(SKKN 2022) teaching english effectively in a large class of students with different levels during the covid 19 pandemic at nhu xuan high school

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION I RATIONALE 1.Theoretical basis: Vietnam is in the process of integrating into the world economy and learning,keep pace with the development of science and technology of the world In that process, each student, in particular, and the Vietnamese people desperately need to equip yourself with good English skills That's the key to open the door of human knowledge, promote success in international integration In fact, despite being aware of the importance of English, most all Vietnamese students after graduation are not satisfied have English proficiency to meet the requirements of the job The majority of students Vietnamese students, especially students in small provinces, rural areas,mountainous areas,they feel that English is very difficult and afraid to learn The question is why is the English level of the Vietnamese people inferior to the English level of the people in the region and in the world? There are many reasons of which teaching method is one of the main reasons Have we really got the right program, applied active teaching methods to make students excited and develop each individual's language ability? Especially in Nhu Xuan district that is still poor in the 19 covid pandemic, with inadequate facilities, English classes at all three levels range from 35 to 40 students with different language proficiency Stemming from the above reason, I bravely researched and experimented with the topic: " Teaching English effectively in a large class of students with different levels during the covid 19 pandemic at Nhu Xuan High School " with the hope of contributing a small part in the adjustment of English language skills to be more effective Practical basis: In fact, in any classrooms at high school levels today, the difference in English proficiency between students is inevitable There are several reasons for this difference: - Differences in gender - Different in personality - Differences in cognitive ability - Differences in the rate of development of cognitive stages - Differences in background, family background and learning environment at home - The quality of English input in the same class is also quite different - The ability to acquire foreign languages is not equal - Different motivation and interest in learning Understanding the students as well as analyzing and evaluating in detail about the form and causes of that difference with the students in their class is an important step in building an optimal plan for each teaching period, so that all students achieve the best results II AIMS OF THE STUDY The experience initiative will help teachers gain the following experiences: - Procedures for setting up and stabilizing classroom operations - How to organize and apply activities suitable for students with different levels of English - How to organize games to support learning III RESEARCH SUBJECTS This subject will help students interested in accessing to teach English effectively in a large class of students, lessons to improve their little skills now IV METHOD OF STUDY - Research in the teaching of English at Nhu Xuan High School - School year 2021- 2022 - Grade 11B2, 11B3 - Using some some active teaching methods to promote students’ skills and some notes when organizing group activities in a large class - Using comparison in percent before and after studying to assess the quality of teaching and study - Using Intuitive method: self-study, study materials, experiment teaching, observe students' progress, observe class time, visit class to learn from experience, supplement and adjust teaching methods in a timely manner - Using Method of exchange and discussion: after attending class, discuss with colleagues to have more and more effective teaching methods - Using Methods of testing and evaluation: using questionnaires to poll students, design two groups of equivalent students, experimental group according to new methods, conventional teaching group: test and evaluate the progress in both skills and knowledge of grammar V PARTICIPANTS The subjects chosen for the research include students in class 11B2, 11B3 of Nhu Xuan High School with some active teaching methods some active teaching methods to promote students’ skills and some notes when organizing group activities in a large class , and teachers who are currently teaching English Their experience of teaching English varied from 12 years to 20 years The research was carried out during the first term of the academic year 2021 – 2022 at Nhu Xuan High School PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT I.AN OVERVIEW The most important thing in a large class with a gap in level is to create interest in learning for students For good students are new challenges to overcome; For weaker students, there is a marked step-by-step progress Therefore, teachers' teaching and management methods should always be rich and flexible In this topic, I boldly propose some improvement measures to overcome the current situation of crowded classrooms with many different levels of students These applications include: - Build internal rules - Flexible grouping technique - Diversify, adjust tasks and exercises to suit students - Applying