Skkn some experience in helping grade 12 students at le loi upper secondary school to improve their grades in english reading comprehension parts in the national high school graduation exam

USING MIND MAP IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT LE LOI HIGH SCHOOL CONTENTS Page A INTRODUCTION 1 I Reasons for choosing the research 1 II Aims of the research 2 II[.]

CONTENTS Page A INTRODUCTION I Reasons for choosing the research II Aims of the research III Scope, objective and method of the research B CONTENT I Theoretical background Definitions of reading comprehension Main types of reading comprehension questions in an English’s test II Practical background The structure of the English test suggested by the Ministry of Education and Training The teacher’s and students’ attitudes towards the solving the reading comprehension questions in the English test The investigation of the students' skills at answering the reading comprehension questions III The solutions Guiding students to recognize and deal with each type of reading comprehension questions with useful strategies Applying the appropriate procedure of guiding students to practice reading effectively Providing students with useful tips to help them practice reading more actively and effectively 15 17 IV The discussion 19 Results after applying the research in teaching 19 The colleagues' comment 20 skkn C- CONCLUSION 21 I Conclusion 21 II Suggestions 22 D REFERENCE BOOKS 23 E ADDENDUM 24 skkn A INTRODUCTION I THE REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE THEME English, one of the international languages used by most of people in the world, has become the second foreign language which is obligatorily taught from primary school up to university in Vietnam English is also one of the compulsory subjects to pass the National Examination In learning English, there are four skills to be mastered, they are listening, speaking, reading and writing Listening and reading are receptive skills On the other hand, speaking and writing are productive skills It is true that reading is a very important skill in teaching and learning English especially reading comprehension Evidently, since 2017 GCSE English's test, students have to answer from 12 to 15 reading comprehension questions This is not a small challenge for most students in general and for the students at Le Loi high school in particular In fact, they have difficulty in recognizing types of questions; they also lack reading strategies and they are afraid of meeting with a wide range of new words As a result, poor students and students of medium level hardly gain any grades whereas good students have difficulty getting the maximum one Understanding these problems, I decided to choose " Some experience in helping grade 12 students at Le Loi upper-secondary school to improve their grades in English reading comprehension parts in the national high school graduation exam " as the topic of my experience initiatives with the hope that I can help my students to be more confident in reading skills and practically, they will succeed in their final exam II THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PAPER The study is aimed to serve some main objectives as listed following - To give teachers an experience in teaching how to recognize and deal with each type of reading comprehension questions - To help students in grade 12th of all levels use some effective strategies to boost their grades in this part of the test - To equip students with the system of reading exercises so that they will have chance to practice reading skills As a result, they will have high motivation to read and they will also know how to improve their grades in reading comprehension part in the GCSE English's test effectively III THE SCOPE OF THE PAPER Based on the background and identification of the theme, the paper is limited on teaching reading skill to the students in grade 12th by using some effective techniques The research was conducted at my workplace- at Le Loi high school, Tho Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province The subject consists of 70 skkn students who come from class 12A10, 12A4, school year 2021-2022 All of them are at the age of eighteenth to nineteenth years old They have to take every skill in each period; learning time is periods per week IV THE METHODS OF THE PAPER The writer did some steps to this research, they are as follows; - surveying the literature relating to the problem; - defining the problem; - constructing an experimental plan by writing the research design; - design the research instrument; - doing the instrument try-out; - giving the test to the students; - practicing teaching - collecting the data through the posttest; - analyzing the data; - drawing conclusions; - proposing suggestions; - writing the report as subject - Exchanging experience with colleagues skkn B CONTENT I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Definitions of reading comprehension What exactly is reading comprehension? Simply put, reading comprehension is the act of understanding what you are reading While the definition can be simply stated the act is not simple to teach, learn or practice Reading comprehension is an intentional, active, interactive process that occurs before, during and after a person reads a particular piece of writing Reading comprehension is one of the pillars of the act of reading When a person reads a text he engages in a complex array of cognitive processes He is simultaneously using his awareness and understanding of phonemes (individual sound “pieces” in language), phonics (connection between letters and sounds and the relationship between sounds, letters and words) and