How to attract students by adapting some difficult lessons of english 8

TABLE OF CONTENT: Page I INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reasons for topic: 1.2 Research purpopes: 1.3 Research objects: 1.4 Research methods: II THE CONTENTS 2.1 Theoretical and practical background: 2.2 The solution 2-3 2-16 3-15 2 Selecting activities which both attract students and control the number of students involve 2 Using Techniques from easy to difficult 2 Change and simplifies the exercises given in the textbook: Fidings and evaluation: III CONCLUSION 15 16 3.1 Results of the implementation 16 3.2 Recommendations proposed 17 REFERENCES 18 I INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reasons for topic: As we know, English is the official language of over 53 countries and territories, and the official language of the EU as well; it’s also the 3rd language which is widely used There are more than billion Web pages written in English The most commonly used software in the world, the most popular social network, the most extensive portal, all are written in English Knowing a foreign language is an essential capability for the modern Vietnamese In Vietnam, when being asked “What foreign language are you learning?” ninety percent of students will definitely answer “It is English” In fact, English has become a compulsory subject in nearly all Vietnamese schools Students start to learn this subject when they are in the grade two Not only children but also adults have to learn English, which is one of the valuable tools for them to work effectively With communication perspective, learner-centered classroom, the cover is the part which can not be paid attention We can say that, enhancing the general quality of teaching and studying is one of the leading tasks in most schools but in fact it’s a really extremely difficult task In most classes, the quality of students is often divided into two distinct parts: only about 15 to 30% of students in the class reaches fairly level The rest is mostly average and weak students My colleagues and I also have a lot of troubles in teaching when we want average and weak students to participate in the lessons but these students are also very reluctant to answer the teacher's questions The students gradually feel fear and not want to learn English Therefore, I thought about how to encourage all students to participate in the English lessons An English period is considered successfully only when almost students in the class are excited to participate in lessons not only good students Therefore, I would like to present the topic “How to attract students by adapting some difficult lessons of English " 1.2 Research purpopes: My purpose in writing this initiative experience was to find out what the most common and effective methods in developing students’ skills and improve the quality of teaching English at Dien Trung secondary school Beside, I can cultivate myself the professional capacity in teaching, improve the teaching methods appropriate for each positive post, each subject students to improve the quality of teaching and learning English remarkably 1.3 Research objects: Initiative experience focused on teaching methods to improve the efficiency of difficult lessons and improve the quality of English at Dien Trung secondary school 1.4 Research methods: In the process of implementing initiatives I have used the following research methods: - Survey method, comparative analysis and synthesis - Research method the tables - Method of investigation II THE CONTENTS: 2.1 Theoretical and practical background: First of all, we need to understand the definition of these words: adapt, difficult, attract What is adapt, difficult, attract? adapt (verb) /ə’dæpt/ to make suitable to requirements or conditions; adjust or modify fittingly, to adjust oneself to different conditions, or uses, or to change to meet different situations, to adapt easily to all circumstances difficult (adjective) /’difikəlt / not easy, hard to understand or solve (example: a difficult problem), hard to deal with or get on with(example: a difficult pupil), hard to please or satisfy(example: a difficult employer), hard to persuade or induce; stubborn: a difficult old man attract (verb) /ə’trækt/ (of people, things, places, etc.) to pull or draw someone or something towards them, by the qualities they have, especially good ones The changing from the previous textbooks to current textbooks and the old method to the new one have required teachers to be flexible to impart knowledge to students In fact, in most classes, the number of students has unequal levels Besides that pair work and group work often bring about big effect in learning English Meanwhile, the number of students in each class is often more (about 3842 students) that makes teaching control One reason is that the choice of teaching method of the teachers isn’t suitable with the students’ levels so the students cannot carry out what teachers