How to use interdisciplinary knowledge and mind maps to teach unit 11, English textbook 11

How to use interdisciplinary knowledge and mind maps to teach unit 11, English textbook 11 1 THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HOANG HOA 4 HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE HOW TO USE INT[.]

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HOANG HOA 4 HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

HOW TO USE INTERDISCIPLINARY

KNOWLEDGE AND MIND MAPS TO TEACH UNIT 11,

ENGLISH TEXTBOOK 11

Author: Dinh Thi Thanh Hien

Position: Teacher

Subject: English

THANH HOA, 2017

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 Using interdisciplinary knowledge and mind maps to

teach Unit 11 , English textbook 11

4-18

Reference books

I- INTRODUCTION:

1 Rationale :

For many years, teaching and learning have been considered as teaching and

learning a set of isolated English and isolated items such as phonetics,vocabulary,

grammar, so English lessons are often seen stressful and boring In fact,

English was viewed a subject integrated many different subjects and teaching ,

learning English were considered as a mastery of these items together Many

teachers have been trying hard to apply suitable methods of teaching with a view

to helping students understand the lessons better and feel more motivated in

English lesson.Nevertheless, it is a matter of fact that integrated method of

teaching often take teachers a lot of time and work to prepare well related

knowledge As most teachers are only trained proffetionally so they have

difficulties getting knowledge of another subjects Therefore, teachers should

find out the best method to create new techniques, rediscover the old ones to suit

objectives of current innovations and meet the study demand in the century 21

Basing on these facts, I forcefully used interdisciplinary knowledge and

mind maps for many units in English textbook with the aim of enable my

students to find documents from different sources and to feel more interested,

take part more actively in English lessons

2 Aims of the study:

My theme focuses on making clear about some issues below:

- What is interdisciplinarity ?/ what is mind map?

- Why is using interdisciplinarity and mind maps to teach one of innovatory

methods ?

- How are interdisciplinary knowledge and mind map applied?

3 Objects of the study:

The objects chosen for my study and application are 11th grade students in

classes 11A3, 11A2 in Hoang Hoa 4 high school, Thanh Hoa province The

students are in natural- science classes tending focus only on their main subjects

such as maths, physics, chemistry and biology So they learn English in passive

way

4 Methods of the study:

My study is conducted by qualitative methods to collect information, compare,

and then, analyse data.By using the combination of these methods my theme

will reach effectively the targets of the essay

II- CONTENTS OF THE STUDY

1 Theoretical background

What is interdisciplinarity?

According to Wikipedia interdisciplinarity involves the combining of two or more academic disciplines into one activity It is about creating something new

by thinking across boundaries It is related to an interdiscipline or an interdisciplinary fields, which is an organizational unit that crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or school of thought, as new needs and professions emerge

The term interdisciplinary is applied within education and training pedagogies

to describe studies that use methods and insights of several established disciplines or traditional fields of study Interdisciplinarity involves students, and teachers in the goals of connecting and integrating several academic schools

of thought, professions, or technologies- along with their specific

perspectives-in the pursuit of a common task Interdisciplperspectives-inarity can likewise be applied to complex subjects that can only be understood by combining the perspectives of two or more fields.[2]

For example, the subject of land use may appear differently when examined by different disciplines, for instance, biology, chemistry, economics, geography, and politics

To begin with, a discipline can be conveniently defined as any comparatively self-contained and isolated domain of human experience which possesses its own community of experts Interdisciplinarity is best seen as bringing together distinctive components of two or more disciplines In academic discourse, interdisciplinarity typically applies to four realms: knowledge, research, education, and theory Interdisciplinary knowledge involves familiarity with components of two or more disciplines Interdisciplinary research combines components of two or more disciplines in the search or creation of new knowledge, operations, or artistic expressions Interdisciplinary education merges components of two or more disciplines in a single program of instruction Interdisciplinary theory takes interdisciplinary knowledge, research,

or education as its main objects of study

Interdisciplinary knowledge are important because:[2]

1 "Creativity often requires interdisciplinary knowledge

2 Immigrants often make important contributions to their new field

3 Disciplinarians often commit errors which can be best detected by people familiar with two or more disciplines

4 Some worthwhile topics of research fall in the interstices among the traditional disciplines

5 Many intellectual, social, and practical problems require interdisciplinary approaches

6 Interdisciplinary knowledge and research serve to remind us of the unity-of-knowledge ideal

7 Interdisciplinarians enjoy greater flexibility in their research

8 More so than narrow disciplinarians, interdisciplinarians often treat themselves to the intellectual equivalent of traveling in new lands

9 Interdisciplinarians may help breach communication gaps in the modern academy, thereby helping to mobilize its enormous intellectual resources

in the cause of greater social rationality and justice

10.By bridging fragmented disciplines, interdisciplinarians might play a role

in the defense of academic freedom

What is mind map ?

