Some experiences on guiding grade 4 students to create poems as a technique to help developing english skill

THE TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTENT Introduction 1.1 Reason for choosing the topic 1.2 Aim of the study 1.3 The object of the study 1.4 Method of the study Development 2.1 Literature view 2.2 The reality of teaching and learning English in my school 2.3 Solution for the problem 2.4 What and how to choose to creat a poem? 2.5 Steps to creat a poem 2.6 Guiding students to present a poem 2.7 Some activities can be done using poems 2.8 The effects of the study Conclusion and suggestion References PAGE 2 2 3 5 9 14 15 16 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reason for choosing the topic These days, our country has been in the integration process and cooperation with many other countries and English is regarded as a global language in communication Therefore, we can see the importance of learning English For Vietnamese students, who are the future generation of the country, learning English becomes even more necessary than ever English is also mandatory graduation exam levels But in Vietnam teaching and learning English are still issues that cause headache education matters such as how to find a standard method of learning English to help children progress faster?, why many students who have learnt English for more than ten years even that after they left school, cannot use the English competently?, etc The educational system of Vietnam has taken English as a compulsory subject at school from primary school years English in primary schools is the subject that combines all the skills It is not too difficult in term of knowledge but for primary students, the concept of words, sentences, wording of the mother tongue is vague for them, so they find the concept of speech, pronunciation, writing, memorizing vocabulary of a foreign language too complex I have been a teacher of English for nine years and taken part in many workshops and courses on teaching English for kids I always try to find best ways to make my students interested in learning English and find it easier What are difficulties for kids in learning English? In my opinion, they are remembering words and structures and using them for communicating naturally Thanks for many techniques as “rub out and remember”, “what and where”, “matching” or using songs, chants, so on, kids can remember words and structures but how to use them to practice in a natural way and improve the speaking skill effectively? How to help them form and develop the comprehensive study skills? How to help children love, inculcate knowledge of foreign culture, grasp and absorb it most effectively? That is why the research into ways to help school students acquire the full, deep remembering English vocabulary and using it is quite necessary and important for primary students And I would like to introduce my experienced study that is “Some experiences on guiding grade students to create poems as a technique to improve the English skills” 1.2 Aim of the study The study is carried out to show the benefits of teaching kids how to use English words and structures to create/write and read simple poems to help them develop the English skills to gain communicative approach in teaching and learning English The rationale behind the package is that students will have ample opportunities to enrich their English learning experience and extend a range of language abilities through exploring poems Carefully designed and sequenced, the materials and activities in this package aim to: strengthen students’ skills of understanding and appreciating the themes, structures, features and language in a range of poem; help students to respond to and give expression to the imaginative ideas, moods and feelings expressed in poems and songs through written, oral and performance means and enable students to apply the knowledge and skills they have learned in their own creative production and critical appreciation of poems 1.3 The object of the study The grade students are the ones that have a certain number of English vocabularies, their ways of learning English are formed and they can make simple English conversations Vocabularies in English textbook are various so creating poems give them an opportunity to improve and develop English skills 1.4 Method of the study To obtain the effects of the mentioned aim, I have studied documents from the methodology course on techniques to teach kids English Then I read, analyzed and synthesized the textbook and reference books, made plans on what to basing on the grade students’ psychology and language ability DEVELOPMENT 2.1 Literature view 2.1.1 What is a poem? A poem is a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their beauty and sound and carefully arranged, often in short lines in rhyme Free verse is a modern form of poetry that does not follow any specific rhyme or metrical scheme, although it does not completely abandon the basic poetic precepts of heightened language and sonics Through poems, people can show their emotions, feelings, thoughts, looks, etc We may have misunderstanding between poems and chants A chant is the rhythmic speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of notes to highly complex musical structures, often including a great deal of repetition of musical subphrases And we often say “Sing chants” but “Read poems” Rhythm of a poem is slow and softly strengthened so it is easy to read Poetry is characterized by the following: - Lines - Syllables - Rhythm (and beat) - Rhyme - Images - Alliteration 2.1.2 Reasons why creatingEnglish poems should be used in taught and learnt There have been positive remarks by scholars who consider poetry an effective tool for multi-skill