A THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING DEPARTMENT THANH HOA CITY EDUCATION & TRAINING OFFICE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE SOME EXPERIENCES IN USING MIND MAPS IN TEACHING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSIO
Trang 1A THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING DEPARTMENT
THANH HOA CITY EDUCATION & TRAINING OFFICE
EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
SOME EXPERIENCES IN USING MIND MAPS IN TEACHING ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION FOR GRADE 4
The implementer: Nguyen Thi Anh Position: Teacher
School: Minh Khai 1 Primary School Experience initiative in the field: English
THANH HOA, YEAR 2022
Trang 2PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reason for choosing themes
Creative thinking is extremely important for the development of human civilizations Creative thinking not only helps people solve problems that arise
in life appropriately, but also ensures the realization of the potential abilities of each individual
Therefore, along with knowledge teaching, creative thinking development
is considered an important issue of education And one of the active teaching methods to meet that goal is the use of mind maps in teaching.With the current trend of being student-centered, it is very beneficial for teachers to apply mind mapping in teaching Mind maps will help teachers present concepts in the classroom clearly, focus on the issues that need to be discussed with students, and provide an overview of the topic
Besides, students can also receive the lesson content in an overview and accurate way to improve learning efficiency Students will not have to receive information passively, but on the contrary, students will have to think, create, and remember learned knowledge logically
Another benefit of using Mindmap in learning is that students can present the lesson content in a scientific, easy-to-understand, and easy-to-remember manner They have just taken notes, combined with the use of images, colors, and ideas to summarize the lesson content and actively memorize knowledge Thereby stimulating the interest in learning, maximizing the memory potential
of the brain
Mind maps bring high efficiency in learning, develop logical thinking, synthesis ability so that students can firmly grasp knowledge and remember for
a long time instead of the previous type of memorization
For English subject, the use of mind maps not only attracts interest, helps students memorize words and sentence structure effectively, but also promotes students' creativity
From the practice of teaching English in elementary schools, especially teaching English grade 4, lesson 3 in each Unit is accompanied by a section to develop reading comprehension skills such as: “read and tick/ read and
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Trang 3complete/ read and answer ." In these lessons, the teacher must synthesize the teaching of vocabulary, sentence structure, and even practice reading comprehension skills in the same 35-minute lesson, the application of an active teaching method using "MIND MAP" is one of the quite effective methods in teaching English reading comprehension skills, so I boldly chose the topic of an
experiential initiative: “Some experiences in using mind maps in teaching
English reading comprehension for grade 4 ”.
1.2 The research purpose
This experiential initiative is researched and applied to improve students' English reading comprehension skills by applying mind maps, helping students feel more interested in learning English in general and the class has a "read" section in particular Since then, gradually contributing to improving the quality
of English teaching in grade 4
1.3 The research subjects
Mind mapping techniques in some reading comprehension passages in Reading lessons - 4th grade English program
1.4 The research methods
- Read and study documents on the method of using mind maps and applying mind maps in teaching
- Survey, analysis, statistics and comparison of results
- Teach and collect ideas from students and colleagues
- Observe the student's learning process
1.5 The new points of experience innovation
- Students do not have to passively receive information, but on the contrary, they have to brainstorm, create and logically remember what they have learned
- Stimulate students' interest in learning,concentration and creativity - Maximize the memory potential of the brain.By taking notes combined with the use of images, lines, colors, and writing, students will explore, deepen and expand an idea, summarize the main ideas of a content, systematize a topic
Trang 4- Just by looking at the mind map, any student can present the lesson content,eliminate confusing expressions, remember first and forget later, develop speaking skill, confidence in public and more boldness when using English
PART 2: CONTENT 2.1 The rationality
It is important to teach Primary students the appropriate methods and ways to memorize, it promotes the development of their intentional memory Elementary school students barely understand that they can and should learn to memorize what they hear and read Such memorization is not yet known to students The most basic and prominent problem in the psychology of primary school students is their emotional life Elementary school students are sensitive
to the world Children often express emotions while perceiving attractive specific objects and phenomena Dry lectures, lack of vivid images are difficult
to cause emotions in children Young children often exhibit strong emotional intensity, are easily touched, are difficult to contain, and have difficulty controlling their emotions Therefore, teaching built on the basis of positive and colorful thinking activities will quickly educate elementary students to love intellectual work as well as a love for discovering new things In short, primary school is the first foundation for children's development Based on the personality characteristics, the ability to pay attention and remember, we need to attract children with new activities, with special colors and qualities that are different from normal, then it will stimulate children's feelings receive, positive and accurate perception
a What is mind mapping?
