Experiences in teaching part project in english 6 in the secondary school

That's why I choose the topic: "Experiences in teaching part "Project" in English 6 in the secondary school.", in order to improve the quality of teaching and learning the subject in the

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

A - INTRODUCTION

I Reasons for choosing the research 2

II Researching purpose……… 2

III Researching object……….… 2

IV Researching methodology ……….2

B - CONTENT I.Theoretical background 4

1 An overview of the project……….4

2 An overview of the project based learning

II.Reality basis ……… 5

III The context of the studies……… 7 1. To the curriculum……….7

2.To the teachers……… 7

3 To the students……… 7

4 The result of the survey before applying the initiative……… 8

IV Solutions and procedure……… ………8

1 Solutions………8

2 The applications of doing the project work……… 8

3 Some notes of teaching and doing the project work……….15

4 Demonstration………16

5 Result after applying the research in teaching………17

A INTRODUCTION

I Reasons for choosing the researching.

From 2001, the Prime Minister of Vietnam made a decision of approval onthe project “Integrating environmental issues in the general education”.Nowadays, teachers are still requested to take advantage of environmentalcontents in curriculum of different subjects to “equip student with knowledge ofecology, environmental preservation skills and attitudes towards surroundingenvironment”(Government, 2001 , p.1) In reality, this integration is not at alleasy Both teacher and student are faced with a huge workload, time constraintsand lack of environmental materials Therefore, it is necessary to seek an optionthat both provide scaffolding support for students with sufficient materials andmotivate students’ attitudes toward learning English In the past years, mycolleagues and I have used the project-based learning methodology and we findthat it has a lot of advantages as well as some problems which we need to concernabout For example: What should the teacher prepare for a project lesson? Howcan students make a really effective project? What are the criterias for evaluating

a student's learning project? That's why I choose the topic: "Experiences in

teaching part "Project" in English 6 in the secondary school.", in order to

improve the quality of teaching and learning the subject in the secondary school, especially for grade 6 students learning the new trial books.

II Researching purposes.

Firstly, this topic aims to research and learn a model of a system of theories

of project learning methodology, create and collect different forms of doing thepart project in the last period of each lesson

Secondly, the purpose of the study was to promote positive self-awareness

in learning properly the spirit of teaching innovation; that is:

students play an active, thinking, creative, central role, teachers prompted stimulate bright initiative created by students The research was carried out in

2016 – 2017 and 2017-2018 education-instruction years at the secondary school.Totally 70 students in two different school years in the 6th grade of this schoolparticipated in the study

III Researching subjects.

- Part "project" of the lesson: Looking back + Project, from Unit 1 to Unit 12 in English 6

- Experiences in teaching part "Project" in English 6 in the secondary school.

IV Researching methodology.

1 Methodology of reasoning

- Project-based learning

- Research the throretical basis of the topic from teaching and collected documents

2 Methodology of reality research

-2 - Observation method, conversation method, experimental method, investigation method.

- Develop a question system that will fit the project to the level of the students'developmental level Initially, the use of a question system, project guidelines,and scenario-based study for students to carry out the project

- Expeimental pedagogyb to evarluate the quality of the projecr and theeffectiveness of using the project teaching methodology in teaching Englishlanguage assessment and assessment

- Observe the student acquisition of knowledge during project work

- Learn from your peers and some of your own experiences

5 The new points of the topic.

- Selected, fomulated a guiding system and questionnarie for the project in thetopics covered in the English 6 New Trial Program a chieving knowledge, skillsand attiudes

- The first step is to use teaching methodogy of the project to renew the test of Grade 6 students In addition, leaming project is also used for purposes

- The subject can be considered as a reference material for second school Englishteachers in the innovation of teaching methods and innovation of examinationsand tests in accordance with the orientation of capacity development

- Students are encouraged to become active rather than passive learners by

developing collaborative and co-operative skills, and lifelong learning skills

- It encourages the development of critical thinking skills

- It requires the establishment of an environment of support, trust and

co-operative learning can be nurtured

- It promotes student learning and achievement

- Students have the opportunity to learn from and to teach each other

- The focus is on student centred approach to teaching and learning, and

assessment Students are involved in their own learning

- It enhances social skills and interactions

- Large numbers of students can be catered for and work on task simultaneously

- Interaction and co-operation on a micro scale is facilitated thus decreasing a sense of isolation felt by some

B CONTENT.

