Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using 4 criteria instructed by british council

Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council I INTRODUCTION REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC In the integration era, English has become an indispensable part of life and work as well Therefore, the importance of studying English is undeniable There are various reasons why a student needs to study this language However, over many researched practices, most students want to learn English to be able to speak, not to write Nevertheless, learning writing skill is an important aspect of learning English and improving writing skills of high school students is extremely crucial because being able to write a paragraph effectively provides them with high score in writing section which is one of the most important parts in high school graduation examination Therefore, teaching them how to write a good paragraph accelerates their English studies for the exam, and they are more likely to get higher scores as well Besides, some examinations taken by education and training departments for English talented students also require some extents of being fluent in writing Having good writing skills helps those pupils to be able to write effectively in a specific time limit Another important reason is that in the far future when young students become potential candidates in job market, employers definitely need them be able to write an English document such as sending an email to foreign partners Such highly competitive markets force graduates to have high level of English competence to communicate efficiently with foreigners whilst working The last but not least is that improving writing skills is very important for students who want to study aboard According to IIE (International Institute education) in 2015, the number of Vietnamese student coming to the United States increased significantly to about 20,000 students, a rise of about 12% in comparison with the last year, 2014 [1].This means, the demand to study abroad in such educationally potential markets such as United States or United Kingdom However, such English native countries like those have accepted IELTs results which demonstrates the learners’ English ability I have been teaching English at Bim Son High School for more than ten years Through teaching experience, I realize that many students face up with a number of challenging factors despite full guiding steps for writing, and most of them are unable to write a paragraph effectively They have responded in a negative attitude towards writing, and many of them have said to their teacher that they would bypass the skills in almost examinations As a teacher of English, I have been trying hard to an effective way to tackle it For the apparent reasons expressed above, I decided to choose ‘Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council’ as a topic for my study in high school program Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council II CONTENT PART 1: THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 What are meant by the criteria of British Council British Council has extremely clear instruction by which a piece of writing can be evaluated correctly Particularly, British Council has been the organization to hold IELTS test which represents for International English Language Test System [2] Those criteria are ‘Task Achievement’; ‘Coherence and Cohesion’; ‘Lexical Resource’; ‘Grammatical Range and Accuracy’ There are over 40 countries around the world where IELTS test is received an official approval as an English standard for people who want to study or work in English native countries These criteria are used to evaluate IELTS test takers’ performances in two tasks In the writing task 2, candidates need to write at least 250 words about a specific topic which might be an argumentative or discursive Although in the real IELTS test, all candidates must write a 250-word essay, the criteria used to evaluate the quality of an essay are definitely the same to that for a paragraph Using these criteria to apply for Vietnamese English national high school graduation examination not only helps teacher to assess exam takers’ competency but also supports pupils to study more effectively According to British Council, all criteria are meant as follow: [3]  Task Achievement: this is the criterion used to evaluate how well a writing respond to the task This criterion also includes how sufficient the length of a writing to the requirement Generally speaking, the length of a writing task in IELTS for an essay is at least 250 words Therefore, the score of a candidate will increase if she or he: + Pay attention to answer ALL issues in the task question + Write about the issues rather than just the general topic + Answer the question with relevant main points + Plan the supporting points so they not go off the topic + Write over 250 words for an essay  Coherence and Cohesion: This criterion contains of two smaller criteria which are coherence and cohesion The coherence evaluates how the paragraph links with the topic That means all the sentences and words are required to be topic-related However, cohesion needs a candidate to write sentences and ideas very logically By following the cohesion criterion, all sentences need to be connected together and be supportive each other to make high understanding for readers Therefore, the score for this criterion will increase if a candidate could: Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council + Have appropriate structure: In IELTS tests, whole essay should be explained into to small