Tài liệu Skkn helping gifted students gain benefit.

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN LƯƠNG THẾ VINH – — Mã số ……………. SAÙNG KIEÁN KINH NGHIEÄM Helping gifted students gain benefit from extensive reading Người thực hiện: Bùi Ngọc Xinh Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: - Quản lý giáo dục - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh - Phương pháp giáo dục - Lĩnh vực khác Năm học: 2014 - 2015  SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC I. THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN 1. Họ và tên: BÙI NGỌC XINH 2. Ngày tháng năm sinh: 21/07/1969 3. Giới tính: Nữ 4. Địa chỉ: 103/33 đường 30/4, phường Trung Dũng, Tp Biên Hòa, tỉnh Đồng Nai. 5. Điện thoại: 0918.155005 6. E-mail: [email protected] 7. Chức vụ: Tổ phó CM 8. Nhiệm vụ được giao : Giảng dạy môn Tiếng Anh cho 2 lớp 10 Anh 1 và 10 Anh 2 9. Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Chuyên Lương Thế Vinh II. TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO - Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Thạc sĩ - Năm nhận bằng: 2007 III. KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC - Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 23 năm - Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã có trong 5 năm gần đây: 1. How useful pre-reading activities are in teaching reading . 2. Helping gifted students enrich their idiomatic expressions. 3. The effectiveness of group work in teaching reading . 4. Motivating students to practice listening skill through English songs to decrease students’ tense while listening, make them feel more interested in listening and enrich their vocabulary. 5. How to help gifted students find essay writing easy and how to help them write more effectively. 6. How to help gifted students write essays dealing with “ Describing People” more effectively . UBND TỈNH ĐỒNG NAI SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO CỘNG HOÀ Xà HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc Biên Hòa, ngày 15 tháng 5 năm 2015 PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Năm học: 2014-2015 Tên sáng kiến kinh nghiệm: Helping gifted students gain benefit from extensive reading Họ và tên tác giả: BÙI NGỌC XINH; Chức vụ: Tổ phó CM Đơn vị: trường THPT Chuyên Lương Thế Vinh Lĩnh vực: (Đánh dấu X vào các ô tương ứng, ghi rõ tên bộ môn hoặc lĩnh vực khác) - Quản lý giáo dục  - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn: ...................... - Phương pháp giáo dục  - Lĩnh vực khác: ..................................... .......  Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã được triển khai áp dụng: Tại đơn vị  Trong Ngành  1. Tính mới (Đánh dấu X vào 1 trong 2 ô dưới đây) - Có giải pháp hoàn toàn mới  - Có giải pháp cải tiến, đổi mới từ giải pháp đã có  2. Hiệu quả (Đánh dấu X vào 1 trong 4 ô dưới đây) - Hoàn toàn mới và đã triển khai áp dụng trong toàn ngành có hiệu quả cao  - Có tính cải tiến hoặc đổi mới từ những giải pháp đã có và đã triển khai áp dụng trong toàn ngành có hiệu quả cao  - Hoàn toàn mới và đã triển khai áp dụng tại đơn vị có hiệu quả cao  - Có tính cải tiến hoặc đổi mới từ những giải pháp đã có và đã triển khai áp dụng tại đơn vị có hiệu quả  3. Khả năng áp dụng (Đánh dấu X vào 1 trong 3 ô mỗi dòng dưới đây) - Cung cấp được các luận cứ khoa học cho việc hoạch định đường lối, chính sách: Tốt  Khá  Đạt  - Đưa ra các giải pháp khuyến nghị có khả năng ứng dụng thực tiễn, dễ thực hiện và dễ đi vào cuộc sống: Tốt  Khá  Đạt  - Đã được áp dụng trong thực tế đạt hiệu quả hoặc có khả năng áp dụng đạt hiệu quả trong phạm vi rộng: Tốt  Khá  Đạt  Xếp loại chung : Xuất sắc : Khá: Đạt: Không xếp loại: Người thực hiện SKKN Xác nhận của Tổ CM (Ký tên và ghi rõ họ tên) dấu) Bùi Ngọc Xinh Thủ Trưởng Đơn vị (Ký tên, ghi rõ họ tên và đóng TABLE OF CONTENTS - TITLE ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 2 - INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………………………………………………3 - RATIONALE OF THE STUDY…………………………………………3 - PROCEDURES………………………………………………………………………………………………………….8 - FINDINGS ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 11 - CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 17 - APPENDIX 1…………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18 - APPENDIX 2…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….20 - REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….22 - Reference books used in the innovation process………………………23 Title: Helping gifted students gain benefit from extensive reading INTRODUCTION Reading is one of the four main skills in learning English. After many years of teaching at