I Theoretical background.

1 An overview of the project.

The word project comes from the Latin word projectum from the Latin verb proicere, "before an action" which in turn comes from pro-, which denotes

precedence, something that comes before something else in time (paralleling the Greek πρό) and iacere, "to do" The word "project" thus originally meant

"before an action"

Project work is a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explorereal-world problems and challenges, simultaneously developing cross-curriculumskills while working in small collaborative groups or individuals to combine theinvestigating the topic and presenting it in written form illustrated with photos,pictures, diagrams, etc (Blumenfeld et al., 1991; Đỗ, 2011) Project work isstudent-centred and driven by the need to create an end-product (Bell, 2010).However, it is an itinerary to achieving this end product that makes project work

so worthwhile The process to the end-product brings opportunities for students todevelop their confidence and independence and to work together in a real-worldenvironment by collaborating on a task which have they defined for themselvesand which has not been externally imposed (Blumenfeld et al., 1991)

Project work is a student-centred methodology, where students are activelyinvolved in their own learning process In project work, students have to define aresearch question that will be analysed and discussed using different approaches

in order to obtain an answer Project work is an intentional and original activitywith a specific goal that promotes the development of skills, such as autonomy,initiative, creativity, critical thought and collaboration as it involves group work.However, it can generate complexity and uncertainty among participants Projectwork is characterized by the creation of an end-product, for instance apresentation, an abstract, a poster or a three-dimensional model Project work alsohas a social approach, as a result of teamwork

2 An overview of the project-based learning.

The basis of project-based approaches is hardly new Early in the 1920s,Project-based instruction was advocated by William Heard Kilpatrick His notionwas that such instruction should include four components: purposing, planning,executing, and judging (Foshay, 1999) Since the students learn with interactivetechnology and since the teacher has to design, to facilitate and to monitor studentactivities Thomas (1999) stated that the idea of assigning projects to students isnot a new one and the benefits of learning by practice have long been touted; theroots of the idea go back to John Dewey (Blumenfeld et al., 1991; Foshay, 1999).While each of these designs has different pedagogical objectives, we believe thatall good pedagogical designs should include somewhat structured pedagogicalscenarios and that the teacher's role is crucial For over 100 years, educators such

as John Dewey have reported on the benefits of experiential, hands-on, directed learning Doing and creating projects is a long-standing tradition ineducation history (Merkham et al., 2003)

student-

-4 -A project-based activity allows our students to identify and project theirown problems They become active, not passive; a project engages their heartsand minds, and provides real-world relevance for learning Besides that studentsdevelop a question and are guided through research under the teacher‘ssupervision (Bell, 2010) Instead of using a inflexible lesson plan that directs alearner down a specific path of learning outcomes or objectives, project-basedlearning allows in-depth investigation of a topic worth learning more about.Thomas (1999) also described projects within project-based learning as based onchallenging questions and making students having central role in problem-solving, designing skill, negotiation and decision making processes so givingstudents the chance to work relatively autonomously In project-based learningactivities, students plan, implement, and evaluate projects that have real-worldapplications beyond the classroom (Blank,1997) Project-based learning is anactive approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engagestudents in investigation of complex, authentic problems and carefully designedproducts and tasks (Blumenfeld et al., 1991) The use of project-based learning inclass is possible after providing the information that is needed for the project Theclassroom activities should be student-centred, cooperative, and interactive(Moursund, 1999).

Project-based learning increases the students’ attitutes of mind studentstoward their learning style Project-based learning is still in the developmentalstage within educational settings Moreover, these studies which were on theinvestigation of project-based learning were carried out in elementary level by

comparing project-based learning with traditional methods However, this

English Curriculum From this perspective, this research can be stated to have a

significant value In this sense, It is hoped that this empirical study can provide aclose link between project - based learning and language learning and, at the sametime, propose guidelines for English language teachers who wish to implementproject-based learning to enhance their students’ language learning as well asdevelopment of attitude towards learning English as a foreign language

On the other hand, by carrying out this study, we hopes that teachers and students can pay more attention and enjoy more popularity on part

"project" at all grade levels.

II Reality basis.

