Vận dụng Thuyết về các loại hình trí thông minh để đa dạng hóa các hoạt động khởi động trong giờ học Reading- tiếng Anh 12 chương trình chuẩn

TABLE OF CONTENTS ADKNOWLEDGEMENTS i LIST OF ACRONYMS iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study .1 1.2 Scope of the study 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Objectives of the study .2 1.5 Method of the study CHAPTER 2: CONTENTS 2.1.Theoretical bases .3 2.1.1 The introduction of the theory of Multiple Intelligences 2.1.2 Using the Theory of Multiple Intelligences in the classroom 2.1.3 Warm up activities in reading lessons 2.2 Facts about teaching and learning English in An Nhơn No3 High school & other school .6 2.3 Application the theory of MI to vary warm up activities in reading lessons 2.3.1.Linguistic learners 2.3.2.Logical or mathematical learners 2.3.3.Visual and spatial learners 11 2.3.4.Musical learners 12 2.3.5.Bodily or Kinaesthetic learners .13 2.3.6.Interpersonal learners 14 2.3.7.Intrapersonal learners 15 2.3.8.Naturalistic learners 16 2.4.Results 18 CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 20 3.1 Conclusion 20 3.2 Suggestions for further study 20 APPENDIX 21 REFERENCE 22 TÓM TẮT NỘI DUNG SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Tên đề tài: APPLYING THE THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES TO VARY WARM UP ACTIVITIES IN READING LESSONS - TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH 12 Written by : Nguyễn Thị Thanh Huyền I Mục đích đề tài: Giúp giáo viên Tiếng anh hiểu thêm hiệu thuyết vế loại hình trí thơng minh giảng dạy Tiếng Anh Tạo nhiều hoạt động warm up giúp cho dạy đọc hiểu thêm sinh động đạt hiệu Thu hút hứng thú đối tượng học sinh học Tiếng Anh II Bản chất giải pháp 1.6.Design of the study The study consists of main chapters: - Chapter is the introduction which deals with the rationale, the scope, the aims, the method and the design of the study - Chapter is the literature review of the study In this chapter, I will introduce specific features of the theory of MI,the application into classroom, the roles of warm up activities in teaching reading lessons and the facts of learning and teaching English in An Nhon No3 High School - Chapter is the activities In this chapter, lots of warm up activities are suggested and applied in real lessons - Chapter is the conclusion, the implications for teaching, learning and suggestions for other researches At the end of the study, there will be the presentation of reference materials used to carry out the study CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study: Recent years have seen remarkable changes in the way of teaching English However, although teachers of English have adopted communicative approach for a few years, they find it difficult to teach all kinds of students in the same class effectively Students tend to be treated as a homogeneous group and find no where to show their strength in the classroom The term “students-centered” seems to be completely ignored In fact, every classroom is full of students who are different from each other in many different ways A student is unique in a class not only because of his age, his family background, or his own interests, but also because of his strengths and weaknesses It is undeniable that when students learn through their strengths, they not only learn more effectively but also show the improvement in their weaker areas In addition, the theory of Multiple Intelligences maintains that students who have one area of intelligence which is more fully developed than the others should be encouraged to approach their learning by using that particular intelligence as an entry point As a result, it is vital for teachers to utilize such strengths or intelligence of students to help them absorb the knowledge in the most suitable way With the hope to find a better way to teach students as individuals, this experienced idea, based on the theory of Multiple Intelligences, has been carried out In addition, reading is one of the most basic skills that need paying much attention in the teaching and learning process of a foreign language Reading skill is not only the purpose of the learning process but also an effective means for students to expand their vocabulary and structures; thus, helps them to improve other skills Moreover, in 12 years in the job as a teacher of English, I recognize that most of the students consider reading as a boring skill; therefore, they soon become fed up with the reading passages in their textbook Hence, I harbour the wish of helping students improve their reading skills in this experienced idea Last but not least, warm-up activities are excellent teaching tool in motivating students when they first come to the new lesson It is clear that starting a lesson with a good warm-up activitiy helps to captivate the students and draws them into the lesson well From my experience, it isn’t difficult to carry out a warm-up activity, but it is quite easy to repeat this kind of activity, which makes it boring Thus, to