SKKN USING WORDWALL TO IMPROVE READING SKILL FOR 10 TH GRADERS IN TEACHING ONLINE

TOPIC: USING WORDWALL TO IMPROVE READING SKILL FOR 10 TH GRADERS IN TEACHING ONLINE Subject: English... NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING 1-5 HIGH SCHOOL TOPIC: USING WORDW

TOPIC:

USING WORDWALL TO IMPROVE READING SKILL FOR 10 TH

GRADERS IN TEACHING ONLINE

Subject: English

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

1-5 HIGH SCHOOL

TOPIC:

USING WORDWALL TO IMPROVE READING SKILL FOR 10 TH

GRADERS IN TEACHING ONLINE

Subject: English

Teacher: Le Thi Hong Thu

Group: Literature - English School year: 2021- 2022 Telephone number: 0385.034.838

Nghia Dan, April 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

2.1 Definition of online teaching and learning 6 2.2 When is online teaching and learning carried out 7

3.3 Benefits of Wordwall in teaching reading lessons 8

3.5 Some useful ways for using Wordwall in teaching reading 10

4.2 The reality of teaching and learning reading skill online at

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Reasons for the study

The teaching and learning environment brought by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the evolution of online teaching as an ineluctable tool for education and training To ensure that the teaching curriculum does not become discontinued, online teaching was started in most schools This study highlights the students‟ perception of and motivation towards online classes in respect to internet connectivity and accessibility during COVID-19 pandemic Since online teaching is essentially a student-centered learning approach, the motivational level

of students plays an important role in making teaching protocols effective

Many students feel bored and tired with online learning Therefore, in a world of online teaching and distance learning, teachers are trying to keep students engaged and connected in new ways Online teaching tools are the most effective They help students to be more excited and better

Wordwall lets teachers create interactive games, activities, and printables using a variety of provided templates One of the great things about Wordwall is how easy it is to switch the template of an activity, without changing the content itself The concept is simple: use the templates to create well-known activity types such as multiple choice, grouping or matching, or more complex games and quizzes

Wordwall is particularly useful for mixed-level classes, where teachers can assign fast finishers an activity which they can easily access online, even from their phone It can also create a dynamic way to have class competitions For any level of learner, Wordwall has potential to be used for self-study, as teachers decide which content to use in the activities Teachers can set tasks for groups or individual learners by giving them an access code

Reading is one of the important skills in learning English It requires students to know many words and knowledge Wordwall is a tool to help students remember more vocabularies and have reading comprehension better

Through teaching process in Covid – 19, I find that using this tool is very effective and help the students motivate in learning reading lessons From the

mentioned reasons above I want to choose the research “Using Wordwall to improve reading skill for 10th graders in teaching online” to help the students

much more involved in the reading process in period of pandemic

2 Aim of the research

This study aims to provide many skills to use Wordwall in teaching reading skill online Using Wordwall fluently helps teachers to use many other tools effectively and diversely in many different classes

Wordwall creates many useful and creative games to help students more interested in long reading passages with lots of new words Limiting time in each activity helps students answer the questions more and more skillfully It not only helps students learn better in reading skills, but also creates excitement and motivates students to learn English more during the pandemic

3 Scope of the study

This research is conducted with 10th form students at high school The research focuses on whether Worwall can improve and how it affects these

students‟ reading skill I have been using Wordwall to motivate and enhance

student thinking skills through the reading text by using interesting games instead

of responding the questions given in the textbook

4 Methods of the study

This study using quantitative research method and online class observation aimed to determine whether Wordwall is able to enhance students‟ comprehension skills or have a positive effect on the ability of students to make sense of what they read The author used data collection instrument to gather information about the students involved, monitor the progress of the students when they used Wordwall throughout the research, and determine the effectiveness of the activities based on the pre-tests and post-tests

The pre-tests were necessary to assess the reading comprehension level and skills the students possessed before the intervention of the strategy and used as a baseline score The post-tests were used to determine the effectiveness of the strategy used by the students during the research process by comparing the pre-test scores to the ones taken at the end of the ten practice reading lessons

5 New features in the study’s result

In my research, there are a lot of interesting games and activities which have high effectiveness and wide application Many activities in textbook have been adapted suitably to all levels of students These activities not only help students retain, organize, and evaluate the information by explicit instructions but also develop teachers‟ creativity and flexibility in teaching reading skill Moreover, the students are interested in online learning more than before The students can join in the activity on Wordwall without creating their account

