Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI Đơn vị : Trường THPT NGÔ QUYỀN _ Mã số: ………………… SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Five-minute Activities to Activate Students' Schemata in Reading Người thực hiện: BÙI PHÚ XUÂN Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu: Quản lý giáo dục Phương pháp dạy học môn: Tiếng Anh Lĩnh vực khác: Có đính kèm: Mô hình Đĩa CD (DVD) Phim ảnh Năm học: 2015-2016 *** Hiện vật khác Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC I THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN Họ tên: BÙI PHÚ XUÂN Ngày tháng năm sinh : 02 / 09 / 1976 Nam/Nữ: Nam Địa chỉ: 103/71 Đường 30/4 Phường Trung Dũng Thành Phố Biên Hòa Tỉnh Đồng Nai Điện thoại: Cơ quan: 061.3829029 Fax: Nhà riêng: 061.3819495 E-mail: bphuxuan2205@yahoo.com Chức vụ: Thư ký HĐ Nhiệm vụ giao: Thư ký HĐ, chủ nhiệm lớp, giảng dạy môn tiếng Anh Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT NGÔ QUYỀN II TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO - Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Thạc Sỹ - Năm nhận bằng: 2007 - Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Giảng Dạy Tiếng Anh III KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC: - Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm: Giảng dạy môn Tiếng Anh - Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 17 năm - Các sáng kiến kinh nghiệm có năm gần đây: + Pre-Listening activities + Strategies for Developing Reading Skills Skimming and Scanning + Arousing Students’ Interest in Reading + Using Interactive Tasks to Arouse High School Students’ Interest in Learning Speaking + Using Communicative Tasks or Activities to Promote High School Students' Grammatical Competence Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan TOPIC: Five-minute activities to activate students' schemata in reading I INTRODUCTION: L earning English is considered to be very essential in our modern society nowadays English is one of the core subjects in all Vietnamese junior and senior high schools, colleges and universities However, classroom teaching is a demanding job and most Vietnamese teachers have to work with a class of forty five students or more and there is usually a wide variety of abilities in each class When teaching reading, the teachers always play the centred roles, the students sit passively and nothing What they is to listen to the teacher and then copy everything on the board into their notebooks At the end of the reading lesson students usually feel tired and bored, they find no pleasure in the act of reading Some of them just struggle with the text (e.g.: unknown words and complicated grammar rules) to find the answers to comprehension questions As English teachers, we should try our best to give the students as many opportunities as possible to take part in active activities in the classroom It is our own job to make the classroom a lively and communicative place How can we create such a classroom? My experience has taught me that five-minute activities can spark students’ curiosity and promote a comfortable atmosphere Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan We can use some of the activities or games at the beginning of the class to attract students’ attention and to engage them in the lesson Five-minute activities are believed to be an essential component to generate positive students’ attitudes toward learning reading They really help to arouse the students’ interest as well as attention in the lessons As a result the students will get more involved in the class and a better learning process will take place II RATIONALE OF THE STUDY A The importance of reading: Reading is one important way to improve your general language skills in English for the following reasons:  Reading helps you learn to think in English  Reading can enlarge your English vocabulary  Reading can help you improve your writing  Reading is a good way to find out about new ideas, facts, and experiences  Reading helps you raise your knowledge and general culture  Reading will also make you travel and use your imagination in ways you never imagined  Reading is a good way to transport yourself to the other side of the world or to a fantastic universe full of strange people As Doff (1988) comments that reading involves looking at sentences and words, recognizing them and understanding them – it is a process of making sense of written language Warming up activities can foster motivation and this is, in turn, an essential component when planning warming up activities According to Dornyei (2001), teachers need to try and actively generate positive students' attitudes toward learning He also claims that the key issue in generating interest is to widen the Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan student's appetite; that is, to arouse the students' curiosity and attention and to create an attractive image for the class so that they will get more involved with it and a better learning process will take place Allwright (1984) believes that we can design some activities to attract students to attract students' attention, to help them put aside distracting thoughts and to get them ready to focus individually and as groups on whatever activities that follow B The aim of the innovation:  Using Five-minute activities to activate students' schemata in reading C The participants of the study:  Tenth grade to twelfth grade students in Ngo Quyen High School were chosen to take part in the innovation D Timing:  The activities finish in about minutes of lesson time, but some can be even shorter and others can be lengthened E Content of the topic:  This contains some of the activities that teachers can use in class and I use the Units in “English books 10 & 12” as examples in my activities III PROCEDURE: Activity : Mind-mapping  We can use this activity in order to get the students’ attention to the content of the new lesson and at the same time give them a chance to review and enrich their vocabulary  Before beginning, the teacher takes a key word in the reading passage and asks the students to suggest all the words