make an effort to vary warm-up activities, I carry out this idea From the above discussion, my experienced idea will make a little contribution in applying the Theory of Multiple Intelligence to vary warmup activities in reading lessons 1.2 Scope of the study In spite of having been studied only for recent years, the theory of MI has exposed its importance in analyzing psychological aspects in human’s intelligences Thanks to its significance, methodologists have applied the theory into teaching foreign languages and gained certain success In teaching English, this theory has provided some theoretical backgrounds in creating various activities that attract students’interests However, with the limitation of time and reference materials as well as the limited level of this study, my study focuses only on warm up activities used in reading lessons in textbook Tieng Anh 12 In this study, I shall be concerned with making students of different levels to be much interested in the topic at the beginning of reading lessons 1.3 Aims of the study This study is carried out with the following specific aims: - To make teachers more aware of the importance and effectiveness of the theory of MI in teaching English - To create various warm up activities to make reading lessons more interesing and effective - To attract the interests of all kinds of students in an English lesson 1.4 Objectives: I have carried out this study to the students in grade 12, acedamic year 2009 – 2010 and 2010 - 2011 with textbook Tieng Anh 12 1.5 Method of the study In order to achieve the aims of the thesis, I have followed the following steps: - Make a small survey about the interests of students in a reading lesson - Collect, create, classify and apply variety of warm up activities to see their levels of effectiveness in reading lessons - Observe students’ reactions in differents kinds of warm up activities, and then draw some conclusions on their most favorite warm-up activities - Classify students in each class and use suitable activities CHAPTER II CONTENTS 2.1 THEORETICAL BASES 2.1.1 THE INTRODUCTION OF THE THEORY OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES Have you ever thought about why your students react in different ways to the activities you in the class? Or even why different groups react differently to the same activity? Why some students really enjoy working in groups while others are much more productive working alone? Why some learners draw pictures in their vocabulary books while others seem to need to just hear a word to be able to use it themselves? Dr Howard Gardner-professior of education at Harvard University (the photo above) developed a theory called Multiple Intelligences (1983) which can go some way towards explaining different learner styles According to Gardner, there are eight different types of intelligences as followed:  Linguistic intelligence- The word-player This area of intelligence has to with words, spoken or written Students who have this type of intelligence tend to be typically good at reading, writing, telling stories and memorizing words along with the dates They tend to learn best by reading, taking notes, listening to lectures, and by discussing and debating about what they have learned Moreover, students with this type of intelligence find it is very easy to learn a foreign language because they      have high verbal memory to recall, understanding and manipulate syntax and structure In the most traditional sense, the teacher teaches and the students learn However, this can also be turned around and students can help each other understand concepts Logical / Mathematical intelligence- The questioner –This area of intelligence has to with logic, abstractions, reasoning and numbers In other words, this is the use of logic and mathematical models to represent and work with ideas While it is often assumed that those with this intelligence naturally excel in mathematics, chess, computer programming and other logical or numerical activities, a more accurate definition places less emphasis on traditional mathematical ability and more on reasoning capabilities, recognizing abstract patterns, scientific thinking and investigation and the ability to perform complex calculations It correlates strongly with traditional concepts of "intelligence" or IQ Visual / Spatial intelligence- The visualiser- This is the explanation and comprehension through the use of pictures, graphs, maps, etc.This type of learning gives students visual clues to help them remember language In my opinion, the use of visual, spatial and situational clues is probably the most effective way to learn English Musical intelligence- The music lover- This is the ability to recognize and communicate using melody, rhythm, and harmony.This type of learning is sometimes underestimated in ESL classrooms If you keep in mind that English is a very rhythmic language because of its tendency to accent only certain words, you'll recognize that music plays a role in the classroom as well Bodily / Kinaesthetic