Training Some Life Skills For Students Through English Lessons At Grade 11

Many researches have proved that these negative phenomena come from lack of life skills in student generation such as: emotional control skills, support seeking skills, communication ski

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI

TRƯỜNG THPT NGUYỄN HỮU CẢNH

Mã số:

(Do HĐKH Sở GD&ĐT ghi)

TRAINING SOME LIFE SKILLS FOR STUDENTS THROUGH ENGLISH

Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm không thề hiện trong bản in SKKN

 Mô hình  Phần mềm  Phim ảnh  Hiện vật khác

Năm học: 2011-2012

SƠ LƯỢC LÝ LỊCH KHOA HỌC

I THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ CÁ NHÂN

1 Họ và tên: PHẠM NGỌC LAN HƯƠNG

2 Ngày tháng năm sinh: 29-11-1977

8 Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh

II TRÌNH ĐỘ ĐÀO TẠO

- Học vị (hoặc trình độ chuyên môn, nghiệp vụ) cao nhất: Cử nhân

- Năm nhận bằng: 1999

- Chuyên ngành đào tạo: Sư phạm Anh văn

III KINH NGHIỆM KHOA HỌC

- Lĩnh vực chuyên môn có kinh nghiệm: Giảng dạy bộ môn Tiếng Anh

Số năm có kinh nghiệm: 12

- Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã có trong 5 năm gần đây:

* VẬN DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC HỢP TÁC THEO NHÓM NHỎ

TRONG TIẾT DẠY READING 12

BM02-LLKHSKKN

TOPIC: TRAINING SOME LIFE SKILLS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH ENGLISH LESSONS AT GRADE 11

A RATIONALE OF THE TOPIC

Students are future owners of the country, who will play important roles in the country‟s development in coming years Without life skills, students could not fulfil their duties to not only themselves but their families, their community and their country also

In school years, students are forming and developing their own characteristics, defining their big dreams, are eager to learn - and willing to discover new things However, they still lack knowledge about social life, living experience and are easily affected, incited to bad things… In the current international integration context, students are usually influenced by both positive and negative factors; therefore, they always have to fight to choose their own value, to confront difficulties and challenges Without being trained in life skills, students may be embroiled in destructive behaviour, violence, selfish living ways, practical mind and easy to have a deviation in personality development We all have seen many students having negative phenomena such as drug addiction, suicide, violence, car racing, etc Many researches have proved that these negative phenomena come from lack of life skills in student generation such as: emotional control skills, support seeking skills, communication skills, consistence skills…

As a result, training in life skills for students is very necessary to help them form suitable behaviour and have responsibility with their own lives Moreover, being trained with life skills can help them have the ability to respond positively to different situations in their social life and know how to create, and maintain good relationships with others to have better and healthier lives

There are many different viewpoints about life skills:

* According to World Health Organization (WHO), life skills are defined as “the ability for positive and adaptive behavior that enables a person to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life”

* According to United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), life skills are defined

as “a behavior change or behavior development approach designed to address a balance of three areas: knowledge, attitude and skills” The UNICEF definition is based on research evidence that suggests that shifts in risk behavior are unlikely if knowledge, attitude and skills based competency are not addressed

* According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), life skills have a strong relationship with four pillars of learning:

- “Learning to know” skills: critical thinking/ creative thinking/ decision – making skills…

- “Learning to be” skills: coping with stress and emotions/ awareness/ confidence skills,

self “Learning to live together” skills: empathy, effective communication skills, interpersonal relationship skills,

- “Learning to do” skills: values analysis skills, problem solving skills …

* Based on the empirical analysis of international experience and the reality of Vietnam education, the content of life skills training consists of the below basic skills:

1 Self-recognition skills

2 Valuation skills

3 Emotion control skills

4 Coping with stress skills

5 Seeking support skills

6 Showing confidence skills

7 Communication skills

8 Active listening skills

9 Showing empathy skills

10 Negotiation skills

11 Dealing with conflicts skills

12 Cooperation skills

13 Critical thinking skills

14 Creative thinking skills

15 Decision making skills

16 Problem solving skills

17 Consistency skills

18 Taking responsibility skills

19 Target reaching skills

20 Time management skills

21 Information searching and processing skills

B ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES IN PERFOMING THE TOPIC

1 Advantages:

- The school has been equipped with good technology equipment (projector, television, and computer)

