Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Creating effective teaching and learning environments

 BM 01-Bia SKKN
 DONG NAI EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT
 NAM HA HIGH SCHOOL
 Code:
 THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE
CREATING EFFECTIVE TEACHING 
 AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
 Teacher: TRAN THI VAN ANH
 Research field: English
 Education management:
 Teaching method:
 Other fields:
 Attachments:
  Object Software Film Other things
 School year: 2019 – 2020 CREATING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents Pages
Introduction
1. Study background 5
2. Reason for choosing the study 5
3. Objects and scope of the study 5
4. Purpose of the study 5
Contents
I. Reality of the study 6
II. Contents of the study
1. Process of the study 6-18
 1.1. Integrated activities 6-11
 1.1.1. Predicting 7-9
 1.1.2. Consolidating 9-10
 1.1.3. Interviewing 10-11
 1.2. Mind mapping 12-13
 1.3. Playing games 13-16
 1.4. Using technology in learning and teaching 16-18
2. Advantages and disadvantages of the study 19
3. Evaluation of the study 19-20
Conclusions 21
References 22
Appendix
Sample lesson 22-33 CREATING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
 INTRODUCTION
1. Study background
 My study, Creating effective teaching and learning environments, 
 offers applicable techniques helping improve the effectiveness in teaching in 
 general and in teaching reading in particular as well as stimulating learning 
 environments among students.
2. Reason for choosing the study
 Nowadays, teaching and learning are not giving and receiving 
 knowledge any longer. Instead, teachers give instructions and students are main 
 characters of the class, which we call learner-centred learning. In this situation, 
 students choose what they will learn, how they will pace their learning, and 
 how they will assess their own learning.
 Realizing the characteristics of new teaching and learning style, I always 
 study and research the best methods to help teachers improve the quality of 
 teaching and learning English. I also learn from my colleagues at Nam Ha high 
 school as well as other high schools through professional training courses.
Furthermore, I have done some experiments in which I applied various 
teaching techniques to improve teaching and learning environments in my 
classes. Last but not least, in order to finish this study, I have made statistic and 
considered the result which has been changed significantly since I started using 
these techniques.
 Following are my study, Creating effective teaching and learning 
 environments, which is drawn from all my eight-year teaching experience.
3. Objects and scope of the study
 The study focuses on students belonging to my three classes such as 
 10C4, 10C5, and 12C9 at Nam Ha high school; they are at the age from sixteen 
 to eighteen.
 About the time of this study, it is conducted during the first semester of 
 the 2019-2020 school year (from the mid of September to the mid of 
 December), and the activities are built according to the available tasks in the 
 textbook.
4. Purpose of the study
 In an attempt to improve teaching and learning quality in reading 
 lessons, I have had an idea and conducted some practical applications. I feel 
 quite optimistic about these techniques; hence, I write this paper aiming to 
 share the skills to create effective teaching and learning environments, 
 especially in reading lessons.
 School year: 2019-2020 5 Teacher: Tran Thi Van Anh CREATING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
skills – reading and listening - and productive skills – speaking and writing. 
There are also many interesting activities which teachers can use to engage 
their students. Following are some activities to combine reading and writing or 
speaking which I have used in my reading lessons.
 1. 1.1. Predicting
 - Rationale: The aim of this activity is for students to preview a reading 
 passage in order to predict its content.
 - Procedure:
 1. Have students preview the text they will be reading to get a general 
 idea of what it is about. The clue may be the title of the passage, the first 
 paragraph, the first sentence of each paragraph, the last paragraph, and so on.
 2. Ask students to work in groups to write down what they think the 
 passage will be about or what they think will happen in the reading based on 
 the information they got in step one. Depending on the nature of the reading 
 and the level of the class, students could write lists of words or phrases, or they 
 could write a paragraph.
 3. Invite students to read what they have written. Compare predictions.
 4. After reading the entire passage, students can compare their 
 predictions with the text.
 In this activity, students begin to pose questions about a text and make 
 predictions about it before they read. In this way, students become authors of 
 the text and may understand the kinds of expectations that a writer has, which 
 can be helpful for them in their own writing. Students may also begin to see the 
 role that previewing and predicting play in understanding what they read. In 
 addition, this kind of activity gives students a purpose for reading and 
 motivates them to orient themselves to the topics they want to discover.