set out which takes time and the students are also afraid of the teachers Since then, it has become bad habits, teachers always ignore these students A successful lesson is when teaching is covered, a good school means that all students are involved (An effective class = every student is included) My colleagues and I had to face up to these problems before I think teachers need to choose suitable teaching methods and appropriate activities to simplify lessons and adapt some difficult lessons in the text books to suit the students’ levels as well That’s easy for students to join an attractive lesson For me, this is one of the leading important criteria before planning the lessons I always try to find the suitable ways to lead in the lessons, try to teach new vocabulary using visual aids lively learning activities designed for fun, easy to organize and play games related to draw lessons to attract the attention of all the children, from all the exercises easy to and you can catch it all down to hard exercise I always look for ways to simplify lessons to help all students acquire knowledge easily Not only good students and even the average and weak students involve in the lessons as well That makes students feel self-confident and love English more and excitedly waiting to learn more English, thereby significantly improving the quality of school’s English lessons 2.2 The solution: In some lessons, I realized the fact that if the teacher knows how to adapt some complicated lessons and simplify some difficult lessons in the textbooks, the students involve in the lessons easily That’s why I choose this topic to present And now I would like to suggest some solutions that I successfully demonstrated in the past year 2.1 Selecting activities which both attract students and control the number of students involve: As far as we know that, junior high school students at this age like playing games during the lessons Games help the students remember the knowledge much easier and longer In teaching English, there are plenty of games to help make lessons more lively and gripping Teachers should notice that using the games which encourages many students to take part in games as possible In our opinion, we can use some games which get highly effect as "Guessing Game", "Bingo", "Back to board", "Slap the board", "Lucky Numbers " or some equally effective Techniques such as" Picture Drill "," Make new songs "etc 2.2 Using Techniques from easy to difficult one: If teachers use the difficult exercises, the weak students will not have the opportunity to participate in the lesson In this lesson, they just sit in class without understanding and eventually they will have knowledge gaps They become bored and scared when they have English lessons Therefore, teachers need to skillfully use activities from easy to difficult, gently lead the students into the lesson For example, the teaching of reading skills may be considered to be the most boring In my opinion, we should start from easy to difficult operation using "Skimming the reading" (skim all) It can be said, if the readings designed like this will be a comparatively success This type of exercise needs to have clear requirement to attract the number of students involved in the lesson Some children may have difficulty completing an assignment, but each student offers an opinion and they will be in turn complement each other to get the gist of the whole reading Then the stronger students may participate in the evaluation of public comments Thus, not only good students but poor ones feel good and want to be involved in the development of lessons This will make them feel more confident to go deeply into understanding the content For instance, in a listening lesson, textbook’s requirement is to listen and answer the difficult long questions If at the beginning, we ask them to listen and answer questions, most of them certainly will not be able to them We had better design some easier activities to attract them such as listen and fill in the gap with the given words or listen and choose the best answer Now, I would like to suggest some sample lessons: Some adaptations of the lessons of English Example 1: Unit 1: My friends Period – Lesson 4: Read - Requirements of reading: Students read about Ba and some of his friends, and talk about the character and habits of each person - Exercise required in the textbooks: Exercise 1: Choose the best answer and write: a Ba talks about of his friends A three B all C four D none b Bao's volunteer work A helps him makes friends C does not effect his school work B causes problems at exam time D takes up a lot of time c Khai and Song A like quiet places C dislike school B don't talk much in public D enjoy sports d Ba's friends sometimes his jokes A answer B not listen to C laugh at D get tired of Exercise 2: Now answer the questions a How does Ba feel having a lot of friends? b Who is the most sociable? c Who likes reading? d What is a bad