The research is very useful and suitable for the current epidemic period

PART II: CONTENT

I THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

1 Reading skill

1.1 Definition of reading skill

Reading is the process of looking at a series of written symbols and getting meaning from them When we read, we use our eyes to receive written symbols (letters, punctuation marks and spaces) and we use our brain to convert them into words, sentences and paragraphs that communicate something to us

Reading is a receptive skill and through it we receive information Reading

is receptive skill to understand printed words likes discerning main ideas, understanding sequence, noticing specific details, making inferences, making comparisons, and making predictions in second and foreign language instruction

In many situations, the complex process of reading also requires the skill of speaking, so that we can pronounce the words that we read In this sense, reading is also a productive skill in that we are both receiving information and transmitting it

1.2 The importance of reading skill

“The more you read, the more things you know The more that you learn,

the more places you’ll go” This is a famous quote by Dr Suess The importance of

reading skills cannot be stressed enough As a teacher, I often find that when I express my concern about a child‟s reading ability and comprehension to parents, particularly at around the age of 10, parents are quite taken aback and I‟m greeted

with “but they’re so young, give them a chance.”

Reading helps you discover the world Reading is a gateway to learn anything about everything It helps you discover new things and educate yourself

in any area of life you are interested in You can find a book on just about any subject you can imagine, dive in and start learning Your hild can learn about their interests (and even themselves) through reading things they enjoy

Reading develops your imagination and creativity When we watch television or a movie, all the information is given to us on the screen – there‟s nothing we need to imagine A book in its pure form is just words on a page, and our minds have to do the work, imagining the words coming to life This does wonder to develop our creativity and imagination

Reading improves vocabulary and communication Giving your child access

to a world of words is one of the best ways to improve their vocabulary and enhance their spelling skills New knowledge that‟s gained through enjoyment has

a tendency to stick and doesn‟t even feel like work! Both their written and spoken communication abilities can be improved through regular reading

Reading helps people build a good self-image and play well with others Learning new concepts, discovering exciting places and understanding others‟ perspectives is key to build a well-rounded self-image – not to mention the self-esteem boost from being able to read well! It‟s at early ages that children can be most easily influenced, and a positive reading experience can do wonders to help them form a positive perception of themselves Reading also has social benefits Children can discuss stories with others and form friendships over shared interests

Reading improves concentration and reduces stress Not only does reading focus your attention entirely on the task at hand but it also immerses you in the information, improving concentration and memory of what you read Getting completely involved in a book can help us relax and feel calm

2 Online teaching and learning

2.1 Definition of Online teaching and learning

Online learning and teaching is the newest and most popular form of distance education today Within the past decade it has had a major impact on postsecondary education and the trend is only increasing We can explore what the experience of online learning is like for students and how it has changed the role of the instructor

Online learning and teaching is education that takes place over the Internet

It is often referred to as “Elearning” among other terms However, online learning

is just one type of “distance learning” - the umbrella term for any learning that takes place across distance and not in a traditional classroom Distance learning and teaching has a long history and there are several types available today, including:

• Correspondence Courses: conducted through regular mail with little interaction

• Telecourses: where content is delivered via radio or television broadcast

• CD-ROM Courses: where the student interacts with static computer content

• Online Learning: Internet-based courses offered synchronously and/or asynchronously

• Mobile Learning: by means of devices such as cellular phones, PDAs and digital audio players

By far the most popular approach today is online learning and teaching According to the Sloan Consortium, online enrollments continue to grow at rates faster than for the broader student population and institutes of higher education expect the rate of growth to continue increasing

Online teaching and learning is faculty-delivered instruction via the Internet Online instruction includes real-time (synchronous) and anytime, anywhere (asynchronous) interactions

2.2 When is online teaching and learning carried out

Due to the threat of COVID-19, schools, colleges and universities are facing decisions about how to continue teaching and learning while keeping their faculty, staff, and students safe from a public health emergency that is moving fast and not well understood Many institutions have opted to cancel all face-to-face classes, including labs and other learning experiences, and have mandated that faculty move their courses online to help prevent the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 The list of institutions of education making this decision has been growing each day

