Using some positive teaching techniques to teach life skills effectively through some integrated reading topics for the

Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet I INTRODUCTION Reason for the research With the aim of improving the quality of full education for the young, to meet the human resources for the industrialization and modernization of the country, to meet the needs of learner, general education has been strongly reformed according to century’s goals They are learning to know, learning to do, learning to assert themselves, learning to live together So the goal of general education has shifted from equipping the knowledge to the necessary capability for the students In addition, the popular education method has also been innovated in order to raise the sense of initiative and creativeness of the students, which is suitable with the characteristics of each class , students’ psychology and the age; strengthen the students’ groupwork and train the skill of applying the knowledge to the life to integrate the life skills for themselves The content of life skills education has been integrated in many subjects and other educational activities With the advantages of the subject, we find that the education of life skills through English is practical in the stage of the globalization During the teaching process at Thach Thanh High School, when applying some positive techniques in teaching English and integrating the life skills education for students, I realised that it is suitable with my students and the characteristics of the school So, I bravely choose the topic " Using some positive teaching techniques to teach life skills effectively through some integrated reading topics for the students at Thach Thanh High School " Purposes We have known that intergrating knowledge in solving a problem of lesson is essential, which make learners not only study and improve the knowledge from other subjects but also help them understand and solve the matter fast and perfectly Intergrated knowledge of subjects such as: Geography, History, Mathematics, Physics, knowledge from culture, Civic education and life in reading skill provide the students useful information about nature, social problems, state of using energ, etc Morever, with the images and real situations which express social phenomena honestly, bad weather phenomena, environment pollution, the damage of historical place etc, the students are aware of the responsibility for protecting the environment and using energy more economically Consequently, students learn life experiences and adjust their behavior In order to this, teachers must have appropriate teaching methods and techniques to stimulate students' creative thinking and making their lectures more attractive Subjects On the subject, I study and apply some positive teaching techniques to teach some integrated reading topics for the class 11C3 and 12B2 Applied these techniques, I helped students participate actively in the lectures and limit the Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet students’ laziness in groupworks Students actively explore the knowledge of the topics through pictures, newspapers and the internet, and so on From that, they will be more interested in learning and comprehending more knowlegde which is not mentioned in the pasage Methods To make my solutions effectively, I have used some following methods Firstly, I always get advices from colleagues through co-working Secondly, I usually study, create and use new method in teaching English, such as using images, pictures, posters, real objects to give cues and motivate students’ creative thoughts Next, I often give students the tasks that they must prepare at home Students have to finish their tasks by looking for the information, pictures, films or document in individual or groups Finally, when I teach integrated topics, I often give them questions and use some positve teaching techniques, such as mind map, table-cloth or piece technique, etc Students have to finish the tasks in a short time and present their ideas before others II CONTENT Theoretical background Normaly, the teacher is considered to suceed in teaching reading skill when she/he helped students understand and get much information about the topic and all the tasks that follow Teaching units related to culture, historical, geographical knowlegde, etc is a hard work because it requires the teacher has both tecnique knowledge and understanding about the places, people, events or social problems from the lesson However, the teacher must not explain so much that the lesson excursive, he/she only uses the apropriate teaching technique to guide and encourage students’ learning activities It promote learning and creativity of students Besides, the learning activities are organized, guided by teachers, the learners will not be in passive The learners have to self-help, actively participate in the process of searching and discovering the knowledge The learners must use knowledge to solve problems in realities So they themselves will absorb learning content and develop the creative capacity The positive method of teaching and learning gives the students an excitement, joy in learning which is suitable with the students’ active characteristics Realities before applying the research Thach Thanh High School is a newly established school, located in the mountainous areas of Thanh Hoa province We have many dificulties when we carry out the renovation of teaching method Most students are the Muong ethnicity minority Their awareness and thought are not as quick as the students of the same age in other areas Morever, English is a specific subject which is uneasy for students in mountainous areas, so our teaching Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet and learning English have many difficulties They participate in the lesson passively For example, when I taught the reading topic "Sources of energy", "Life in the future", I noticed