development in language learning According to Hess (2003), through its drama and emotional context, a good poem is suitable for a close “reading”, with much good language practice Hedge (2000) also believes poems as authentic materials can be used to develop especially the receptive skill of reading Another claim is that reproduction of poetry – memorizing, rewriting, reporting and translating – can exercise the productive skill of “writing”, which is not an easy task to teach (AlberMorgan Sheila; Hessler, & Konrad, 2007) When considered in terms of the skill of “speaking”, as the themes of poetry (e.g love, death, nature, beliefs, despair etc.) are universal among all human beings (Maley & Duff, 1989), and because each person’s perception is different, poems can initiate a fund of interactive discussion and create the atmosphere for a genuine exchange of ideas Besides, poetry can also be a very good way to help children understand the “phonics of English” and work with rhyming words (Collins, 2008) Along with the skills development, the memorability feature of a poem can support the natural ability to unconsciously absorb language, which enables the learner to “retrieve grammatical and lexical information” when needed (Ainy, 2008) Most of Vietnamese people think that creating poems is very difficult because it is considered as a style of art that requires creation and literature aesthetic values In some cases, that is not completely true Creating simple poems is very entertaining to deal with while students constantly work on all skills simultaneously, even though they are not conscious about it sometimes Poems’ structure makes them easy to read while its rhyme makes them extremely memorable On top of that poems provoke people to express their personal opinion which is great for working on speaking In many countries where English is used as the second language, poetry plays an important role in teaching four basic language skills like reading, writing, listening and speaking Poems are authentic texts This is a great motivator Learning becomes stimulating and fun Poems present a wide range of learning opportunities Kids can learn the four skills, practice specific language structures, pronunciation and grammar Reading poems loud can make significant gains in students’ oral reading fluency When writing/ creating poems, kids have interesting opportunities to express themselves, students can explore their imagination and ideas when writing poems, and nurture their creativity Students develop confidence in sharing ideas Through listening to/ creating/ reading poems, students can improve their language and skills 2.2 The reality of teaching and learning English in my school The school where I am teaching is in a town People’s lives here are quite good so most of my students’ families have good conditions of living The parents really care of their children’s studies in common and, especially, their English learning because they now understand that English plays a very important role in studying and career More than fifty percent of the students in my school are excellent and good They like English very much Many of them like learning English as well They can remember many new words They can memorize model or forms of sentences They can the tasks of the lessons in the textbooks However, I have realized that my students have passive style of learning Their memorized words and sentences are not often used so they will not be able to promote their language skills During my periods of teaching English I noticed that my students had many difficulties in speaking and writing skills They found it was hard to express their ideas And one more problem is that there are not many creative activities signed for students in the textbook and at school In this school year, we are going to hold English clubs for all the students There will games, song and chant performance or many other interesting activities This is a chance for them to play to learn and show their ability of English skills A servey has been done for my 64 grade students I gave them some Yes/ No questions about poems and here is the result 64 grade students Questions Yes Have you ever known about English poems? Have you ever read any English poems? Have you ever make any poems in Vietnamese or English? Do you think that making and reading English poems can help you to improve your level of English in terms of creativity, use of 15 Percent No Percent 64 100 64 100 64 100 23,4% 49 76,6% vocabulary and pronunciation? The result showed that all the students had no concepts of knowing or making any poems And some of them thought poems was able to help them in learning English 2.3 Solution to the problem The reason why I suggest creating poems is because poems are very entertaining to deal with while students constantly work on all skills simultaneously, even though they are not conscious about it sometimes Poems’ structure makes them easy to read while its rhyme makes them extremely memorable On top of that poems provoke people to express their personal opinion which is great for working on speaking When create poems? - Warm up/ Ice- breaking - While-task - Post-task 2.4 What and how to choose to create a poem? When selecting the literary texts to be used in language classes, the language teacher should take into account needs, motivation, interests, cultural background and language level of the students Choosing the topic relevant to the real-life experiences, emotions, or dreams of the learner is of great importance Before starting with an activity the teacher should explain clearly the process that is to be followed, solving any possible doubts that students may have In terms of reasoning methods, the deductive and the inductive are to be used