Online distance learning meets the needs of an ever-growing population of students who cannot or prefer not to participate in traditional classroom settings These learners include those unable to attend traditional classes, who cannot find a particular class at their chosen institution, who live in remote locations, who work full-time and can only study at or after work, and those who simply prefer to learn independently The minimum requirement for students to participate in an online course is access to a computer, the Internet, and the motivation to succeed in a non-traditional classroom Online courses provide an excellent method of course delivery unbound by time or location allowing for accessibility to instruction at anytime from anywhere

3 Wordwall

3.1 Definition of Wordwall

A wordwall is a collection of words which are displayed in large visible letters on a wall, bulletin board, or other display surface in a classroom The word wall is designed to be an interactive tool for students and contains an array of words that can be used during writing and reading

3.2 Types of Wordwall

Wordwall can be used to create both interactive and printable activities Most of our templates are available in both an interactive and a printable version

Interactives are played on any web-enabled device, like a computer, tablet,

phone or interactive whiteboard They can be played individually by students, or

be teacher-led with students taking turns at the front of the class

There are 18 kinds of games in Interactive activities They are: Quiz, Match

up, Find the match, Airplane, Maze chase, ……

Match up: Drag and drop each keyword next to its definition

Quiz: A series of multiple choice questions Tap the correct answer to

proceed

Random wheel: Spin the wheel to see which item comes up next

Missing word: A cloze activity where you drag and drop words into blank

spaces within a text

Group sort: Drag and drop each item into its correct group

Find the match: Tap the matching answer to eliminate it Repeat until all

answers are gone

Unjumble: Drag and drop words to rearrange each sentence into its correct

the wrong ones

Printables can printed out directly or downloaded as a PDF file They can

be used as a companion to the interactive or as stand-alone activities

In covid-19 period, most of the teachers use the interactives on Wordwall.net

3.3 Benefits of Wordwal in teaching reading lessons

Wordwall is a great technique to introduce and reinforce subject specific vocabulary Students in high school may struggle with subject specific vocabulary

in Geography, Sciences…They face difficulty in learning, understanding and using specific words appropriately They also don't know how to answer all the questions

in a reading lesson for short time I guided them in using Wordwall successfully in these subjects too Students‟ vocabulary accumulation can be assessed using Word Scrambles (anagrams) and Word Searches which can be easily created using online sites WordWall can be used to make passive vocabulary active

Wordwall is an excellent vocabulary building and doing reading comprehension technique When students experience confidence with the use of enhanced vocabulary, they are encouraged to use this technique at home as well They can use the walls in their study area for having Wordwall, thereby doubling the effort and doubling the positive result in lessons Students thus become self-directed in vocabulary enhancing and answering the questions in reading skill

3.4 How to use Wordwall in teaching online

Firstly, we have to create using templates Our activities are created using a

template system These templates include familiar classics like Quiz and Crossword We also have arcade style games like Maze Chase and Airplane, and there are classroom management tools such as Seating plan

To make a new activity you start by selecting your template and then enter your content It's easy and means you can create a fully interactive activity in a only a couple of minutes

Secondly, we switch template Once you've created an activity, you can

switch it to a different template with a single click This saves you time and is great for differentiation and reinforcement For example, if you created a Match activity based on names of shapes, you could turn it into a Crossword with the exact the same shape names

In the same way we can turn your resource into a Quiz or a Wordsearch and many more possibilities too

The third step is editing any activity There's no need to settle for pre-made

activities If you find an activity but it's not quite right, you can easily

customize the material to suit your class and your teaching style

The next one is Themes and options Interactives can be presented in

different themes Each theme changes the look and feel with different graphics, fonts, and sounds You'll also find further options to set a timer or change the gameplay The printables have options too For example, you can change the font,

or print multiple copies per page

The fifth one is students‟ assignments Wordwall activities can be used as

student-completed assignments When a teacher sets an assignment, students are directed to that one activity without the distraction of visiting the main activity

page

This feature can be used in-class where students have access to their own devices, or as a way of setting homework Each student's results are recorded and made available to the teacher

The last step is sharing with teachers Any activity you create can be made public This allows you to share its activity page link via email, on social media or via other means It also allows other teachers to find the activity in our Community search results, play it, and build upon it.If you prefer you can keep activities private, which means only you can access it