paragraph However, applying this into the Vietnamese national high school graduation examination means that a paragraph should be presented appropriately by starting a topic sentence to fold the whole meaning of paragraph about what the candidate is going to write This sentence should be followed by supporting sentences, and the paragraphs should end with a concluding sentence + Organizing ideas logically: for readers to easily understand + Use a range of linking words to connect sentences ideas + Avoid errors in linking words  Lexical Resource: This is criterion used to assess the ability of using wide range of vocabulary Candidate is required to not only use less common and topicrelated words (at academic and formal level) in correct contexts but also use many synonyms to demonstrate the paraphrasing ability Therefore, the score for this criterion will increase if a candidate could: + Pay attention to collocations (which verb matches which nouns) + Paraphrase carefully to avoid errors + Use a range of words appropriate for the topic + Spell words correctly and avoid making errors + Avoid using informal and spoken language  Grammatical Range and Accuracy: the ability of use various complex grammar and structures of candidates The more complicated but accurate structure a candidate can use, the higher score she or he can get Therefore, the score for this criterion will increase if a candidate could: + Use different grammar tenses (conditionals, perfect tenses, passive voice, past tenses, future tenses, etc.) + Pay attention to word order in the sentences correctly + Use a range of sentence structures + Use the correct punctuation (full stops and commas) + Avoid errors in grammar (errors will lower the score – see the descriptor below) + Correct using of articles, plural nouns, uncountable nouns and so on + Using complex sentences such as ‘while’, ‘because’, ‘although’, and so on Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council IELTS band writing descriptors [4] Band Task Achievement - fully addresses all parts of the task Coherence and Cohesion Grammatical Range and accuracy - skillfully manages paragraphing - uses a wide range of vocabulary with very natural and sophisticated control of lexical features; rare minor errors occur only as ‘slips’ - uses a wide range of structures with full flexibility and accuracy; rare minor errors occur only as ‘slips’ - sufficiently addresses all parts of the task - sequences information and ideas - uses a wide range of vocabulary - uses a wide range of structures - presents a well-developed response to the question with relevant, extended and supported ideas - logically - fluently and flexibly to convey precise meanings - the majority of sentences are error-free - skillfully uses uncommon lexical items but there may be occasional inaccuracies in word choice and collocation - makes only very occasional errors or inappropriateness - presents a fully developed position in answer to the question with relevant, fully extended and well supported ideas - uses cohesion in such a way that it attracts no attention Lexical Resource - manages all aspects of cohesion well - uses paragraphing sufficiently and appropriately - produces rare errors in spelling and/or word formation - addresses all parts of the task - presents a clear position throughout the response Trịnh Kim Đào - logically organizes information and ideas; there is clear progression - uses a sufficient range of vocabulary to allow some flexibility and precision Bim Son High School - uses a variety of complex structures - produces frequent Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council - presents, extends and supports main ideas, but there may be a tendency to over generalize and/or supporting ideas may lack focus throughout - uses a range of cohesive devices appropriately although there may be some under-/over-use - presents a clear central topic within each paragraph - addresses all parts of the task although some parts may be more fully covered than others - presents a relevant position although the conclusions may become unclear or repetitive - presents relevant main ideas but some may be inadequately developed/unclear - arranges information and ideas coherently and there is a clear overall progression - uses cohesive devices effectively, but cohesion within and/or between sentences may be faulty or mechanical - uses less common lexical items with some awareness of style and collocation error-free sentences - uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task - uses a mix of simple and complex sentence forms - has good control of grammar and punctuation - may produce occasional but may make a few errors in word choice, spelling errors and/or word formation - attempts to use less common vocabulary but with some inaccuracy - makes some errors in spelling and/or word formation, but they not impede communication - makes some errors in grammar and punctuation but they rarely reduce communication - may not always use referencing clearly or appropriately - uses paragraphing, but not always logically - addresses the task only partially; the format may be Trịnh Kim Đào - presents information - uses a limited range of with some organization but vocabulary, but this is Bim Son High School - uses only a limited range of structures Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council inappropriate in places - expresses a position but the development is not always clear and there may be no conclusions drawn - presents some main ideas but these are limited and not sufficiently developed; there may be irrelevant detail there may be a lack of overall