- Training environment is very friendly

- My colleagues in English faculty and in other faculties (Liturature and Biology faculties) have given me much support

- With student-centered philosophy and ability to inspire the love of learning from the students, I myself always try to learn, update new knowledge and develop

my professional to devote myself more thoroughly for the education

2 Disadvantages:

- The number of student in each class is quite many (43 students/class)

- Students have quite far difference of knowledge and learning attitude

- Within limited time, I do not have enough time to extend, explore the lessons

in details and focus more on the topics that students are interested

- Most of the students are not interested in activities organized by teachers

- Training life skills at lower grades in schools is not paid much attention

C CONTENTS

In order to train life skills for students, I apply a proactive technique and method to create conditions, opportunities for students to practise, experience life skills in the learning process With this training method, students can be happy with learning

periods, not being overloaded or heavy Moreover, students can learn many useful things which are close to their usual lives Therefore, with this method, I am always very interested in answering the question “What life skills can I train my students through the lesson?” when composing the training plan before coming to class

In this initiative experience, I would like to mention some activities that I have applied in order to give my students the opportunity to practice life skills in their learning process

UNIT 2 – PERSONAL EXPERIENCE – READING – AFTER YOU READ

AFTER YOU READ (Textbook):

Work in groups Discuss the question: What do you think the girl had to do after she discovered that the money she had taken from the boy’s bag was not hers?

II.Basic life skills:

Communication skills / Problem solving skills / Cooperation skills

Support seeking skills / Decision making skills

III Method:

- discuss, analyze the situation and then practise

Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- T presents pictures on the TV (or

gives each group a handout.)

- T gives suggestions

+ If I were in that situation, I would ask

the police to help me return the money

to the boy

- T encourages Ss to give as many

solutions as possible

- (T and Ss correct mistakes.)

-> In short, when we have difficulties

we have many solutions If we can‟t

solve the solutions ourselves, we can

ask for help There are many best

S2: If I were the girl, I would tell my father the truth about the embarrassing situation My father would give me the best advice

S3: My father would be angry if he knew the truth, so I wouldn‟t tell my father I would tell the truth to my mother and my mother would help me S4: If I were in that situation, I would phone a psychologist (Mrs Mai) to ask for advice

S5: I have a very intelligent close friend

If I were in that situation, I would ask her for help

This activity can not only help students to practise their English but also help them to develop their life skills to solve their difficulties

UNIT 4 –VOLUNTEER WORK – READING – AFTER YOU READ

AFTER YOU READ A:

Look at the pictures and use suggested words to summarize what students often do

as volunteers (pair-work):

I Objective:

I design an activity to review the content of Unit 4 – Textbook

II Basic life skills:

Decision making skills / Showing empathy skills / Time management skills

III Methods

Discussing / Content briefing/ Presenting

a - hospitals/ orphanages/ homes for the aged/ volunteers/ reading books to the people there/ play games with them/ listen

to their problems

b Volunteers/ give care and comfort / help disadvantaged and handicapped children/ overcome/ difficulties

c Summer vacations/ students/ work/

remote or mountainous areas/ provide education for children

Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- T asks Ss to look at the pictures to

summarize what students often do as

volunteers

-T asks students a short question

containing many meanings in order to

train life skills to them

-> How do you feel when you can

bring happiness to others?

- T and Ss correct mistakes

- Ss look at the pictures and use suggested words to summarize what students often do as volunteers

- They usually visit these places They read books to people there, play games with them or listen to their problems

- They give care and comfort to them and help them to overcome their difficulties

- They volunteer to work in remote or mountainous areas to provide education for children

-> I feel very happy when I can bring happiness to others

-> I think/ believe that I am the happiest people in the world

Through these, students can have happy feelings once helping others

AFTER YOU READ B:

What voluntary work do you intend to do after this class?

I Objective:

I design an activity to review the vocabulary of Unit 4 – Textbook

II Basic life skills:

Decision making skills / Showing empathy skills / Time management skills

III Methods:

Discussing / Content briefing/ Presenting

Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- T presents pictures on the TV screen

or gives handouts

- T encourages Ss to do volunteer work

to help people around them

(parents/ neighbors/ the lonely aged/

the disadvantaged/ the handicapped…)

-> Just small gestures can bring

happiness to people living around us

- We should care and comfort people

around us, especially the lonely old

man (woman)/ the disadvantaged/ the

handicapped/ our neighbors….)