3.5 Some useful ways for using Wordwall in teaching reading

Students nowadays need immediate results and they are happy with easy, simple and interesting techniques I teach English to students of age 15-17 The technique I use with my students is Wordwall Wordwall is usually used in all of the classes

Using Wordwall in vocabulary building is easy and simple Students earmark the words to be included in the list to be put up on the wall This helps them take ownership of learning They are meaningfully engaged and motivated During the entire teaching of the text, the teacher keeps referring to the words on the wall The spelling, pronunciation and the other forms of the words can also be put up

Wordwall can be used before reading, while reading and after reading Using Wordwall improves reading comprehension and writing as the students start using relevant words in both writing and speaking activities Letting the words remain on the wall for some time gives students the opportunity to keep referring

to them Even during class review tests, students may be allowed to refer to the words

Students do not need to create Wordwall accounts The teacher can send them direct links to the activities she creates, and they can either input their names

or complete the activity anonymously When the teacher assigns activities to students, their results are visible on her dashboard

One of the ways in which I like to use Wordwall in my live classes is to create vocabulary activities during the lesson I keep the Wordwall window open while sharing the main screen with the students As new words arise, I just pop them into Wordwall, and once we‟re done, I click “done,” and the activity is ready

This is the same activity shown in the image on the left, but as a Gameshow Quiz I‟ll often use the Gameshow feature to do for a live, in-class experience (I‟ll share my screen), and I‟ll use some of the other templates for homework assignments I can also adjust settings on this screen, below the activity, and save

my settings for a specific activity, or for the template itself

4 Research context

4.1 Setting and Participants

The participants were 44 students of 10A2 class Most of these students are generally at elementary level They learned English for at least five years at Primary and Secondary school but this subject was not carefully taken into its consideration In their opinion, learning English means learning grammar and structures with common lexical sources Therefore, they‟re surprised and confused when they have to read long reading texts in class and in the exams Some students can easily adapt to the new ways of learning, but most of them face challenges

Learning online is not easy for the students They felt bored with the lessons

and they don‟t pay much attention to learning

4.2 The reality of teaching and learning reading skill online at 1 – 5 high school

As mentioned above, reading skill in Tieng Anh 10 is the first part of sixteen lessons that comprise one unit in the textbook Reading lesson admittedly provides language inputs such as vocabulary, structures as well as knowledge background related to the lesson topic The students in our school, however, have been facing numerous challenges in reading lesson because of their poor source of vocabulary, structures Some students get bored with long reading task; others don‟t know how to activate their language capacity to comprehend the reading passage In addition, most of them have difficulty getting general ideas, specific information; paraphrase the meaning of the words in order to successfully explore the reading text to tackle assigned reading tasks

During Covid period, most of the students have telephones or computers to learn online However Internet connection is not good and sometimes they can‟t follow the lessons Some students feel bored with reading lessons because they have to do long reading tasks Therefore they don‟t pay attention to the lessons, especially in online lessons The teacher can‟t oversee all of them during the lessons When the teacher calls them to answer, they say that they can‟t see the lesson or micro and camera cannot be used This is very difficult for the teachers

As students are moving towards online learning from traditional classrooms,

it becomes difficult for teachers to adjust to a new learning platform Teaching online may not influence and engage students for longer periods of time They can easily get distracted and lose concentration during live sessions Teachers are not able to deliver effective content in time It is said that teachers take more time in teaching online than face to face If students exceed their deadline in submitting, assignments or projects can lead to more work for them

4.3 Solution

To solve above problems, the teachers need to understand that online learning has a lot of advantages with respect to tools and interesting platforms to engage students in learning They try to include those tools and multiple types of learning approaches such as podcasts, videos (teaching channel, own videos, live classes), discussions, various forms of text through articles and blogs, different assessment methods (tests, quizzes, assignments and projects) learning activities and collaboration for better learning outcomes

Teachers must recognize the need of keeping in contact with the students and understand what kind of activities can accomplish your goal Conduct discussions for specific content for the students with the opportunity to solve the problem and learning effectively Also providing discussion on practical questions

by the students can reduce frustration, problem-solving skills and handling

technical issues They should provide a platform for the students in order to communicate and collaborate with other fellow classmates

The most important thing is to get comfortable in a virtual classroom The teacher should find out different kinds of tools that make teaching and assessment simple and easy The teacher can develop many teaching methods that can improve their learning such as conducting different activities, model making,etc