progression minimally adequate for the task - makes inadequate, inaccurate or over use of cohesive devices - may make noticeable errors in spelling and/or word formation that may cause some difficulty for the reader - may be repetitive because of lack of referencing and substitution - may not write in paragraphs, or paragraphing may be inadequate - responds to the task only in a minimal way or the answer is tangential; the format may be inappropriate - presents a position but this is unclear - presents information and ideas but these are not arranged coherently and there is no clear progression in the response - uses some basic cohesive devices but these - presents some main ideas but may be inaccurate or these are difficult to identify and may be repetitive, irrelevant or not repetitive well supported - may not write in paragraphs or their use Trịnh Kim Đào - uses only basic vocabulary which may be used repetitively or which may be inappropriate for the task - has limited control of word formation and/or spelling; errors may cause strain for the reader Bim Son High School attempts complex sentences but these tend to be less accurate than simple sentences - may make frequent grammatical errors and punctuation may be faulty; errors can cause some difficulty for the reader - uses only a very limited range of structures with only rare use of subordinate clauses - some structures are accurate but errors predominate, and punctuation is often faulty Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council may be confusing Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council 1.2 Factual situation Statistics have proved that the students in high school program not have high level of English ability In the 2015 national high school graduation examination, the result for English subject was shocked when the number of pupils who had the mark below the average was significantly high, shown in following graph [5] Number of pupils 80000 4151 68931 70000 60000 50000 50509 47 518 40000 31415 30000 21584 20000 157 44 12228 11131 10000 165 11 0.5 883 1.5 2.5 3.5 4.5 5.5 10000 8218 67 13 5646 47 30 3630 257 988 6.5 7.5 8.5 59 9.5 10 Column1 Figure English marks in the 2015 National high school graduation exam Source: The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) 2015 The most important factual situation that hastens me to choose this topic very urgently is that the English writing ability of pupils in Bim Son high school is extremely limited In the school year 2018-2019 I was in charge of classes: 12A1, 12A5, 11B1, 11B3 in academic year 2018-2019 Because writing a paragraph is not included in the paper of GCSE examination , most students not like writing skills It can be seen through the results of the surveys I conducted about the student’s attitude toward the writing lesson before the study: School year 2017-2018 Classes Number students 11B1 37 11B5 40 School year 2018-2019 of Number of Number of Number of students like students dislike students hate 16 13 18 17 Classes of Number of Number of Number of students like students dislike students hate 16 19 10 19 10 12A1 12A5 Number students 37 39 Through teaching experience, I have realized that most of them are unable to write a paragraph effectively The reason for this bad situation is that they have not Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council been coached to write effectively by their teachers, and they find it absolutely difficult to organize their writing They lack of general knowledge, which leads to the inability to figure out the ideas for specific topic They lack of both grammar and vocabulary to convey their thoughts into paragraphs Therefore, each writing lesson of teachers and pupils are usually stressful because it is inefficiently taught when pupils just feel very disappointed about their writing skills, and they seem to be indifferent to writing skills PART 2: SOLUTION It is very important to understand that in order to improve writing skills, both teachers and pupils have to cooperate closely and continuously On the scale of this research, I have been taking more than months constantly coaching learners in two classes: 11B1, 11B5 (2018) and 12A1, 12A5 (2019) These classes are the ones whose students particularly focus on English, so writing class activities seem to be carried out quite propitiously I have been implementing a close process in which pupils are trained continuously and intensively, especially when the national high school graduation examination is coming soon I found that the traditional approaches usually teaching students to write a sentence and then build up to a finished paragraph However, in this study, I have a quite reverse process in which I initially teach students by giving them a sample to follow and then I analyze it in details very clearly so that they are able to understand thoroughly the structure and the criteria required of an excellent paragraph As a result, after at least four repeated process, especially being stressed on analyzing in detail the given sample, students will gradually find it easier and more enthusiastic to write a paragraph The process includes five main steps as follow: Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council - Step 1: The step is giving students a writing sample which is written by the coach as a very good example to answer the writing task In this step, I always give them some minutes to read the sample given - Step 2: This step provides them with clear analysis on the paragraph Followed by the four criteria, pupils are all coached to understand each criterion and showed why and how the sample meets all the