That is, the teacher would go over the general concepts, moving on to the specific ones or the other way around, depending on the activity It is well known that learning a language is an active process Therefore, it is highly important that students practice what they learn as the more they practice, better their overall level of English will become For that reason the strategies and techniques through which this didactic unit is to be carried out are the active participation and the group work Even though it is not stated in the activities, the teacher could ask the students to record themselves and to try to identify areas they could improve It is a great way of detecting their own mistakes We must think that the purpose of this didactic proposal is not to work on poetry in depth but to enhance language learning For that reason, theoretical explanation about poetry should be simplified and reduced to a minimum On the contrary, students’ reaction would not be very positive, and maintaining an interactive atmosphere would be a challenge Choose themes or topics that kids have learnt or are learning Poems with different structures help to ensure the students’ comprehension and motivation 2.5 Steps to create a poem: Set the topic and type of the poem The teacher reads the original poem Have students to repeat the poem to pick up with the lyric and then ask them about: - A description of the theme of the poem or song - Language that they have learned from it (e.g vocabulary, metaphors, similes, expressions) Body language, intonation and voice are tools that they should use in order to keep the audience interested in what they have to say The students will be asked to carefully watch, listen to and pay attention to gestures, rise in intonation and voice changes After that the students will have to rise hands and share their observations and thoughts If they not participate much, the teacher can start commenting on the poem so that the students can start participating After discussing, the teacher can ask them if they have ever attended a presentation, a talk, etc and to tell their classmates why it was boring or interesting and how the presenter/ speaker achieved it Elicit to help students draw the list of the vocabulary and structure dealing with the topic and the form of the poem The idea is that students explore vocabulary and use it creatively while they have some fun Let student work in pairs or groups to help each other to create and practice reading the poem During the writing process the teacher goes around and helps the students if necessary • These are some following types of simple poems for kids to create: Cinquain Poems Cinq is the French words for five A cinquain is a short, five-line poem which follows the following format 1st line - The title (Noun) 2nd line – Describe the title (two adjectives) 3rd line – Express actions (V_ings) 4th line – A feeling or thought (four words/ a phrase) 5th line – A synonyms for the title or a word close in meaning to it An example of Cinquain Poems that we made for the unit 14 - Tiếng Anh Mother Short, pretty Cooking and cleaning Loving family always Mummy Acrostics Acrostic poem is a poem where certain letters in each line spells out a word or phrase Typically, the first letters of a line are used to spell the message; but, they can appear anywhere - The name of the person, object, place, etc is written vertically down the left hand side of page - Each letter is capitalized and becomes the first letter of the word beginning each line or in any place of the line - Each line may comprise a word a phrase or a thought that is continued on to the next line Acrostics require writers to write in a positive way An example of Acrostics: Teacher Talented Easy-going Able Caring Humorous Energetic Reasonable Name Poems: A Name Poem is a good way to teach children to focus the influence that people around them have 1st line – A line about the person 2nd line – Who looks… 3rd line – Who loves… 4th line – Who wants… 5th line – Who fears… 6th line – Who would like to… … My students used it to talk about a person’s job in the Unit 12- Tiếng Anh Farmer Who looks happy Who works so hard Who loves his family Who would like some chicken Emotion/ Sense poems The writer writes about their feelings, using some or all of the five senses (taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing) Students can create a poem about their favorite thing such as a color, a day of the week, a month of the year or a person, etc An example of Sense poems: The blue color Blue looks like a sky Blue sounds like a police car Blue tastes like swimming pool water Blue smells like new jeans Blue feels like ice Or: In September I see…… I hear… I touch… I smell… I taste… I love September Here is the poems was made for the Unit - Tiếng Anh In February I see flowers I hear laughters I touch new clothes I taste Banh Chung I love February Rhyming Poems Rhyming poems are poems that feature rhyming words at the end of certain verses Unlike free verse poetry, rhyming poems must contain words that sound alike This type of poem may be a little complex for students because their vocabulary amount is limited so we should have them create short poems Example: I love my daddy He is so sporty Or another example for the Unit Tiếng Anh This is a good day Let’s go out to play In the month of May 2.6 Guiding students to present a poem - The presenter of each pair of group comes in front of the class to talk and describe their idea of the topic - The new poems are performed in group(one member – one line) or in individual dealing with the rhythm of the original one The teacher should encourage students to show gestures, rise in intonation and voice changes to make the poem exciting - The others and the