which associate with it Write each Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan suggestion on the board with a line joining it to the original word in a circle, so that you get a “sunray” effect Let’s take Unit 3: PEOPLE’S BACKGOUND (English 10) as an example:  Teacher writes down the word FAMOUS SCIENTIST on the board and has students brainstorm all the words they can think of: FAMOUS SCIENTISTS The word SCHOOL may produce something like the sketch below education discoveries degree Nobel Prize inventions FAMOUS SCIENTISTS research brilliant achievements ambitious Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan Activity 2: Collocation Let’s take Unit 6: FUTURE JOBS (English 12) as an example: - Have students work in groups of - Each group is given a set of word cards as follow: dressing SELF-CONFIDENT answer A smiling gesture responsibility - Prepare another set of cards (see below) and stick the cards one by one on the board - Get the groups to choose and stick the appropriate cards to the ones on the board to make meaningful phrases - Give one point to the first group who gives the correct answer - The group having the most points wins - Here are the cards to stick on the board: FACE NEATLY AND A NICE FORMALLY CLEAR AND HONEST Expected answers: - a nice gesture - dressing neatly and formally - a smiling face - clear and honest answer - sense of responsibility FEELING SENSE OF Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan - feeling self-confident Activity 3: Opposites  We can use this kind of activity to review the vocabularies of the previous lesson For example, before teaching Unit “Special Education” English 10, the teacher can use this activity to review the vocabularies of Unit “People’s Background”  The teacher writes some words on the board, has students work in pairs or groups of four to discuss and note down the opposites Then the teacher checks and supplies any words the students didn’t know  Examples : Ambitious  Unambitious Mature  Immature Humane  Inhumane Possible  Impossible Appropriate  Inappropriate Like  Dislike Perfectly  Imperfectly Quickly  Slowly Real  Unreal Careful  Careless  If by the end of the activity all the pairs of opposites have been written on the board, erase the original words you gave and see if the students can recall them from the ones remaining Or we can ask the students to make their own sentences using those words Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan Activity 4: Matching  We can use this kind of activity to introduce the new lesson as well as draw students’ attention on the theme of the unit Let’s take Unit 2: CULTURAL DIVERSITY (English 12) as an example:  The teacher has students work in groups of four, and asks them to match the picture of the weddings with the country it belongs to Each picture is typical of the wedding of a country or culture Indian wedding Thai wedding American wedding Vietnamese wedding Korean wedding Japanese wedding  The teacher invites some representatives of the groups to give their answers and explain them if possible in front of the class  Examples : Picture Picture Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan Picture Picture Picture Picture  Teachers gives students the answers - Indian wedding  Picture - Thai wedding  Picture - American wedding  Picture - Vietnamese wedding  Picture - Korean wedding  Picture - Japanese wedding  Picture Let’s take Unit 11: BOOKS (English 12) as another example: - The teacher has students work in groups of four and asks them to match the names of the authors in column A with their relevant works in column B - The first group to have correct answers is the winner Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan A B O Henry A War and Peace J K Rowling B The Old Man and the Sea Charles Dickens C Murder on the Orient Express Ernest Hemingway D Harry Potter Margaret Mitchell E The last leaf Leo Tolstoy F Oliver Twist To Hoai G Gone with the Wind Agatha Christie H Diary of a Cricket KEY: E G D A F H B C OR: in Unit 14: INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (English 12) - Divide the class into two groups A & B - Stick the symbols/logos of the international organizations to the board - Distribute the cards of the name of the International Organizations to the students: UNESCO, FIFA, WWF, UN, UNICEF, WHO - Call out the symbols in any order and the representatives of each group should run to the board and stick the names under the symbols - The group with more correct answers will be the winner - Give more information about the organization and introduce the new lesson Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan KEY WWF UNESCO UN UNICEF WHO FIFA Activity 5: Surveying  This activity aims to give the students a chance to interact with each other talking about their tastes before studying the new lesson  The teacher writes about five or six names of items or topics in the same field on the board for example colours, songs, films, singers, television programmes or school subjects etc Identify each by a letter : A , B, C, D etc  Example: Before teaching Unit “School Talks” English 10, we might give: A Sports and games B Entertainment C Health problems D Hobbies E Holidays F Weather G Films H Work and study Ngo Quyen High School  Bui Phu Xuan Each student writes down the letters in order of preference: If FILMS is his/her favourite then he/she will write G at the top of the list Those who finish early can compare and discuss their choices with their neighbours  When the students have finished, we can hold a vote to see which choices were the most popular If we have time, discuss different tastes, and see if there is a general consensus on favourites After that we can tell the students the most common topics that students often talk about when they meet their friends Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan IV FINDINGS: Questionnaire The purpose of this survey is to find out about the students’ achievements in reading classes, students’ feelings and attitudes to the reading Question: How far you agree with the following