(SKKN 2022) Attracting ten Graders'' attention to writing pre-writing activities at Quang xuong 4 high school

OFFICE OF THANH HOA EDUCATON AND TRAINING QUANG XUONG IV HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE ATTRACTING TEN GRADERS’ATTENTION TO WRITING WITH PRE-WRITING ACTIVITIES AT QUANG XUONG IV HIGH SCHOOL Field: English-high school Researcher: Le Thi Hai School: Quang xuong high school District:Quang xuong THANH HOA- 2022 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1:INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reason for choosing the topic .3 1.2.aims of the research 3,4 1.3.Research Objectitives……………………………………………………4 1.4.Research methods 1.5.new points of the research .4,5 2:CONTENT 2.1.thereotical background…………………………………………………5 2.2.Practical background………………………………………………… 2.2.1.Advantages………………………………………………………… 5,6 2.2.2.Problems while presenting language before writing…………………6 2.2.3.Previous researches on prewriting activities……………………….6,7,8 2.2.4 Summary………………………………………………………………8 2.3Solutions to the problems 2.3.1.Brainstorming……………………………………………………….8,9 2.3.2.Clustering…………………………………………………………9,10 2.3.3.The journalists’question………………………………………10,11,12 2.3.4.Working from an outline……………………………………….12,13 2.4.Effects of applying prewriting activities .13,14,15,16,17,18 3.CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 3.1.Conclusion…………………………………………………….18,19 3.2 Suggetions………………………………………………19,20,21, REFERENCES……………………………………………… 22 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reason choosing the topic Together with our country’s integration English takes an extremely important role in every field,which requires the teachers of English in Vietnam education systems in general and high school as well to renovate the methods,techniques,skills to improve students’ability to speaking,listening and writing.We communicate with the foreingers in English so we have to listen to them and talk to them as well.Many people can listen and speak very well but when being asked to write a report,a description or something else in English they often feel confused and some even not know how to write as they want to express their thought.It is because they only focus on grammar,speaking and listening at school,many people are bored of writing lesson,some find it difficult to write so they pay little attention to writing.While teaching at Quang Xuong IV high school,a school near the sea where many students here come from poor families with little support from their family for learning,especially English I find students prefer doing grammartical exercises to listening,speaking and writing.They not like writing at all Thanks to the innovation of ways in teaching English, English lessons are taught with four skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing) in one unit Moreover, there exists three stages – Pre - while – post - teaching in one lesson This really helps students improve their skills beside the grammar exercises to pass the exams 1.2.Aims of the research When teaching writing skill to the 10 th graders,The lessons having interesting pre-stage get students more than others which means to me that pre-writing stages are very important in teaching writing and it also has significant effects on the students’writing performance.I have used some activities on teaching pre-writing with the hope to draw students’attention to writing and they will be better and more confident while writing 1.3.Research objectives Finding the most effectives techniques in teaching pre-writing stage to be used in teaching writing at the 10 th grade at Quang Xuong IV high school with the aim of making students be confident at writing as well as improve this skill themselves 1.4 Research methods The research is basically a qualitative research, which employs the following methods: 1.Collect students’opinions and the sesults of writing skill before using the activities for pre-teaching 2.Applying the activities in appointed teaching classes,observing the attention of students,giving writing task,getting the results,taking lesson and experiences 1.5 New points of the experience initiative Writing, one of the two productive skills, has always a significant position in language teaching Nevertheless, how to teach and learn writing effectively often poses great problems to both teachers and students For the teachers of English at high school, writing is considered a difficult skill to teach Some of them even ignore teaching writing skill and focus only on grammar excercises for the exams However, nothing is difficult if we, the teachers make decision to make it easier Hopefully , with a range of suggestions of how to make pre – writing activities effectively in writing lessons introduced in this research, it will be more motivating for the teachers to teach and make progress in teaching writing Therefore, their students will be interested in writing lessons This research was carried out in three English classes with 120 10 th grade students at Quang Xuong IV High School in Quang Loi The research focused on how pre – writing activities affect the students’ writing performances in writing lessons CONTENT 2.1 Theoretical background For most of us, getting started is often the hardest part of