games in teaching Some active teaching methods for large classes of students with different levels: 1.1 Develop internal rules: Building internal rules is essential in a large class to maintain class discipline and create a comfortable learning environment for all students Teachers themselves must be the pioneer in all regulations, instead of being the judge of students If a teacher asks students to work in groups but goes out or works alone, the students will not comply with that request Teachers and students work together to create internal classroom rules where consistency is key Especially with large classes, the following rules are essential: - Students must keep a listening order when the teacher or another student in the class gives an opinion - Students work in groups without speaking too loudly so as not to affect other groups as well as other classes Teachers provide students with clear, fair punishments that are clear and applied fairly to all students In each specific case, a penalty should be applied after the lesson so as not to affect the time of the lesson It is essential for teachers to find out the root causes of students' shortcomings Discuss with students the internal rules appropriate to the class situation Have students write these rules on a poster and place it in a visible location 1.2.Flexible grouping technique skill The group teaching method contains an active process for learners to actively and autonomously dominate scientific content Through brainstorming and group discussion, students have the opportunity to practice basic skills such as listening skills, speaking skills, ability and defending ideas in English Students can learn test-taking techniques and develop new ideas from other team members How to make groups: When thinking about groups like that, the question that must be asked is how will teachers organize group activities? Is the group formed suddenly, on a whim, or is it oriented and fixed? Big group or small group? And what is the arrangement system for dividing the work in the team? Depending on the content, nature, difficulty level of the learning task and the level of students in the class, the teacher chooses the most appropriate form of grouping Usually, there are the following ways of grouping: • Random grouping: Groups made up of students sitting close together (in the same table, 2-3 tables close together) Advantages: groups are organized quickly and easily Only suitable for the requirements of simple and short exercises Disadvantage: it is easy to have the phenomenon of students with poorer grades sitting around and waiting for results from good students to the results of the whole group The presentation of the task results is also assigned to the good students That makes the weaker students in the group become more and more passive and fail to develop their English proficiency • Grouping with different levels: The teacher checks and evaluates the members of the group for a certain period of time In each group, there will be a number of students who are good, good, and poor in a certain proportion Advantages: create more competition between groups Cons: Just like the random grouping, the weaker students in the group are easy to rely on and the better friends • Divide into groups of the same level: The teacher checks and evaluates the members of the group for a certain period of time The teacher classifies groups and periodically evaluates and re-ranks them Advantages: Team members have equal roles and responsibilities in completing assigned tasks, reducing the dependence of some students in the class Disadvantages: teachers take time to evaluate and classify groups to fix, rank groups as well as conduct evaluation according to the process to upgrade groups • Grouping according to interests: At the beginning of a learning activity, the teacher gives several choices and asks the students what activity they would like to Students who enjoy doing the same activity will be assigned to a group Advantages: creating excitement for students, exciting class time Cons: Difficult to organize activities In my experiment, in order to overcome the disadvantages of large classes and disparity in student levels, I experimented with two methods of grouping: Grouping at the same level and grouping according to interests Some notes when organizing group activities For group activities, make specific requirements to force all members to participate, for example: “write two sentences each, “submit one idea each, “take turns to speak so that you all speak Assign different students to answer the question Don't always call the first student to volunteer to answer the question as these will often be the top students, so the lower performing students won't have much of a chance to answer Teachers can assign students first and then ask questions, easy questions for poor students and more difficult questions for good students Use group leaders: designate faster and more capable students as team leaders so they can support slower students Give clear accountability to the group leader, who will help the teacher maintain order in the classroom Team leaders can be assigned alternately so that each team member is accountable to his or her own team Diversifying, adjusting tasks and exercises to suit students: Method 1: Adjust the difficulty of the exercises: With the same exercise, the teacher can adjust the difficulty level of the exercise and give many types of exercises such as filling in words, filling in phrases, choosing the right answer, choosing right and wrong, answering questions… to suit the needs of students different levels of students For example: Part E: Language focus – Unit 6- English book 11 Exercise (page 74): Change indirect speech into reported speech Begin each of the sentences in the way shown With group C: group with weaker level, teachers can simplify the exercise by giving the option to choose: Question 1: “ I hear you passed your exams Congratulations!” John said to us A John congratulated we on passing your exams B John congratulated us on passing our exams C John congratulated us on passed our exams D John congratulated us to pass our exams Question 2: “I am sorry, I didn’t phone you earlier,” Mary said A Mary apologised for not phoning you earlier B Mary apologized for not phoned you earlier C Mary apologized didn’t phone me earlier D Mary apologized for not phoning me earlier With group B: The group has a good level, the teacher can design a lesson to find and correct mistakes with the same content above: Question 1: “ I hear you passed your exams Congratulations!” John said to us John congratulated us on passed our exams A B C D Question 2: “I am sorry, I didn’t phone you earlier,” Mary said Mary apologized for didn’t phone me earlier A B C D With group A: Good study group: The teacher can increase the difficulty of the exercise that requires students to memorize the structure and have good English thinking to rewrite equivalent sentences or give a suggested word for students to rewrite sentences: Question 1: “ I hear you passed your exams Congratulations!” John said to us John ………………………………………………………………………… Question 2: “I am sorry, I didn’t phone you earlier,” Mary said Mary …………………………………………………………………… Question 3: “I’ll drive you to the station, I insist,” Peter said to Mary (ON) ……………………………………………………………………… Question 4: “You didn’t pay attention to what I said,” the teacher said to the boy (OF) ………………………………………………………………………… Method 2: futher exercises: Teachers should prepare some extra assignments for the better students as these students usually finish the classwork before the weaker students Example: Part A- Reading- Unit 6: Competitions- English textbook 11Standard program- Part task (page 68) Group C: Ask students to write the suggested words into complete sentences based on the content of the reading passage Activity 5,/ Hung/unable/recite/poem 4 Having/highest/score/,/ Group B/70 points/and/winner Group C/ lost/game/they/got/points Nga/encouraged/group/saying/important/thing/their participation/competition/and/enjoyment/had/it Group C is working Group B: Ask students to read the passage again and complete the sentences In activity 5, Hung was unable ………………………………………… Having achieved the highest score, Group B …………………………… Group C lost the game ………………………………………………… Nga encouraged her group ……………………………………………… Group B is working Group A: Ask students to play the role of a character in the reading to present to the whole class the progress of the competition, this type of exercise requires students to concentrate to remember the content of the lesson, and at the same time develop skills of synthesis and grammatical accuracy 1.Supposing you were Hung, tell us about your team’s performance and your feelings 2.What did Nga tell Hung? What would you say if you were Nga? Supposing you were a member of Group B, what would you like to tell us? Group A is working Applying games in class: Usually, in classes with disparate students, if teachers are not flexible enough to adapt their lessons to increasingly difficult lessons, the gap in proficiency will widen Students with lower English proficiency often feel less confident, withdrawn, not dare to speak and therefore cannot improve their level Organizing games is an effective way to excite students, remove guilt for weaker students, and help students absorb and use English easily I would like to suggest some of the following games, which teachers can modify to make students feel new and more interested Jumbled words - The teacher writes some jumbled words on the board - Ask students to rearrange them into meaningful words - Teachers can modify this game when they want to test or let students practice grammar structure by having students find and arrange sentences with correct grammar Word square - The teacher writes the crossword on the board or prepares it on the cover - State the topic of the word and the number of words to find in the crossword - Divide the class into groups: Each group sends a representative to the board to circle the words found (in horizontal, vertical, diagonal) + This game can be applied when teaching one or several topics Lucky numbers: - Teachers should organize this game on power point Teacher - Divide the class into groups - The teacher writes on the board a few numbers, including the lucky number that the teacher designed under each slide the number is a reading content question, a question about grammar structure, or a lucky symbol and bonus points The group that answers and chooses the lucky number will be added points and have the opportunity to answer a second time Measurement (pedagogical experiment) 1.1 Purpose of Pedagogical