criteria to get a high score By doing this, they are able to understand immediately and constantly absorb these important factors - Step 3: After being educated to understand the writing sample given the teacher, all students are required to re-write the task so that they show how many percent that they could understand the teacher’s analysis This step helps them to memorize what have they been taught to write, and they are more likely to gradually imitate the way to write an academic writing with high competence - Step 4: although they are given a clear analysis on the sample paragraph, their writing might contain various mistakes, including spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes, and styling mistakes However, with the step of correction, all these kinds of mistakes are corrected just-in-time precisely Therefore, pupils would definitely improve their writing ability - Step 5: After all pupils’ paragraphs are corrected, they are given more consulting samples from the teachers so that they could have rich and prestigious writing materials They may keep these materials as an important resource to read after to absorb the grammar and vocabulary as well as they way to organize a paragraph Accordingly, there are various class activities which can be used to support writing skills, especially writing an excellent paragraph as the initiatives through teaching experience as follow: 2.1 Activity 1: Analysis excellent paragraph samples given by the teacher with the four criteria [6] The aim of this activity is to show students the way how to analyze a good paragraph Therefore, all students in the class are given a topic to write a paragraph so that the teacher will be able to investigate their improvement process accompanied by schoolbook Orde r Lesson’s name Home life Cultural diversity Trịnh Kim Đào Activities given – write a paragraph about The importance of family in personal life? Why we have to protect cultural heritages? Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council Ways of socializing The importance of social relationship to a person’s success? School education system The importance of studying English? Higher education Is a bachelor’s degree indispensable in one’s life? Future jobs -What are the qualities does a good employee have? - Which job would you like to in the future? Economic reforms What are the elements of a high quality life? Life in the future What is the ideal world in the future in your point of view? Deserts 10 Endangered species -What are the reasons for environmental pollution? 11 Books The importance of reading books in a person’s life? 12 Water sports What are the benefits of doing sports? 13 The 22nd Sea Games Describe a popular festival/ a sports event in your country? 14 International Organization An international organization that you would like to work for? 15 Women in society The ways to ensure equal right of women in modern society? 16 The Association of What should be done by the government and each Southeast Asian individual to build a strong association? Nations What are the factors that caused desert? -What measures should be taken to protect endangered species? The following six samples based on the six themes which are designed in accordance with the topics of sixteen units in the textbook of English 12 are given as good examples to analyzing a high score paragraph so that students are coached to build their own ones which can meet the marking criteria used by ministry of education and training SAMPLE : THEME 1: YOU AND ME Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council Within 140 words write a paragraph about the importance of social relationships a person’s success Here is sample written by the class teacher as a very good example: There is no doubt that in the world which has become more and more integrated, social relationships make such a considerable contribution to our achievements To begin with, when surrounded by many relationships, it is likely that we can lead a more active and meaningful life To illustrate, not only does it help us escape from isolation, loneliness and relieve stress through hanging out, chatting and talking with friends, but it brings to us opportunities to take part in social activities as well Each and everyone of us, therefore, can realize the meaning of life and feel more energetic and sociable to keep moving forward Secondly, it is also social relationships that boost our career prospects For example, if we desire to be successful start-uppers, we will absolutely need a lot of financial help, support and even cooperation At that time, having good relationships will be a distinct advantage that we can attract more investors, consumers and markets Last but not least, it is extremely helpful to make friends with those who are talented and experienced with great ambitions They can transfer their passion to us and motivate us believe in ourselves and be confident to pursue our dreams What’s more, we also will be given such amazing advice and stories about their career path To sum up, social relationships are obviously advantageous, so all of us should develop and make them long-lasting to gain massive success” The following is the detail analysis of the strength of the topic to show why it is very effective and high-score paragraph:  Task response: the task is about the importance of social relationships and the paragraph shows three clear reasons to demonstrate this However, the ideas are followed by supporting sentences so that readers can easily understand what the writer wants to talk about All these main points are relevant to the topic and are not off-topic  