Subject using handouts to evaluate the efficiency of the reading skill in unit 5 to grade 10 students

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA
TRƯỜNG THPT HÀM RỒNG
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INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE 
Subject
USING HANDOUTS TO EVALUATE
THE EFFICIENCY OF THE READING
SKILL IN UNIT 5 TO GRADE 10 STUDENTS
	Author: Phan Thi Hang Nga
 	Position: Teacher
 	Research field: English
 SCHOOL YEAR 2019
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
 PART I: INTRODUCTION
1
 1. The reason for choosing the topic.
1
2. Purpose and mission of research.
2
3. Objects and content of research
3
4. Methodology.
3
PART II: CONTENT
3
1. The advantages and disadvantages of the method.
3
1.1. The advantages.
3
1.2. The disadvantages.
4
2. Theory.
5
2.1. Steps of teaching reading skills in a reading period.
5
2.1.1. Before you read. 
4
2.1.2. While you read. 
4
2.1.3. After you read 
5
2.2. The application of games in teaching reading skills.
5
PART III. SPECIFIC CURRICULUM – THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE NEW THEORY
7
1. Target items. 
7
2. Procedure. 
7
2.1.Warm – up.
8
2.2. Before you read.
8
 2.3.While you read.
9
2.4. After you read.
11
2.5.Consolidation and homework. 
11
PART IV: CONCLUSION AND PROPOSALS 
12
1. Research results
12
2. Proposals
13
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. The reason for choosing the topic.
Since the application of new textbooks in tenth grade curriculum, many teachers have encountered difficulties in conveying their knowledge to students. In only 45 minutes, teachers are supposed to teach all the sections of the lesson while making sure that students can understand the lesson perfectly. Many teachers complain that they hardly have enough time to cover all the sections in the lesson, especially reading lesson since most reading exercises are too long. In my personal view, reading is an essential skill and linked to other important skills, including listening and speaking skills. Once students understand some key points of the reading lesson, they can improve their writing skill by writing down what they learn in their own way. Therefore, if students are able to understand the reading exercises and execute well all the reading tasks, other tough skills also seem to be less challenging. The task of making the lesson become easier so that students can understand it throughout and deeply has always been the hardest and also most important task that every teacher wishes to fulfill. Many teachers wonder whether their way of teaching really fit their students and help them accumulate the knowledge. So, the question is “How can teachers make sure that all their students perceive the lesson deeply”. 
Normally, in order to complete teaching one reading exercise, teachers need to go through three basic steps represented in textbooks, namely “Before you read”, “While you read” and “After you read”. However, teachers are hardly able to cover all these three steps since one period only lasts forty five minutes. Therefore, good teachers are supposed to find a more flexible way of teaching so as to convey all the knowledge in the textbooks to students and make sure students understand the exercise deeply in forty five minutes. After a long time teaching tenth grade curriculum, I have discovered one great way of teaching to answer the question above and help my students improve their reading skill. By dint of the application of this method into the reading lesson, many students in my class have enhanced their academic performance greatly. This made me realize that reading skill which is usually considered as the tough skill can be much easier to acquire if it is taught in a creative way. With the view to sharing this discovery with colleagues and helping all students study well, I would like to present here my idea about an effective way of teaching with the title “Using handouts to evaluate the efficiency of the reading skill in unit 5 to grade 10 students ”. I also would like to receive the reviews from colleagues to enhance the effectiveness of this method. I would like to give the sincere thank to all the readers and colleagues for spending time reading my idea. 
2. Purpose and mission of research.
The purpose of this idea is to reduce the tension of teachers and students in the reading lesson. It is also designed to make students feel energetic and excited in the reading lessons and thanks to that, hopefully, instead of feeling bored and tired while doing reading exercises, they actually look forward to the reading period. They can try to fulfill the reading tasks on their own instead of looking at the keys in the reference books to deal with teachers. As a result, with the view to arising the sense of curiosity in students, teachers should try to make a handout which not only delivers perfectly the content of the lesson but also attracts students’ attention. Thanks to the application of handout in the lessons, the reading lessons will be much more effective and no longer be considered as a burden to students. As a result, students may find the reading exercises fascinating and imagine them as some interesting stories that are exciting to read and see how the stories go. After a while applying this method into my lessons, I have witnessed the great improvement of my class atmosphere and the impressive progress of my students. 
