Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm Helping gifted students overcome their difficulties in essay writing

 1
 SỞ GIÁO DỤC & ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI
 TrườngSỞ GIÁO THPT DỤC Chuyên & ĐÀO LƯƠNG TẠO ĐỒNG THẾ NAI VINH
 Trường THPT Chuyên LƯƠNG THẾ VINH
 Mã số: ................................
 (Do HĐCNSK cấp trên ghi)
 Mã số: ................................
 (Do HĐCNSK cấp trên ghi)
 SÁNG KIẾN
 SÁNG KIẾN
 HELPING GIFTED STUDENTS OVERCOME THEIR 
 HELPINGDIFFICULTIES GIFTED STUDENTS IN ESSAY OVERCOME WRITING THEIR 
 DIFFICULTIES IN ESSAY WRITING
 Người thực hiện: Bùi Ngọc Xinh
 LĩnhNgười vực thực nghiên hiện: cứ Bùiu: Ngọc Xinh
 Lĩnh- Quản vực lýnghiên giáo dcứụcu:
 - -Phương Quản lý pháp giáo giáo dục dục
 - -Phương Phương pháp pháp dạy giáo học dụ cbộ môn: Tiếng Anh
 - Lĩnh vực khác: .......................................................
 - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn: Tiếng Anh
 - Lĩnh vực khác:
.......................................................
Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm không thể hiện trong bản in sáng kiến
  Mô hình Đĩa CD (DVD) Phim ảnh Hiện vật khác
 (các phim, ảnh, sản phẩm phần mềm)
Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm không thể hiện trong bản in sáng kiến
  Mô hình Đĩa CD (DVD) Phim ảnh Hiện vật khác
 (các phim, ảnh, sản phẩm phần mềm)
 Năm học: 2019-2020
 Năm học: 2019-2020 3
DANH MỤC CHỮ CÁI VIẾT TẮT
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 THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN 5
 INTRODUCTION
1. Context
 Writing is often considered as the last skill to be developed after 
listening, speaking, and reading. Essay writing allows students to practise 
and develop transferable skills that are valuable to them not only while 
they are students but also after they graduate and have to write in a 
professional role.
 An essay is defined as a short piece of writing that expresses 
information as well as the writer's opinion. Essays are popular at high 
schools and colleges. People may even need to write essays in the business 
world (although they are usually called "reports" at that point). Students 
nowadays, especially those who study at high school for the gifted have an 
insatiable hunger for how to write an effective essay.
2. Reasons for choosing the topic
 English-majored students of Luong The Vinh High school especially 
students of the elected English team (grade 12) who take National English 
Examination are in need of having a perfect writing skill, but the national 
curriculum set by the government cannot satisfy their need.
 In the past few years, I have been responsible for helping gifted 
students practice their writing skill, and I have found that a lot of gifted 
students at this school show interest in writing especially academic 
writing. However, their essays still contained mistakes. These mistakes 
ranged from minor ones such as spellings to major ones such as sentence 
structures and the organization in an essay. Thus, it is imperative that I 
should do something to help them overcome their difficulties in writing so 
that they can improve their writing skill and write coherently, effectively, 
and academically.
2. The scope of the research 7
 According to Oshima and Huge, “Writing is a form of 
communication that encourages students to put their feelings and ideas on 
paper, to organize their knowledge and beliefs into convincing arguments, 
and convey meaning through well-constructed text. In its most advanced 
form, written expression can be as vivid as a work of art.
Therefore, writing is never a one-step action: it is a process that has several 
steps.” (Oshima and Huge 1997: 2)
II. / RESEARCH CONTENTS
a./ Reality of teaching writing at the school
As far as I am concerned, tasks designed in English textbooks for students 
are not in a systematical way, which causes difficulties for students who 
want to enhance their ability to write a good essay. Tasks for writing in the 
textbooks also lack skills necessary for writing an effective essay.
b./ PROCEDURES
In order to write an academic essay effectively, it is a good idea to follow a 
number of important steps in the essay writing process.
Here are some important rules /skills that I have collected and given to 
students so that they can show their ability in presenting a logical 
argument, their skills in organising their ideas systematically, 
their ability to select relevant ideas and information to the topic 
and last but not least their ability to use correct English 
grammar and vocabulary.
 A. RULES
 1. Title Rules
 2. Capitalization Rules
 3. Punctuation Rules
The teacher gave students handouts which contain these rules. 9
1. Maintaining a high grade point average is essential to any student 
hoping to go to college.
2. Crying and upset, the witness admitted she had lied to protect her 
boyfriend.
3. Ned came home to find his door forced open and his belongings 
scattered on the floor.
4. Planning the trip scheduled for next week is Helen’s responsibility.
Exercise 3
Read the following sentences. Underline any appositive phrases in them 
and put a comma at the beginning and at the end of each appositive 
phrase. Then draw an arrow to the noun modified by the appositive.
1. The Tigers the only team to go undefeated are the favorites to win the 
championship.
2. The film about King Kong a giant ape who destroys the city was 
entertaining.
