Skkn tiếng anh teaching reading through the integration of related multi subjects

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Why was the research paper written?

Nowadays, Vietnam, on the process of the international integration andcooperation, has been expanding the relations in many areas and creatingfundamental premise for industrialization and modernization The premise, inits turn, has made Viet Nam confident to join international life in both scope

and scale English is a powerfully communicative tool that helps to makethese relations better It is widely used in such a variety of areas as science,international business, information technology, transportation, and so on.Seeing how important English is, the Ministry of Education and Training hasbeen carrying out the renovation in English books with the communicativemethod focusing on teaching four skills as listening, speaking, reading andwriting These skills are taught integrally by the other language components asgrammar or structure, vocabulary and pronunciation

Currently, with the project of comprehensive renovation process in thecurriculum and books adopted by the Congress, the Ministry continues toorder teachers to make reforms in teaching methods and testing, assessing tomeet the trend of developing students' ability It is for this goal that theintegration of various subjects in teaching in schools has been reinforcing andencouraging English is one of the school subjects that is in need of thismethod English teachers, therefore, have to change their traditional teachingmethod "mono-subject" to the new one "related multi-subjects" This aims attraining a future generation to be more skillful and to be able to have a morecomprehensive knowledge.

Furthermore, not only teachers but students themselves can see the fact that allthe knowledge in life is related to each other School subjects are differentfrom each other but connected and supportive during the process of Englishteaching Only the new approach "Integrating many subjects into teachingEnglish" is an advanced method suitable for the current time and necessary toboth teachers and learners.

Hence, being a teacher of a high school, especially a school in a remote andmountainous area, I do have much care for the questions “The renovation ofteaching method”, “What can I do to make Reading lessons … less or evennot boring?", "What can be done to help students have a wide range ofknowledge when learning English?" and "How can students get moreinformation or details about Math, Chemistry, Geography and from anEnglish lesson?" With such questions and thoughts, based on my experience,I wish to introduce the method which I have been using with the highest resultnamed "Teaching reading through the integration of diverse subjects"

2 What is the actual situation of teaching and learning English? and who isthe study for?

Most of the English learners understand that English language has beenplaying a leading role in communication in every single aspect of the world.Especially since Vietnam integrated with the world, there have beeninfluences of the English language on the people’s business and educationalaccess These learners really want to communicate outdoors; they needEnglish as a means of communication They are motivated and always activein learning

Additionally, a number of positive students who are quite modern humans cankeep pace with the latest information, changes Realizing the necessity and theimportance of the reforms, they immediately update it for themselves Byproviding learning opportunities beyond the traditional classroom, students areable to experience a much broader spectrum of knowledge and skillsnecessary to gap the transition from school to work, from school tocommunity, or from school to further educational endeavors

However, there are still some different ideas from the rest in schools Somethink English is a huge pile and complex chain of knowledge, which makesthem confused and embarrassed to find out the best ways to learn it and it isnot easy at all They always have difficulty remembering what a languagemeans, and sometimes they can’t remember how to make a correct utterance,don’t know how to set up a structure grammatically, and even forget it Forthem, it is too much to be able to digest all.

Yet, many teachers still apply traditional methods to teaching They introducethe language mechanically and pay no attention to the thoughts, opinions andneeds of today's students With no intention, they make their students becomeout of date and out of the new approach of teaching and learning language.Teachers control all activities of students and students become completelypassive in the classroom Consequently, students lose not only their activenessbut their creativeness, which makes the lesson worse

Thus, this research, as I believe, points to the power of teaching and learning avariety of involving subjects It will help students engage in challengingcommunication and meaningful learning By using the integrated knowledgethat foster creativity, flexible thinking, problem solving and real life

applications to gather information, students develop critical thinking andwriting skills The integration of diverse subjects invites inquiry, construction,communication, and expression This research also supports demands thateducators prepare our young people to become independent and life longlearners In this sense, the majority of suggested activities presuppose that thestudents acquire the necessary learning skills for a given activity on their ownand not through orthodox methods of skills delivery The teacher will have toadopt the role of a resource person who encourages independent learning.