that most of my students engaged in lectures passively Through learning, I found that they were interested in these topics but their background knowledge on these topics was very limited Besides, the information about these topics are limited, and the given exercises are familiar, such as "true or false", "answer the questions" Therefore, they not attract the student's thought very much Realised that, I myself always make many questions such as “ how to stimulate students' thought,” how to attract the students in learning”, “ how to make students gain the most knowledge about the topic and take out life experiences for themselves”, I have studied and applied some positive techniques to teaching some intergrated reading topics Solutions: There are many positive teaching techniques such as: questioning techniques, mind map, piecework and KWL techniques To apply these techniques effectively, the teacher must not only follow the specific processes of each technique but also it requires creative flexibility and pedagogic method In the research, I will present the steps to implement some positive teaching techniques and give some illustrative examples 3.1 Questioning technique: In teaching, the teacher’s question system plays an important role, which is one of the determinants to the quality of the students’ knowledge Instead of presenting a lecture by reading and copying, the teacher have to prepare a question system It motivates students think, discover knowledge, develop lesson contents, and encourage them to brainstorm and discuss the content of the lesson logically Furthermore, the question system is used to orient and guide students discover the essence of things, the rules of phenomena, stimulate the exploration, the curiosity, etc During the conversation, the teacher is an organizer, students are person exploring, and creating new discoveries actively Besides, students gain the joy, excitement of explorers and confidence when they find that they have contributed their opinions in the teacher’s conclusions As a result, students both gain new knowledge and learn the way to get it There are two types of questions: closed and opened question Closed question is a form that has right / wrong or yes / no answer This type of question is often used primarily in assessing knowledge or the level of memorization information in the conclussion or at the end of the lead-in to examine students' understanding of tasks and directions Opened question is a question that can have multiple answers Using opened questions, the teachers will not only stimulate students’ thought, provide students many opportunities to share personal ideas but also help students memorize and test their knowledge Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Example 1: Unit 8: Life in the future (English 12 textbook) When teaching the lead-in, if the teacher uses the closed-question in the textbook "Do you think the life will be better in the future?" , students only give answer "Yes, I " or " No, I don’t" With this closed -question form, teachers neither develop the students’ thought nor orient the knowledge they need to acquire in the unit Instead, I use the opened form: "What you think about life in the future?" and ask them to discuss in groups Students’ discussion was very exciting They gave many differrent answers, such as “Many people will be unemployed in the future”, “The people are better looked after”, “Robots help people the hard work/ Robots will most of the work in home”, “The environment is more polluted”, etc 3.2 Table-cloth technique Table-cloth technique is a collaborative learning organization that combines personal and group works The goal of this technique is to stimulate, promote students’ engagement actively, enhance individual independence and responsibility, and develop interaction between students For students, they will learn how to approach with different strategies and solutions through this technique Students will be trained in thinking, deciding, and solving problems Furthermore,it helps to raise the relationship between students, enhance collaboration, communication, share experiences and respect each other To apply this technique effectively, the teacher must follow its sequence of steps First, the teacher gives students a question or task , and divides the students into small groups Each group will be delivered an A0 paper divided into smaller parts: the middle and the surrounding parts corresponding to the number of members of the group as shown: Each member of the group sits in a position corresponding parts Next, the teacher asks students work in individual to work for a few minutes, concentrate their thoughts on answering questions or tasks and write their own opinions on suitable part of the A0 paper Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet After, the students have to discuss in groups to give mutual agreement and write them in the center of the A0-cloth-table With disagreements, individuals have the right to reserve and keep in the surronding of the tablecloth Finally, the teacher calls the representatives of the groups to show their ideas in front of the class Other groups can give comments and feedbacks, the teacher concludes Example 2: Unit 8: Life in the future (English textbook 12) I applied the clothe-table technique to teaching lead-in when I taught this topic for the students in class 12B2 Firstly, I divided the students into four groups and gave each group an A0 paper with the opened- question: “ What you think about the life in the future?” Secondly, I asked all the members of the groups work independently in eight minutes They have to give the answers and write them down on personal part on A0 paper After, I asked them to discuss and give mutual agreement and write them in the middle of the paper Finally, I asked the representative of each group to show their answers Other groups can give comments and feedbacks As a result, my students worked actively and