<![CDATA[This study aimed to develop story media as effort to improve students' understanding and effectiveness of story media to maintain the independence of Indonesia to 5th Grade Public Elementary School I. Type of research was research and development. Population and sample was the 5th student as many as 40. Data collection techniques used observation and questionnaires. Data analysis technique used Borg and Gall, student activity sheet, easy, and benefits. It has a very good attractiveness (3.23), level of ease is very good (3.52), level of excellent utilization have score of 3,69. Media stories declared effective for use as a learning medium, based on data acquisition through the calculation of average gain (0,67). The score has reached an average score 0.3 g? 0.7 which was included in the medium normalized gain classification.Penelitian bertujuan mengembangkan media cerita dalam meningkatkan pemahaman siswa dan efektivitasnya pada materi mempertahankan kemerdekaan Indonesia Kelas V SD. Jenis penelitian menggunakan penelitian dan pengembangan. Populasi dan sampel adalah siswa Kelas V SD sebanyak 40. Teknik pengumpulan data menggunakan observasi dan angket. Teknik analisis data menggunakan teknik Borg and Gall. Hasilnya media cerita yang menarik, mudah, dan manfaat memiliki tingkat kemenarikan sangat baik (3,23), tingkat kemudahan sangat baik (3,52), dan tingkat kemanfaatan sangat baik (3,69). Penggunaan media cerita dinyatakan efektif digunakan sebagai media pembelajaran berdasarkan perolehan rata-rata gain ternormalisasi sebesar 0,67 yang berarti telah mencapai rata-rata skor 0,3g? 0,7 dan termasuk dalam klasifikasi gain ternormalisasi sedang.Kata Kunci: media cerita, kearifan lokal, nilai demokrasi.]]>