writing A blank page, begging to be filled with ink, can be intimidating, especially when our words come slowly or when our minds go blank Pre – writing is considered to be very important in teaching writing Pre – writing is the complex network of initial mental sequences we undergo when we write a paper In addition, that Pre – writing is the first stage of the writing process and is also called the idea – generating stage which stretches back to include anything that you have ever done or have ever been that might have given you ideas to write about High schools’students are often not good at writing due to various reasons such as embarrassment,reticence,overcrowed class so they get little opportunities to practise writing aimed to dealt with these shortcomings of students and through writing students have chances to show their own strength or weakness therefore teacher is able to get to know each student’s ability Writing skill helps students practise their creative and imaginary abilities as well as know how to express their personal feeling even when they get to know the topic they will write Through practising the activities before writing text,they all get acquainted with the topic,vocabulary,structures they may use for their writing interestingly both advanced students and the other ones 2.2.Practical background 2.2.1.Advantages Teaching english in Quang xuong high shool has some advantages The school’s administrators give us the best condition as they can and concern to our teaching and students’progress Our school has equipped many teaching facilities as : projectors in all classroom,cassette players,references We are young teachers with high enthusiasm and good qualification and skills to promote students’ ability of English 2.2.2.Problems while presenting language before writing Nearly all 10th grader students in Quang Xuong IV high school can write a complete sentence without making error,they have habit of translating into English words by words from Vietnamese while writing so they often use wrong words or structures in written Engli The lack of vocabulary and structures make them hestitate writing,furthermore students tend to prefer doing grammartical exercises than writing 2.2.3.previous reseaches on prewriting activities Topic for the writing task “Writing about people’s background-Unit 3,textbook 10 ” Time allowance: 10 minutes (3 minutes for warm – up and minutes for pre – writing activities) Class Teachers’ activities Students’ Comments activities 10T2 For warm – up: No Teacher pointed textbook and at asked effective the Some of them activities her said “It is a given,student students “What is this?” – curriculum “OK Today we are going to vitae” learn how to write about said have little chance Some to get what a nothing, background is in people’s background” some kept on an interesting way For pre – writing stage: personal talks and no Teacher asked her students to games,activites Task 1, and then she The class was for them to so explained some cues given noisy below the table of because they the Teacher asked students to weather easily feel hot bored and make Most noise Task for the while – of the students writing stage did nothing and only some of them listened to what the teacher said 10D6 For warm – up: Students have Teacher showed a table of “Yes” nothing to think one’s information copied in about, to discuss A4 paper and asked the and students “Can you see what challenge them you call this? Is this a curriculum vitae?” Students For pre – writing stage: seemed tired Teacher also asked students and nervous and to task in the textbook tried to finish and then she answered all the their task questions by herself if there was no reply from the students Teacher also asked students to task with no emphasis on what they had to to write about peopls’s nothing to background 2.2.4.Sumary The above results show that the pre-writing lacks effective activities and this situation needs improving,which asks the teachers of English in our school think it over to find something more effective to get students’attention to writing from the beginning of the lessons 2.3.Solutions to the problems 2.3.1.Brainstorming Brainstorming, also called listing, is a process of generating a lot of information within a short time by building on the association of previous terms you have mentioned  Jot down all the possible terms that emerge from the general topic you are thinking about This procedure works especially well if you work in a team All team members can generate ideas, with one member acting as scribe Don't worry about editing or throwing out what might not be a good idea Simply write down a lot of possibilities  Group the items that you have listed according to arrangements that make sense to you  Give each group a label Now you have a topic with possible points of development  Write a sentence about the label you have given the group of ideas Now you have a topic sentence or possibly a thesis statements 2.3.2 Clustering Clustering is also called mind mapping or idea mapping It is a strategy that allows you to explore the relationships between ideas    Put the subject in the center of a page Circle or underline it As you think of other ideas, link the new ideas to the central circle with lines