SKKN MINIPROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI Đơn vị………… ……… TRƯỜNG THPT TRẤN BIÊN Mã số: (Do HĐKH Sở GD&ĐT ghi) SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM ……………………………………………………………………… (Ghi đầy đủ tên gọi giải pháp SKKN) MINI-PROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Người thực hiện: ………………………… Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: Người thựclýhiện: - Quản giáo CHU dục THỊ KIM  PHƯƠNG Lĩnh vực nghiên - Phương phápcứu: dạy học môn:  (Ghi rõ tên môn) - Quản lý giáo dục  Lĩnh vựcpháp khác:dạy  Phương học môn: TIẾNG ANH  (Ghi rõ tên lĩnh vực) (Ghi rõ tên môn) vựckhông khác:thể  Có đính kèm: Các- Lĩnh sản phẩm in SKKN (Ghi rõ tên lĩnh vực)  Mô hình  Đĩa CD (DVD)  Phim ảnh  Hiện vật khác (các phim, ảnh, sản phẩm phần mềm) Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm in SKKN  Mô hình  ĐĩaNăm CD (DVD)  Phim ảnh  Hiện vật khác học: (các phim, ảnh, sản phẩm phần mềm) SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC –––––––––––––––––– I THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN Họ tên: CHU THỊ KIM PHƯƠNG Ngày tháng năm sinh: 12/10/1976 Nam, nữ: Nữ Địa chỉ: C12 Khu dân cư Tân Biên, P Tân Biên, Biên Hòa, Đồng Nai Điện thoại: ĐTDĐ: 01289909075 Fax: E-mail: chuthikimphuong76@gmail.com Chức vụ: Nhiệm vụ giao : Chủ nhiệm lớp 12A1, dạy tiếng Anh lớp 12A1, 12D1(tiếng Anh hệ 10 năm), 10A3 (tiếng Anh hệ năm) Đơn vị công tác: THPT TRẤN BIÊN II TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO - Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Thạc sĩ - Năm nhận bằng: 2010 - Chuyên ngành đào tạo: TESOL III KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC - Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm: Giảng dạy tiếng Anh Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 17 - Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm có năm gần đây: MINI-PROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Introduction In the dawn of the industrialization era when the term “global worker” is permanently mentioned, soft skills are always highly recommended for students to be well-prepared at the threshold of the world of work Therefore, before graduation, it is vital that students should be given opportunities to set up and improve soft skills Many course books or textbooks are primarily designed to mainly supply knowledge , which is only a part of what is necessary to land dream job As a result, employment recruiters claim that skill gaps need to be more concerned about or future employees would fail to get success in their target job Context Since 2010, Vietnamese MOET has been making great effort to reorient and design a new series of textbooks, from Tiếng Anh toTiếng Anh 12(grade3-12) with a view to promoting soft skills for students through carrying out mini projects The mini projects are aimed at supplying students with an opportunity to apply the language and skills they have learnt throughout the unit to a task in a real life situation As a result, the projects are practical and doable enough for all students to provided that collaboration among team members is highly emphasized Rationale I have been teaching the new Tieng Anh series for three years and this school year (2016-2017) is the first time I have taught Tieng Anh 12 With the ambition to get students to be well prepared when they leave school, I this small action research to help them build up soft skills through mini projects Advantages and disadvantages While using this kind of material I have come up with some benefits and limitations that I would like to include here Advantages - I am strongly supported by my school authorities and colleagues, especially I am greatly assisted by my group leader, who gives me more control and freedom in teaching and writing lesson plans - Our school has two added periods for English per week so that I can fill in the gaps of the lessons for my students - Most of my students are in the same level - The books are eye-catching enough to draw students’ attention and the topics are varied However, I also deal with some drawbacks Disadvantages - As the series are not widely used in secondary schools, the related sources for reference are not rich and available As a result, it requires the teacher more time and energy to fulfill the task designs - Since my students not major in English, some lessons are hard for them to cover as fully expected Additionally, as 12th grade students, they are devoting more time to their other major subjects Procedures The procedures can be divided into three stages Stage 1: At the beginning of the first semester, students were put in groups to pick the projects in Tieng Anh 12 volume 1(see the Overview in the appendixes) at random Then they were demonstrated, described or explained what they were going to After that, deadlines were set They were supposed to carry out in ten weeks Stage 2: Contacts between us were not only in class but Facebook messenger, mobile texting or emails would also be used Timelines were required after the first week to make sure things went on as expected I gave students more guidance, support and advice to assist them out of the problems or difficulties Stage 3:Presentations were done after ten weeks Groups recorded their performance and questions were encouraged to raise from the others Finally, constructive feedback was given Here is the table of the summary Stage 1: Pre- Stage 2: While- - Stage 3: Post- - Introducing the aim Grouping Picking units Stating requirements with detailed explanations Setting deadlines Week 1: checking timelines and help make some