Luong The Vinh high school I have found that a lot of students especially gifted students of English at this school want more up-to-date texts, more interesting information and more knowledge of what happened or is happening around them. However, reading class which is based on the school curriculum cannot provide them with what they want. And through the pre-reading activities and the discussions I had with them about general knowledge of the world or of what has happened around them, I also discovered that most of the students could hardly give me a satisfying answer because of their lack of knowledge and their lack of vocabulary . For this reason I would like to encourage the gifted students of English to do extensive reading in order to improve their general knowledge of the world, to enrich their vocabulary and to increase students’engagement in class . I also would like to help gifted students of English to be able to deal with a wide range of genres : newspapers and magazines , articles, personal essays , textbook chapters , book excerpts , online discussions , and interviews . RATIONALE OF THE STUDY a. What is Extensive Reading ? Sarwar quotes a statement by Logan ( 1980 , in Sarwar , 2001 , pp 127-136 ) who says that “ People can learn from a variety of sources , even if the final goals are the same ” . Hence , teachers’ role is very crucial in leading students to developing their learning habits inside as well as outside the classroom . One of the good learning habits is doing extensive reading which is considered as “ an ELT classroom implementation perspective . ” ( Renandya & Jacobs , 2002 , p.296 ). Renandya & Jacobs also points out the benefits of extensive reading , some of which are as follows - increasing knowledge of the world . - improving reading and writing skills . - greater enjoyment of reading . - more positive attitude towards reading . - higher possibility of developing a reading habit . Such are the advantages of extensive reading that teachers should encourage students to be involved in extensive reading. However, it is important that students “ should be reading material which they can understand ” not the material which “ they are struggling to understand every word.” (Harmer, 2001, pp.210-300 ). For that reason it is teachers’ duty to recommend or find texts or reading materials to match student schema so that they will have sufficient schema to understand . ” (From the Course book : Teaching Reading & Writing -SEAMEO –p 23). If texts for extensive reading are at a level that students can comprehend with a minimum of help and that they enjoy reading, there will be an improvement in their reading skills . As Nuttall (1982 , p.185) puts it “reading skills will develop much better if a student reads a lot of books that are too easy rather than a few that are too difficult ” . In addition, if there is a match between students’ proficiency levels and the difficulty level of the books, extensive reading will bring a lot of benefits to students, especially “a richer understanding of the world and a place in the ongoing, worldwide dialogue on a universe of topics open only to those who are literate and who exercise their literacy. ” ( Renandya and Jacobs , pp . 295- 304 ) Teachers should not only apply communicative approaches to listening and speaking teaching but also help students communicate with more reading materials so that their general knowledge can be widened. Students need to read authentic texts rather than texts used for testing reading so that they can “apply information acquired from different sources and turn it into useful personal knowledge ” ( Jukes & McCain , 2001 cited in Richards ,2002 ) b. The participants of the study All the gifted students of the English class 12 of LTV high school who were studying in summer class to sharpen their knowledge of English were chosen to take part in the innovation. The innovation was carried out in two summer months ( July & August ) The reason why the gifted students of the English class were chosen as the participants of the study were that : - They like English, - They major in English.. - They are motivated to learning English. - They have a clear purpose of learning English: developing the four skills so that they can get a good job in the future or can go to study abroad later . (I once talked to them during speaking class about their purpose of entering the English class , and their attitude to English learning) The participants were divided into 4 groups: Group 1 , Group 2 , Group 3 , and Group 4 ( 7 students / group ) . Each group had a group leader who helped me to monitor the extensive reading activity .  