teaching Activities
Whilst-teaching activities, are the activities conducted during teaching process. In this phase, the teacher explains how to use SLOW CaPS in writing process. After that the teacher asks the students to start writing descriptive paragraph.
The steps in teaching writing descriptive by using SLOW CaPS are :
a) The teacher asks the students to pick the topic about their writing. For example, the students write the topic about “My Sphinx Cat”
b) The teacher asks the students to list all ideas about the sphinx cat. So the students can list the ideas as follows;
Sphinx cat have several kinds of colour, such as black, chocolate, peach, and tortoiseshel.
The cat’s personality is sometimes funny and lovely.
There are several kinds of shape of Sphinx cat, such as big, litte, short, and tall.
There are two kinds of sex of the cat, male and female.
They have little hair but not totally hairless.
c) After the students list all ideas about sphinx cat, they are asked to order the details. But, not evaluate it yet. They just plan the best way to organize their ideas by making a simple outline in a piece of paper.
d) Then, the teacher asks the students to write their first sentence about their topic, such as “My sphinx cat is funny cat”.
e) Next, the teacher commands the students to supply the supporting sentences in their paragraph with the ideas that they has collected.
f) The last, the teacher reminds the students to end and evaluate their writing.
After the students comlpete their descriptive text, the teacher explains about the generic structure of descriptive text. The generic structure of descriptive text are identification and description. Here are the full paragraph :
My Sphinx Cat
My sphinx cat is the only pet I have. He has short body and a little hair but is not totally hairless as he has peach fuzz over much of his body. His coat is often a warm chamois. My sphinx cat has a normal cat proportion.
I like his tail although my mom says that it is like a rats tail. I love his usual colour varieties including tortoiseshel, chocolate, black, lilac, and so on. He is really an amazing cat. Believe it or not, he is very intelligent cat. He can respond my voice commands.
He is really funny as well as my friends get a joke. I love him so much as I love my mother.
The generic structure analysis :
a) Identification :
My Sphinx Cat is the only a pet I have.
b) Description :
He has short body and a little hair but is not totally hairless as he has peach fuzz over much of his body.I love his usual colour varieties including tortoiseshel, chocolate, black, lilac, and so on. He is really an amazing cat. Believe it or not, he is very intelligent cat. He can respond my voice commands. He is really funny as well as my friends get a joke. I love him so much as I love my mother.
3) Post-teaching Activities
Post-teaching Activities are the activities that are conducted at the end of the lesson. In this activity, the teacher concludes about the descriptive text.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of SLOW CaPS Strategy
Here are the various benefits of SLOW CaPS technique :
1) SLOW CaPS strategy can help the students to improve the students writing skill especially in writing a descriptive paragraph or a text.
2) SLOW CaPS strategy is the practical tool that can enhance creative thinking to become more productive and efficient.
3) SLOW CaPS strategy can help the students how to start their writing, to plan what they are going to write, and also help them to generate their idea while writing.
4) SLOW CaPS strategy help the students to write independently because they can find their own topic and ideas about what they will write.
5) This strategy can make students easier to remember information rather than reading long sentences and motivated to remember the important details.
Others have noted that the learners often feeling overwhelmed when they listing the type of detail and concluding. The rigid rules used for identifying concepts does not make the process simpler or easier to learn and it takes.