adjustments Week 3: asking students to briefly report where they are, what they did through a variety of means of communication Week 7: reading the first written draft and give feedback Week 8: reminding the deadline and urging students to rehearse Week 11: Marking presentations and giving feedback Term definitions What are soft skills? According to Wikipedia, soft skills are “a combination “of many skills such as interpersonal people skills, social skills, communication skills, character traits and attitudes Imman N Khurshid also defined that soft skills are skills “ needed in different aspects of life including your career.” Collins Dictionary also refers soft skills as “interpersonal skills such as the ability to communicate well with other people and to work in a team.” Among the soft skills, communication skills are considered the most important ones Communication skills include Interview skills, Listening skills, Conversational skills, Team-working skills, Decision-making, Problem-solving, Negotiation, Presentation and Personal skills What is a project? According to Cambridge Dictionary, a project is “a piece of planned work or an activity that is finished over a period of time and intended to achieve a particular purpose.” The projects in Tieng Anh 12 ask students to a survey or carry out research to get information about their friends, their neighbourhood or to broaden their knowledge about the real world Founded results and expectations Findings The final products, the written projects, were collected before students’ presentations Although the aim was not to improve computer skill, it can be concluded that some students are quite computer-literate(see in the Appendix and their presentations in the VCD) Through observation, interviews (enclosed in the DVD) videoed later on, and small talks, it can be said that students’ soft skills have been established and gradually improved Though recorded video clips cannot show satisfactory results as expected, I believe that students have gained some life skills when they are to work in teams to fulfill the required task To make it clearer, I would like to mention some examples as follows Decision-making and Listening skills were mainly practised when students worked out the Timeline together Team-working and Problem-solving skills were gradually established throughout the process and Presentation skill was built and developed at the final stage Expectations As for teacher, I am still “new” to guiding and giving students feedback in a more professional way to carry out mini projects successfully It is hopeful that I will have more opportunities to share and learn from my colleagues and be more trained in workshops or seminars about this issue As for students, they should be more aware of the importance of projects because they not only practise the language but also develop soft skills, which cannot be learned from books but only through practice They should take it particularly seriously like the way they spend time for their majors NGƯỜI THỰC HIỆN (Ký tên ghi rõ họ tên) CHU THỊ KIM PHƯƠNG APPENDIXES APPENDIX AN OVERVIEW Grade 12 Speaking Talking about a historical figure Writing Writing a life story Discussing key features of urbanization and expressing opinions about a preferable place of living Discussing lifestyle choices and deciding if they are environmentally friendly Describing a line graph Unit THE MASS MEDIA Talking about social networking Describing a pie chart Unit CULTURAL IDENTITY Talking about ways to maintain cultural identity Writing an essay Unit LIFE STORIES Unit URBANIZATION Unit THE GREEN MOVEMENT Writing an essay about advantages and disadvantages Grammar Past simple Past continuous Articles Subjunctives Project Presentation: a famous person you admire Finding out how a city or a country has undergone urbanization Simple, compound and complex sentences WHICHconnector Verbs + prep Past perfect/past simple Conducting a survey on students’ green lifestyle Present perfect/Present perfect continuous Repeated comparatives Conducting a survey on students’ favorite social networking sites and apps Presentation: cultural identity of an ethnic group in Vietnam APPENDIX Reference Cambridge Dictionary Online -http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/project Collin Dictionary online-https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/soft-skills Imran Newaz Khurshid-Why should Teachers have Soft Skills and what you can about it.- December 29, 2014-https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-should-teachers-have-softskills-what-you-can-do-khurshid PBLEducation -The Importance of Project Based Learning for Classroomshttps://pbleducation.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/the-importance-of-project-based-learning-forclassrooms/ FEBRUARY 9, 2013 · 4:17 PM 10 ... MINI-PROJECTS CAN HELP ENHANCE SOFT SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Introduction In the dawn of the industrialization era when the term “global worker” is permanently mentioned, soft skills are always highly... recommended for students to be well-prepared at the threshold of the world of work Therefore, before graduation, it is vital that students should be given opportunities to set up and improve soft skills. .. online-https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english /soft- skills Imran Newaz Khurshid-Why should Teachers have Soft Skills and what you can about it.- December 29, 2014-https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-should-teachers-have-softskills-what-you -can- do-khurshid