The Secondary Innovation This innovation process could not be conducted without the secondary innovation which was reading materials. The researcher wanted to control the participants’ knowledge during the research process to see if their knowledge was improved and if they really read the books, so it was the researcher that introduced the reading materials to the research subjects and encourage them to read these books . Here is a list of books used in the research : 1. A Look at Life in the USA - An Interactive Reader by Catherine Porter & Elizabeth Minicz . 2. Basics in Reading by Hiroshi Suzuki, Michael Rost & Nancy Baxer . 3. Cause and Effects by Patricia Ackert . 4. Cliffs - TOEFL Preparation Guide by Michael A. Pyle & Mary Ellen Munoz . 5. Facts and Figures by Patricia Ackert . 6. Famous People in the World by Do Van Thao 7. Guide to British and American Culture by Jonathan Crowther & Kathryn Kavanag . 8. Headway (Upper-intermediate ) by Liz & John Soars 9. Headway (Advanced ) by Liz & John Soars 10. Introducing the USA – A Cultural Reader by Milada Broukal & Peter Murphy . 11. Lifelines by Tom Hutchinson 12. More Reading Power by Beatrice S. Mikulecky & Linda Jeffries . 13. Music by Do Van Thao . 14. New English 10 ( 1 ) by Hoang Van Van . 15. New English 10 ( 2 ) by Tu Anh & Mai Vi Phuong 16. New Headway (Upper-intermediate ) by Liz & John Soars 17. New Headway (Advanced ) by Liz & John Soars 18. Passages : An upper-level multi-skills course by Jack C Richards & Chuck Sandy 19. Places to Know in the U.S.A - An Interactive ESL Reader by Catherine Porter , Elizabeth Minicz & Carole Cross . 20. Progress to Proficiency ( Volume 1 ) by Leo Jones 21. Progress to Proficiency ( New edition ) ( Volume 2 ) by Leo Jones 22. Selects Readings by Linda Lee & Erik Gundersen . 23. Sports by Do Van Thao . 24. Spotlight on Britain by Susan Sheering , Jonathan Seath & Gillian White 25. Insider – Reading 26. In addition, the students could find reading materials on the Internet . PROCEDURES. a ) Getting Started - A pre-quiz test which consisted of 50 questions of general knowledge was used . The giving of the pre-quiz test to the students aimed at checking their background knowledge of the world , and showing them the importance of extensive reading . b ) Students and teachers keep track of student progress by using extensive reading tasks . The purpose of giving extensive reading tasks was “ to prompt students to keep reading. ” (Harmer, 2001 , p.212 ). Hence, it is advisable to “encourage them to report back on their reading in a number of ways .” ( Harmer , 2001 , p. 212 ). Extensive reading tasks :  Project Work ( Noticeboard ) Each group was asked to write reports or pieces of information which they gained from the books they read. The group leader took responsibility for collecting reports or interesting pieces of information from their group mates and putting them on the noticeboard every two weeks. The group leaders were also responsible for keeping record of how many pieces of information a student in a group gave her / him every two weeks. To encourage participation, this activity was announced as a competition in which there would be a prize for the best group.  Oral reports The students took turns or volunteered to make oral reports on different topics given by the teacher or they could talk about a book review. The topics were as follows: - Famous or interesting people in the world - Holidays - Natural disasters - Medicines and health - Health care and Epidemics - Animals - Ways to improve English - Sports - Music - International Organizations Oral reports were made every week. While one student talked, the others listened and made questions as well. The researcher recorded their reports every week to see if they made any difference during the two months doing extensive reading.  Reading Diaries To check if all of the students took part in the extensive reading, the teacher asked the students to keep reading diaries. In the diaries the students were requested to answer the following questions: - What is the title of the book you read? - Is it easy or difficult for you to understand? - What do you learn from the book? - What do you think about the book? - Would you recommend the book to other students ? why? Why not? - How do you feel after you have read the book? - Would you have any suggestions on the book?  Post quiz-test A post quiz-test which also consisted of 50 questions was used after students spent two months doing extensive reading. The post quiz-test was designed slightly different from the pre quiz-test.  