3 How is the research paper organized?

This research paper has five parts:

will field test and make suggestions to its merit as a valuable and viableteaching resource.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

TEACHING READING THROUGH THE INTEGRATION OF RELATEDMULTI-SUBJECTS

1 Theoretical background of the integration of diverse subjects

Teaching through varied subjects results from the need of teaching goal"develop students' ability" which strongly ask them to apply the knowledge tosolving true-life problems When they solve such the factual things of eitherphysical study or social one, the mixed information becomes absolutelyuseful

What is integration? It is the act of combining or adding parts to make aunified whole To integrate things is to put them together to form somethingnew

Integrated teaching is to bring related educational points in the process ofteaching like the morality integration, the life-skills integration, etc

And the figure below shows how various subjects are combined in theteaching process.

Teachers have todetermine what

related to two oreven more thantwo subjects toconvey to learners.

Across the nation there has been a growing interest in involving multi-subjectintegration as an approach to teaching in which this subject leverages learningin other subject areas such as science, language arts, mathematics, and socialstudies, etc.

Related Multi-subject Integration isan APPROACH to TEACHING

in which students construct and demonstrateUNDERSTANDING

through a CERTAIN FORM.Students engage in aCREATIVE PROCESS which

CONNECTS a certain form and another subject areaand meets EVOLVING OBJECTIVES in both.

INTEGRATED ITEMS

MATHSITEM

(deduced from “Defining Arts Integration” by Lynne B Silverstein and SeanLayne © 2010, The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)

Rather, related multi-subject integration is an approach to teaching that isembedded in one’s daily practice An “approach to teaching” refers to howsomething is taught rather than what is taught Every teacher has an approachto teaching, whether or not they are aware of it

Approaches fall along a continuum from traditional, teacher-centeredinstruction to more progressive, student-centered instruction Ultimately, ourapproach is based on our beliefs about how students learn As an approach toteaching, related multi-subject integration relies heavily on the progressive,student-centered end of the continuum.

This approach to teaching is grounded in the belief that learning is activelybuilt, experiential, evolving, collaborative, problem-solving, and reflective.These beliefs are aligned with current research about the nature of learningand with the Constructivist learning theory Constructivist practices that align

with related multi-subject integration practices include:

 Providing active hands-on learning with authentic problems forstudents to solve in divergent ways

 Arranging opportunities for students to learn from each other toenrich their understandings

 Engaging students in reflection about what they learned, how theylearned it, and what it means to them

 Using student assessment of their own and peers’ work as part of thelearning experience

 Providing opportunities for students to revise and improve theirwork and share it with others

 Building a positive classroom environment where students areencouraged and supported to take risks, explore possibilities, andwhere a social, cooperative learning community is created andnurtured

Students construct and demonstrateUNDERSTANDING …

understand (vt.) – (1) to get or perceive the meaning of; to know or grasp

what is meant by; comprehend (2) to gather or assume from what is heard;to infer 3) to know thoroughly; grasp or perceive clearly and fully thenature, character, functioning, etc (4) to have a sympathetic

rapport with

Constructing understanding of one’s world is an active, mind engagingprocess Information must be mentally acted upon in order to have meaningfor the learner

Related multi-subject integration provides multiple ways for students to makesense of what they learn (construct understanding) and make their learningvisible (demonstrate understanding) It goes beyond the initial step of helpingstudents learn and recall information to challenging students to take theinformation and facts they have learned and do something with them to builddeeper understanding.

“In the class students have central and active roles as meaning makers.This role demands that they not only acquire knowledge but they develop

the capacity to reflect on what they are learning and to use it as theyinterpret and create their own works:

Students can and should have opportunities to construct and demonstrate theirunderstandings in various ways Nationwide, classrooms have become, andcontinue to become, more culturally, economically, and academically diverse.