give many answers such as "people are better taken care of", "robots will most of work", " the air is worse polluted”,etc With these answers, they have partly oriented the contents of the reading passage that they are about to explore Below is the picture of the table-clothe of the group In conclusion, table-cloth technique is a simple teaching one that is easy to implement It can be organized in all subjects, lessons, or grades like group learning However, it can overcome the limitations of group learning such as: some passive members not participate in group’s activities It requires all members to work individually, think and write their own opinions before Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet group’s discussion Since then, all members can participate in discussing and have opportunity to share personal ideas and experiences, self-assess, and adjust their own perceptions 3.3 Grafting technique: Grafting technique is a technique that organizes jointly learning activities between individuals and groups It is used to solve a complex tasks It not only stimulates the students’ active participation in groupwork but also enhances the role of the individuals in the collaboration To use this technique effectively, teachers and students must follow two stages illustrated in the following diagram: Stage 1: Intensive group Students are divided into small groups of to students Each group is assigned a task to in-depth study a different content of learning The groups have to research and discussion Each member must master the content of the assignment and be able to present the content to other groups Each student becomes an in- depth field investigator in the stage Stage 2: Pieces group After completing the task at the stage 1, students from different intensive groups join together into new groups called group of pieces At this time, each of the students in “intensive group” became "pieces" in the "pieces group" Students must assemble the array of knowledge into a "master picture" Then the teacher asks the students from the "intensive groups" in the "pieces group" represent their content Finally, the teacher gives groups of pieces a new task This task has synthesized, generalized the whole content that was learned from the intensive group Example 3: Unit 10: Sources of energy (English 11 textbook) During the 2015-2016 school year, I applied the piece technique to teach the integrated topic "Sources of energy" for the students in class 11C3 This topic is very interesting, linked to reality of using sources of energy now However, the amount of information on these sources of energy is limited Students are Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet only drawn to these sources of energy without understanding how to make the electricity from these sources as well as their advantages and disadvantages So, they have not been aware of their role and responsibility in protecting and using energy sources economically To help them this, I applied the grafting technique to help students study more about them after reading the text Steps are done: Step 1: I divide the students into groups and give each group a task Students have to prepare this task at home: Group 1: Study and find out the information, pictures about the form of the fossil fuel, its advantage(s) and disadvantage(s), and how to make the electricity from this energy Group 2: Study about nuclear energy Group 3: Study about solar energy Group 4: Study about wind energy Group 5: Study about water energy Group 6: Study about geothermal heat Step 2: After reading the passage, I ask students to form the “intensive group” All the members have to study, discuss to get so much information about the task that each of them can show it influently before other groups Next, I ask the students to perform the "pieces group" stage Groups must acquire information, documents, and pictures of sources of energy to demonstrate what content will be presented in the "pieces group" Then I formed a new group: "piece group" Each group must have a full set of members of the assigned "intensive teams" Members of the "piece groups" presented their content in turn about each sources of energy in front of the other members Finally, I assign new tasks to groups: “ Briefly describe the sources of energy mentioned in the paragraph? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each energy source? Each “piece group” apoints a member to represent their ideas by using pictures, films, etc to illustrate After applying this technique I realized that my students were more excite about the topic They also made me surprise at the ability to gather information and materials, design slides to represent their task As a result, students have a full look on the sources of energy Here is the product of each group Group 1: Study and find out the information, pictures about the form of the fossil fuel, its advantage(s) and disadvantage(s), how to make the electricity from this energy Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Group 2: Study about nuclear energy Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Group 3: Study about solar enery Group 4: Study about wind energy Thach Thanh High School Page Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Group 5: Study about water energy Group 6: Study about geothermal heat 3.4 Mindmap tecnique Mindmap is a thinking organization tool, the easiest way to transmit information into the brain and then send them out At the same time, it is a very creative and effective means of recording the information Thach Thanh High School Page 10 Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Mindmap technique is a form of note that can use colors and images to expand, deepen the ideas Teachers who use the mind map in teaching will bring high efficiency, develop logical thought, and analytical capability Students will understand the lesson more, remember longer rather than memorize or learn by heart When applying