Drawing the 10th graders’ attention to writing with pre writing activeties at quang xuong 4 high school

TABLE OF CONTENTS A:INTRODUCTION I Rationale … II Research questions … III.Ojective of the study……………………………………………………… IV.Methods of the study .… V Scope of the study … VI Design of the study 3,4 VII Significance of the study ….4 B:DEVELOPMENT I.literature review and theoritial background 1.Prewriting…………………………………………………………………… 2.Identify the problems………………………………………………………….5 3.Previous researches on prewriting activities 5,6,7 Summary … II.Methodology 1.Brainstorming ……8 2.Clustering ……9 3.The journalists’question……………………………………………………10 4.Working from an outline …11 III.Effects of applying prewriting activities 12,13,14,15,16 C.CONCLUSION I.Summary of the main finding………………………………………………17 II Suggetions .…17 REFERENCES …18 A: INTRODUCTION I RATIONALE Together with our country’s integration English takes an extremely important role in every field,which requires the teachers of English in Vietnam education systems in general and high school as well to renovate the methods,techniques,skills to improve students’ability to speaking,listening and writing.We communicate with the foreingers in English so we have to listen to them and talk to them as well.Many people can listen and speak very well but when being asked to write a report,a description or something else in English they often feel confused and some even not know how to write as they want to express their thought.It is because they only focus on grammar,speaking and listening at school,many people are bored of writing lesson,some find it difficult to write so they pay little attention to writing.While teaching at Quang Xuong IV high school,a school near the sea where many students here come from poor families with little support from their family for learning,especially English I find students prefer doing grammartical exercises to listening,speaking and writing.They not like writing at all Thanks to the innovation of ways in teaching English, English lessons are taught with four skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing) in one unit Moreover, there exists three stages – Pre - while – post - teaching in one lesson This really helps students improve their skills beside the grammar exercises to pass the exams When teaching writing skill to the 10 th graders,The lessons having interesting pre-stage get students more than others which means to me thet pre-writing stages are very important in teaching writing and it also has significant effects on the students’writing performance.I have used some activities on teaching prewriting with the hope to draw students’attention to writing and they will be better and more confident while writing II RESEARCH QUESTIONS Do students pay much attention to the pre – writing activities in a writing lesson? How pre – writing activities affect the students’ writing performance? III OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY Finding the effective techniques in teaching pre-writing stage to be used in teaching writing at the 10th grade at Quang Xuong high school with the aim of making students be confident at writing as well as improve this skill IV METHODS OF THE STUDY The study is basically a qualitative research, which employs the following methods: 1.Collect students’opinions and the sesults of writing skill before using the activities for pre-teaching 2.Applying the activities in appointed teaching classes,observing the attention of students,giving writing task,getting the results,taking lesson and experiences V SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study was carried out in three English classes with 120 10 th grade students at Quang Xuong IV High School in Quang Loi The research focused on how pre – writing activities affect the students’ writing performances in writing lessons VI DESIGN OF THE STUDY The research consists of three main parts : Introduction, Development and Conclusion Part 1: Introduction presents the rationale, the research questions, the method of study, the research procedure, the scope of the study, the significance of the study and the design of the study Part 2: Development consists of part one “Literature Review and theoriatical background” and part two “Methodology” In part one, the theoretical background of action research are introduced with its definition, three reasons to use it, and ways to carry it The concepts of writing, approaches to teaching writing and some pre – lesson factors affecting students’ writing performance are also presented in this part What is more, the writing program for grade 10th students at Quang Xuong IV High School is described in this part, too Part two namely “Methodology” describes the procedure of this action research with the following main steps: defining the problem, observing class, conducting some techniques (brainstorming,clustering,the journalists’questions,working from an outline) and giving out conclusions from findings Part 3: Conclusion is the last part which offered a summary and suggestions for more effective writing activities and some limitations and suggestions for further studies VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Writing, one of the two productive skills, has always a significant position in language teaching Nevertheless, how to teach and learn writing effectively often poses great problems to