thing about Ba's jokes? e Where does Bao spend his free time? f Do you and your close friends have the same or different characters? - Obviously, if the teachers let the students the tasks above, that won’t help them grasp the requirements of the reading, they not know personality of each person To lead and motivate students into the lesson early and also help them to access lesson content more thoroughly, immediately after the presentation of new words I use to read "Skimming the reading." - Students are asked to read in minute and find out the names of the characters mentioned in the article This requirement is so easy that even very weak students can also complete Next, ask them to read ask them to read and find words describing their personality Then ask students to close the book and give the answers The steps of this section will be conducted as follows: Skimming the reading: -Have Ss read the text in two minutes then close their books and answer questions: ? How many paragraphs are there? ( ) ? What are they about? (Ba and his friends) ( Ss can say in Vietnamese ) - Divide the class into groups Students in groups read the paragraph and give the main idea of each one.( Read in another minutes ) Answers : ( Write students’ answers on board ) Introduction : Ba, Khai, Song are Ba’s friends with different characters Bao: the most sociable, kind, generous, hard-working Khai and Song : quite reserved - Song : school’s star soccer player - Khai : like peace and quiet of the local library Ba : - not as out going as Bao - enjoy telling Jokes Conclusion : They are close friends Example 2: English 8: Unit 4: Our past Period 24- Lesson 4: Read Aims: By the end of the lesson, students will be able to understand the text and get specific information about a folktale Teaching aids: Posters Procedures : • Warmer : "Brainstorm" -Ask students to call out some folktales Do you know the story "Tam Cam"? Folktales Can you tell us the story in Vietnamese? - Ask students to tell the story in Vietnamese - Leading to the new lesson: " To day we are going to study a short story similar to Tam Cam - The lost shoe" - Write the title on board: Unit 4- Reading I Pre-reading: Pre-teach vocabulary: - cruel (adj) (How are Cam and her mother?) - upset ( adj) (Visual) - magical (adj) (Translation) magically(adv) - prince (n)(Who found Tam's shoe?) - fairy (n) (Who gave Tam new clothes?) - (to) fall in love (synonym: What is another word for 'love'?) II While reading: Skimming the reading: - Have students read the text in two minutes and find out the persons in the story - Write students’ ideas on board in a column - Give students one more minute reading if they can't list all - Check and correct Matching: - hang the poster with the person's activities on the right of the above column - Ask students to think and match the persons with their activities - Have students read the text again and check the matching Answer Keys: Persons in the story Activities a was very upset and soon died 1.Little Pea b had to chores all day 2.Little Pea's father c was very cruel to Little Pea Stout Nut d found the shoe Stout Nut's mother e made new clothes only for Stout Nut The fairy f magically changed Little Pea's rags into beautiful Clothes The prince g dropped and lost one of her shoes h fell in love with Little Pea Answer keys: b, g a c,e (no information) f d, h Gap-filling: - Hang the poster on board, students read the text again to fill in gaps a Little Pea's father was very _and soon died b Little Pea's mother _ when she was young c Little Pea _ to chores all day after her father got married _ d The harvest festival came but Stout Nut's mother did not make _ for Little Pea e The prince found Little Pea's shoe f A fairy changed Little Pea's into beautiful clothes g The _ decided to marry the girl who fitted the shoe h Little Pea _ and lost one of her shoes - Call on some students to the board to fill in the gaps - Check and correct Answer key; a upset b died c had d new clothes e lost f rags g price h dropped III Post reading: Ordering : - Ask students to order the sentences in the exercise matching - Check and correct Answer key: b c a d f 6.h 7.e g Retelling: - Ask students to use the information from Matching and Ordering to retell the story IV Homework: - Answer the question on p.42 Rewrite the story in brief - Get ready for writing Example 4: Unit 8: Country Life and City Life Period 48 – Lesson 4: Read Requirements of the lesson: - Students will understand the content of the reading of one of the major problems of society - People from rural to urban rushing to find work and the consequences of it - Exercise of required textbooks: Exercise 1: Complete the summary Use information from the passage People from the countryside are (1) their home to go and live in the (2) Farming can sometimes be a difficult life and these people from (3) areas feel the (4) offers more opportunities However, many people coming to the city create (5) There