Mind mapping is a visual form of note taking that offers an overview of a topic and its complex information, allowing students to comprehend, create new ideas and build connections Through the use of colors, images and words, mind mapping encourages students to begin with a central idea and expand outward to more in-depth sub-topics.:[4]

Mind Map Example

Definition of a Mind Map

A mind map is a visual representation of hierarchical information that includes a

central idea surrounded by connected branches of associated topics

In education mind mapping is a beneficial learning tool to help students brainstorm any topic and think creatively Mind maps are particularly helpful in

the writing process and provide students with a natural way of thinking and building thoughts on a story plot or theme

Mind maps also provide teachers with insight into their students’ thought process regarding a specific topic By asking students to create mind maps demonstrating their comprehension of a concept, teachers are able to understand what a student’s prior knowledge was and how well the student understands the assignment or the material being taught This is a very effective way of evaluating students’ understanding

2 Practical background

Interdisciplinary teaching and learning give more opportunities for students to connect new learning with what they know and are interested in It provides more ways for students to learn and demonstrate their skills and understandings Students from 11A2, 11A3 ( students are interested in chemistry, physics, biology ) are excited about using knowledge of their favourite subjects in English lessons Moreover, interdisciplinary learning helps students build confidence to overcome challenges learning new and difficult English words because it encourages students to become personally invested in their work (since they are given the privilege and responsibility of making choices about what and how they learn and demonstrate their learning) More importantly, interdisciplinary work can lead to more personal, relevant, and memorable learning experiences for students and teachers – teachers get excited about students’ fresh ideas( solutions to protect environment) and new ways of demonstrating their understanding And students find learning English intersting and useful

Simultaneously, I have discovered that visually mind mapping ideas helps communicate with students by creating an engaging experience that is also more memorable Students find the process of visually recording ideas, whether for note taking or creating presentations, to be more fun than traditional note taking

By mapping the ideas one has an opportunity to record new ideas where they fit

in terms context and content[3] This process enables students to organize their notes by categories and relationships while mapping

3 Using interdisciplinary knowledge and mind maps to teach unit 11- English textbook 11, Educational Publishing House

UNIT 11: SOURCES OF ENERGY

Discuss advantages and disadvantages of sources of energy Work in group 1.- Collect relevant information, evidences and pictures to sources of energy

- Discuss advantages and disadvantages of sources of energy

- Use mind maps to perform your work

2 Prepare and give presentation to your class

Stage1: Collecting information, evidences related to the content of the lesson.

To collect relevant information , students will need access to some different resources Typical resources for student include textbooks, newspapers and magazines Perhaps the most helpful resources can be found on the Internet This makes students more excited about the topic and their study becomes more active Also, in this stage, I gave out many driving questions to my students

- What are the major forms of fossil fuels?

- How were fossil fuels formed?

- How are these fuels collected?

- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using fossil fuels?

- What are the environmental benefits of renewable energy?

- Why aren't some renewable resources widely accepted today?

Stage 2: Deploying the work

- Dividing groups

In the first place, I divided my class in to groups of 6 , and assigned tasks for each group

Group 1,3 : Non- renewable energy

Group 2,4 : Renewable energy

Group 5,6 : Sources of energy

Each groups’ members should discuss on how to design, create, and present products.Students could decide what products they will creat, what resources they will use, and how they will structure their time For unit 11 - sources of energy , they will discover information from chemistry, geography and physics

Students worked in group of six or eight

Stage 3:Conducting the work

Groups were asked to perform their works by using mind maps as developing mind maps increases thinking, memory and learning skills It is now widely accepted that people have a better memory for images than for words The combination of words and images that are not simply decorative have been found to facilitate learning, understanding, remembering and performing Images can help students select, structure, synthesize and integrate information

in a meaningful way

Students compiled information and used mind map to convey their ideas

During this stage, I served as coach, moving from group to group to guide the students' work As I did so, I asked myself the following coaching questions :

-Are the students attentive and working together cooperatively?

- Are the resources that students use geared to their comprehensive level of understanding?

- Do any groups have trouble in expressing their ideas? / using vocabulary ?

And it it is essential that the teacher ask the students to attempt this activity when new problems are addressed

Stage 4: Presenting the work.

Each group in my class showcased its picture to the class, explaining how the product was achieved as well as presenting the content In this stage, students of

each group viewed and could give questions and answers to other group The teacher also observed how engaged they were in presenting their works

Start with a topic in which students are already highly knowledgeable about how other disciplines address the issue and have a clear sense of how to synthesize and integrate This will build my confidence and allow me to more effectively gauge how students respond

Group 6: NON- RENEWABLE ENERGY

Most of our energy comes from non-renewable energy sources Coal, petroleum, natural gas, and uranium are examples of nonrenewable energy sources Non-renewable energy sources are used to make electricity, to heat our homes, to move our cars, and to manufacture products

Non- renewable energy and its harmful effects

Fossil fuels are available from environment However, they will be exhausted in

a relatively short time Moreover, fossil fuels are called nonrenewable because

it takes millions years for them to appear after being used up Fossil fuels are

important but they are not good you know Unfortunately, when we use fossil fuels we also harm environment They cause nagative effects on the environment such as air pollution, acid rain, global warming, climate change

- A students from group 6 gave some questions to own his group:

Who can explain what global warming is ?

Global warming

- An another member of group 6 anwsered:

Burning fossil fuels releases the carbon stored in these fuels into the atmosphere

as carbon dioxide This is a type of Green gas Too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere act like a blanket around the Earth, making it feel warm like the air inside a greenhouse[5] It's called the greenhouse effect When the earth starts to heat up, the global warming occurs

To explain global warming students used knowledge of chemistry and physics.This educates students to limit using fossil fuels in daily lives

- Why does acid rain happen?

ACID RAIN

pollution produced by fossil fuels power stations, factories and cars contains sulphur and nitrogen gases When they are released into the air these gases mix with the rain inside the clouds to make acid rain

-What is this picture?

- It is photochemical smog happened in China It is a type of air pollution

- I don't understand what photochemical is ? Can you explain to me ?