the mind map technique to teaching, the teacher these following steps: Firstly, the teacher gives a picture or a keyword presented an idea, a definition or a main content in the centre of the map Secondly, the picture or a keyword in the centre will be developed and linked to pictures or keyword called the sub-topic level by major branches After, the main branches will be continued to branch out to images, sub-topics level related to the main branch Finally, branching will be continued The related definitions, content and problem are interconnected to create a "master picture" describing the theme in the centre clearly and completely There are many ways to organize the topic in the form of mind maps: hierarchical diagrams, network diagrams, sequence diagrams, relational diagrams The students can choose a suitable way to make the mindmap with personal point of view and experience Example 4: Unit 7: World population (English textbook 11) After teaching the intergrated topic: “ World population”, to help students consolidate and expand the knowledge about theworld's population, I asked students to draw a mindmap Step 1: I divided the students into groups and gave the question: “What word is used to describe the current of world population? The students gave the answer: “ Overpopulation” It is the keyword in the centre of the diagram Step 2: I gave student a task: “ Draw a map to indicate the causes, concequences of the overpopulation and the measures to limit the population growth.” The word : “causes, consequences, measure” are the keyword level 1: Thach Thanh High School Page 11 Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Students worked in groups They must remind the knowledge they’ ve learnt to complete the mindmap 3.5 “ KWL” technique (K: know; W: want to know; L: learned ) “ KWL” tecnique is a kind of diagram which presents the link of the knowlegde they’ve known to the knowledge they want to know and the knowledge they’ve learnt in the lesson When teachers apply this technique to teaching, it will help students identify learning motivation and tasks, self-assess learning outcomes by determing existing fully understand, experiences and knowledge related to the lesson, the need for new knowledge and assessment their own result after the lesson So, the teacher can assess the result of the lecture through the students’ selfessessment Therefore, The teacher can adjust his/her teaching appropriately This technique is often used in the introduction of the lesson by individuals or groups Firstly, the teacher gives individual or group a “KWL” handout like this: Next, the teacher asks students to write what they have known about the lesson/topic in the column 1; what they want to know in the column After, the teacher continues his/her teaching to provide the students the full knowlegde about the lesson Thach Thanh High School Page 12 Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Finally, at the end of the lesson, the teacher asks students to write down what they’ve learnt in the column Example 5: Unit 16: The wonders of the world (Enlish textbook 11) This topic is very difficult because it contains so many new words Morever, most of my students have few knowledge about the Great Pyramid The passage is about some major information about the Great Pyramid, such as when it was built, what the ancient Egypt built the pyramid for, its contruction, etc To help the students identify the content of the passage and reasearch more information about the pyramid which is not mentioned in the text, I applied the “KWL” technique in the while-you-read Firstly, after reading the passage about the Great pyramid, I gave each of them a handout like this: Secondly, I gave students two questions: 1.What you know about the Great Pyramid of Giza? What you want to know more about the Great Pyramid? and asked students write down the answers on the “K” and “W” column This is the picture of Miss Thuy’s handout: Thach Thanh High School Page 13 Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet After, I gathered the students’ handouts and gave feedback to the information in “K” column With the questions in “W” column, I used pictures and integrated knowledge to give answers: With the question “ Who is Pharaoh Khufu?” I showed the picture: and gave explaination: “ He is a Pharaoh in Egypt in the acient time This is one of the 10 greatest Pharaohs of Egypt Khufu was the 2nd pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty in the Old Kingdom His reign over Egypt spanned more than twenty three years from 2589 BC through 2566 BC It is believed Khufu became Pharaoh while in his twentieth.” With the second question: “ How special about the blocks of stone used for building the Great Pyramid?”, I showed the picture: and explained “ The structue consisted of appropriately millions blocks of stones, each weighing about 2.5 tons There has been much debate concerning the techniques used by ancient Egyptians to cut and dress rough-quarried granite boulders or blocks for use in masonry No remnants of the actual drilling equipment or saws have survived, leaving Egyptologists to make guesses about drilling and sawing Thach Thanh High School Page 14 Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet techniques on the basis of tomb-scenes, or the many marks left on surviving granite items These blocks of stone were placed so tightly that no small sharp knife can insert between them because they put together based on proportion of PI number The base of the great pyramid could be equal to b=c/π/(sqrt(2)-1) which is in calculations somewhere close to 230.380924 meters using: b=base, c=lightspeed (current best estimate) = 299792458 m/s, π=3.141592653589793238462643383279 (some “signigficant” number of decimals:-),sqrt(2)-1=0.414213562 which also happens to be a nice number since 1/(sqrt(2)-1)=2.414213562 (which is exactly higher) As a result the Pyramids live today With the third question: “ What is the