both teachers and students For the teachers of English at high school, writing is considered a difficult skill to teach Some of them even ignore teaching writing skill and focus only on grammar excercises for the exams However, nothing is difficult if we, the teachers make decision to make it easier Hopefully , with a range of suggestions of how to make pre – writing activities effectively in writing lessons introduced in this research, it will be more motivating for the teachers to teach and make progress in teaching writing Therefore, their students will be interested in writing lessons B DEVELOPMENT I.LITERATURE REVIEW THEORITICAL BACKGROUND I Prewriting For most of us, getting started is often the hardest part of writing A blank page, begging to be filled with ink, can be intimidating, especially when our words come slowly or when our minds go blank Pre – writing is considered to be very important in teaching writing Pre – writing is the paper In addition, that Pre – writing is the first stage of the writing process and is also called the idea – generating stage which stretches back to include anything that you have ever done or have ever been that might have given you ideas to write about II.Identify the problems Nearly all 10th grader students in Quang Xuong IV high school can write a complete sentence without making error,they have habit of translating into English words by words from Vietnamese while writing so they often use wrong words or structures in written Engli The lack of vocabulary and structures make them hestitate writing,furthermore students tend to prefer doing grammartical exercises than writing III.Previous results of the study Topic for the writing task “Writing about people’s background-Unit 3,textbook 10 ” Time allowance: 10 minutes (3 minutes for warm – up and minutes for pre – writing activities) Class 10B Teachers’ activities Students’ activities For warm – up: Teacher pointed at the Some of textbook her said “It and asked students “What is this?” – curriculum “OK Today we are going to vitae” Comments No them activities effective is a given,student have little chance Some to get what a learn how to write about people’s background” said nothing, background is in some kept on an interesting way For pre – writing stage: personal talks and Teacher asked her students to no games,activites Task 1, and then she The class explained some cues given noisy because of they below the table the hot weather Teacher asked students to Most Task for the while – students did writing stage nothing and of only was for them to so easily bored and feel make the noise some of them listened to what the teacher said 10K For warm – up: Teacher showed a table of Students nothing to “Yes” have think one’s information copied in about, to discuss A4 paper and asked the and students “Can you see what challenge them nothing to you call this? Is this a curriculum vitae?” Students For pre – writing stage: seemed Teacher also asked students and nervous and to task in the textbook tried tired to finish and then she answered all the their task questions by herself if there was no reply from the students Teacher also asked students to task with no emphasis on what they had to to write about peopls’s background IV.SUMMARY The above results show that the pre-writing lacks effective activities and this situation needs improving,which asks the teachers of English in our school think it over to find something more effective to get students’attention to writing from the beginning of the lessons B: METHODOLOGY I BRAINSTORMING Brainstorming, also called listing, is a process of generating a lot of information within a short time by building on the association of previous terms you have mentioned Jot down all the possible terms that emerge from the general topic you are thinking about This procedure works especially well if you work in a team All team members can generate ideas, with one member acting as scribe Don't worry about editing or throwing out what might not be a good idea Simply write down a lot of possibilities Group the items that you have listed according to arrangements that make sense to you Give each group a label Now you have a topic with possible points of development Write a sentence about the label you have given the group of ideas Now you have a topic sentence or possibly a thesis statements II CLUSTERING Clustering is also called mind mapping or idea mapping It is a strategy that allows you to explore the relationships between ideas Put the subject in the center of a page Circle or underline it As you think of other ideas, link the new ideas to the central circle with lines As you think of ideas that relate to the new ideas, add to those in the same way The result will look like a web on your page Locate clusters of interest to you, and use the terms you attached to the key ideas as departure points for your paper Clustering is especially useful in determining the relationship between ideas You will be able to distinguish how the ideas fit together, especially where there is an abundance of ideas Clustering your ideas lets you see them visually in a different way, so that you can more readily understand possible directions your paper may take III.THE JOURNALISTS’QUESTIONS Journalists traditionally ask six questions when they are writing assignments, W's and H: Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?, How? You