 Sample lessons: 
 Grade 12 – Unit 8: LIFE IN THE FUTURE
The clue: the title of reading text and the first paragraph
“What will life be like in the future? Different people have different answers to 
this question; some are pessimistic while others optimistic.”
→ Students’ first prediction: “The passage will talk about life in the future. 
Some people think life will be better; while others think it will be worse.”
 Teacher divides class into two groups and asks them to discuss some 
 changes in specific fields, such as medical care, environment, transport, etc. 
 according to two different opinions “Life will be better” and “Life will be
 School year: 2019-2020 7 Teacher: Tran Thi Van Anh CREATING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Grade 10 – Unit 4: SPECIAL EDUCATION
The clue: the title of the passage and the vocabulary 
“A TEACHER IN A SPECIAL CLASS”
→ Students’ prediction: “The passage will talk about the work of a teacher 
in a special class. The work may be very difficult, because the students may 
be disabled. For example:
 - Students may be blind; teacher has to use books with Braille alphabet 
 to teach them.
 - Students may be deaf and dumb; teacher has to use sign language to 
 teach them.
 - It will take teacher a very long time and so much effort to teach 
 disabled students.”
 1.1.2. Consolidating
 - Rationale: After reading a passage, students are asked to recall as much 
 as they can of what they read. Reconstructing a reading helps students clarify 
 their understanding of the text and gives them practice in using the language 
 they are learning.
 - Procedure:
 1. After reading, give students a few minutes to review the text. Tell 
 them to remember everything they can.
 2. Ask students to close textbooks and take turns with classmates to tell 
 each other in their own words what they remember from the reading. Invite 
 students to speak aloud to classmates. Compare their works.
 3. As a class, give some phrases or numbers which appear in the passage 
 and ask students to use these cues to talk about the events mentioned in the 
 passage.
 Consolidating is a valuable step in the reading process because it 
 becomes quite apparent whether students have understood the reading, thus 
 allowing the teacher to discover and work with any misconceptions that might 
 arise.
 School year: 2019-2020 9 Teacher: Tran Thi Van Anh CREATING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
 Sample lessons: 
 Grade 12 – Unit 1: HOME LIFE
 Interview a partner about his/her family life.
 - Teacher elicits a list of questions about family life from students.
 Questions:
 Who works in the family
 Who does the household chores 
 Your responsibility in the family
 The interest the family members share closely 
 The person you often share your secret with
 The person you talk to before amking an important decision
 - Students work in pairs to ask and answer questions about family life.
 - Teacher observes students working and gives assisstance if necessary.
 Grade 10 – Unit 5: TECHNOLOGY AND I
 Task: Interview a classmate about advantages and disadvantages of the 
 computer in his/her own daily life.
 - Teacher elicits some ideas from whole class.
 Advantages of the computer
 Learn foreign languages
 Relax: listen to music, play games, watch movies 
 Search information
 Do reports
 Disadvantages of the computer
 Take time
 Be short-sighted
 - Students work in pairs to ask and answer questions about advantages and 
 disadvantages of the computer.
 - Teacher observes students working and gives assisstance if necessary.
School year: 2019-2020 11 Teacher: Tran Thi Van Anh CREATING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Grade 10 – Unit 5: Technology and I (10C5)
 Mind Maps provide a visual learning mechanism that will help students 
 recognize relationships they may miss in a more linear type of activity. The act 
 of mapping something out encourages the individual to create an internal 
 retelling of the story. Through this activity, students can have a thorough 
 understanding about the reading text.
 1.3. Playing games
 All of us know why reading is important. Not only does reading teach 
 our students grammar, word usage and idea expression, but it also enables them 
 to acquire new information about their second language’s culture.
Additionally, reading helps students to see how English is communicated 
through writing, which is why a good writer is also a good reader.
But reading anything in a second language is never easy. Students who are still 
juggling new vocabulary, grammar rules and even phonics may feel reading is 
not only tedious, but also too difficult for them to understand. Therefore, 
playing games as reading tasks is a great way to make reading a fun classroom 
task for students.
 School year: 2019-2020 13 Teacher: Tran Thi Van Anh CREATING EFFECTIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
Grade 10 – Unit 3: People’s background – Reading 
 Guessing game: Who Is She?
 - Teacher shows some pictures about a woman. Students use these cues 
 to guess who the woman is.
 Picture 1: Picture 2:
 Picture 3: Picture 4:
 School year: 2019-2020 15 Teacher: Tran Thi Van Anh