intelligence- The mover- This is the ability to use the body to express ideas, accomplish tasks, create moods, etc.This type of learning combines physical actions with linguistic responses and are very helpful for tying language to actions The students of this type may enjoy acting or performing, and in general they are good at making or building things They often learn best by doing something physically, rather than by reaing or hearing about it In other words, repeating "I'd like to pay by credit card." in a dialogue is much less effective than having a student act out a role-play in which he pulls out his wallet and says, "I'd like to pay by credit card." Interpersonal intelligence- The socialiser –This is the ability to get along with others, work with others to accomplish tasks Group learning is based on interpersonal skills Not only students learn while speaking to others in an "authentic" setting, they develop English speaking skills while reacting to others  Intrapersonal intelligence- The loner – this is a way to learn through self-knowledge leading to understanding of motives, goals, strengths and weaknesses.This intelligence is essential for long-term English learning Students who are aware of these types of issues will be able to deal with underlying issues that can improve or hamper English usage  Naturalistic intelligence- The nature lover (added by Gardner at a later date) - This is the environmental ability to recognize elements of and learn from the natural world around us Similar to visual and spatial skills, Environmental intelligence will help students master English required to interact with their environment The drawing on the next page can best illustrating the eight different types of inteligences: The eight different types of intelligences 2.1.2 USING CLASSROOM THE MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCE IN THE Everyone is born possessing the eight intelligences Nevertheless, all students will come into the classroom with different sets of developed intelligences.This means that each child will have his own unique set of intellectual strengths and weaknesses These sets determine how easy (or difficult) it is for a student to learn information when it is presented in a particular manner This is commonly referred to as a learning style Many learning styles can be found within one classroom Therefore, it is impossible, as well as impractical, for a teacher to accommodate every lesson to all of the learning styles found within the classroom Accepting Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences has several implications for teachers in terms of classroom instruction The theory states that all eight intelligences are needed to productively function in society Teachers, therefore, should think of all intelligences as equally important This is in great contrast to traditional education systems which typically place a strong emphasis on the development and use of verbal and mathematical intelligences Thus, the Theory of Multiple Intelligences implies that we should recognize and teach to a broader range of talents and skills Another implication is that teachers should structure the activities in a style which engages most or all of the intelligences This kind of presentation not only excites students about learning, but it also allows a teacher to reinforce the same material in a variety of ways By activating a wide assortment of intelligences, teaching in this manner can facilitate a deeper understanding of the topic of the lesson 2.1.3 WARM UP ACTIVITIES IN READING LESSONS It has been known for some time that students learn best when: Learning is fun or pleasurable One effective way of motivating a student is to have them undertake activities for which the student has some talent With progress, the student avoids undue frustration and goes on to learn more.When application of Multiple Intelligence theory is made in this way teachers are “teaching through a child’s strength They are emotionally involved students learn, remember and are more likely to use experiences that are troubling, mystifying or off-putting as well as ones that are pleasurable Students are “turned off” or “on” very quickly, so a memorable opening illustration or attention-grabbing comment helps engage 10 Which animals are there in the symbol of the 25th Sea Game? Expected answer: There are two elephants 10 Where was the 25th Sea Game held? Expected answer: It was held in Laos 11 Where was the 23rd Sea Game held? Expected answer: It was held in Philiphin 12 When was it held? Expected answer: It was held in 2005 13 How many colours are there in the symbol of the 16th Sea Game? Expected answer: There are colours They are: Red, Yellow, Blue and Green 14 Where was the 16th Sea Game held? Expected answer: It was held in Manila 2.3.7 Intrapersonal learners: These are students who are good at working alone and pursuing own interests and who can learn best by working alone  Suggested activites: Working individually on personalised projects  Applied in real lesson WHAT’S