Students engage in aCREATIVE PROCESS…

creativity (n) - an imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce

outcomes that are original and of value

The heart of related multi-subject integration is engagement in the creativeprocess Related multi-subject integration requires that students do more thanrepeat (a song), copy (an art project), or follow directions They must createsomething that is original and of value

The creative process in the involving multi-subjects is a process not a singleevent It includes many interactingphases and each phase is related to

every other There are manydescriptions of the creative process Theone provided here is a synthesis ofideas from many different sources Inthis diagram, the process is madevisible as five open circles Studentsimagine, examine, and perceive Theyexplore, experiment, and develop craft They create They reflect, assess, and

revise, and share their products with others Arrows indicate the ways one canenter the process and the myriad ways the phases interact.

When students engage in the creative process, they produce original work thatcommunicates their ideas, insights, points of view, and feelings The creativeprocess can be “messy.” It is difficult to predict what will happen, bediscovered, or emerge during the process Learners engage in inquiry andexperimentation as opposed to following rigid, step-by-step rules Some ideas,once explored, do not work well, while other ideas that were not originallyconsidered, may surface as the perfect solution

If teachers are overly concerned with a “neat” process and product, they tendto make the creative choices for students and direct the outcome In thesecases, the creative process is present, but only for the teacher It is theteacher’s or teaching artist’s responsibility to set a creative problem orchallenge for students to solve, but not to take over and solve the challenge forthe students.

…which CONNECTS

an a certain subject and another subject area…

connect (v) - to join, link, or fasten together; unite or bind

A distinguishing aspect of related multi-subject integration is itsinterdisciplinary connections

Connections are made between a specific subject and a specific curriculumarea Connections can also be made between a specific subject and a school’sconcern or need Schools often identify a focus for improvement that is

sometimes outside the formal curriculum For example, the reading text canconnect to school concerns such as character education/bullying,collaboration, habits of mind, or multiple intelligences.

By engaging in learning in one subject, learning in the other subject isreinforced and extended, and vice versa Rather than imagining connectionsas two intersecting lines, mutually-reinforcing connections function as a cycle.

and meets

EVOLVING OBJECTIVES in both.

evolve (v) -to develop gradually

This final part of the definition underscores two ideas First, related subject integration requires teachers to set objectives in both a certain subjectand the other subject area The dual objectives are balanced; students areaccountable for significant learning in both subjects

multi-Advantages and disadvantages

For students

Integrated themes are known to be true or genuine so it is quite interesting andattracts students' attention, which will predominantly motivate and encouragestudents to learn Absorbing these themes, students have a chance of using thenewly-created knowledge to deal with factual situations instead ofmemorizing the knowledge mechanically.

For teachers

Teachers, at first, have some difficulties because of searching everywhere forthe details and information of other subjects Understanding other subjects islimited However, this problem will be able to be resolved due to the twofollowing reasons:

Firstly, during the process of teaching, teachers themselves have to givetheir students the knowledge involving in other subjects As a result, they are able to receive a deep understanding of integrated knowledge.Another reason is connected to innovating contemporary teaching method Teachers' role has completely changed No longer have they been centered in classrooms They have been organizers and conductorslearners' activities inside and outside the class So teachers have opportunities to promote mutual cooperation in teaching

Therefore, this combination of various subjects helps to foster and improveteachers' understanding and pedagogic skills, which has a fully contribution tothe progress of Vietnam's education system.

2 Teaching reading through the integration of related multi-subjects

The days of believing that we could hand informational text or a novel to astudent and assume he or she make full meaning of it on their own is ateaching mode of the past Whether we like it or not, regardless of thecontent we teach, we are all reading instructors We need to inspire both alove for reading and reading stamina in our students

What can teachers do to achieve this goal?