Mind mapping is a mind organization tool This is the easiest way to get information into your brain and then get it out It is an innovative and very effective note-taking medium in its own right, “Organize your thoughts”
A mind map is a form of note-taking that uses color and images to expand and deepen ideas In the middle of the Mind Map is a central idea or image This central idea or image will be developed by branches representing the main ideas and all connected to the central ideas The main branches are divided into level
2, level 3 branches…
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Trang 5On the branches, you can add the necessary images or symbols Thanks to the connections between branches, ideas are linked together, making it possible for mind maps to cover ideas on a wide range that conventional ideas cannot
b Description of mind map:
2.2 The real issues before applying excellent experience
Most of the text in the English 4 program are written on different topics Some lessons contain too many new words This makes students psychologically depressed when reading Moreover, the reading comprehension part is often very dry, with few illustrations, few teaching aids, students often do not like reading long passages, many words, many new words For primary school students, they don't know how to deduce the content of sentences with known new words, but they want to know almost all the new words and must be able to translate the text correctly before doing other tasks Each class has many students with different levels, so their ability to absorb is not equal Before starting to write this experiential initiative, I gave students in grades 4A1 and 4A2 at Minh Khai Primary School a survey on their interest in learning about the type of reading comprehension text and the results were as follows :
Class
Number
of students
Interest in English reading comprehension Very
interested Interested Normal
Not interested
1st big idea Small idea
Small idea
Small idea Small idea
Small idea
Small idea
Small idea
Small idea
Small idea Small idea
Small idea Small idea
Small idea Small idea Small idea Small idea
Small idea Small idea Small idea Small idea
TOPIC
2nd big idea 3rd big idea 4th big idea
5th big idea
Trang 6From the above results, I wondered how to bring my students more interesting and new lessons, stimulate their curiosity and creativity even more,
so that after each lesson When they study, they deepen their knowledge, remember the main content of the lesson, become more confident when using English, and especially reading comprehension, are no longer a fear for them and they know how to apply it, improve your knowledge
2.3 The solutions used to solve the problem
In order to improve the effectiveness of teaching English reading comprehension according to mind map, teachers need to do the following things well:
- Before new lessons, teachers must clearly define the main content, understand the purpose and requirements of each type of reading passage, and then select readings that can apply mind maps
- Prepare lessons carefully and make full use of teaching tools and equipment: images, projectors, sound , and while teaching, teachers should use simple terms, easy to understand, create a friendly and close environment between teachers and students, good competition among groups In addition, the dedication and enthusiasm in teaching of the teacher is very necessary, it contributes significantly to the teaching results
- Teachers need to systematize the content of knowledge of the topic of reading comprehension exercises when drawing mind maps, arousing students' curiosity and understanding to form the habit of creating mind maps with vocabulary learned
- Teachers need to properly assess students' abilities to make appropriate requirements; because the requirements are too low for students to complete well, it will make students feel bored and will not have the will to strive for more; Too high demands on unfinished students will lose students' confidence, reduce their interest in learning
When using mind maps to teach English reading comprehension, I carefully researched documents, accessed the Internet to master how to prepare lectures and guide students to familiarize themselves with and practice reading
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Trang 7and understanding mind maps Using it to develop practical teaching and learning plans, to help students easily remember and remember lessons, to stimulate their interest in learning in English, I have implemented the following solutions:
First let students familiarize themselves with and practice reading and understanding mind maps by introducing students to some mind maps Specifically, I often point to prepared mind maps and guide students as : from a main topic or a key word of the reading passage, give the first big idea, the second big idea, the third big idea, each with minor ideas related to it With this approach, it helped students easily understand the lesson, absorb quickly and easily do the exercises related to that reading comprehension
Second instruct students to draw mind maps with the teacher For simple reading comprehension, close to students, I will give topics or keywords related
to the reading comprehension passage and then ask students to give big ideas, small ideas related to that reading comprehension This approach both requires students to think and find ideas related to the topic of the reading passage and to create a vibrant learning atmosphere in the classroom, helping them to easily acquire knowledge actively and memorize lessons better
Third choosing when to use mind maps Mind maps are used by me to
teach new words, systematize knowledge of a topic, a reading comprehension passage or to develop students' speaking skills and presentation skills
Here are some examples of “Read” lessons using mind maps:
Example 1: Unit 9: What are they doing?” – Lesson 3 – Part 4.“Read and tick”
Before giving students reading comprehension and doing exercises , I will accompany students to learn the main vocabulary of the passage such as:
skipping, playing basketball, playing tennis, playing badminton Then I present the mind map model about the content of the passage drawn on the extra board
on the board or present the prepared mind map
Ask students to pay attention to the mind map The teacher will briefly summarize the content of the passage based on the mindmap Students and teachers exploit information from the passage to complete mind map After
Trang 8completing the mind map, students have a clear view of the main content of the reading, the teacher asks students to work in pairs, groups of 3 or 4 students, discuss the exercise " Read and tick T or F” Ss will be able to do the exercises quickly based on the mindmap without having to read the passage again Finally,
to help students deepen their knowledge For students who complete the lesson well, the teacher can encourage them to re-present the passage based on the mind map they have drawn to help them develop speaking skill, confidence in public and more boldness when using English
Example 2: Unit 2 – I'm from Japan – Lesson 3 –Part 4 Read and complete:
Before giving students reading comprehension and exercises, I will help
students to learn the main vocabulary of the passage such as Japan, Australia,
England, America Then I present the mind map model of the content of the
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Activities
Playing basketball Playing tennis
Skipping Playingbadminton
Trang 9passage drawn on the extra board on the board.The teacher can ask the students about the capitals and nationalities of the countries in the reading passage, the teacher can provide information if the students do not know to complete the mind map.Ss will be able to do the exercises quickly based on the mindmap without having to read the passage again.For students who complete the lesson well, the teacher can encourage them to re-present the passage based on the mind map they have drawn to help them develop speaking skill, confidence in public and more boldness when using English
Country Japan - ( Akiko)
America -(Tom) England - ( Linda)
Australia - ( Tony)
Japanese
Tokyo
Australia n
Sydney
English London American New York
Trang 10Example 3: Unit 11 – What rime is it? – Lesson 3 –Part 4 Read and complete: Before giving students reading comprehension and exercises, I will ask students
to skim the passage and talk about Phong's daily activities and time to do those activities Then I will complete the mind map with the students
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Phong’s routines
gets up
6.30
goes to school
7 a.m
has dinner
dinner
schsssschô
goes to bed