3. The dancer a girl of both beauty and grace was the star of the show.
4. The climbers decided to attempt their ascent of the mountain during the 
spring traditionally the safest time of year in terms of weather.
2. CLAUSES
a. / Independent clauses
(Independent clauses can stand alone as complete sentences. Independent 
clauses can function as sentences because they express complete thought. 
e.g.: He got out of his car.
b. / Dependent clauses
Dependent clauses cannot function as complete sentences because they do 
not express complete thoughts. Dependent clauses come in three forms: 
coordinate clauses, subordinate clauses, and noun clauses.
- Coordinate clauses are essentially independent clauses. However, they 
cannot function as complete sentences because they begin with 
coordinating conjunctions, and this makes the thoughts they express 
incomplete. 11
2. That he had committed the crime was understood to be a proven fact.
3. Although Nick is actually from New York, Miami is where his heart is.
4. When Jessica found what Mark had hidden under her book, she 
screamed at the top of her lungs.
Exercise 3:
Read the pairs of sentences below. Then combine them into one sentence 
using the type of conjunction indicated in parentheses ( ).
1. Most professional sports are seasonal in nature. Athletes need time to 
rest and recover between seasons. (subordinating conjunction)
2. The waves in Hawaii are better than in most of California. Hawaii is the 
surfing capital of the US. (coordinating conjunction )
3. CD players were released for mass marketing in the late 1980s. CD 
players quickly replaced tape players. (subordinating conjunction )
3. SENTENCE STRUCTURES
a. / Simple sentences
A simple sentence is made up of a single independent clause. However, 
simple sentences are not always short and easy. An almost unlimited 
number of phrases and modifiers can be built into a simple sentence 
structure, so sometimes these sentences can be quite advanced.
e.g. : My dog loves to play fetch.
 My dog, a beautiful and playful Labrador puppy, loves to play 
 fetch on sunny afternoon in the park near my house.
b. / Compound sentences
 e.g.: My dog loves to play fetch, and I take him to the park almost every 
 day.
c. / Complex sentences
 e.g.: My dog loves to play fetch, even though he is very old now.
d. / Compound- complex sentences
 e.g.: Even though he is very old now, my dog loves to play fetch, and I 
 take him to the park almost every day. 13
Antecedents of pronouns:
If a pronoun is used in a sentence, there must be a noun before it of the 
same person and number. There must be one, and only one, antecedent to 
which the pronoun refers.
Examples of pronouns without antecedents:
 Incorrect: Henry was denied admission to graduate school because 
 they did not believe that he could handle the work load.
 Correct: The members of the admissions committee denied Henry 
 admission to graduate school because they did not . . .
Exercise:
Rewrite the following sentences so that each pronoun has a clear 
antecedent. If you have to supply a noun, use any noun that will make the 
sentence correct.
1. The dispute between the faculty and the administration was not resolved 
until they got better working conditions.
2. Ellen spotted her friend as her friend as she walked towards the student 
Union.
3. Foreigners are easily impressed by the bullfighters as they march into 
the arena.
4. In their spare time, many great books have been written about the 
famous Greek and Roman heroes.
5. Dr. Byrd’s book was accepted for publication because they thought it 
would be beneficial to students.
6. Bob and Helen hate flying because they make too much noise.
7. Casey was not admitted to the country club because they thought he was 
not socially acceptable.
8. Mary loves touring the country by train because it is so interesting
9. The colonel was decorated for bravery, having fought them off.
10. The children were frightened because they made eerie sounds.
5. / SUBJECT / VERB AGREEMENT
Exercise 15
 mismanagement, open its books to inspection every year, and pay a 
 fine.
In the example above, all the parts of the list are grammatically parallel; 
they begin with verbs. However, they are ordered in a manner which 
makes the sentence somewhat hard to read. The sentence would be simpler 
if the shortest and most grammatically simple ideas were at the beginning 
of the list. Look at the example below.
 Under the judge’s ruling, the company must pay a fine, open its 
 books to inspection every year, and compensate its shareholders 
 for their losses caused by the company’s mismanagement
Exercise 1.
Read each of the sentences below and underline the section that is not 
parallel in structure. Then revise each sentence.
1. He's quite a man with the girls. They say he's closed the eyes of many a 
man and opening the eyes of many a woman."
2. "They are laughing at me, not with me."
3. "Voltaire could both lick boots and put the boot in. He was at once 
opportunist and courage, cunning and sincerely. He managed, with 
disconcerting ease, to reconcile love of freedom with love of hours."
4. "Truth is not a diet but a condiment."
5. "Our transportation crisis will be solved by a bigger plane or a wider 
road, mental illness with a pill, poverty with a law, urban conflict with a 
gas, racism with a goodwill gesture and we can use bulldozers to pull 
down slums."
6. "Buy a bucket of chicken and having a barrel of fun."
7. "The loss we felt was not the loss of ham but the loss of pig."
8. "Immature poets imitate; mature poets stealing."
9. "The value of parallel structure goes beyond aesthetics ........It points
up the structure of the sentence, showing readers what goes with what and 
keep them on the right track."