ability to comprehend or construct meaning from the text This last component of the act of reading is reading comprehension It cannot occur independently of the other two elements of the process At the same time, it is the most difficult and most important of the three There are two elements that make up the process of reading comprehension: vocabulary knowledge and text comprehension In order to understand a text the reader must be able to comprehend the vocabulary used in the piece of writing If the individual words don’t make the sense then the overall story will not either Children can draw on their prior knowledge of vocabulary, but they also need to continually be taught new words The best vocabulary instruction occurs at the point of need Parents and teachers should pre-teach new words that a child will encounter in a text or aid her in understanding unfamiliar words as she comes upon them in the writing In addition to being able to understand each distinct word in a text, the child also has to be able to put them together to develop an overall conception of what it is trying to say This is text comprehension Text comprehension is much more complex and varied that vocabulary knowledge Readers use many different text comprehension strategies to develop reading comprehension These include monitoring for understanding, answering and generating questions, summarizing and being aware of and using a text’s structure to aid comprehension How does reading comprehension develop? As you can see, reading comprehension is incredibly complex and multifaceted Because of this, readers not develop the ability to comprehend texts quickly, easily or independently Reading comprehension strategies must be taught over an extended period of time by parents and teachers who have knowledge and experience using them It might seem that once a child learns to read in the skkn elementary grades he is able to tackle any future text that comes his way This is not true Reading comprehension strategies must be refined, practiced and reinforced continually throughout life Even in the middle grades and high school, parents and teachers need to continue to help their children develop reading comprehension strategies As their reading materials become more diverse and challenging, children need to learn new tools for comprehending these texts Content area materials such as textbooks and newspaper, magazine and journal articles pose different reading comprehension challenges for young people and thus require different comprehension strategies The development of reading comprehension is a lifelong process that changes based on the depth and breadth of texts the person is reading Why is reading comprehension so important? Without comprehension, reading is nothing more than tracking symbols on a page with your eyes and sounding them out Imagine being handed a story written in Egyptian hieroglyphics with no understanding of their meaning You may appreciate the words aesthetically and even be able to draw some small bits of meaning from the page, but you are not truly reading the story The words on the page have no meaning They are simply symbols People read for many reasons but understanding is always a part of their purpose Reading comprehension is important because without it reading doesn’t provide the reader with any information Beyond this, reading comprehension is essential to life Much has been written about the importance of functional literacy In order to survive and thrive in today’s world individuals must be able to comprehend basic texts such as bills, housing agreements (leases, purchase contracts), directions on packaging and transportation documents (bus and train schedules, maps, travel directions) Reading comprehension is a critical component of functional literacy Think of the potentially dire effects of not being able to comprehend dosage directions on a bottle of medicine or warnings on a container of dangerous chemicals With the ability to comprehend what they read, people are able not only to live safely and productively, but also to continue to develop socially, emotionally and intellectually The Reading Comprehension section contains reading passages and questions about the passages The questions are about information that is stated or implied in the passage and about some of the specific words in the passages Because many English words have more than one meaning, it is important to remember that these questions concern the meaning of a word or phrase within the context of the passage Main types of comprehension questions skkn There are a handful of reading comprehension question types that constitute the bulk of questions you will face in this section The ability to recognize these question types quickly and understand the aim of the question and the common traits of correct and incorrect answers is extremely important Depending upon how specific one is in classifying questions, there are about nine question types: - Main idea - Factual Questions - Negative factual Questions  - Vocabulary Questions - Reference Questions  - Inference Questions  - Questions on author’s purpose  - Questions on author’s attitude  - The origin of the passage In addition, those types of questions often focus on these following popular topics in reading texts - Education and languages - Social issues  - Health  - Food  - people and places  - Science, technology and inventions  - Tourism, festivals and entertainment - Nature and environment  II PRACTICAL BACKGROUND The new structure English test designed by the Ministry of Education and Training As we all know the national high school English test consists of 50 multiple choice questions and 60 minutes to complete 