teacher listen and give comments - If there is time left the teacher can ask the students which poem they like the most and why Voting for the best poem is also an option The best poem will be solemnly displayed as a famous work 2.7 Some activities can be done using poems: Here are some activities that can be used for the English club They are created as games for teams so that students are given opportunities to practice and consolidate vocabulary and grammar - Matching - Gap-fill - Role play - Poem-build - Rearrange the lines The following is the lesson plan for Unit in the textbook Tieng Anh where creating poems is used as a productive activity at the end of the lesson when all the skills have been done The aim of the activity is to ensure students remember the vocabularies of the Lesson and 2, know how to use it and give them a chance for further practice 10 LESSON PLAN Unit 4: When’s your birthday? Lesson 2: Part 4,5,6 I Overview: Aims Give students a chance to practice English skills and revise the vocabularies of the two lessons 2.Objectives: By the end of the lesson SS will be able to a listening task and write about someone’s birthday Language focus: 3.1 Vocabulary: words for months of the year and dates of the month 3.2 Sentence patterns: Aids: - Students’ Textbook teacher’s book - CD player, disc, Colorful chalks, A4 papers II Procedure Teacher’s and students’ activities Target language Revsion: (5 minutes) - Teacher calls some pairs of students to ask and answer about their birthday in front of - When’s your birthday? the class - It’s on the fifth of March - Teacher gives comments and rewards New lesson: 2.1 Part 4: Listen and number (8 minutes) * Key: a , b , c , d - Teacher runs through the pictures, explains what SS are going to - Teacher asks students to read aloud the date of birthday in each picture in English - Teacher plays the disc twice - Students listen and number the pictures 11 - Teacher has students to give answers - Teacher gives comments and - Teacher plays disc again and lets students check their answers 2.2 Part 5: Look and write (5 minutes) - Teacher lets students look at the picture and read the information - Teacher tells pupils that they are going to write the answers to the questions, using the picture cues - Have them read the questions about Tony’s, Mai’s and Phong’s birthdays fi rst Then tell them to look at the pictures to find the dates of the children’s birthdays Ask them to write the words for the dates (e.g the fourth of February) Check understanding - Set a time limit for pupils to the task independently Go around offering help, if necessary - Get them to swap their answers before checking as a class - Teacher checks their answers and gives the key 2.3 Part 6: Let’s chant (7 minutes) - Teacher tells pupils that they are going to say the chant Follow the procedure in Teaching the unit components in Introduction - Teacher has them read the chant and check comprehension - Teacher plays the recording more than once, if necessary, for pupils to choral and individual repetition Show them how to chant and actions - Teacher puts them into groups of four Gets pairs or groups to sit opposite of each other and practice chanting and doing actions Go around offer help, if necessary - Teacher calls two groups of pupils to the front of the class to chant and actions: one group chants the first verse of the lyrics Key: on the fourth of February on the fifth of March on the twenty-third of Jun Months of the year January, February, March Now it’s time to start April, May and June Sing a happy tune July, August, September Let’s play together October, November and December Remember, remember, remember! 12 and the other chants the second verse The rest of the class claps along to the rhythm 2.4 Productive activity: Creating poems (12 minutes) - Teacher: Now we are going to have a game called “Who is the best poet?” - Teacher gives the topic: “We will create poems about months of the year.” - Teacher gives the model poem: “And now you look at my poem I love February because it’s my birthday month And the following is my poem about February - Teacher has pupils analyze the poem so that they become familiar with it The poem: February The second month of the year Warm and fine I love February The month of my birthday (+ The first line is the name of the month + The second line tells its sequence in the year + The third line is about the weather and character that students may think of + The fourth line is about the feelings of pupils + The fifth line tells us it’s someone’s birthday month) - Teacher asks pupils to read the poem after the teacher so that they can become abcd familiar with the poem - Teacher lets pupils work in groups of four, gives each group an A4 paper and ask them to discuss and decide which month they are going to write about based on the model poem - Pupils write the poems and decorate their paper if they like - Teacher goes around and helps the students if necessary - Teacher sets a time limit for pupils to the task - Teacher asks groups to stick their poems on the board even if they haven’t been finished yet - Teacher asks for any volunteer of groups to perform their poem - If there is time, teacher lets students to give comments on other’s poem and vote 13 for the poem they like most - Teacher gives comments and rewards the winner Consolidation and homewok (2 minutes) - Teacher have students remind what they have learnt in the lesson - Homework: Teacher asks each student to create a poem on his/her own and it will be sticked on the walls as an art work displayed At the end of the sessions the students were asked to fill in a short anonymous questionnaire, consisting of five short questions The purpose of the questionnaire was to get feedback from