may not be enough (7) or (6) ., while water and electricity supplies may not be adequate This is a (7) facing government around the (8) Exercise 2: Find the word in the passage that means: a of the countryside b as many a needed c become greater or larger d a great pressure e a terrible event f of the city or city life - After several years of teaching, I have recognized that this reading is designed clearly and fairly easily to understand However, if we just ask students to two exercises in the textbooks, we cannot make sure that whether students understand or not With this kind of task, the students are asked to complete the summary of the article Then, ask them to find the meaning of words Teachers give the outline on the board: Paragraph 1: Introduction: Paragraph 2: Paragraph and 4: Paragraph 5: Conclusion: - Ask students to skim all then look for the topic Students read the again and add comments for each section: Paragraph 1: Introduction: Farmers are leaving their home to find jobs in the city Paragraph 2: The reasons : - natural disasters: typhoons, floods, droughts - little or no money Paragraph and 4: The results: - increased population in city  a strain on schools, hospitals, water and electricity supplies - increased pollution - family living apart Paragraph 5: Conclusion: Government's solution After finishing the exercises above, students have basically learned the content part of the lesson, the children become more confident and eager to learn the content 2.2 Change and simplifies the exercises given in the textbook: With the completion of the exercises available in textbooks, even the teachers are really depressed when requiring students to these exercises Because some exercises are too difficult and some are not suitable Therefore, I have redesigned some difficult lessons such as: Example1: English 8: Period 26: Unit 5: Lesson - Getting Started + Listen and Read Instead of using the textbook, teachers can design some questions as well as determine the True / False but more brief conversations require listening to specify the following sentences are true or false: Tim's report card is not very good (F) Tim's Mom is proud of him (T) Tim is studying Spanish (T) Tim is very good at Spanish pronunciation (F) EXAMPLE 2: English 8: Period 64 : Unit 10: Recycling Lesson - Write Aims: By the end of the lesson, Students know how to write an instruction about recycling paper by hand, make instructions on how to prepare the used tea leaves to keep the mosquito away Exercises in the textbook: Complete the recycling instructions Use the verbs in the boxes Soak Place Wrap dry 10 Use Wait Mix press First, (0)……some old newspapers in a bucket of water overnight Then (1)……,a wooden spoon to mash the paper Next, (2)……the mashed paper and the water together in another bucket (3)…….… ……….a wire mesh in the mixture then pull it out Then put the mesh with mixture on the cloth and (4)……it down firmly Take the mesh off the cloth (5)………some heavy books in a plastic bag and put them on the cloth (6)… …about minutes Finally, put the books away and take the paper out of the cloth to (7)…………in the sunlight Make the instructions on how to reuse the dry tea leaves a) used/ tea leaves/ tea pot c) leaves / sun b) tea leaves/ tray d) dry/ leaves/ pot/ future use If teachers give these two exercises right from the start, the students will be hard to do, they will soon get bored, you will feel some pressure and stress because they not really understand how to recycle used papers, old newspapers by hand I tried to redesign these exercises from easy to difficult to attract every students even weak students and help them feel more confident and They gradually discover and acquire knowledge Warm up: I give the students a video clip on how to recycle old paper in a modern way to get the attention of all the children and ask: ? What is the video clip about? Sts answer:… The video clip is about how to recycle paper nowadays Lead – in: Teacher: Do you want to know how to recycle paper by hand? 11 Students: Yes And today we are going to learn how to make instruction on recycling paper by hand Pre writing * Pre teach some vocabulary: - Elicit students to guess the meaning of new words + bucket: (real object) + soak (action) + mash (v) (action) + wire mesh (n) (picture) + wrap (v) (action) + mixture (n) (giving the context) Look at the pictures This is mixture of liquid both alcohol and water What does liquid mean? Check vocabulary: What and where To help all students can complete all the paper recycling guides in hand, we should add exercises designed sequencing pictures Teachers give students the pictures of the steps of the old paper recycling process manually, but the pictures are not put in the correct order and ask them to work in groups and rearrange according to the order of steps Looking at the pictures you will easily realize the process of recycling used papers and students feel like doing the exercise and they are also more interested in the lesson While writing: Reorder the pictures: - Let students look at these pictures This is a process of recycling paper But these pictures are not in the right order Ask students to work in groups to reorder them - Give feed back 12 - Give feed back: -> -> -> -> 6- >7 -> Complete the recycling instructions: - Ask students to work in pairs to complete the recycling instructions Use the verbs in the boxes Soak Place Wrap Dry Use Wait Mix press First, (0) ……….some old newspapers in a bucket of water overnight Then (1) ………a wooden spoon to mash the paper Next, (2) ……… ……the mashed paper and the water together in another bucket (3)…….