50 sentences The 2022 high school English exam consists of: - Phonetics (tress + pronunciation): questions - Error correction: questions - Sentence Completion: 15 questions - Functional question: questions - Closest >< opposite meaning: questions - Same meaning: questions - Cloze test: questions - Reading 1: (reading comprehension questions) 5questions skkn - Reading 2: (reading comprehension questions) questions It can be seen clearly that reading comprehension part is always the hardest part of the test because it requires students to use all the skills [Remember (meaning / usage of the word, data in the article), Understanding (meaning of words / sentences / paragraphs Use (word/phrase/sentence structure) and knowledge (vocabulary / grammar) to improve and get maximum score This section fully and accurately assesses the ability of the candidate should always have high weight in a test In addition to mastering all of the above topics, students also have to practice quick, effective exercises for a limited time The teacher’s and students’ attitudes towards the solving the reading comprehension questions in the English test It is a matter of fact that getting high or full grades in reading comprehension parts in the GCSE English's test is not easy We all are habituated to solve simple and direct passages in our school days, but when it comes to competitive exams, the task becomes difficult  Unable to understand the vocabulary (meaning of words) and concept of the passage, many students become dull and uninterested in this section Gradually, many students are afraid of reading Consequently, most of the teachers and the students think the students’ reading comprehension competence is not good 2.1 Students’ difficulties in solving the reading comprehension questions in the English test It is clear that the students in my school have to face many difficulties These difficulties are from two causes: (1) from the students themselves, and (2) from the teachers’ lectures In terms of the first cause, the majority of the students have trouble with reading because of their low level of English proficiency Their vocabulary and sentence structures are poor Grammar mistakes and spelling are also a common fear for many of them Besides, their low background knowledge also makes them feel stressed when reading In contrast to good readers, most poor readers not read strategically Nor they have sufficient cognitive awareness to develop, select, and apply strategies that can enhance their comprehension of text Typical poor readers rarely prepare before reading They often begin to read without setting goals They seldom consider how best to read a particular type of text During reading, poor readers may have difficulty decoding, and so have difficulty reading the words of their texts accurately In addition, some poor readers read too slowly, or lack fluency As a result of their slow, labored reading, they often not comprehend much of what they read, and the attention they have to give to figuring out the words keeps them from understanding the text's message skkn All too often poor readers lack sufficient background knowledge about the topic of a text They may have trouble connecting the ideas of a text They often are not familiar with the vocabulary they encounter, and have trouble determining word meanings Further, even when poor readers possess relevant background knowledge, they frequently are not able to activate it to help them understand what they read Some poor readers also are unaware of text organization They not know enough about the organizational structure of narratives or the various organizational structures of expository texts to help them read and understand After reading, poor readers typically not think about or reflect upon what they have read They almost never seek out additional information about a topic The cumulative effect of these difficulties is that poor readers often lose confidence in their ability to read Because reading is difficult for them, poor readers cannot and not read widely As a result, they are exposed to much less text than are good readers and so receive much less practice reading Further, the practice they receive is often frustrating, because many of the texts they are asked to read are too difficult for them In terms of the second cause, the students not highly asses their teachers’ assistance They find their teachers’ feedbacks are not comprehensive and their teachers’ instructions are not adequate 2.2 Teachers’ difficulties in improve students’ grades in reading comprehension part in the GCSE English's test for grade 12 students Not only the students but also the teachers cope with numerous problems when encouraging students to practice reading The first difficulty I and my colleague are coping with is the low English level of the students Our students often lack vocabulary and have difficulties in recognizing the types of questions with useful tips The students’ low motivation and low background knowledge are also other problems encountered by the teachers The second difficulty is the problem of large and multilevel classes In multilevel classes, we face difficulties in shortening a big gap between our students In the same class, some students who are good at English are active while many others are de- motivated In addition, English classes at Le Loi high school are very large There are at least 34 students in a class Hence, it is difficult for the teachers to give each of the students individual attention and make sure who is on task and who is off task For the next difficulty, with the help of the Internet, students not actually practice reading, they find the keys or translate the reading passages