As you think of ideas that relate to the new ideas, add to those in the same way The result will look like a web on your page Locate clusters of interest to you, and use the terms you attached to the key ideas as departure points for your paper Clustering is especially useful in determining the relationship between ideas You will be able to distinguish how the ideas fit together, especially where there is an abundance of ideas Clustering your ideas lets you see them visually in a different way, so that you can more readily understand possible directions your paper may take 2.3.3.The journalists’questions Journalists traditionally ask six questions when they are writing assignments, W's and H: Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?, How? You can use these questions to explore the topic you are writing about for an assignment A key to using the journalists' questions is to make them flexible enough to account for the specific details of your topic For instance, if your topic is the rise and fall of the Puget Sound tides and its effect on salmon spawning, you may have very little to say about Who? if your focus doesn't account for human involvement On the other hand, some topics may be heavy on the Who?, especially if human involvement is a crucial part of the topic Possible generic questions you can ask using the six journalists' questions follow:  Who?: Who are the participants? Who is affected? Who are the primary actors? Who are the secondary actors? 10      What?: What is the topic? What is the significance of the topic? What is the basic problem? What are the issues? Where?: Where does the activity take place? Where does the problem or issue have its source? At what place is the cause or effect of the problem most visible? When?: When is the issue most apparent? (past? present? future?) When did the issue or problem develop? What historical forces helped shape the problem or issue and at what point in time will the problem or issue culminate in a crisis? When is action needed to address the issue or problem? Why?: Why did the issue or problem arise? Why is it (your topic) an issue or problem at all? Why did the issue or problem develop in the way that it did? How?: How is the issue or problem significant? How can it be addressed? How does it affect the participants? How can the issue or problem be resolved? The journalists' questions are a powerful way to develop a great deal of information about a topic very quickly Learning to ask the appropriate questions about a topic takes practice, however At times during writing an assignment, you may wish to go back and ask the journalists' questions again to clarify important points tat may be getting lost in your planning and drafting 11 2.3.4.Working from an outline Once you have a general idea of what will go in the introduction, body, and conclusion of your paper, the next step can be to develop a more specific outline in which you break down what specifically will be in each paragraph of your essay Although some students find it more effective to create an outline based on a draft that they have already written, creating an outline ahead of time can help keep your writing more focused than inventing paragraphs as you go Either method can create great writing - you might want to experiment with both methods to see which one works best for you The purpose of an outline: An outline helps organize your ideas An outline presents your material in a logical form An outline shows the relationship between the ideas in your writing An outline constructs an ordered overview of your writing An outline defines boundaries and groups within your paper An important part of outlining your ideas is to remain consistent For example, if you are presenting information or ideas in a certain order at the 12 beginning of your paper, don't switch that order half way through your paper This may confuse your reader Try to make it obvious to your readers why and how you are presenting your information so that they don't have to work at figuring out your organization as they are reading your paper Here is an example of an outline covering the topic of rain forest preservation OUTLINE 1.Introduction A Square miles B Location C Thesis: Because of the valuable characteristics rain forests possess, the rapid destruction of the forests is creating negative effects on the environment Characteristics of rain forests A Variety of species B Value of rain forests - Medicinal values - Food values The destruction of rain forests A Rate at which rain forests are destroyed B Reasons why rain forests are destroyed - Poverty - Large company projects Effects on environment A Extinction of species B Global warming Reactions Conclusion A Restate thesis B Key role C Consequences 2.4.Effects of applying pre-writing activities Brief description of the results Topic for writing essay: “Writing to give directions” Time allowance: 10 minutes Class: 10M Time/ Teachers’ activities Activity Students’ activities 13 Comments Warm – up Teacher comes into -Answer (5’) This period is the class, turn right teacher’s then turn left considered to be question “you successful After Teacher asks students turn right then being consulted “What have I just turn left by English done? teachers at QX Teacher