Therefore I decided to use Wordwall in my reading lessons This tool helped the students to be interested more in online learning This made the lessons more

effective and more exciting, especially in reading lessons

4.4 Stages of the study

4.4.1 Instructional procedure

At the beginning of the instruction, I familiarized the students with what Wordwall was and how to use them effectively while reading a text The students were also trained to use Wordwall for different types of passages The students learned a variety of existing Worwall and they also started creating their own activities Wordwall was used in teaching vocabularies, pre-reading, while- reading and post-reading

4.4.2 The Pre-test and Post-test Model

Post-test is measurement of the outcome in the class after the experimental students have received the treatment while pre-tests measure the student performance prior to the experimental intervention A pre-test was administered to both experiment and control students to ascertain the standard of the students in reading comprehension The pre-test scores were recorded The test material was designed based on the scope of the study It was made up of 2 passages, totaling 14 questions which can be classified into four types of reading questions – Identifying the main idea, finding the supporting details, understanding vocabulary, and making inferences

II Application in teaching

Sample 1: Match up

Unit 1 - Tiếng Anh 10- Student book, p.13 – A DAY IN THE LIFE OF…

* Objectives: By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

- can know the definition of vocabularies related to farmer's life

- know about activities on a day in the life of farmers

- know about the organization of the life on a day

- sympathize with farmers‟ everyday work

* Stage: Pre - reading

* Time allowed: 8 minutes

* Content: match the words/phrases with their definition

* Products: students‟ answers

* Organization of implementation

- Teacher sends Link to students

- Teacher asks students to do the activity

- Teacher asks students to answer and submit

- Teacher gives comments

Expected answer:

Result of students

Sample 2: Random wheel

Unit 2 - Tiếng Anh 10- Student book, p.22 – SCHOOL TALKS

* Objectives: By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

- know how to tell daily activities at school and introduce themselves

- know about activities on a day at school

- know about the organization of daily activities inside and outside the school

- sympathize with their parents‟ and teachers‟ everyday work

* Stage: While - reading

* Time allowed: 10 minutes

* Content: find out who has the statements given in the random wheel

* Products: students‟ answers

* Organization of implementation

- Give the instruction: read the small talks and find out who…

- Check the instruction

- Teacher asks students to work in 3mins

- Teacher asks students to give their answers, after 3mins

- Teacher checks and gives the correct answers

Expected answer:

Sample 3: Quiz

Unit 3 - Tiếng Anh 10- Student book, p.32 – PEOPLE’S BACKGROUND

* Objectives: By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

- read a passage about Marie Curie for general or specific information

- describe people‟s back ground: name, age, place/date of birth, education, job, interest

- have ability to do the reading tasks

- Develop collaborative, problem-solving and communicative competences

* Stage: While - reading

* Time allowed: 10 minutes

* Content: answering questions

* Products: Ss‟ correct answers

* Organization of implementation

- give link of this activity to students

- ask students to answer the questions

- call students to answer

- Teacher checks and gives comments

Expected answer:

Result of students:

Sample 4: Open the box

Unit 4 - Tiếng Anh 10- Student book, p.44 – SPECIAL EDUCATION

* Objectives: By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

- understand what special education is

- know talk about the situation of special education in Vietnam as well as in foreigner countries

- help students have a love for those who are disabled or mentally retarded

* Stage: While- reading

* Time allowed: 10 minutes

* Content: answering questions

* Products: Ss‟ correct answers

* Organization of implementation

- Instructions: " Read the passage and complete the following sentences by

ticking the corresponding letter A, B, C, or D

- Teacher asks students to work individually

- Teacher asks students to give their answer

- Teacher gives the correct answers and result

- Teacher gives comments

Expected answer:

Result of students:

Sample 5: Random card

Unit 6 - Tiếng Anh 10- Student book, p.64 – AN EXCURSION

* Objectives: By the end of this activity, students will be able to:

- Read for gist and for specific information about an excursion to a beautiful spot near Ha Noi

- know more vocabularies related to excursion

- know how to prepare for an excursion

* Stage: While – reading

* Time allowed: 10 minutes

* Content: answering questions

* Products: the Ss‟ answers

* Organization of implementation

- ask students to join in the activity

- ask students to answer the questions

- Teacher gives comment