This study was aimed to examine the effectiveness of the story mapping strategy to improve students’ reading comprehension skills in narrative text. A story map can help the students comprehend narrative texts easily because it provides a graphic or schema to put the chronological events of the story and other elements of the text. The participants for this study were the ninth graders of MTs Fatahillah Beringin in the academic year 2022/2023. This quantitative research used a quasi-experimental study as the research design. The sample in this study was the students of class IX-A (23 students) as the control class and class IX-C (23 students) as the experimental class. The data collection technique used was tests (pre-test and post-test). The data obtained was analyzed using statistical analysis, namely t-test. It was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between students’ scores in the experimental and control class.
Based on the data analysis result, it is obtained that students’ post-test score of the experimental class is higher than the control class. It can be seen from the mean of the post-test in the experimental class was 80.2. While in the control class, was 72.1. The calculation of this test showed that t table (one tail) = 1.680 and t count = 3.230, with a p value = 0. 001. Because the p value is lower than the alpha of 5% (0,05) or by looking at |t count| > t table, then Ha is accepted and H0 is rejected. It means there is a significant difference of the post-test score average of the students who were taught using the story mapping strategy and those who were taught using a conventional method.
Based on the statement above, it can be concluded story mapping strategy is found to be effective to improve students’ reading comprehension skills in narrative text, especially the ninth-grader students of MTs Fatahillah. Based on the results of this study, it is expected to be beneficial for the teacher, students, and other researcher in the future.