show a big IV High School picture as well as Look at picture the conducting the then two try – out give lessons, teacher description has withdrawn using some reasons for prepositions the success of the -go up period -go down Pre – activity -turn left is interesting -turn right Visual aids are … effective enough Students cooperate better because they are acquaintances Pre – writing activity -Teacher shows a picture (10’) 14 -Work in pairs New words after discussing and structures in the groups are taught A:Could you logically tell me the way There is no to problem with Ghep market? students’ misunderstandin g toward teachers’ instructions Teacher asks students to ask the way to -Ghep market While – -Soto factory writing activity (20’) the content of the game show in the textbook All the students of the class had the chance to talk about the show before writing it - Students can discuss in groups and choose one competition to write about - Teacher students to asked make sentences basing on the suggestions in the 15 -Pairwork A:Can you tell me the way to ghep market B:Go ahead textbook and practice in pairs - Teacher asked the students to write about any competitions for secondary school students on TV Most of them chose the show “Road to Olympia” and some chose other show such as “Not Nhac Vui” or “Tuoi Doi Menh Mong” – the singing contest and even one of them chose “Ringing The Golden Bell” – a famous game show for students at Post – university - Ask students to work - Students writing in activity correction (12’) pairs for peer the correction - Teacher goes around to check whether students can correct their writing classmates’ If students 16 peer need her help, the teacher will help them 5.Homework (3’) to correct the mistakes - Read your passage - Write on the again, make it perfect notebook and retell it in the next period Bellows are some more comments about the improvement of the students in post – improvement stage: Pre – improvement Low Changes Students’ Post –improvement Higher 30% of the students did motivation Most of students were eager to write not write because they after the game because they said that said that the topic was they liked the game so much boring Some of them were forced to write basing on the suggestions in Task They wrote in a bad form of letter (See Appendix…) More Ss’ Less Some students tried to mistakes Mistakes on grammar and follow the suggestions on both expressions has improved a lot in Task in the textbook grammar There still existed some but for the but theirs were full of and whole passage they were acceptable grammar mistakes and expressions because both the teacher and her words usages (See students need more time to perfect 17 Appendix…) these mistakes Notes: This may take longer time to improve the situation but the teacher should pay much attention to this because it is the goal in teaching a productive skill Less creative Ss’ More creative Some students in the creativity Ss’ creativity in writing is another class did not know what when hard work to attain and Ss will make to with their writings producing their writing creative when they are so they copy the whole a new motivated enough or they feel much sample letter in the text writing interested in the writing topic In the book the version post – improvement the students’ the writing ignoring requirements of writing tasks performance has been improved much 3.CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 3.1.conclusion With above activities,teacher creates mny chances for students to use and practise Emglish ia very creative ways in the situations related to their own life,keep focusing on learning new words,phrases and structures they will use in the writing text,as well as know about the topic they will write about.students pay good attention to the activities,which means they are attracted to the lesson and ignore their embarrassment and express themselves better 18 In the last schoolyear I myself applied actively these activities in my classes and some other class at Quang xuong high school and after observing the students before and after applying the activities students had good progress in knowing the writing text,they no longer meet troubles while starting to write an essay or descbing a chart.the classes in which I used the activities in the writing lesson had a good results and positive reaction from students 3.2.some suggestions Students ‘performance in writing lesson can be affected by a variety of factors originating from students, teachers and other external factors In the following sections, some of the major factors will be discussed 3.2.1 Students’ learning styles Different individuals may have different learning styles, prefer different kinds of work, and expect different degrees of care and attention from the teacher This can be seen clearly that there are different reactions from students toward the pre – lesson stage We can conclude with certainty that if teacher realizes the differences among the individuals in the class when an activity is in progress, the students will participate in the lesson actively 3.2.2 Students’ motivation No one can deny the importance of motivation towards the success in learning a foreign language so we have to understand the sources of motivation According to Harmer, the sources of motivation are diversified They may derive from the society we live in, significant others like parents or old siblings, the teacher and the method Among these sources, the teacher and the method may be of the most importance For the teacher, his or her attitudes and enthusiasm help create a positive classroom atmosphere For the method, it means involving both teacher and students’ confidence shown in the way of teaching and learning If either loses this confident motivation, the chance of success in learning a language will be very small 19 We may not give the exact answer but we can conclude with certainty that the degree of motivation is directly proportional to the level of involvement in pre – lesson stage in common and particularly in students’ performance in writing lesson To be more concrete, the more motivated students are, the more actively they will participate in the lesson 3.2.3 Students’ language levels In writing lesson, we not have the chance to choose the topic because of its various writing tasks However, teacher should choose the suitable genre or activities to motivate students In conclusion, those are the main factors originating from students’ side that may affect students’ participation in classroom activities For each student, the degrees of effect of those factors may vary and within one factor the degrees of effect on each student are different , if students are motivated, they will engage themselves more in classroom activities 3.2.4 Teachers’ teaching methods Through the history we have experienced the existence and development of many teaching methods that can be divided into two types: teacher – centred and learner – centred methods In pre – lesson stage, teachers’ teaching methods are focused on the ways teacher design appropriate activities to motivate students to write as well as the ways that the teacher elicits pre – lesson activities In order to have a suitable method, the teacher should take some of the following factors into consideration including learners, teaching purposes and other available classroom conditions Choosing an inappropriate or not being flexible in applying methods to a certain class may have negative effects on students’ participation 3.2.5 Teachers’ knowledge In the pre – lesson stage of writing lesson, we are going to focus on language ability and general knowledge 20 Language: Being a fluent, accurate English speaker is a great help, but this alone does not make us a successful teacher Indeed, many teachers whose command of English is limited still are good teachers as they understand the difficulties their students often face General knowledge: In order to conduct an useful pre – lesson activity, a teacher needs not only knowledge of the language but also knowledge of content which means the knowledge of the topic they are going to conduct 3.2.6 Teachers’ instructions In the class, if the students not understand the teachers’ instructions, they not react anything Therefore, the teacher has to try at least twice to explain to them before resorting to Vietnamese Much has been written on how to give effective instructions In conclusion, students’ writing performance can be affected by teachers’ factors including teaching methods, teachers’ knowledge and teachers’ instructions in pre – lesson stage Teaching methods may play a decisive part in obtaining teaching goals in pre – lesson stage Beside teaching methods, teachers’ knowledge also plays an important part as the former makes the activities interesting in term of the content Additionally, the fact that teachers’ instructions properly may help students be sure that they can understand what they need to in the lesson Thus, with a view to improve the pre – lesson stage in writing lesson, teachers should renovate their teaching methods, in this case that is the way teachers elicit the pre – lesson activities At the same time, teachers should improve their knowledge including both knowledge of language and knowledge of the field expertise Finally, teachers should give clear and brief instructions in this stage so that students can produce good writing pieces REFERENCES Academic writing – Oxford Press 21 Chuẩn kiến thức kỹ môn Tiếng Anh 10, 11, 12 – (Tái lần thứ nhất) - NXB Giáo dục Việt Nam 2010 Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (7th edition) Thiết kế giảng Tiếng Anh 10, NXB Hà Nội 2009 Thiết kế hoạt động dạy học Tiếng Anh 10, tập II, NXB Giáo dục Hà Nội Tứ Anh – Phan Hà – May Vi Phương – Hồ Tấn, Sổ tay người dạy Tiếng Anh, NXB Giáo Dục 2004 http://www.teachingenglish.edu.vn http://www.violet.vn 9.http://www.pinterest 22 ... techniques in teaching pre -writing stage to be used in teaching writing at the 10 th grade at Quang Xuong IV high school with the aim of making students be confident at writing as well as improve... writing lesson,some find it difficult to write so they pay little attention to writing. While teaching at Quang Xuong IV high school, a school near the sea where many students here come from poor families... students? ?writing performance.I have used some activities on teaching pre -writing with the hope to draw students? ?attention to writing and they will be better and more confident while writing 1.3.Research