students’ personal opinion towards guiding students to create poems as an English teaching tool I also wanted to prove that one does not have to necessarily like poetry in order to enjoy such activities The questions and the results are listed below: 64 grade students Questions: Do you like poetry? Did you enjoy the activities we just did? Yes 48% 92% No 52% 8% 89% 11% Would you like to a similar activity again? Do you think that these kind of activities can help you to improve your level of English in 100% 0% terms of cre/ativity, use of vocabulary and pronunciation As it can be seen from the results, most of the students not like poetry However, they still enjoyed what we did and in my opinion, they had lots of fun while learning new vocabulary and improving their pronunciation Of course there were some students that were not very enthusiastic and did not quite enjoy what they had to but we are talking about only 19% in total 2.8 The effects of the study After some times of presenting and guiding my students creating poems, I have seen that these kind of activities can help them to improve their level of English in terms of creativity, use of vocabulary and pronunciation They 14 can actively use new English words and structures And these are some detailed effects - Students’ oral and writing skills are improved - Students’ communicative skills are improved E.g face-to-face conversations – I believe it is fundamental that students can interact with other people in English without feeling uncomfortable - Pronunciation is improved - Having a good pronunciation is very important as it gives the speaker confidence and he/she can be understood better by others - Creativity is developed – It is important that students can express themselves in a different way, using a variety of vocabulary Therefore, poetry is great for that purpose as it allows students to play with it - Motivating students and to develop their self-confidence – It is important that a teacher motivates his/her students regularly This can be done by teaching them in a different way, providing them with different exercises, etc in this case introducing poetry to them A good teacher has to give students the opportunity to use the target language as much as possible The more they read, write and speak in English the more they will learn As a consequence they will feel more confident and they will not feel so afraid of starting a conversation in English with an English speaker - Arousing students’ interest towards poetry and literature in general – The completing of this objective suggest students’ reading poetry or literature in English on their own which is a great achievement That means that they will become intrinsically motivated - Promoting participation – It is crucial that students participate Most of them not because they feel shy and insecure speaking in English The teacher has to create an atmosphere where students participate and are not afraid of making mistakes That is the only way for them to receive feedback and improve their level of English CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION From all of my above ideas, we can see poems are a wonderful way of developing the students' general skills as well as improving their pronunciations, stress and intonation 15 Poetry has numerous uses and benefits in the English language-learning classroom Besides adding to the range and variety of uses of English, poetry provides cultural insights and forms a basis of discussion Poems are often thought-provoking and help teachers to break away from routine exercises; they are often humorous and add a motivational buzz to classroom activity Poetry also provides good practice in developing correct pronunciation and intonation Rhythms and rhyming patterns not only develop technical language skills; they add fun and vigour to the process! The teacher of modern English usage has to be selective otherwise there is the danger that students will focus on archaic or literary forms that are not relevant for typical modern English in general or business contexts 'Poetic licence' is an important concept in the use of English but needs to be used at the right time and in the right place For students’ English developing, I hope that facilities in schools are concerned and applied timely And some encouraging policies should be given to support English teachers so that we can study, study more to find out methods to develop English teaching I’m really looking forward to receiving sincerely contributive ideas on my experience idea Tôi xin cam đoan SKKN viết, khơng chép nội dung người khác Tôi xin chân thành cám ơn! Thọ Xuân, ngày 22 tháng năm 2017 XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ Hiệu trưởng Đỗ Thị Phương Người viết Lê Thị Thảo References Phuong phap day Tieng Anh cho tre em danh cho giao vien Tieng anh bac tieu hoc – Truong Dai hoc Ngoai ngu – Dai hoc Quoc gia Ha Noi.- 2011 Literature in the Language Classroom, Collie & Slater, 1987 www onestopenglish.com 16 www Channel 14 com/learning www british council.org/team English – poems Hedge, T (2000) Teaching and Learning in the language Classroom Oxford: Oxford University Press 17 ... questionnaire was to get feedback from students personal opinion towards guiding students to create poems as an English teaching tool I also wanted to prove that one does not have to necessarily... what they have to say The students will be asked to carefully watch, listen to and pay attention to gestures, rise in intonation and voice changes After that the students will have to rise hands... Vietnam teaching and learning English are still issues that cause headache education matters such as how to find a standard method of learning English to help children progress faster?, why many students