… ……….a wire mesh in the mixture then pull it out Then put the mesh with mixture on the cloth and (4)………… ….it down firmly Take the mesh off the cloth (5)……….……… some heavy books in a plastic bag and put them on the cloth (6)… …… …about minutes Finally, put the books away and take the paper out of the cloth to (7)…………in the sunlight - Call students to answer before the class Key: use mix place press 5.wrap wait dry Give instructions Look at the recycling instruction again Do you understand instruction? Instruction means order that tell you what to or how to something You can see first, then Tell me other words like first, then - Sts: next, finally When we write instruction, you should use the words like “first, then, next, finally” First, then, next, … , + V(bare infinitive)+ O finally, Reorder instructions: All of you close your book now, this exercise: These are recycling instructions but they are not in the right order Now you reorder it 13 a Finally, put the books away and take the paper out of the cloth to dry in the sunlight b First, soak some old newspapers in a bucket of water overnight c Then use a wooden spoon to mash the paper d Next, mix the mashed paper and the water together in another bucket Put a wire mesh in the mixture then pull it out Then put the mesh with mixture on the cloth and press it down firmly Take the mesh off the cloth wrap some heavy books in a plastic bag and put them on the cloth Wait about minutes => Key: b c d a Post writing: Make instructions on how to prepare the tea leaves, using the given words in the box To simplify this exercise helped average and weak students to be able to easily, first we ask students to match four verbs with four right pictures put Take scatter Dry Students answer: Picture a -> take picture b -> scatter picture c -> dry picture d -> put Teachers should design suggestions under each picture for clearer then all students will feel easier, more comfortable and enjoy doing this exercise a, First/ take /used/ tea leaves/ tea pot b, Next /scatter/ tea leaves/ tray c, Then/ dry/ tea leaves/ sun d, Finally/ put/ dry/ leaves / pot /future use - Ask students to work in groups to make instructions on how to prepare the tea leaves, using the given words - Give feed back a First take the used tea leaves from the tea pot b Next, scatter the tea leaves on a tray 14 c Then, dry the leaves is the sun d Finally, put the dry leaves on a pot for future use Reorder these sentences and write instructions to recycle used plastic bottles: - Ask students to reorder these sentences and write instructions to recycle used plastic bottles: - Give feed back First, wash the used plastic bottles with water Then, cut the bottles into small pieces Next, mix the small pieces with certain chemical Then, heat the mixture into pasty liquid Finally, blow the liquid into new bottles Homework: - Learn by heart new words - Rewrite the instructions on how to recycle old newspapers 2.3 Fidings and evaluation: Six years ago, when I didn’t apply how to adapt difficult lessons, in English lessons, the number of students involved in the English lessons is only about 3040% After I researched and found out many ways to adapt difficult lessons, most of students understood the lessons and participated in the English lessons cheerfully and positively And now language ability of every student was improved rapidly especially medium and weak students They are looking forward to learning English lessons * Before Total Excellent Good Medium Poor Weak students level level level level level 78 31 20 14 * After: Total Excellent Good students level level 75 16 Medium level 42 Poor level Weak level My colleagues appreciate this research very attractively and interestingly They are glad to use this research to teach students in their English lessons Students enjoy studying English and their results are very good My colleagues feel happier when their students are eager to take part in English periods This encouraged them try their best to teach well and love their job more 15 III CONCLUSION 3.1 Results of the implementation: Over many years, I have applied how to adapt difficult lessons, my lessons become more successful The activities have a positive affect on students in my class so they have better understanding about English The lessons are much easier and more interesting Students feel more confident to take part in all activities of lessons English didn’t become too difficult for students to study I was very successful with covering all students to participate in all activities in the class Students enjoy studying English so they are eager to wait for studying English periods For teacher: After each period, I my self feel very glad and happy that almost all students understand the lessons and they are eager to take part in activities effectively For students: Almost all students understand the lesson very quickly, up to promote positive and active in the school They easily get the knowledge and remember it longer They no longer feel afraid, anxious and depressed every time in English class anymore The teaching becomes more attractive and more interesting to students They love English and are eager to learn it In English periods, the number of students involved is always built all 95% or more compared to the previous figure is only about 30-40% English knowledge of all students are raised, especially the quality of the students have left mass movement better Lessons Learned: In each period, teachers have to put students as the center and pay attention to every learner to be able to operate successfully The basic thing I want to mention in this article is that each of us has to prepare lesson plans before class When we ask questions, we must think that these questions are suitable for our students or not and the majority of students in the class can understand or not We're not greedy, perform tricks and forget the students in the class or you ought not to just call the good students but must pay attention to the majority of students at average and weak levels If most of activities which only good students can complete, gradually there will only be 10 to 15% of students in the class participating in the lesson The others will always bring feelings of inferiority and dependence When teachers teach, we should use eliciting questions more easily and more clearly, as well as change the exercises in textbooks for most of the children who are able to acquire knowledge of the particular lesson especially average and weak students 16 We should give all students a chance, they will demonstrate their abilities We always set a target number of students to actively participate in class as much as possible Teachers must improve our knowledge regularly and attend periods of fellow teachers ahead to have active teaching methods 3.2 Recommendations proposed: - Teachers must master the tricks and use them in every lesson to get mastered the best results - We must use many ways to adapt some difficult lessons and use these ways frequently so as to encourage every student to be engaged in lessons and give them the passion for the subject, even the teachers themselves will be more interested in teaching Teachers should be always dynamic and flexible during school hours, we will get the real results and positive surprises - The present English programs are really modern and updated, but they are very heavy about the amount of knowledge Thus, teachers need to cover all students in the class in teaching periods This is really hard work We hope that English programs will continue being modernized English is increasingly improved and English will be the second language of communication of Vietnamese people I will continue to add more research and experience, cultivate knowledge Looking forward to getting the sincere comments from the teachers and colleagues Sincere thanks XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Thanh Hoa, March 26, 2017 “I hereby declare that this is my experience initiatives, not copy other people’s content” Hoang Minh Hoc 17 REFERENCES: Documentation for training secondary school teachers regularly cycle 3, in English - English language teaching - Dr Truong Vien - English 8.9: Make easy - Dr Truong Vien Knowledge Learning standards, technical skills English – Luu Thi Kim Nhung - Text books 6,7,8,9 Slavin, Robert E, 1992, Research Methods In Education, Allyn and Bacon, USA Ur, Penny, 1996, a Course In Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Doff, Adrian, 1988, Teach English: A Training Course For Teaching, CUP, England Harmer, Jeremy, 1998, An Introduction To The Practice of English Language Teaching, Longman Ltd , England 18 ... participate in lessons not only good students Therefore, I would like to present the topic How to attract students by adapting some difficult lessons of English " 1.2 Research purpopes: My purpose... like to suggest some sample lessons: Some adaptations of the lessons of English Example 1: Unit 1: My friends Period – Lesson 4: Read - Requirements of reading: Students read about Ba and some of. .. want to know how to recycle paper by hand? 11 Students: Yes And today we are going to learn how to make instruction on recycling paper by hand Pre writing * Pre teach some vocabulary: - Elicit students