ON MY HEAD? (Applied in Unit 16: The Association Of Southeast Asian Nations)  Kinds of activities: intrapersonal  Levels of students: every kinds of students  Kinds of intelligence touched: interpersonal, intrapersonal,visual, kiaesthetic  Preparation: rubber bands, mini-flashcards with pictures of national flags or animals of Asian countries and a timer (or a sand clock)  Procedure:  Divide the class into groups of 4's or more and get each student to wear a band around their head Give a bunch of cards to each group, making sure all cards are facing down  In turns, each student grabs a card and, without looking at it, places it on his/her forehead, so that the rest of the group can see it 24 Each member of the group takes turns to ask questions until he/she guesses what is on the card The other members of the group should only say yes and no, or give short answers Set a time limit per person (1-2 mins) Students should come up with questions like o Am I a flag? - No o Am I an animal? - Yes o Where would you find me? - In the forest o Which country? - India o Do I live in the water? - No o Am I a big or small animal? - Big o Do I have black stripes? - Yes o Am I a tiger? - Yes  or o o o o o Am I an animal?- No Am I a flag? – Yes Do I have one big blue stripe?- yes Where is it? – in the middle Am I Thailand flag?- yes INTELLIGENCE DESIGNER (Applied in unit 14-International Organizations-Section A: Reading)  Kind of activities:  Levels of students: medium and weak students  Kinds of intelligence touching: bodily intelligence, logical intelligence  Preparation: Pictures with some symbol of some common international organizations  Procedure: - Has students look at the symbols of common international organizations: UN, UNICEF, WHO, WWF 25 - Divides the class into groups, each group will choose an international organization and its suitable symbol - Raises the situation for students: “Your group is the leader of your international organization You find that your organization’s symbol is backward for the current situation Now it’s high time for you to design a new meaningful symbol for your organization” - After students complete their drawing, asks them to explain the meaning of their work if possible Which group has a more meaningful and beautiful symbol will be the winner 2.3.8 Naturalistic learners: These are students who are good at nature and who can learn best by working outside and observing nature  Suggested activites: environmental projects  Applying in real lesson KNOWING ME (Applied in Unit 10: Endangered Species, Part A: Reading) 26  Kinds of activities: naturalistic  Levels of students: every kinds of students  Kinds of intelligence touching: naturalistic, visual, logical, interpersonal, intrapersonal  Preparation: the slide of animals (APPENDIX 5)  Procedure:  Have students look at the slide of animals and remember them in 10 seconds Then let the slide diappear  Have students recall their memory to answer the following questions individually: What are the names of animals which are pets? (dog, cat, parrot) Which animal can be useful for agriculture? (buffalo) Which animal is harmful to human? (mosquito) Which animal likes eating carrots? (rabbit) Which animal likes living near water? (frog) Which animal like living in bamboo forest? (panda) Which animal has two coloful wings? (butterfly) Which animal likes living in the cold weather in the North and South Pole? (polar bear) Which animals can run very fast? (leopard, horse) 10 Which animal can imitate human voice? (parrot) 11 Which animal has only two legs and bears eggs? (chicken) 12 Which animal has two tusks? (elephant) 13 Which animals are in danger of becoming extinct? (monkey, rhino, elephant, leopard, tortoise) DESERT ISLAND ESCAPE (Applied in Unit 9: DESERTS, part A: Reading)  Kinds of activities: naturalistic  Levels of students: every kinds of students  Kinds of intelligence touching: naturalistic, visual, logical, interpersonal, intrapersonal  Preparation: the slide of animals  Procedure:  Set the scene of a plane accident or ship wreck 27 A group of students have ended up on a desert island with a few random objects  Bring in a bag of objects from home or things that you can gather from around the school, for example, a coat hanger, a ball of string, clothes pegs, a corkscrew etc  Tell the students that they have to use the objects they have to help them survive on the island They should think of ways of putting the items to good use  Give each group a set time and then listen to each group's ideas  Hold a class vote to decide which group would survive for the longest 2.4 RESULTS I have applied these warm-up acivities based on the theory of MI in the classes 12A7, 12A8 (2009 – 2010) and 12A1, 12A2, 12A3, 12A10 (2010 – 2011) and some other classes The results I gained were surprisingly good The level of interest in learning English among those students, especially the weak ones increased remarkably The follwing tables and charts can indicate how sucessful I was when applying the theory Statistic tables: Academic year: 2009 – 2010 Total number of sts 12A7 55 12A8 54 Gifted sts 1st term 2nd term graduation 1st term 2nd term graduation Good sts Medium sts Weak sts 6 11 15 16 19 27 28 21 29 24 23 17 17 Table 1: The number of students classified by levels of class 12A7 and 12A8 28 30 25 20 15 10 1st term 2nd term graduation 28 29 21 17 15 11 Gifted sts Good sts Medium Weak sts sts Chart 1: The number of students classified by levels of class 12A7 30 27 25 24 23 20 19 16 15 10 17 1st term 2nd term graduation Gifted sts Good sts Medium sts Weak sts Chart 2: The number of students classified by levels of class 12A8 According to the table 1, chart and chart 2, the number of gifted students increased gradually In class 12A7, there were only gifted students in the first term However, this number increased to and students in the second term and after graduation Similarly, the number of gifted students in class 12A8 increased from to students after graduation It is also evident from the table and charts that the number of 29 good students increased remarkably In the first term, there were good students in class 12A7 and 16 good students in class 12A8 However, this number of students increased dramatically by students in class 12A7 and 11 students in class 12A8 These table and charts also indicate that the number of medium students kept stable in class 12A7 but decreased gradually in class 12A8 Contrary to the number of gifted and good students, the number of weak students decreased dramatically In the first term, there were 17 weak students in class 12A7 and weak students in class 12A8 In the second term, this number decreased by students by class 12A7 and students in class 12A8 After graduation, it is surprisingly from the table and chart that there were only weak students in class 12A7 and students in class 12A8 All in all, it is evident that the warm-up activities based on the theory of Multiple Intelligences had a great effect on improving the level and quality of students Academic year: 2010 – 2011 I designed a questionnaire form to find out the levels of interest of my students before and after I applied the theory of MI The results I gained are clearly illustrated in the following table and chart Levels of interest Very interested Interested 196 students Total % Total % Before applying 18 9.2% 25 12.8% After applying 49 25% 78 39.8% Normal Total % 95 48 5% 58 29 6% Not interested Total % 58 29.5% 11 5.6% Table 2: The levels of interests of students before and after applying the theory of MI 30 48.5% 50.00% 40% 40.00% 30.00% 30% 29.5% 25% Before applying 20.00% After applying 12.8% 10.00% 9.2% 6% 0.00% Very interested Interested Normal Not interested Chart 3: The levels of interest of students before and after applying the theory of MI From table and chart 3, the number of students who were very interested in warm-up activities increased sharply from 9.2% to 25% Similarly, students who felt interested also rocketed in number (from 12.8% to 40%) In contrast, the number of students who felt normal about the activities carried out at the beginning of the lesson decreased remarkably from 48.5% to 30% In addition, there were much fewer students who weren’t interested in these warm-up activitives at all (from 29.5% to 6%) From the information about, it is clear that applying the theory of multiple intelligences has made my lesson fun, engaging and highly educational.My students have been encouraged to be more active participants in the classroom Now when I come to class, I feel that every student is looking forward to interesting things that I am going to make and that they are sure they are all involved And I am ready to prepare my lesson more and more carefully to maintain these eagering eyes from them In addition, the quantitative and qualitative analysis from my questionnaire also revealed some useful information about the interest of different kinds of students in warm-up activities that I carried in my lessons It is interesing to find that most of good and gifted students (in class 12A7, 12A8) showed their talents in warm-up activities that required their linguistic intelligence or logical/mathematical intelligence As a result, those students felt like taking part in games with words, sentences or even long stories They also showed their interest in activities that required their memory and understaning On the other hand, most of 31 medium and weak students (in class 12A10) showed their enthusiasm in activities that required their visual/spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, and bodily/kinaesthetic intelligence Students of this type liked participating in activities or games with lots of pictures, music, and actions To sum up, the theory of MI played a really important role in guiding me which kinds of activities that were suitable to be applied for different kinds of students 32 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND SOME SUGGESTIONS 3.1 CONCLUSION In a word, basing on the theory of MI, I have created a lot of warm up activities which are very