can use these questions to explore the topic you are writing about for an assignment A key to using the journalists' questions is to make them flexible enough to account for the specific details of your topic For instance, if your topic is the rise and fall of the Puget Sound tides and its effect on salmon spawning, you may have very little to say about Who? if your focus doesn't account for human involvement On the other hand, some topics may be heavy on the Who?, especially if human involvement is a crucial part of the topic Possible generic questions you can ask using the six journalists' questions follow: Who?: Who are the participants? Who is affected? Who are the primary actors? Who are the secondary actors? What?: What is the topic? What is the significance of the topic? What is the basic problem? What are the issues? Where?: Where does the activity take place? Where does the problem or issue have its source? At what place is the cause or effect of the problem most visible? When?: When is the issue most apparent? (past? present? future?) When did the issue or problem develop? What historical forces helped shape the problem or issue and at what point in time will the problem or issue culminate in a crisis? When is action needed to address the issue or problem? Why?: Why did the issue or problem arise? Why is it (your topic) an issue or problem at all? Why did the issue or problem develop in the way that it did? How?: How is the issue or problem significant? How can it be addressed? How does it affect the participants? How can the issue or problem be resolved? The journalists' questions are a powerful way to develop a great deal of information about a topic very quickly Learning to ask the appropriate questions about a topic takes practice, however At times during writing an assignment, you may wish to go back and ask the journalists' questions again to clarify important points tat may be getting lost in your planning and drafting 10 IV.WORKING FROM AN OUTLINE Once you have a general idea of what will go in the introduction, body, and conclusion of your paper, the next step can be to develop a more specific outline in which you break down what specifically will be in each paragraph of your essay Although some students find it more effective to create an outline based on a draft that they have already written, creating an outline ahead of time can help keep your writing more focused than inventing paragraphs as you go Either method can create great writing - you might want to experiment with both methods to see which one works best for you The purpose of an outline: An outline helps organize your ideas An outline presents your material in a logical form An outline shows the relationship between the ideas in your writing An outline constructs an ordered overview of your writing An outline defines boundaries and groups within your paper An important part of outlining your ideas is to remain consistent For example, if you are presenting information or ideas in a certain order at the beginning of your paper, don't switch that order half way through your paper This may confuse your reader Try to make it obvious to your readers why and how you are presenting your information so that they don't have to work at figuring out your organization as they are reading your paper Here is an example of an outline covering the topic of rain forest preservation OUTLINE 1.Introduction A Square miles B Location C Thesis: Because of the valuable characteristics rain forests possess, the rapid destruction of the forests is creating negative effects on the environment Characteristics of rain forests A Variety of species B Value of rain forests - Medicinal values - Food values The destruction of rain forests A Rate at which rain forests are destroyed B Reasons why rain forests are destroyed - Poverty - Large company projects Effects on environment A Extinction of species B Global warming 11 Reactions Conclusion A Restate thesis B Key role C Consequences III EFFECTS OF APPLYING PRE–WRITING ACTIVITIES Brief description of the results 1.1 Topic for writing essay: “Writing to give directions” 1.2 Time allowance: 10 minutes 1.3 Class: 10M Time/ Activity Teachers’ activities Warm – up Teacher comes (5’) the class, turn then turn left Teacher “What Students’ activities into -Answer right question “you Comments the have successful After asks students come into have I done? This period is considered to be the being consulted just class and gone right and left? by English teachers at QX IV High School as well as Discuss Teacher show a picture big groups to in conducting the give two try – out some words or lessons, teacher prepositions to has withdrawn descibe the some reasons for pictures the success of the -go up period -go down -go ahead Pre – activity 12 …… is interesting Visual aids are effective enough Students cooperate better because they are acquaintances New words and structures are taught logically There is no Pre – problem with writing -Pairwork activity 1.A:Can (10’) students’ you misunderstandin tell me the way toward teachers’ to ghep market instructions B:Go ahead 2.Could you tell me how to get Teacher to Soto asks students factory? to ask the way to B: Go straight -Ghep market ahead,turn -Soto factory right,it’s on the corner opposite a store shop -Teacher uses the - Discuss in picture shown at warm groups using 13 