structure of the Great Pyramid?, I showed the picture: and explained: “The true pyramid exists only in Egypt, though the term has also been applied to similar structures in other countries Egyptian pyramids are square in plan and their triangular sides, which directly face the points of the compass, slope upwards at approximately a 50° angle from the ground and meet at an apex The prototype for the pyramid are the mastabas of the Old Kingdom (2680— 2565 ), which are rectangular in plan and have only two sloping sides After these came the step-pyramid at Sakkara, built c.2620 , which soon evolved into the straight-sided true pyramid This monumental structure was developed around the IV dynasty and continued to be the favored form for royal burial through the VI dynasty.” With the fourth question: “ How did the ancient Egyptians build the Pyramid? I explained: “There are two theories of building the Great Pyramid The first theory involves the construction of a straight or spiral ramp that was raised as the construction proceeded.” Thach Thanh High School Page 15 Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet “ For the construction of the pyramids, ancient Egyptians had to transport heavy blocks of stone and large statues across the desert.” “They placed the heavy objects on a sledge that workers pulled over the sand “The second theory suggested that the blocks were lifted and placed using thousands of huge weight arms like this: With the last question: “ Why was the Great Pyramid located on the west of the Nile river?” I showed the map: Thach Thanh High School Page 16 Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet and gave explaination: “All Pyramids in Egypt were built on the right of the Nile River where the Sun sets, related to the world of the deaths Egyptians believed that when they die, their souls will go to heaven to meet “Ra”( their God).” After, I asked students some exercises In the consolidation part, I asked students complete the “L” column with the information they’ve learnt in the lesson Students can this task at home and hand in for the teacher on the next period And this is the picture of Miss Thuy’s handout- a good student in the class 11C3: Effectiveness of the research To consolidate the lesson I had students done a 15 minutes test Then I collected the papers, gave marks and feedback From the results of applying my new solutions in teaching, I realize that most students understand and well Besides, most of them are interested in learning from manipulating interdisciplinary subjects which provides the students a wide range of information related to the lesson Below is the statistics I have collected: from the school year 2015-2016, 2016-2017 that my experiences have been done in two classes 11C3, 12B2 at Thach Thanh high school Thach Thanh High School Page 17 Research Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Class Number of students Contents 11C3 excited 12 27.9% 35 81.4% unexcited 31 72.1% 18.6% excited 15 32.6% 38 82.6% unexcited 31 67,4% 17.4% 12B2 43 46 Before appying/ After applying/ Rate (%) Rate (%) III conclusion General conclusion In a lesson of teaching reading skill, the teacher not only help students understand the meaning of the passage but also manipulate flexibly techniques which are agreeable with the instant unit to motivate students’s interest in learning and create activities to make them practise better However, English is by far different from Vietnamese because it is too difficult to learn and remember Reading in Vietnamese is much easier as students not get difficulty in understanding the passage Moreover, many students have a limitation of words, some are lazy in practising at home or preparing the lesson before going to school that prevent them from having good results To overcome these limitations, teachers must apply appropriate teaching techniques to become both an organiser and a guide, and encourage students to actively participate in the learning process After applying these tecniques to teach four intergrated reading topics: “ Life in the future”, “Sources of energy”, “World population” and “ The wonders of the world”, I found that the techniques I have mentioned in the research are useful and can be widely applied in many lessons and grades Recommendation * For my office and colleagues I would like to offer my office to invest more refererence books, hold English clubs so that students have chances to practise and exchange knowledge more often I also take this hope that my colleagues will always cooperate and help me in the process of teaching English at school * For Department of Education and Training I am looking for being paid attention to our teaching in a mountainous school as mine that we feel interested in our career Being a young teacher, I know my research could be limited I would like to receive good comments from colleagues and sponsors so that my given solution become more perfect and effective Thach Thanh High School Page 18 Research Approved by Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet I speak with full conviction that this is the experience I it myself, not copying from the others Written by Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Ngo Van Giang Sincerely thank! Thach Thanh, May 25th2017 Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet Thach Thanh High School Page 19 ... applied some positive techniques to teaching some intergrated reading topics Solutions: There are many positive teaching techniques such as: questioning techniques, mind map, piecework and KWL techniques. .. the teacher asks students to write what they have known about the lesson/topic in the column 1; what they want to know in the column After, the teacher continues his/her teaching to provide the. .. related to the lesson, the need for new knowledge and assessment their own result after the lesson So, the teacher can assess the result of the lecture through the students’ selfessessment Therefore,