3. Objects and content of research
 - Students’ study level: 10th grade at Ham Rong high school.
 - Total students/ class: 45 - 48 students. 
 - Age range: 15 – 16.
 - Main purpose of the research: reducing the amount of time for teaching 	reading skill. 
 - Lesson- Unit 5-Part A: Reading. English 10 - system 7 years– Education 	publishing house- 2006.
4. Methodology.
In my personal view, in order to create an effective reading lesson, teachers need to have a good teaching method by which teachers are supposed to help students follow all three important steps, namely skimming, scanning and intensive reading in one reading exercise. Besides, with the view to testing how well students perceive the lessons, teachers can conduct some surveys by using question are and interviewing students. By that, teachers can realize how much students enjoy the lessons and how well they understand the knowledge. Moreover, in my opinion, by virtue of the application of those surveys, students may understand that this method is totally student-oriented and appreciate study and teachers’ effort better, which leads to their growing interest in reading lessons. With students growing passion about reading exercise, the quality of one reading period will surely be improved. 
PART II: CONTENT
1. The advantages and disadvantages of the method.
1.1. The advantages.
This method is proved to bring several benefits to teachers. The first advantage of the method is to enable teachers to test how well students understand the lesson and then, evaluate the reading skill of their students. Moreover, with this method applied, teachers can execute the lessons better by creating the exciting class atmosphere and raising students’ sense of curiosity about the reading exercises. 
 This method is also beneficial to the students. First, by virtue of the handout delivered by teachers, students can study in group or by individual to concentrate on finding the main ideas of the whole reading exercises. Students are able to share knowledge among themselves and assist each other in finding the right answers for the exercises. This method is attributed to the creation of a new friendly atmosphere in class where better students help other student’s progress. At the end of the lesson, teachers will give the explanation for students’ queries and conclude the content of the whole lessons.
1.2. The disadvantages.
 To be able to produce a handout suitable to the lesson, teachers have to prepare really carefully for the lessons to make sure that the handout does not go off track and delivers perfectly the lesson content. Teachers are supposed to find the main ideas of the lesson and then, produce the handout which contains those main points with the view to helping students understand the lesson faster and better. In addition, since most questions in handout are multiple choice questions, teachers need to make a great effort in finding some other ideas not presented in the reading exercises and then, creating some false answers in the multiple choice questions. Thanks to that, teachers can evaluate students’ performance by seeing whether they are able to choose the right choice that contains the main idea of the reading exercise and eliminate the wrong choice that does not. Last but not least, teachers also need to make a handout that is suitable for the ability of most students in class because a “too hard to understand” handout may cause the boredom of low level students and “too easy to understand” handout also does the similar thing to high level students. Therefore, those handouts which do not reflect well the students’ study level are proved to be ineffective. 
 2. Theory.
2.1. Steps of teaching reading skills in a reading period.
	There are three steps in each reading lesson.
2.1.1. Before you read. 
- Leading students to the topic.
- Stimulating students to study.
- Focus on the topic.
- Analyzing some difficult words and tenses.
- Guessing forward the topic- related information. 
2.1.2. While you read. 
- Helping students to understand the content of the whole lesson. 
- Completing the missions.
- Developing reading skills: skimming, scanning and reading intensively.
- Finding the main ideas of the reading exercise.
- Delivering the “handout” to evaluate how well students understand the lesson. 
2.1.3. After you read 
 Supporting students to pay attention to some other essential skills (Speaking, Listening and Writing). In term of writing skill, students are encouraged to apply some new tenses that they have learned from reading lesson into their writing. 
2.2. The application of games in teaching reading skills.
2.2.1. Warm up activity.
 This part is designed to lead students to the primary points of the lesson. In this part, I choose some games, namely “Networks”, “Shark attack” and “Jumbled words”. These games seem to fit well the requirements of the “Warm up activity” part since they encourage students to take part in the class activity and create an exciting atmosphere in class and also do not cost much learning time.
2.2.1.1. “Networks” game.
This game helps students to find some words related to the topic given by the teacher.
 - Teachers write the key word on the board 
 - Students work individually or in a group to find information about the topic and then, compare their results with their partner or other students in group. 
 - Teachers collect the response from students. 
 For example: The topic in the reading section, unit 5 is: computer and its benefits. Teacher will give one key word and then, ask students to find other words representing some modern appliances beneficial to people’s lives.
2.2.1.2.“Shark attack” game.
 The words students can guess in the reading section, unit 5 might be “Technology” or “Computer” 
2.2.2. “Before you read”.
 Teachers can conduct two games called “Jumbled words ” and “Rubout and remember”.
2.2.2.1.“ Jumbled words game”.
- Teachers write some words that have been mixed up on the board.
- Teachers ask students to rearrange these words into one meaningful word.
For example: 	seoum 	à 	mouse
 	oardyekb 	à	 keyboard
 	 	pumocert 	à 	computer
2.2.2.2. “Rubout and Remember game”.
 	In this game, teachers write some new words on board and let students speak those words out loud several times, and then write them into their notebooks to memorize. Next, teachers erase what they have written on board word by word and ask students to say the English word that has been erased by looking at the meaning of this word in Vietnamese. When all the English words have been erased, teachers ask students to write them again based on their memory. 
	This game may take a lot of time to be conducted but it can help students to memorize many English vocabularies and simultaneously, perceive their lesson better. In addition, it also makes students feel excited about reading and want to memorize English words when they are in class.
PART III. SPECIFIC CURRICULUM – THE DEMONSTRATION OF THE NEW THEORY
I would like to illustrate my new theory by representing my curriculum and my teaching method in the reading lesson of unit 5 English 10th grade textbook- 7 year system (page 54-55) at classes: 10A2, 10A8 (experimental class), Ham Rong High Secondary School.
1. Target items. 
 In this lesson, my target is to teach students how to use some computer-related words such as CPU, VDU, CD ROM, FLOPPY DISKS and present some benefits that computers bring to people’s lives.
2. Procedure. 
2.1.Warm – up. (seven minutes)
- greeting
- organizing class
Since the title of this lesson is “Technology and You”, I conduct the game called “networks”. In this game, students will find some words representing some modern appliances, including “computer” which is also the main topic of this lesson. 
	Teachers write the key word on the board and then, ask some students to say the English name of some modern appliances. If students do not remember the English name of some particular appliances, teachers can give away some clues to help them recall. The rest students will pay attention to the game so that they can help to correct their friends. 	 
 Fridge
Television
Modern devices
Radio
 Telephone
Washing-machine
 Computer
- Teacher leads students to the lesson: “Today, we are going to learn about one of modern appliances in our lives, which is computer”
2.2. Before you read. (10 minutes)
2.2.1. First activity: 
In modern life, people have all seen the computer in their life. However, not everyone knows the English name of all parts of one computer. Therefore, with the view to helping my students understand better about what one computer is made of, I hang a picture that contains all the parts of an ordinary compute. Afterwards, I ask my class to match the picture of these computer parts with their name in English. A lot of students know the Vietnamese name of computer parts but fail to know what they are called in English. Therefore, I go around the class to assist my students when they encounter difficulty in finding the matches. 
- After 3 minutes, I ask some of my students to present their results
-The rest students in class will pay attention to their friends and correct the wrong answers.
- In the end, I propose the right answers and give conclusion
2.2.2. Second activity.
Present new vocabulary 
- In this part, students may encounter some difficult words, so I decide to conduct the game called “Rubout and remember” to reduce their stress and create an exciting learning atmosphere 
- Teachers can use subordinate board which contains some English words from textbooks 
For example:
* Calculations (add, subtract, multiply, divide): Phép tính 
* Lightning speed (n): Tốc độ ánh sáng
* Storage device (n) : Thiết bị lưu trữ
* Calculation machine (n) : Máy tính
* Miraculous (adj): Tuyệt vời
* Memos = memorandums (n): Sổ ghi nhớ, tin nhắn
- Let students speak those words out loud several times to memorize them.
- Teachers erase these words word by word and ask students to speak the English words that have been erased by looking at them in Vietnamese.
- When all the words have been erased, teachers ask students to rewrite all of them down quickly. 
- This activity is very significant since it helps students to memorize new English words from the lessons and by that, they can improve their reading skill and understand the reading exercises better.
 2.3.While you read. (20 minutes)
 2.3.1. First activity 
Teachers ask students to read the paragraph and underline the words related to the column A from Task 1. Afterwards, students can guess the meaning of those words from the context of the entire paragraph in order to match them with their defection in column B (teacher can give students assistance if they encounter difficulties in finding the matches)
 After a few minutes, teacher gives the right answers and explain the exercises to students.
2.2.2. Second activity.
 Teacher asks students to read the exercise one more time to collect the main information. Afterwards, so as to evaluate my students’ reading skill, I give each of them the handouts that I have made and ask them to tick in the box containing the right information about the main advantages of computer based on what they have just read from the textbook. 
 Following here is my handouts for this particular lesson:
Tick the benefits of computers from the following table.
Benefits of computers
Right
Wrong
1
Listen to the news, music
2
Can watch television
3
Can do homework
4
Can read newspapers and magazines
5
Can type and print any kind of document – letters, memos or requests for leave
6
Can add, subtract, multiply and divide with lightning speed and perfect accuracy.
7
Can interact with other computers and with people around the world.
8
Can play computer games
9
Can receive and send letters.
10
Visit shops, offices, places of scenic with beauty.
11
Cook meals, make cakes
12
Can learn foreign languages
This handout covers the content of the entire reading exercise. Therefore, once students have understood the exercise, they can quickly finish the questions about the benefits of computer in the handout. That student can complete the handout with most right answers. It also means that they are able to perceive well the knowledge from textbooks and finish all the exercises in the textbooks easily and quickly. Last but not least, teachers will ask some students to stand up and present their answers. In the end, teachers will propose the right answers and help students correct their wrong answers. 
2.2.3. Third activity. 
Teachers explain the handouts and give the right answers for Task 2 which is answer C: “ What can the computer do?” to students. 	
2.4. After you read. (5 minutes)
In my opinion, students are already taught very deeply for the handouts since in the handouts the benefits of computer in modern life are represented. Therefore, students can base on what they have learned from the handout to discuss the advantages that computer brings to our everyday life. The key here is that teachers have to read the lesson very carefully to be able to produce a handout that delivers exactly the information from textbooks and then, thanks to that, students can complete their assignments quickly and easily. 
2.5.Consolidation and homework. (3 minutes)
-Teachers ask one student to read the Handouts which illustrates the main content of the lesson for the entire class.
- Teachers ask another student to state the content of the lesson without looking at the handouts.
- Teachers ask the entire class to do Task 3 as homework. Besides, teachers can ask good students to write a short essay about the benefits of computers to people’s everyday.
PART IV: CONCLUSION AND PROPOSALS 
1. Research results
- After a long time applying this teaching method in two classes 10A2, 10A8, I realized that students, regardless of their study level are all more interested in the lesson and experience some amazing progress in their academic performance. Moreover, thanks to the application of this method, students can improve their soft skills such as team work, leadership and communication skills which can greatly benefit them in their later life. 
 -Statistically speaking, before the implementation of this teaching method, only around 40% of students from two above classes understand the lesson. However, with this method applied, 80% of students are able to perceive the lesson deeply. These statistics prove the efficiency of the teaching method which is using handouts to promote the effectiveness of the lesson. The lesson plan is applied with class 10A8. With