Coherence and Cohesion: All the sentences in the paragraph are presented very clearly from topic sentence to concluding sentence.Three linking word phrases are used effectively to express three ideas in order, which are ‘To begin with’; ‘Secondly’; ‘Last but not least’ Also, these ideas are followed by other linking words in supporting sentences For example, the phrase ‘To illustrate’ is used to explain more on the first idea, while ‘For example’ and ‘What’s more’ are used to clear the second and the third ideas  Lexical resource: The vocabulary written in the paragraph is evaluated by two factors which are ‘academically used’ (less common words) and ‘correctly used’ (in the sentences with true collocations or contexts) There are various words and phrases that are topic-related such as ‘integrated’; ‘active and meaningful life’; Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council ‘social activities’; ‘energetic and sociable’; ‘support and even cooperation’; ‘massive success’, and so on Moreover, the paragraph also contains many academic and less common words in good collocations like ‘considerable contribution’; ‘achievement’; ‘escape from isolation, loneliness and relieve stress’; ‘boost our career prospects’; ‘successful start-uppers’; ‘talented and experienced with great ambitions’; ‘pursue our dreams’ and so on  Grammatical range: Various kinds of grammar, structures, and sentences are used in the paragraph as following: + Complex sentences: when, because, but, so, etc., +Relative clause: that, which + Conditional sentence: ‘if we desire to be successful start-uppers, we will absolutely need a lot of financial help, support and even cooperation’ + Model verb: will, can, should + Passive voice: ‘when SURROUNDED by many relationships’ + Gerund as a noun: ‘HAVING good relationships will be a distinct advantage that we can attract more investors, consumers and markets’ SAMPLE 2: THEME 2: COMMUNITY Write a paragraph (about 140 words) about the ideal world in the future in your point of view Here is sample written by the class teacher as a very good example: “My ideal world in the future would be far better than it is today We will be living in a much cleaner environment with fresher air, healthier food and less pollution Especially, endangered species will be protected and be no longer under threat of extinction Besides, with the development of technology, robots will most of the work in factories and even at home It will cook delicious meals, clean the house, laundry, washing up and childcare Another important feature of a fantastic world is that it would be a peaceful one when people live in a society of no wars, no conflicts, or terrorism, and human being will be living in harmony where each country has their own independence Lastly, my main wish of the marvelous world is to witness people less violent, less materialistic and more warm-hearted than they are now In conclusion, our society needs doing many things to make our world worth living and more wonderful” The following is the detail analysis of the strength of the topic to show why it is very effective and high-score paragraph:  Task response: whole paragraph fully answered and responded to the topic which is about an ideal world in the future There are four main reasons are wellsupported to answer the task in an appropriate way Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council  Coherence and cohesion: in order to make the paragraph more effective and easy to follow, the teacher did list out the main points of a wonderful world By using linking words such as ‘it will be’; ‘besides’; ‘moreover’; ‘Another’ important feature of a fantastic world is that, the follow of the paragraph and the way of explaining ideas are very easy to understand The readers, especially the 45 students coached, are more likely to be able to absorb the effective writing style The paragraph also consists of topic sentence, controlling sentences to expand ideas and concluding sentence to fold the task correctly  Vocabulary: All the vocabulary used are very well-linked with the topic given such as ‘cleaner environment’; ‘fresher air’; ‘endangered species’; ‘under the threat of extinction’; ‘the development of technology’; ‘conflicts, or terrorism’; ‘independence’, ‘violent, less materialistic’ or so on Furthermore, it uses various synonyms to demonstrate the word choice ability and wide range of lexical vocabulary For example, instead of repeating the word ‘ideal’, teacher used other synonyms such as ‘wonderful’; ‘fantastic’; ‘marvelous’, ‘worth living’ There are also some less common words being used like ‘harmony’; ‘conflict’; ‘terrorism’; ‘marvelous’; ‘less materialistic’; ‘violent’; ‘kind-hearted’ and ‘worth living’  Grammatical range and accuracy: Because the task is to talk about an ideal world in the future, teacher tends to use future tenses to indicate the future time Besides, comparative sentences, model verb sentences; passive voice are used correctly SAMPLE : THEME 3: NATURE Write a paragraph about the reasons for environmental pollution (about 140 words) Here is sample written by the class teacher as a very good example: “There are various reasons so as to the fact that our living environment is getting dramatically contaminated One of the most fundamental reasons is that there is a number of factories and industrial zones built, releasing a huge amount of waste and toxic emissions into the air As a result, the level of harmful substances in the atmosphere in such areas particularly increases Another reason worth mentioning is the lack of public awareness about protecting environment For instance, many