useful for me and my collegues in teaching reading lessons in textbook Tieng Anh 12 Different warm-up activities can develop different types of students’intelligences; thus, can be applied to different kinds of students Moreover, these activities can highly motivate students Not only they arouse students’ interests and associations with the texts, but they can also improve their thinking skills The study also reveals that the learning process will function more effectively if several points of entry are used in order to explore specific content Therefore, teachers must learn to be flexible in the presentation of the activities in order to create opportunities for all of the students in the class to use their different strengths It is obviously not the case that the teacher should try to please all the students at all times in every lesson This would be an extremely difficult thing to It's just good to bear in mind that there are many different ways of learning If you try an activity with one group and it falls flat, it may well be worth trying it again as it may work really well with another set of students If you can identify the loner of the class or the one who is always up and out of his seat, try and put activities into your lesson plan that you think will suit them from time to time 3.2 SUGGESTIONS As mentioned in the scope of the study, the study has just been an attempt to investigate the theory of Multiple Intelligences, which is applied to vary warm-up activities in reading lessons in text book Tieng Anh 12 In addition, due to the limitation of time and area of the study, other kinds of warm-up activities can not be touched Hence, I would like to give some suggestions for further study: - Further study on the theory of Multiple Intelligences, its characteristics and implications for teaching foreign languages 33 - Further study on other kinds of warm-up activities that can be applied in speaking, listening, writing and language focus section - Further study on different kinds of warm-up activities that can be used for text book Tieng Anh 10 and Tieng Anh 11 - Further study on the way to apply the theory of Multiple Intelligences in other teaching steps when designing a lesson plan The last thing I’d like to say here is that we hope the principle as well as other teachers will sympathize for the noise we make during English lessons and create the best condition for learning and teaching English in high schools 34 APPENDIX APPENDIX 1: Comic books Textbooks Novel Science books APPENDIX 2: Pictures of life in the future 35 APPENDIX 3: pictures of some kinds of water sports 36 APPENDIX UNIT : WALKING WARMERS As individuals Tell the students to walk about: - as if they are exhausted - as if they have just heard some wodnderful news - as if they are carrying a heavy suitcase - as if it is bitterly cold - as if they don’t want to be seen - as if they are a little child - as if they are very old - as if they are ten feet tall - as if they are walking on ice - as if they are sleepwalking - as if they are a king or queen walking to the coronation - as if they are crossing a stream on stepping stones - as if they are a beggar Relating to others - nodding and smiling at each other - greeting each other on the shoulder - greeting each other as if they havenot seen each other for a long time - behaving towards each other as if the other person was offensive the last time they met - behaving as if they donot really like each other - behaving as though the other person is deaf - behaving as though they think the other person has bad breath - behaving as though they think the other person is dangerous - behaving as though they think the other person is an extremely distinguished and elderly person - greeting each other and saying anything which comes into their heads APPENDIX (RANK ORDER: WHAT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE) 37 10 11 12 13 14 15 Accepting your partner as she/he is having a good relationship with your in-laws having a home of your own being from a similar class both partners being able and willing to cook being able to make each other laugh being able to respect each other’s need having similar interests being honest both partners being of similar intelligence being able to communicate with each other having a good physical attractiveness having good health be willing to work at the marriage being handy about the house YOU PAIRS GROUPS APPENDIX 38 ... TEXTBOOK TIENG ANH 12 Written by : Nguyễn Thị Thanh Huyền I Mục đích đề tài: Giúp giáo viên Tiếng anh hiểu thêm hiệu thuyết vế loại hình trí thông minh giảng dạy Tiếng Anh Tạo nhiều hoạt động warm... applied these warm-up acivities based on the theory of MI in the classes 12A7, 12A8 (2009 – 2010) and 12A1, 12A2, 12A3, 12A10 (2010 – 2011) and some other classes The results I gained were surprisingly... Tiếng Anh Tạo nhiều hoạt động warm up giúp cho dạy đọc hiểu thêm sinh động đạt hiệu Thu hút hứng thú đối tượng học sinh học Tiếng Anh II Bản chất giải pháp 1.6.Design of the study The study consists