just to finish off the tasks skkn The investigation of the students’ paragraph writing skills In the process of teaching, I have been given the duty to teach the grade 12 With the awareness of researching and studying the situation of students’ learning the subject and learning from experience, right since the beginning of the school year, I outlined a specific plan and method to actively investigate the situation of students’ learning in my classes by giving them the questionnaire first then the reading tasks in 25 minutes (both The questionnaire and The reading tasks are found in the addendum) And the tables below show the result of the investigation Table Class Total Question Question number A B C D A B C D of students 12A4 36 10 15 10 10 15 11 12A10 34 17 10 17 12 Total 70 14 32 20 14 32 23 (20%) (45.7%) (28.6%) (5.7%) (20%) (45.7%) (32.9%) (1.4%) Table Class Total Good Fair Average weak Poor number of No % No % No % No % No % students 12A4 36 2.8 10 15.9 10 15.9 10 15.9 13.9 12A10 34 11.8 12 35.3 11 32.3 14.7 5.9 Total 70 7.1 22 31.4 21 30.0 15 21.4 10.0 From the above tables, it is clear that the number of students not having good attitude towards doing reading tasks is alarming (65.7%) They are uninterested in reading, even afraid of it Most of them have difficult in classify the questions, using different tips for different types of questions Some of them even don’t know what to with the reading tasks As a result, their results of doing the given tests were not good (62.4%) Sadly, there were students (10%) not knowing how to complete the tasks and let the paper blank Very few of them are fond of reading and consequently, the number of students getting good grades is limited (7.1%) These findings would serve as the foundations for further suggestions that I would like to make in the next part 10 skkn Motivate students through activities that may increase their interest (book talks, dramatic readings, or displays of art related to the text), making the text relevant to students in some way Activate students' background knowledge important to the content of the text by discussing what students will read and what they already know about its topic and about the text organization Students, with some help from the teacher, may: Establish a purpose for reading Identify and discuss difficult words, phrases, and concepts in the text Preview the text (by surveying the title, illustrations, and unusual text structures) to make predictions about its content Think, talk, and write about the topic of the text 2.2 During Reading During reading, the teacher may: Remind students to use comprehension strategies as they read and to monitor their understanding Ask questions that keep students on track and focus their attention on main ideas and important points in the text Focus attention on parts in a text that require students to make inferences Call on students to summarize key sections or events Encourage students to return to any predictions they have made before reading to see if they are confirmed by the text Students, with some help from the teacher, may: Determine and summarize important ideas and supportive details Make connections between and among important ideas in the text Integrate new ideas with existing background knowledge Ask themselves questions about the text Sequence events and ideas in the text Offer interpretations of and responses to the text Check understanding by paraphrasing or restating important and/or difficult sentences and paragraphs Visualize characters, settings, or events in a text 2.3 After Reading After reading, the teacher may: Guide discussion of the reading Ask students to recall and tell in their own words important parts of the text Offer students opportunities to respond to the reading in various ways, including through writing, dramatic play, music, readers' theatre, videos, debate, or pantomime Students, with some help from the teacher, may: 17 skkn Evaluate and discuss the ideas encountered in the text Apply and extend these ideas to other texts and real life situations Summarize what was read by retelling the main ideas Discuss ideas for further reading Providing students with useful tips to help them practice reading more actively and effectively 3.1 Eliminate the words or phrases A complaint which I hear often is that, the students are unable to understand the given reading comprehension  If you belong to this category, you need to understand that you don’t need to understand each and every word of the comprehension. At the same time, you should find the gist (summary) of it. Both these points above may appear contradictory But the crucial thing is, you need to eliminate the words, phrases, sentences from the Reading Comprehension that are not useful and need to focus on keywords 3.2 Find your strengths first To improve reading comprehension, first you need to find your strengths first. The conservative approach to solving a passage is, to read the passage first, and then go to the questions and solve them. But some students not feel comfortable with this method Probably they not know which keywords to remember while going through the comprehension Or, they may have to read the comprehension again, after reading the questions. This lead to the problem of time management Solution: You can choose the “bottom up” approach That means, read the questions first, so that you have an idea what to look for, in the comprehension. But ultimately you are the better judge of which approach is the best So, practice several reading comprehensions in two different approaches and find out which method suits you  3.3. Improve Your Vocabulary: Why you need to improve your vocabulary? Vocabulary means knowledge