scientific researchers have revealed that many tropical forests have been destroyed due to people’s beneficial activities As a consequence, the ecosystem is being considerably affected, and plants which contribute to climate control or reduce air temperature by blocking sunlight are on the verge of extinction Therefore, governments and individuals need to take prompt action to tackle the environmental contamination effectively.” The following is the detail analysis of the strength of the topic to show why it is very effective and high-score paragraph: Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council  Task response: The paragraph contains 139 words which is long enough, and it is presented in a appropriate way It also presents a fully developed position in answer to the question with relevant, fully extended and well supported ideas  Coherence and cohesion: All the ideas and sentences as well as words are very supportive to the topic, which means that it meets the requirement of coherence Furthermore, sentences are well connected by various linking words and phrases such as ‘One of the most fundamental reasons is that’; ‘as a result’; ‘another reason worth mentioning is that’; ‘as a consequence’ and so on All these linking words and phrases help the paragraph being explained very logically Topic sentence is also quoted in the beginning of the paragraph so that the readers could be able to understand what is going to be talked about next  Vocabulary: The paragraph consists of a wide range of vocabulary which is very topic-related and academic The words such as ‘dramatically contaminated’; ‘factories and industrial zones’; ‘harmful substances’; ‘public awareness’; ‘protecting environment’; ‘tropical forests’; ‘beneficial activities’; ‘ecosystem’; ‘climate control’; ‘on the verge of extinction’; ‘tackle environmental contamination’ are at very high academic level and less common words However, these words are also used in correct contexts efficiently Therefore, the score for this criterion is very high Besides, the writer strongly recognized to use various synonym words such as ‘polluted’ and ‘contaminated’; ‘fundamental’ and ‘worth mentioning’; ‘environment’ and ‘ecosystem’ or ‘atmosphere’ and so on  Grammatical range and accuracy: Most of the sentences used are complex sentences with high level of grammar and structure For example, passive voice, reduced relative clauses; or adverb phrases are appropriately used 2.2 Activity 2: Teaching students how to explain ideas for a topic [8] While writing a paragraph, it is extremely difficult to write a topic in a limited time effectively unless pupils know how to expand their ideas The activity of class will be giving students the way to think quickly and explain ideas effectively for a specific topic These ways are: - Let’s think about the reasons for any ideas: After getting a good idea, many pupils find it hard to explain it in more detail The answer is that they should think about the reason why the idea is For example, when given a topic about environmental pollution, they think about the reason of having too much factories built However, this is just an idea for the topic and they not know how to explain on that Therefore, they are guided to think about WHY it is? Why many factories can cause environmental pollution? These kinds of questions may push them to think quickly that because these factories release huge amount of toxic emmission into the air, or it release unrecycled waste in to the air As a results, pupils are able to write another sentence to explain the idea Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council - Let’s think about the examples to demonstrate for the idea: One of the most effective way to write a sentence after topic sentence or controlling idea is giving an example to support the writer’s view Students are taught to be able to give specific example for any ideas By doing this, they would understand the way to lengthen their explanation to appropriate amount of words, as well as meets all the requirements to aim high scores - Let’s think about the consequences of the problem By thinking about this, any ideas that come out might have some following consequences For example, when doing a topic about the reasons for environment pollution, if a student gets an idea that the reason for the problem is because of industrialization and modernisation, he or she will be taught to estimate the results or the consequences of this process Therefore, he or she could know how to write further by giving some effects of this process For instance, the students could write about the quality of people’s life or the dangerous diseases might be happened as the result of environmental pollution All the ways mentioned above not only help high school students to write quickly more sentences but also ensures their paragraph is well-linked Every small writing mistake can be figured out by the teachers and they, in turn, would be able to give reasonable advice for their pupils 2.3 Activity 3: Interactive discussions With the understanding that pupils’ writing skills has closed relationship with the firm background knowledge about different kinds of topics.The aim of this activity is to provide them with ideas and over view about the topic So, in the class, students are gradually given 16 topics along with 16 lessons in school textbook In each lesson, teacher gives a writing topic related to the lesson for students to think about and discuss By doing that they could absorb the knowledge about the field from other students and their teacher These discussed writing topics together with above other activities