- Ss work in pairs to talk about volunteer work they intend to do this afternoon after school

S1: I will spend 30 minutes talking with the old living next to my house S3: I will tell my grandmother a funny story everyday so that my grandmother doesn‟t feel lonely

S3: I will visit the old man who I haven‟t visited for a long time He lives alone next to my house

S4: I will smile and stop to talk to the handicapped who is always sitting alone in his armchair on the way I go home

(- Ss correct mistakes.)

- Students will see their lives more meaningful once they can bring happiness

to others

UNIT 6 - COMPETITIONS – READING – AFTER YOU READ

Discuss the reasons why Nga said: “For me the most important thing was our participation in the competition and the enjoyment we had from it.” (Individual- work)

Taking advantage of the last five minutes in the training period, I help my students

to present their thoughts and feeling about Nga's statement

I Objectives:

The objective of this activity is to help my students to recover from their failure and then try much more for next challenges (ex: examinations, contests…) Besides, this will help students know how to have empathy share with the losers

II Basic life skills:

Showing sympathy skills/ Effective communication skills/ Cooperation skills/ Dealing conflict skills/ Valuation skills

III Methods:

Discussing / Content briefing/ Presenting

T asks Ss to read (P3) in textbook

T leads Ss to this activity by asking Ss

some questions:

1 Name members of group A?

2 Why did Thu feel disappointed?

3 Why did Thu‟s group lose the

game?

4 What did Nga say?

-T encourages Ss to give their opinion

to Nga's statement “For me the most

important thing was our participation

- Ss read the last paragraph.(P3)

- Ss answer the questions

 Hung, Thu and Nga

 Because her group was not the winner

 Because Hung had difficulty reciting the poem

 “For me the most important thing was our participation in the competition and the enjoyment

we had from it.”

S1: The purpose of the saying is to comfort Hung and Thu

in the competition and the enjoyment

we had from it.”

- T and Ss correct mistakes

S2: I am really appreciated Nga‟s saying In that situation, Hung needed everyone‟s comfort

S3: …

- We have to learn from our mistakes so that we can do it better in future and become the winner someday

- And we should learn how to have empathy and share with the losers

UNIT 8 - CELEBRATIONS – READING –BEFORE YOU READ

Match the activities to their pictures (Pair-work) :

I Objectives:

This activity is to review vocabularies for students in order to help them easy to present their usual activity on Tet holidays by English and make the learning period more actively Besides, the students can know more about Vietnamese cultures on such holidays

II Basic life skills:

Self recognition skills / Decision making skills/ Time management skills

4 Decorating houses with kumquat tree with its ripe deep orange fruits

5 Cooking traditional foods (Making banh chung)

6 Watching fireworks

7 Visiting relatives and exchanging New Year wishes

8 Receiving lucky money

Teacher’s activities Students’ activities

- T asks Ss to match the activities to

their pictures

- T helps Ss train life skills by asking

some questions

- What do you often do to help your

- Ss match the activities to their pictures

1 J – 2 A – 3 F, G – 4 B – 5.C – 6 E – 7

H – 8 I S1: I often help my mother clean windows and tidy up the house The atmosphere in

I

mother to prepare for Tet holidays?

And How do you feel?

- T and Ss correct mistakes

my family is very warm

S2: I often help my mother make “banh chung”

I enjoy Tet holidays very much

S3: On Tet holidays, I don‟t have to go school Therefore, I always help my mother

do everything I can to prepare for Tet holidays I am really happy

I love Tet holidays very much

The time you help your parents to prepare for Tet holidays is also the time you have the opportunity to enjoy the family happiness and emotion

UNIT 8 - CELEBRATIONS – READING – AFTER YOU READ

I design an activity AFTER YOU READ as below:

Tell your friends about your plan (Group-work)

On Tet holidays, you have some days off Therefore, you should plan what to do

on your Tet holidays so that you can have meaningful and happy holidays together with your family, your relatives, your friends …

I Objectives

- T helps Ss know the meaning of Tet holidays

- Ss know how to plan what to do on these days

II Basic life skills

- Time management skills/ Decision making skills/ Target reaching skills

III Methods

Discussing / Content briefing/ Presenting

- T encourages Ss to plan what they

do on Tet holidays

- T asks two groups to present their

- Ss work in groups of eight to plan what they do on Tet holidays