Multiple choice tests on Vocabulary Multiple choice tests on vocabulary / idioms / phrasal verbs were given to the students to check if their vocabulary increased after they did extensive reading.( The vocabulary / idioms / phrasal verbs were taken from the reading materials that they had read.)  Questionnaire A questionnaire was administered to the students at the end of the research. The questionnaire was devised to find out (1) the students’ motivation to extensive reading (2) their attitude towards reading (3) their evaluation on extensive reading tasks (4) and their comments on extensive reading activity . The questionnaire included both open-ended questions and questions with fixed alternatives .For the questions with fix alternatives the students were asked to indicate whether they “ strongly agreed ” , “ agreed ” , “ were neutral ”, “disagreed” or “ strongly disagreed ” with each of the statements . For the open-ended questions the students could freely express their thoughts about the extensive reading activity and tasks. FINDINGS a ) The Pre-quiz test The chart showed that the students ‘general knowledge was not satisfactory. Their understanding about the world was limited. b) Notice board - Every two weeks during the two months the four groups of the English class presented their notice boards to the researcher. All of the four groups presented the notice boards as planned, so there were a total of 16 notice boards , each of which contained reports or pieces of information on different topics . -The number of reports and pieces of information on the notice boards of the four groups : Group 1 7 10 12 15 Week 1- 2 Week 3- 4 Week 5- 6 Week 7- 8 Group 2 7 11 12 14 Group 3 6 8 10 15 Group 4 8 12 14 16 That there were more reports and pieces of information on the four groups’ notice boards in week 7 – 8 than in week 1 – 2 indicated that the students’ general knowledge was improved and they did extensive reading regularly and effectively. c) Oral reports The number of students who took turns or volunteered to make oral reports Week 1 The number of The number of times students who made that students made oral reports reports ( * ) 11 ( 39 % ) 12 2 14 ( 50 % ) 17 3 16 ( 57 % ) 18 4 20 ( 71 % ) 20 5 22 ( 78 % ) 23 6 22 ( 85 % ) 25 7 24 ( 85 % ) 24 8 28 ( 100 % ) 28 ( * ) Some students volunteered to make reports twice in a week. The findings indicated that there was an increase in engagement in class. An analysis of the content of the students’talks which were recorded on the tape showed that their knowledge was improved because their reports in week 7-8 were longer and more informative than those in week 1-2 . d ) Reading Diaries The findings indicated that most of the students of the English class participated in the extensive reading activity. e ) The post –quiz test The result of the post quiz test in comparison with the pre- quiz test The students did better on the post- quiz test than on the pre-quiz test. This indicated that their general knowledge was improved due to the extensive reading activity. f. ) Questionnaire Questionnaire What did you think about extensive reading activity A./ ? Statements 1.You thought that your general knowledge was improved . 2.You feel more interested in reading than before . 3.There were a lot of topics in reading materials that interested you . 4. You kept a reading diary . 5. The information you obtained from the other groups’ notice boards and your classmates’oral reports was useful to you . 6. The difficulty level of the reading materials was about right 7. You thought that the extensive reading activity that you did two months before put pressure on you . 1 SA 50% 2 A 3 N 35% 14% 60% 17% 14% 17% 35% 35% 71% 4 D 5 SD 7% 10% 28% 53% 17% 17% 17% 53 % 14 % 7% 10% 10% 14% 17 % 64 % B. / Some comments given by the students when doing the questionnaire: - Extensive reading combined with post extensive reading tasks were activities for confidence building , encouraged them to become independent readers , and made it possible for the weak students to learn from their peers. - They could take responsibility for their own learning. - They could work at their own pace without classroom pressure. - They could read for pleasure without the pressure of testing or marking. - Extensive reading activity made it possible for the weak students to participate in the activity that they had never had during reading class before. - Extensive reading brought them a lot of interesting information and a lot of benefits. - Reading materials chosen by the researcher lacked authentic materials like daily newspapers