will provide them with ability to understand problems of life from which they would easily get ideas for any topics given in the national high school graduation examination By giving these topics to students to discuss, they are able to understand more and more likely to be familiar with topic while taking the test As a result, they would the test with more confidents 2.4 Activity 4: Cooperative writing [9] The aim of this activity is to improve the ability of using various grammar and structure of students Therefore, each group which contains 8-10 students will be given to write a story with a specific of requirement as follow: Order Trịnh Kim Đào Story/topic Vocabulary and Grammatical requirements Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council Describe a special person you met Past tenses; relative clause; using many adjectives to talk about a person’s characteristics Describe a place you want to visit Present simple tense; relative clause; linking words; adjectives to describe a place Describe an object you want to buy if you have money Conditional sentences; future tenses; complex sentences; topic-related vocabulary Describe a building that you know Present tenses; comparative sentences; simple sentences Describe a person you admire Model verbs; would; wish; conditional sentences Describe an event you want to join Sequencing vocabulary(firstly, secondly, and so on); because; due to; passive voice Describe an animal you like Relative clause (which, whose, that); not only/but also; although; while; prepositions (on, at, in) Describe a special gift someone gave you Past tenses; relative clause (who, whose, when) By giving the above topics of description, students are required to use wide range of vocabulary and bear grammatical issues in their mind effectively Besides, after working in groups, students are also required to give comments and feedback to other groups so that all of them could not only understand how to describe something but understand topic-related grammar and structure PART 3: RESULTS AND DICUSSION After being shown the four criteria to mark writing score, over the past two years teaching students how to use those effectively, there has been a significant change in the way that pupils write, and their scores marked by the teacher in the class tests improved dramatically The teacher evaluates their writing performances by comparing some aspects before and after students are guided to that Besides, based on the actual results in the writing tests which have been taken within Bim Son High school over the period of more than 80 pupils that I have been teaching One of the most noticeable results recorded is the percentage of pupils last year had score Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council - Task response: % 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 86 80 71 43 51 43 38 12 Off topic Ideas ability Before Word sufficience Supporting ideas After Figure Ability of finishing task response criterion Over the period of only about two months and a half coaching, students are able to deal with and understand the topic given Specifically, just only more than 10% of students are off-topic after being guided, in comparison with up to more than 40% of them used to be off-topic, a significant change of about 30% Statistics surveyed also reveals that the percentage of students who are able to write enough words, brainstorm to get ideas or explain them by supporting ideas increased dramatically to about 85%, 80% and 70% respectively - Coherence and cohesion: Figure Coherence and Cohesion analysis On this criterion, I have evaluated the improvement process of students through three other smaller criterion which are the ability of using linking words, the ability of explain ideas logically, and the ability of writing controlling phrases to link topic sentence with other sentences Overall, these skills are all significantly improved over the period of time However, while the abilities of using linking words and explaining coherently are the most dramatic changes, with the rise of about 40%, a smaller change was experienced in capability of using controlling phrases, just about 25% Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council - Lexical range vocabulary: Over more than months coaching, using academic vocabulary is the skill which experienced the lowest improvement from students They find it harder to remember vocabulary at high level than understand the way to explain ideas more logically Therefore, just about 15% students who have improve their ability of using high academic and less common words, as shown on the bar chart However, because they are taught to deal with the topic efficiently, they are significantly less likely to use off-topic words, which means that they use more effective and topicrelated words respectively All the figures are shown on the below bar chart: Figure Vocabulary improvement - Grammatical structure: Although there are a number of grammars and structures used to evaluate the pupils’ writing performances I take into account of six most important issues Generally, the ability of using various kinds of sentences have been improved considerably Accordingly, the most significant changes go on ability of using different sentences, tenses and passive voice, up to 68%, 72% and 80% respectively The ability of using conditional sentence and comparative sentence has also changed significantly to 87% and 73% correspondingly Trịnh Kim Đào Bim Son High School Teaching high school students to write a paragraph by using criteria instructed by British Council Ability of writing (%) 6.7 6.2 17.6 28.3 41.2