up(hide the letters ) the and introduces words,phrases somewords,phrases to give by teacher give directions to match the -Asks students to tell symbol give their words and 1.turn left asksother to give 2.turn right comment -Let 3.go ahead them check 4.go along themselves after show While – the letter hidden writing activity (20’) -Each group chose one place -Dive the class into to write groups -Write to - Students can discuss the in direction groups and choose according one place to write - give Teacher students the place asked chosen to make - Students write sentences basing on direction the suggestions in the very textbook mood with -Teach asks students content to write to in a good an outline suggested before writing the in the textbook Post – writing - Ask students to work - Students in pairs for peer the activity correction peer correction 14 (12’) - Teacher goes around -Show to check whether directions students can their their then correct give comment classmates’ on other groups writing If need her students help, the teacher will help them to correct the mistakes 5.Homewo rk (3’) - Give direction to - Write on the their own houses from notebook the school Bellows are some more comments about the improvement of the students in post – improvement stage: Pre – improvement Low 30% of the students did not write because Changes Post –improvement Students’ Higher motivation Most of students were eager to write they after the game because they said that said that the topic was boring Some they liked the game so much of them were forced to write basing on the suggestions in Task They wrote in a bad form of letter More Some students follow the in Task tried to Ss’ mistakes Mistakes suggestions on both expressions has improved a lot in the grammar Less on grammar and There still existed some but for the 15 textbook but theirs were and whole letter they were acceptable full of grammar expressions because both the teacher and her mistakes and words students need more time to perfect usages these mistakes Notes: This may take longer time to improve the situation but the teache should pay r much attention to this because it is the goal in teachin g skill a productive Less creative Some students in Ss’ the creativity More creative Ss’ creativity in writing is another class did not know what when hard work to attain and Ss will make to with their writings producing their writing creative when they are so they copy the whole a sample letter in the text writing book ignoring requirements of new motivated enough or they feel much interested in the writing topic In the the version post – improvement the students’ the writing performance has been writing tasks improved much PART 3: CONCLUSION I Summary of the main findings As evidenced from the previous parts, in the writing classes what the lessons lack is more effective pre – writing activities prepared by the teacher 16 It has also been revealed from the data analysis that I met manydifficulties when teaching writing lessons without these activities.I chose the way of changing my method and activities with the hope that the students would be more interested in the writing lessons.I used these techniques in other teachers’classes and got students’enthusiasm too II suggestions The study still has some limitations First of all, this study is very small – scale, which focuses on only the effects of pre – writing activities on the students’ writing performance so while – writing activities roles are not mentioned here Secondly, the area of the study is only restricted to classroom writing in the textbook published by MOET; thus, any application outside classroom context requires careful thoughts and consideration Finally, there were still some problems that this study is done in a short amount of time so this needs time to realize the improvement However, the teacher should pay much attention to this goal when teaching a productive skill like writing Hopefully that the above problems could be solved in other studies after this research in the near future LEADER’S CONFIRMATIONS ( XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ ) Thanh Hoa, May 26 th 2018 I strongly ensure this is my own work without copying from any other’s Writer Nguyen Thi Hien REFERENCES 1.English textbook 10 Byrne, D (1988) Teaching Writing Skills Longman Raimes,A (1993) Teachniques in Teaching Writing OUP 17 Richards,J.C and Platt, J.,H.(1992).Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics Longman Curtis,A.(1988) Action Research: What,How and Why In The Action Research Reader Deakin University Downs,M.(2000) Increasing student Motivation Teachers’ Edition 4: – 13 7.Leki,I.(1976).Academic Writing, Techniques and Tasks: ST.Martin Press, New York Raimes,A (1993) Teachniques in Teaching Writing OUP 18 19 ... effective techniques in teaching pre -writing stage to be used in teaching writing at the 10th grade at Quang Xuong high school with the aim of making students be confident at writing as well as improve... are the participants? Who is affected? Who are the primary actors? Who are the secondary actors? What?: What is the topic? What is the significance of the topic? What is the basic problem? What... write so they pay little attention to writing. While teaching at Quang Xuong IV high school, a school near the sea where many students here come from poor families with little support from their family