Experiment: I conduct pedagogical experiments according to the lesson plan prepared to test the hypothesis of the topic to confirm or refute that hypothesis After completing the pedagogical experiment, there will be enough basis to answer the following questions: Does building internal class rules help classroom activities proceed more efficiently? Does the leveling technique create a good environment for students to progress? Does integrating more exercises as well as adjusting the difficulty of the exercises create interest for students to study? Have the included games stirred up the class atmosphere and made students more confident? Answering the above questions will help find out the shortcomings that need to be adjusted and learned in time for the research project to achieve the best results 1.2.Experimental objects and methods: • Experimental objects: To be objective, I chose classes, divided into two groups Group (experimental group): 11B2 class -Develop clear, consistent class rules, group orientation, and adjust assignments to suit students Group (control group): 11B3 - Teaching in the usual way, randomly assigning groups, without adjusting or supplementing assignment requirements, without applying games in teaching The following is a sample of the pedagogical experiment: No Class Experimental/Control Number of students class 11B2 Experimental 40 11B3 Control 40 1.3 Experimental method of pedagogy: - Choose an experimental class and a control class to ensure experimental requirements - During the pedagogical experiment, I conducted parallel teaching in the experimental class and the control class at the same time, with the same lesson according to the program distribution - In the process of pedagogical experiment, I observe students' attitudes, consciousness, students' progress in each skill and grammar part After each lesson, organize to draw experiences and evaluate teaching hours - At the end of the experiment, I checked both the experimental class and the object class each part of skills and grammar III Applying experiments and assessment tests on a lesson 1.An illustration lesson: Unit 1- Part A- Reading- English 11 - Page 13 (Lesson 1- Part A- reading skills: Topic: Friendship) Summary of the progress of the lesson based on the innovative method to overcome the English proficiency gap in the same class: Part I Warm- up - Divide the class into groups: organize a game of “matching”: match individual words into meaningful sentences: “friend, a, need, is, a, in, friend, in” = “a friend in need is a” friend indeed” Part II: Pre-reading: Theme: Poem "You've got a friend" I apply grouping according to interests: - Group A: Includes students who like to read poems expressively - Group B: Students who like to translate poems - Group C: Students who like to grammar: arrange the order of confused sentences When the groups complete the task, present the results to the class Other groups evaluate and supplement Part III: While reading Task 1: Fill each blank with a suitable word/phrase Ask students to work independently, present the results in front of the class, the teacher and other students to critique Task 2: Which of the choices A, B, C, or D most adequately sums up the ideas of the whole passage This is a small exercise, but it also needs analysis, evaluation, and group discussion Teachers should divide into small groups at random for students to discuss and choose the correct option Task 3: Divide the group by level, adjust the difficulty of the exercise and add more exercises for group A (good study group) Group C: (weaker group) choose the best answer for the following questions: 1.What is the first quality for true friendship and what does it tell you? A Friendship which is two-side affair which can last long which is all give on one side and all take on the other B.Unselfishness It tells us that friendship is two-side affair which can last long which is all give on one side and all take on the other C Interest It tells us that one person cannot be a good friend without the same interest D.Feelings It tells us that one person cannot be a good friend without the same interest 2.Why are changeable and uncertain people incapable of true friendship? A They are unbelievable B They don’t like to have friends C They are soon tired of it and feel the attraction of some new object D They don’t believe each other Group B (Group with better qualifications): : Answer the questions 1.What is the first quality for true friendship and what does it tell you? 2.Why are changeable and uncertain people incapable of true friendship? 