statements? strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree Statements My reading skills improve a lot thanks 77,5% 15% 7,5% to this reading class My reading class is very enjoyable 62,5% 17,5% 12,5% 7,5% and interesting 3 I feel interested in completing the 70% 5% 15% 10% tasks with my partners I feel very interested in the lesson 57,5% 27,5% 10% I like reading more if I have free time after class 62,5% 22,5% 10% 5% 5% Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan V CONCLUSION: All the activities mentioned above aim at making students concentrate on their reading lessons as much as possible, helping them have some initial ideas of the lesson they are learning; and the most important thing that I would like to gain from these activities is to make my students hold interest in their lessons In carrying out this research, I strongly believe that students’ interest in the lessons, particularly reading lessons is of great importance in the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language My research project hopefully proves that interesting and meaningful activities at the beginning of a lesson will make a decision on the success of the lesson in which there is a requirement or encouragement of student individual roles in the class The success of the abovementioned activities also reminds students to take their responsibility for their English learning, their co-operative learning; and they must think that their teacher of English is not a source of knowledge for them to go to school to get that knowledge NGƯỜI THỰC HIỆN Bùi Phú Xuân _ Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan REFERENCES _ Allwright, R (1984) The importance of interaction in classroom language learning Applied Linguistics, 5(2), 156-171 Doff, A 1988 Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers Cambridge University Press Dornyei, Z (2001) Motivational strategies in the English classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press English Book 10 Education Publishing House English Book 12 Education Publishing House [...]... FINDINGS: Questionnaire The purpose of this survey is to find out about the students achievements in reading classes, students feelings and attitudes to the reading Question: How far do you agree with the following statements? 1 strongly disagree 2 disagree 3 neutral 4 agree 5 strongly agree Statements 1 2 3 4 1 My reading skills improve a lot thanks 77,5% 15% 7,5% to this reading class 2 My reading. .. possible, helping them have some initial ideas of the lesson they are learning; and the most important thing that I would like to gain from these activities is to make my students hold interest in their lessons In carrying out this research, I strongly believe that students interest in the lessons, particularly reading lessons is of great importance in the teaching and learning of English as a foreign... proves that interesting and meaningful activities at the beginning of a lesson will make a decision on the success of the lesson in which there is a requirement or encouragement of student individual roles in the class The success of the abovementioned activities also reminds students to take their responsibility for their English learning, their co-operative learning; and they must think that their... and interesting 3 3 I feel interested in completing the 70% 5% 15% 10% tasks with my partners 4 I feel very interested in the lesson 57,5% 27,5% 10% 5 I like reading more if I have free time after class 62,5% 22,5% 10% 5 5% 5% Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan V CONCLUSION: All the activities mentioned above aim at making students concentrate on their reading lessons as much as possible, helping them... organization and introduce the new lesson Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan KEY 1 WWF 2 UNESCO 3 UN 4 UNICEF 5 WHO 6 FIFA 5 Activity 5: Surveying  This activity aims to give the students a chance to interact with each other talking about their tastes before studying the new lesson  The teacher writes about five or six names of items or topics in the same... and Peace 2 J K Rowling B The Old Man and the Sea 3 Charles Dickens C Murder on the Orient Express 4 Ernest Hemingway D Harry Potter 5 Margaret Mitchell E The last leaf 6 Leo Tolstoy F Oliver Twist 7 To Hoai G Gone with the Wind 8 Agatha Christie H Diary of a Cricket KEY: 1 E 5 G 2 D 6 A 3 F 7 H 4 B 8 C OR: in Unit 14: INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS (English 12) - Divide the class into two groups A & B... knowledge for them to go to school to get that knowledge NGƯỜI THỰC HIỆN Bùi Phú Xuân _ Ngo Quyen High School Bui Phu Xuan REFERENCES _ Allwright, R (1984) The importance of interaction in classroom language learning Applied Linguistics, 5(2), 156-171 Doff, A 1988 Teach English: A Training Course for Teachers Cambridge University Press Dornyei, Z (2001) Motivational strategies in the English... symbols/logos of the international organizations to the board - Distribute the cards of the name of the International Organizations to the students: UNESCO, FIFA, WWF, UN, UNICEF, WHO - Call out the symbols in any order and the representatives of each group should run to the board and stick the names under the symbols - The group with more correct answers will be the winner - Give more information about... he/she will write G at the top of the list Those who finish early can compare and discuss their choices with their neighbours  When the students have finished, we can hold a vote to see which choices were the most popular If we have time, discuss different tastes, and see if there is a general consensus on favourites After that we can tell the students the most common topics that students often talk about... colours, songs, films, singers, television programmes or school subjects etc Identify each by a letter : A , B, C, D etc  Example: Before teaching Unit 2 “School Talks” English 10, we might give: A Sports and games B Entertainment C Health problems D Hobbies E Holidays F Weather G Films H Work and study Ngo Quyen High School  Bui Phu Xuan Each student writes down the letters in order of preference: