The above reasons have inspired me to conduct my initiative with the title “5 interactive post- reading activities to increase language competence and maintain interest for 12 th graders
Trang 1I INTRODUCTION
1 Rationale
Reading is generally considered as the most essential skill for a student to attain
when learning a language The ability to comprehend, infer and analyze the written word empowers students to make informed decisions and unlock new opportunities in learning process In order to encourage students to fully engage
in reading materials, teachers are expected to employ effective strategies in different stages of reading lessons However, teachers, in fact, tend to devote their wholly effort and commitment to create good pre-reading activities and well- planned during reading activities and, therefore, spare little enthusiasm to post reading phase Through classroom observations at Thieu Hoa high schools,
I normally witness the practice of brief and “classic” post- reading activities such as “write the answers on your note books” “translate paragraph 2” “write and learn new words by heart” “using a similar pattern, write about your house”, etc Undoubtedly, such kinds of exercises do not help learners to get a chance to discuss the piece they have read as well as check their understanding of the reading text and as a result, they fail to improve comprehension and lose pleasure from reading afterwards
This practical situation raises a big question is that “how can teachers help their students summarize their learning, get a deeper understanding, and organize their thoughts and ideas after they finish their reading lessons?” Some suggested activities in post– reading stage may represent an effective way of responding to this question I have applied this kind of activities in my reading classes for long enough to assure its great significance in improving students’ language competence and maintain motivation and interest at the end of reading process on account of the fact that the already-learned texts can be used as topics for further discussion and debate, both oral and written, providing chances and contexts for the students to communicate, recycle lexical resources as well as reflect their understanding The above reasons have inspired me to conduct my
initiative with the title “5 interactive post- reading activities to increase language competence and maintain interest for 12 th graders at Thieu Hoa high school” with the hope of sharing my experience about using post- reading
activities in teaching reading skill
2 Objectives of the research
2.1 For the teachers
- Find out some effective methods in post- reading stage, and know how to apply these activities to motivate students to get the most out of the text after they finish reading materials
- Provide students contexts and topics so that they may have opportunities to process their knowledge obtained from the text and communicate this new language knowledge to their peers
2.2 For the students
Trang 2- Get familiar with a variety of post- reading activities, and make most use of the activities to reflect upon general understanding of the text, to use interlanguage
to improve related language skills and then achieve overall language achievement
- Build up enthusiasm and motivation for reading skill and ultimately develop independent learning method
3 Research methodology
I write this topic based on:
- The method of studying theory
- The method of investigating
- Applying the topic to real teaching English practice at Thieu Hoa high school
- Comparison, collation and summary of the result, effect of the topic
4 Scope of research
The scope of this study is limited to “5 interactive post- reading activities” carried out in reading lessons in English 12 at a particular high school It explores the strengths and limitation of post-reading in teaching and learning reading skill, the real situation of applying post- reading activities at my school and how to make use of them to improve reading comprehension for 12th graders
II PROBLEM SOLVING
1 Theoretical background and practical background
1 1 Theoretical background
1.1.1 Post-Reading Phase
According to Ravinder Sandhu “reading is defined as a cognitive process that involves decoding symbols to arrive at meaning Reading is an active process of constructing meanings of words with a purpose to help the reader to direct information towards a goal and focuses their attention”
The stages of reading have been classified into (a) Pre-reading, (b) While-reading, and (c) Post- reading There is a great importance of post-reading phase since it hepls readers summarize their learning, check for understanding, and organize their thoughts and ideas for the reading materials they have been assigned Therefore, teachers should create workable and meaningful activities
to help students review the knowledge, develop language competence as well as maintain their engagement in reading lessons
1.1.2 The importance of post-reading activities in reading process
Reading lessons are generally carried out in 3 stages, each with different purpose and manner While pre-reading activities can help the learner to be more prepared for what they are about to read and while- reading activities provide students with good reading strategies to explore the text, post reading activities are expected to encourage students to reflect on what they have read and use the familiar text as basis for specific language study
Post –reading activities are crucial for both comprehension and obtaining and working on new information Well- organized post –reading activities
Trang 3usually require the learners to return the text several times and to reread it to
check on particular information of language use Students, individually or in
groups, should have ample time to share and discuss the work they have completed When readers are called on to communicate the ideas they have read,
it is then that they learn to conceptualize and discover what meaning the text has
to them Although teachers should be careful to spend just some time in the pre-reading stage, they are actually expected to spend more time in the post-pre-reading stage with several activities A two-fold purpose is involved here, namely: students need to recycle what they have obtained from the text and go beyond the text and enter the real world, equipped with the newly-obtained information
1.1.3 The benefits of organizing post-reading activities in teaching reading skill
According to Brown (2007), post-reading activities can fulfilled several principles in foreign language teaching-learning as follows
Firstly, post-reading activities encourage meaningful learning as at post reading stage students relate information with their own life and experiences Secondly, willingness to communicate is gained because students are supposed to be well-prepared to do the post reading activities.Thirdly, post reading activities offer different tasks, they have good opportunities to use the language, orally as well
as written and then bettering their interlanguage Finally, post- reading activites are not intersted in the right verus wrong answers to comprehension question anymore Students do not have to prove they understand the vocabulary and grammar of the text anymore Therefore, students are not only to achieve linguistic competence but also discourse and strategic competence, so communicative competence is also taken care of
We can conclude that post- reading activities benefits students significantly in terms of achieving meaningful learning, willingness to communicate, interlanguage and communicative competence
1.1.4: Interactive post-reading activities
Reading comprehension should not be alienated from the other skills (Harmer, 2007: 267) Therefore, we may link reading and writing, for example, by summarizing, note-making, mentioning what has been read in a letter We might link reading and listening by comparing what we have heard to reading a news report, comparing the song we heard from the radio to the song lyric downloaded from the internet Still, we might link reading and speaking by discussing what we have learned from a reading passage and retelling stories There are many activities that will refine, enrich and increase interest in the assigned topic of a text However, the primary goal of the post reading phase is
to further develop and clarify interpretation of the text, and help students to recycle some aspects from their while reading activities; to go beyond the text;
to share opinions, ideas, feelings and to give reasons to communicate
1 2 Practical background
Trang 4It is clear that at my work place my colleagues have given much time and effort
to pre-reading (e.g., vocabulary learning and introduction about the author and the text) and while-reading (e.g., the explanation of language points of the text) whereas in post reading stage, the teacher’s monologue occupies almost the whole class and the students listen to the teacher passively As for post-reading activities, teachers use the textbook questions to determine students’ understanding of context, which obviously is not enough to guarantee comprehension “How to comprehend” is rarely taught and students’ full comprehension of texts is often neglected by teachers The teachers’ task is endeavoring to put linguistic knowledge into students with their feelings and response ignored Lack of assessment and practice is bound to result in students’ frustration in linguistic output, that is, failure to communicate in the target language, which marks a divergence from our teaching goal
In addition, students’ obstacles in reading comprehension may be partially attributed to non-linguistic factors such as lack of motivation and interest because the activities designed in textbook in post-reading are repetitive, specifically only a few activities are used (“summary”-3 units, discussion – 6 units and “Compare and tell the difference”- 3 units) Undoubtedly, such monotonous activities do not stimulate students to learn, as a result, they are not eager to review their reading lessons
To improve this practical situation, it is strongly suggested that teachers should design some post- reading activities to ensure that students have opportunities to get the most of the passage These activities necessitate the integration of other skills in the process of understanding That is, learners should not only be involved in reading passively They should also be encouraged to listen to each other discussing the topic of the text, answer questions, and react in writing These activities provide the students with opportunities to relate what they have read to what they already know or what they feel From my teaching experience
I have noticed that conducting the reading lessons effectively in general and improve your students’ reading sub skills in post reading stages in particular is very pivotal
2 INTERACTIVE POST-READING ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE LANGUAGE COMPETENCE AND MAINTAIN INTEREST AND SAMPLES OF APPLYING THEM IN READING LESSONS OF TEXT BOOK ENGLISH 12
2.1 Strategies to design post- reading activities to increase language competence and remain interest for 12 th graders at my school
When design post –reading activities, I usually employ these following
strategies
Strategy 1: Build on students’ ability and needs
Post reading activities are expected to help students to recycle what they have obtained from the text and go beyond the text and enter the real world, equipped with the newly- obtained information However, “one size does not fit all”,
Trang 5Teacher, therefore, should fully consider students’ ability and their needs to design the activities so that students find it challenging enough for them to face the challenges
Strategy 2: Review lexical resources.
Reading texts provide good models of phrases, sentences, paragraphs for students to get familiar with the samples of target language Therefore, teachers should take this into consideration to fully exploit the text as a good source of teaching materials
Strategy 3: Correlate reading to other language skills.
Reading comprehension should not be alienated from other skills Therefore, teachers may link reading with writing (summarizing, note making), reading with speaking by discussing what we have just read, reading with listening by comparing what we have heard to reading a text By doing so students will develop their all-round language skills and then achieve language competence as
a desirable result
Strategy 4: Link the knowledge with students’ own experience.
Having new information from the while reading stage brings a change such as they would know more, or think, or feel differently from before Teacher should organize activities helping students connect the new information they are now familiar with and their lives so that students not only process their knowledge obtained from the text but also communicate this new knowledge to peers
2.2 Principles of using post- reading activities
There are some principles that I always bear in mind when deciding what kinds of post-reading activities I am going to employ in my reading lessons Teachers must read the text ahead of time to determine the purpose of the reading lesson, what their students bring to the text, what post-reading information should be provided, how and when to provide post-reading lessons
to accomplish the purpose
Amount of time spent on most post-reading lessons should be brief and brevity should be determined in proportion to the amount and duration of the reading Post-reading activities should review what students have learned and apply and extend their competence in using many components involved in comprehension
of texts
Post-reading activities should bring students more freedom to correlate reading with other language skills such as listening, speaking, and writing to achieve overall development
- Post-reading activities should be well- designed to create joyful learning environment to keep students fully engage in their study after devoting their enthusiasm and effort to pre and while reading activities
2.3 Suggested post- reading activities to increase language competence and remain interest for 12 th graders in reading lessons of English textbook 12
The purpose of post- reading activities are for the students to focus more deeply on the information in the text More importantly, post- reading activities
Trang 6encourage students to connect the new information they are now familiar with their lives and experiences There are various ways for teachers to assist learners
to get insights into the topics as well as develop correlated language skills to communicate in meaningful contexts
I have divided my examples of interactive post-reading activities into 5 sections: summary writing, discussion, video, role plays and pictures Here are 5 post-reading activities that I strongly recommend being used in reading classes
2.3.1 Using summary writing activities
2.3.1.1: Suggested ways of using summary writing activities in post-reading.
Summarizing teaches students how to discern the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for what is read Summarization strategies can be used in almost every content area when implementing summary writing activities, teacher should follow these
steps
Step 1 Process Modeling
Many students might assume that a summary should include all of the little, unimportant details from a text Show students that a summary should include the main plot points or key details of a text by allowing them to watch you modeling the process
Steps 2 Providing framework questions and tools for summary
- Teacher should provide students additional help with the following framework questions: (what are the main ideas, what are the crucial details necessary for supporting the ideas, what information is irrelevant or unnecessary?)
- One of the most valuable tools to summarize the text is using graphic organizers as utilizing a graphic organizer will help students narrow down and focus on the appropriate information Furthermore, graphic organizers are considered as wonderful techniques to make students actively engaged in their learning with visual images, illustrative shapes, meaningful labels and logical displays They are effective for a variety of students with different language levels and different multiple intelligences, especially for those with a visual modality preference
When it comes to creating each graphic organizer, there are typically three different options: students can make their own, you can provide pre-printed templates, or if you have access to technology, you can go the digital route The end-goal of each type of organizer is the same, so use whatever best meets the needs of the students in your classroom
Some graphic organizers that can be helpful for writing summaries will include
in illustrated lessons below
Step 3 Provide word banks
Teachers can also provide students with word banks to help them write summaries that cover the main concepts from the text For example, if students
Trang 7are writing a summary of “The 22 nd Sea Games,'' teachers might write the
following list of words and phrases on the board: sport event, spirit, hold, medals, athletes Tell students to write a five-sentence summary of the passage, with one caveat: they must use all of the words on the board
2.3.1.2: Applications of using summary writing activity in post- reading of textbook English 12.
* Sample 1: Unit 2: Cultural Diversity
+ Material: Graphic Organizers, projector
(Link: https://www.litinfocus.com/10-graphic-organizers-summary-writing/) + Time: 3-5 minutes
+ Procedure:
Activity 1: Assign the task of summary the reading passage and hand out students the frame of summary
Activity 2: Offer additional help by asking questions
“What is the main idea of reading passage?”
“Who is involved in the survey?”
“How many key values are discussed and what are they?”
“What is the supporting details for each key value?”
Activity 3: Have students to work in pairs to complete the frame with suitable
information
Activity 4: Ask students to retell information about reading passage, making
any comparison if necessary
* Sample 2: Unit 4: School education system
+ Material: Graphic Organizers, projector
(Link: https://www.litinfocus.com/10-graphic-organizers-summary-writing/) + Time: 3-5 minutes
+ Procedure:
Activity1: Assign the task of summary the reading passage and hand out students the frame of summary
Activity2: Asks students to pick out main information about England’s
education system by answering the following questions
“What is reading passage about?”
“What kinds of information are involved in the passage?”
Activity3: Have students to complete the frame with suitable information Activity 4: Ask students to retell information about reading passage, adding any
information on their own if necessary
To make the activity more meaningful, have students to make comparison between England’s education system and Vietnam’s one
* Sample 3: Unit 6: Future Jobs
+ Material: Graphic Organizers, projector
(Link: https://www.litinfocus.com/10-graphic-organizers-summary-writing/) + Time: 3-5 minutes
+ Procedure:
Trang 8Activity1: Assign the task of summary the reading passage and hand out students the frame of summary
Activity2: Offer additional help by asking questions
“What is the main idea of reading passage?”
“How many stages are involved in a job interview?”
“What should be prepared in each stage of job interview?”
“What is the supporting details for each key value?
Activity3: Have students to complete the frame with suitable information Activity 4: Ask students to retell information about reading passage, adding any
information students on their own if necessary
2.3.2 Using role play
2.3.2.1: Suggested ways of using role play in post- reading stage
Role plays are used to allow students to practice speaking in a conversational situation, build confidence and fluency, assess progress, and put learning into action Here are some role play activities I have used for post reading
TV reporters
Students can pretend to be television reporters with two minutes to sum up the highlights of the "story." They work in small groups to decide on the highlights which are written as news prompt on a laptop or a large piece of paper
Teacher-absent student
A student becomes the "teacher" and explains what was covered in class with a student who was absent This is a good and meaningful activity because the students are trained to decide important aspects of a lesson The activity may become really entertaining when the teacher plays a role of a real teacher the class know
Hot Seat
One student becomes the writer of a text or a character in a text, answering the class’ questions The questions can be creative, whose answers are not found in the text Here, there is aspect of unpredictability, which is one important characteristics of real communication Funny answers are expected, and these are the interesting parts of the activity
2.3.2.2: Applications of using videos in post- reading of textbook English 12.
* Sample 1: Unit 5: Higher education (Hot seat)
+Aim: Retell the story of 3 freshmen mentioned in the text, encourage creative, funny questions not found in the text for hot seater
+ Time: 3-5 minutes
+ Procedure:
Activity1: Assign students the role to play as Sarah, Ellen and Brenden.
“Now, you are freshmen at university and you are going to talk about your first impression of university life, and answer your friends’ questions.”
Activity2:
For hot seater: Have students organize the idea and format of their speech,
think of the possible questions to answer
Trang 9For the class: Try to think of creative and funny questions to ask the hot seater,
Teacher can offer additional help by asking questions to elicit the main idea of the text
Activity3: Ask hot seater to retell his/ her story based on the text, encourage
class to raise questions for him/ her
* Sample 2: Unit 6: Future jobs
(Head hunter)
+Aim: Retell the main information of the job interview
+ Time: 3-5 minutes
Procedure:
- Assign students the role to play as a head hunter of Google
“Now, you are a head hunter and you are going to give potential candidates to your cooperation brief information about how to have a good job interview”
- Help students with the format of speech about the procedure of the job interview, what candidates should /shouldn’t do in the interview to make a good impression on the interviewer
- Have students do their roles, asks classmates to give comments first and then
teachers
* Sample 3: Unit 8: Life in the future
(Teacher- absent student)
+Aim: Retell the main information of the lesson “Life in the future”
+ Time: 3-5 minutes
+ Procedure:
- Assign students the role to play as a teacher and the class is an absent student
“Now, you are Mrs Hoa- your teacher and you are going to give brief information to a student who was absent from previous lesson”
- Ask student to select and organize the main information from the text
- Encourage students (as an absent student) to raise questions to imaginary teacher to deal with
- Have student to do their roles and give feedbacks
* Sample 4: Unit 13: The 22 nd Sea Game (TV reporter)
+Aim: Retell the main information of the 22nd SEA GAMES
+ Time: 3-5 minutes
+ Procedure:
Activity1: Assign students the role to play as VTV3 – a sport reporter.
“Now, you are a sport report of VTV3 channel and you are going to give brief information to audience about the 22nd Sea Games”
To make the activity more meaningful and exciting, teacher encourages TV reporter to interview classmates as an audience about their feeling about sports events, and cultures of the host nation, etc
Activity2: To connect the information in text book, teacher should ask students
to talk about the 31st in Vietnam and then make comparison between the 2 sport
Trang 10events Teacher also can prepare some pictures of the 31st Sea Games as guideline for students to speak
Activity3: Have students to do their role, listen and give feedback
2.3.3 Using Videos
2.3.3.1: Suggested ways of using videos in post- reading.
Using video in the classroom is only truly effective when the students engage with it It’s not enough to just sit back and watch the screen, they need to
be active! Here are five fun video- based activities that I often use in my classroom Here are several activities teachers can try out related to using video in the EFL classroom for post-reading stage
How to Use Video 1: Order the Events.
After watching a clip, students are given a set of event cards Each card contains one or two sentences describing events from the video Students are then asked
to rearrange the event cards into the correct order This reading-based activity is excellent for memory building and improving recall power
How to Use Video 2: True or False.
Students watch a video clip and write three sentences about what they see Encourage the students to write a mix of true and false statements Every few minutes, pause the viewing and ask a student to read a sentence; the rest of the class must decide whether it’s true or false This is a great multi-skills activity, ideal for advanced students It tests their observation, writing, reading, speaking and listening skills, whilst encouraging creativity
How to Use Video 3: What Happens Next?