3.What is the third quality for true friendship and what does it tell you? Group A: Students the same task of answering questions as group B Further practice: Find and correct mistake Groups present their results, other groups contribute ideas, teachers give feedback *Part IV: After you read Have students discuss in groups of the same level on the topic: “Why we need to have a friend?” - The groups present their views, the other groups add ideas Processing experimental results: - At the end of the pedagogical experiment, both the control and experimental groups were assessed by a test - Purpose of the test: The test is conducted after part A- Reading skills to: Test on content knowledge Test the ability to apply knowledge Check the development of reading skills and combine the development of other skills Test content: Choose the correct answer to the following questions: What does the passage mainly discuss? a Everybody needs a close friend b friend is a good person c One needs many qualities to make friends d There are many indispensable qualities for true friendship The word “it” in line 11 (paragraph 3) refers to a Constancy b Friendship c Interest d Enthusiasm Two friends should have sympathy with each other except a Aims b Sorrows c Pursuits d unselfishness Use the suggested words to complete the following sentences Both/friends/need/ qualities/ keep/friendship/close/lasting ……………………………………………………………………… Selfish/person/is/only/concerned/own/interest/feelings ……………………………………………………………………… - Write a short paragraph (5-10 lines) about the quality that you consider the most important in friendship and tell about your personal experience Experimental results: class Number of students Number of students scored/ percentage 10 42 0% 0% 0 0% % 10 23,8% 16 38% 12 2,8% 4,7% 0,25% 42 0% 0% 0% 11,9% 15 35,7% 10 23% 21,4% 4,7% 0,25% Control (11B3) Experi mental (11B2) 2.Experimental conclusion - From the experimental results, even though it is only in lesson one of the program distribution, I draw the following conclusions: The flexibility of teachers in teaching methods to accommodate classes of students with different English levels will has the effect of increasing students' interest in learning, gradually reducing the gap in levels - Therefore, teachers need to be flexible and creative in their lectures and classroom organization methods That will be the secret to successful classes PART III: CONCLUSION I.IMPLICATIONS FOR MORE EFFECTIVE The problem of large classes and the relatively large gap in the English proficiency of students in the class is still a big problem hindering the success of the class To help mitigate this obstacle, I boldly recommend the following: To the teachers - It is necessary to develop a clear, unified class rule and forge students the habit of following the set rules - It is necessary to persist in applying active teaching methods in combination with traditional methods - Spend time reading articles and references on active teaching methods to choose the right problem to organize group discussion - Build discussion questions in order from low to high, from simple to complex - Create a friendly and open learning environment for students to actively and actively cooperate in learning - Make them understand the positive effects of cooperative teaching in both theory and practice To the classroom facilities In Vietnam, it is normal that there are 40 to 50 students in a language classroom at high school This makes the teachers meet many difficulties in conducting a language lesson However, the situation can not be changed in a short period of time so the teacher should get over all these difficulties by making sure that the classroom facilities are comfortable enough before the lessons II LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH The study still has some limitations First of all, this study is very small – scale, which focuses on only the way students motivate the lessons Secondly, the study basically bases on one source of data, questionnaires, which might be subjective on the side of the informants, so the researcher can not guarantee the reliability of the information collected III CONCLUSION Here are a few ideas of initial results in the process of applying the cooperative teaching method in English I find that I have mastered the requirements as well as the innovative teaching method, I am interested in the cooperative teaching method and have implemented it in my teaching hours However, there are some confusions and limitations Looking forward to constructive feedback so that I can better XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh Hóa, ngày 10 tháng năm2022 Tơi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác LÊ THỊ THƯƠNG REFERENCES Accoding to the opinion of Rabowle (1494-1533) Makarenco Famous Russian teacher of the early twentieth century 3.Internet sources 4.Oxford Dictionary DANH MỤC CÁC ĐỀ SKKN MÀ TÁC GIẢ ĐÃ ĐƯỢC HỘI ĐỒNG CẤP GD&ĐT ĐÁNH GIÁ ĐẠT TỪ LOẠI C TRỞ LÊN STT TÊN SÁNG KIẾN XẾP LOẠI Using games in teaching warm – up B activities for non – major English students to improve their English language Promoting the effectiveness of pair or group activities in process of C teaching English How to teach the stated and unstated detail questions effectively C in the G.C.S.E test for students at Nhu Xuan High School Creating Extra-curricular activities B to promote students' spirit and motivation for studying English at Nhu Xuan High School NĂM CÔNG NHẬN 2017 2019 2020 2021 ... in teaching methods to accommodate classes of students with different English levels will has the effect of increasing students' interest in learning, gradually reducing the gap in levels - Therefore,... effects of cooperative teaching in both theory and practice To the classroom facilities In Vietnam, it is normal that there are 40 to 50 students in a language classroom at high school This makes the. .. EFFECTIVE The problem of large classes and the relatively large gap in the English proficiency of students in the class is still a big problem hindering the success of the class To help mitigate this