or magazines . Questionnaire findings revealed that - The students were motivated to extensive reading. - They thought that extensive reading activity was useful to them in many aspects : creating confidence in learning English, encouraging them to become independent readers , and helping them find pleasure and real purposes in reading - However, they also wished to be provided with authentic reading materials. They wanted to be exposed to more real English world. Unexpected findings - Compositions written by the four group leaders before the research began were chosen to compare with what they wrote on the notice board in week 7-8 revealed that there was an improvement in their writing skill. (The researcher asked the four group leaders to show the researcher their reports or pieces of information on the notice boards, so the researcher could know whose report it was .) The compositions before the innovation were poorly written, lacked ideas and contained quite a lot of grammatical errors, but what appeared on the notice boards showed a big difference. Their pieces of writing became better with a lot of ideas and less mistakes. - From the observation the researcher discovered that the students became more confident in their way of talking. When a student made their report, the others listened and made questions to their classmates, which implied that their listening and speaking skills could have been improved, Summary Extensive reading really improved the students’ general knowledge and they felt motivated to reading. Extensive reading tasks did increase the students’ engagement in class and they were eager to take part in these activities due to the fact that they could work at their own pace without classroom pressure. But what was interesting and unexpected was that extensive reading combined with post reading tasks showed the integration of the four skills. And the students’ four skills could have been improved. CONCLUSION In an article by Littlewood ( 2000, p33 ) , there is a passage which says “ If Asian students do indeed adopt the passive classroom attitudes that are often claimed , this is more likely to be a consequence of the educational contexts that have been or are now provided for them than of any inherent dispositions of the students themselves ” . Students can not only adopt new ways of teaching from their teachers but also become very responsible for their study and their tasks in class. They will become more motivated if learning materials and teachers’way of teaching meet their expectations, needs , abilities and interests . This research was an attempt to prove that extensive reading combined with reading tasks such as oral reports in class increased students’ general knowledge and students’ motivation to read. However, due to the fact that the innovation was just implemented for a small number of students who had a good knowledge of English, the background of the school and the limitations of the research , the innovation could not be considered as full success and it is not feasible to diffuse the innovation on a large scale . The writer of this piece of writing Bùi Ngọc Xinh APPENDIX 1 PRE-QUIZ TEST Name : ………………………….. Class : 12 Part A : Answer these questions with YES or NO. 1. Is weight gain the cause of chronic snoring? 2. Are people who smoke at greater risk for high blood pressure and heart disease? 3. Does British society still have quite a strong class system which is based on birth and social position? 4. Did Mexico host the World Cup for the second time in 1986? 5. Was the 2002 World Cup held in two Asian countries? 6. Is it a good idea to sleep a few extra hours on the weekend if you know you have a lot of work to do the next week? 7. Can a dream about an unhappy event change your heart beat? 8. Is five or six hours of sleep enough for some people? 9. Does it take longer for Mars to circle the sun than it takes the Earth? 10. Is there any air on the moon? 11. Are there any sounds on the moon? 12. Is it very cold at night on the moon? 13. Is the temperature even lower during the day? 14. Is there a World Cup tournament for women? 15. Is the Statue of Liberty the famous US statue in New York harbour? 16. Does one day on the moon last for two weeks? 17. Is basketball played by two teams of five players but seven other players can be brought on to replace them during the game? 18.Is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Vietnam? 19. Can the amount of farmland be increased ? 20. Is Cambridge University Press a publishing company belonging to Cambridge University? 21. Is a Barbie doll a child ‘s toy doll?