of words (meaning of words). If you not have a good vocabulary, you have to stop at every new word in the reading comprehension, and be puzzled what does it mean? So, when you don’t know the meaning of a word, it becomes very difficult to understand the gist of the Comprehension. Having a good vocabulary, makes you understand the reading comprehension much easier How to improve your vocabulary? Start reading in English, anything……  Newspapers, stories, comics, text books….anything, that keeps you immersed in English New words gradually sink into your subconscious mind and become familiar Keep a notebook, Note down the new words you learned today and revise them periodically 18 skkn Keep a target and a schedule to learn a certain number of new words every day You are the better person to decide the number,… I am not Do not deviate from the schedule at any cost 3. 4. Use a pen while reading: Do not read the Reading Comprehension like a movie novel. While going through the passage, your three body organs should act in collaboration including Eyes, Hand and Brain     Make a habit of finding valuable keywords quickly and underline those keywords with a pen (If the rules permit) So, if at all you have to read the Comprehension again you can go only through keywords, and not through all the junk.  3.5 Do a mental math quickly: Often students feel they are not efficient in solving Reading Comprehension, because of these three factors: Vocabulary in the comprehension, difficulty in understanding the meaning of the questions, time factor  So, if there are 12 questions in the English part, not try to attempt all the questions (If there is negative marking)  Just try to think how many marks you need in English, by calculating how many you are getting in other sections of the exam (Arithmetic, Reasoning Etc.) Based on that you can choose how many questions you have to solve in English This doesn’t take much time if you make a quick mental math 3.6 Most Reading Comprehensions are complex: Usually, Reading Comprehensions are taken from scientific essays or well known fiction Often the sentences are complex to understand If you are not aware of this fact, you might be puzzled by those questions Solution: Improve your Vocabulary Read and solve comprehensions, as many as possible Solve passages from different fields of knowledge, like Science, Arts, Literature, Politics, Economics, etc 3.7 Focus: It is not unusual for any person to wander somewhere while reading something uninteresting So, when you find the Comprehension dull, difficult and uninteresting, your eyes run through the sentences, but your mind wanders somewhere else The result….you complete reading, but you grasp nothing Solution: Focus on the content Don’t let your mind go away from there If it starts daydreaming….bring it back into reality Tell yourself that you have plenty of time to dream after the exam 19 skkn 3.8 Improve reading Speed: Do not move your lips while reading, it slows you down You can refer the videos provided in your e-classes login id I highly recommend those techniques for improving your reading speed very quickly 3.9 While solving Reading Comprehension at home, don’t try to find the meaning of each and every word you find there, with the dictionary  Of course, Looking for meanings in a dictionary and taking notes is a good habit, but for each and every word……No Sometimes you need to make a wild guess about a new word, taking into account of the context (situation) By this, you will be able to understand the meaning of new words If you feel necessary, you may check the meaning after reading the Comprehension 3.10 Solve previous papers By solving the previous papers you can understand and identify what kind of questions are appearing in the examination, so that you will be mentally prepared for those kinds of questions Some questions are Simple Some Draw Inferences Some of the RC questions will ask you about a specific word from a paragraph Some are Parallel Reasoning Question  3.11 Don’t draw on outside knowledge Don’t make conclusions which are not in the comprehension Though you are well aware of the topic mentioned in the Passage, You should not bring your own knowledge into the answers Just stick to the Information given in the comprehension 3.12 Overcome panic While focusing on the passage, if you stare at the letters for a long time, your eyes feel uncomfortable So, often close your eyes for a while, take a deep breath and start again Don’t get panicked by the difficulty of the questions Be prepared for them 3.13 Never lose confidence By looking at the Comprehension, don’t let any thought of discouragement enter into your mind Don’t feel depressed         Always follow some tactics to motivate yourself 3.14 Learn what works best for you Whatever strategies mentioned here are not hard and fast rules They are flexible If you feel they don’t work for you, then you can alter them to suit your needs You are the judge 3.15 All the best: Following the above mentioned Reading Comprehension tips certainly brings you good marks in your academic tests 20 skkn ... Understanding these problems, I decided to choose " Some experience in helping grade 12 students at Le Loi upper- secondary school to improve their grades in English reading comprehension parts in the national. .. time The teacher’s and students? ?? attitudes towards the solving the reading comprehension questions in the English test It is a matter of fact that getting high or full grades in reading comprehension. .. continually throughout life Even in the middle grades and high school, parents and teachers need to continue to help their children develop reading comprehension strategies As their reading materials