From grade three on, English is taught at Primary school This demand forEnglish offers opportunities for Teaching English as a Second or Other Language(TESOL) in Vietnam but at the same time this creates not only many challengesbut also mismatchs between the expected and actual levels of competence, andeducators claim EFL preservice teacher education is largely inadequate (Pham,2001) We have changed our English Curriculum from Primary school to Highschool in order to get language proficiency levels and interpret languagequalifications defined in the Common European Framework of Reference forLanguages (CEFR), which plays a central role in language and education policy

nationwide Moreover, we have done our best to inspire our students to studyEnglish, using different modern teaching methods, applying CALL – activities(Computer-assisted language learning) into our teaching stage and renovatingtesting system.

As a shown in the problem indenfication of the motivation in Englishlearning process through traditional methods, it’s possible to confirm that thesolution to the pr oblem is related to the working hypothesis which is the solutionfor the lack of motivation on students PBL (Project-Based Learning) willincrease their interest to use contents of English classes and to improve basic

skills for the understanding and communication in English language To apply

the proposal of this research based on the application of PBL to motivate English learning, in order to improve English communication skills and students’ attitudes in learning.

Figure 1: Problem indenfication

III The context of the studies

1 To the curriculum.

Project work is only one part of a period which lasts 45 minutes, soteachers and students do not have much time to spend on doing project That'swhy some teachers cannot pay enough attiention to this part of each unit

2 To the teachers.

-6 -Firstly, all the teachers are having difficulty in the little time for teachingpart "project" and some even think that this part is not very important This is themain reason why this part is normally ignored.

Secondly, some teachers have not got access to the Project-Based Learningyet and they are still affected the traditional method Some even don’t know how

to arrange a project learning lesson

Thirdly, because of the students' poor quality, many teachers always worrythat our children are too poor, they can’t know what to do, how to do…Therefore,they often explain too much This makes students confused

Finally, challenges for teachers involve:

- Allocating time

- Teaching process skills

- Assessing process as well as product

- Assessing individual as well as group learning

3 To the students.

Secondary school students are more familiar with teacher-centredapproaches, which tend to lead to a more passive learning style In fact, most ofour students are afraid of taking part in the group work So that their group work

is not effective

Some weaker and lazier students will depend on the better ones and someeven do not do any things

Moreover, the real quality of our students is very poor Students need to be

at level A1 so that they will be able to adapt to the higher level So that they gettrouble with their project

Finally, students do not have enough time to create their ideas They oftenhave to find out a new thing for a short time This seems very difficult for notonly children but also the specialists

4 The result of the survey before applying the initiative

Let's have a look at my survey of students' participating behavior in doingproject activity

School Grade Number Unsatisfactory Satisfactory

students

At the end of 2016-2017 and at the beginning of the 2017-2018 schoool

year, I had students do a project as a fifteen-minute test and here is the result:

From the results of the survey, we find that the problem of students' and

teacher's awareness is worrying All of these proplems make me decide to

research and apply some experiences in teaching project and guide my

students to do project work in my teaching process in the school year

2017-2018 for students of grade 6.

IV Solutions and procedure

2 The applications of doing the project work.

2.1 Challenges for teachers and students

What are the challenges facing teachers?

When we bring project-based learning into the classroom we may have toadopt new instructional strategies to achieve success Having the teacher take therole of guide or facilitator is not the way that most educators were taught, noreven the way they were taught to teach Direct-instruction methods that rely ontextbooks, lectures, and traditional assessments do not work well in the moreopen-ended, interdisciplinary world of project-based learning Rather, we do morecoaching and modeling and less "telling." Specific challenges facing teachers

Recognizing situations that make for good projects;

Assigning an authentic task; project-based work is supposed to be about thereal world and reflect things that people out in the real world actually care aboutand need to know This means that the teacher need to stay away from tasks thatseem to “live” only is schools such as asking them to write an essay or transformsentences Instead, the tasks should reflect things that people in the real worldengage in or need to know

Structuring problems as learning opportunities;

Using an appropriate topic; not every topic works as a project-based work –it’s just that simple But even beyond that, we have to find the chosen topicsengage the student in the way that we hope it would That’s why it’s so important

to forcus on big, specific issues that are relavent to them or that reflect someaspects of their interest We’re most motivated to learn when the task before us ismatched to our student level of skill: not so easy as to be boring, and not so hard

as to be frustrating Deliberately fashion the learning exercise so that students areworking at the very edge of their abilities, and keep upping the difficulty as theyimprove

Managing the learning process;

Assigning a unique task; the poin of view project-based learning is toengage the students in a task that seems new, exciting and interesting There’s agood chance that they’re going to be very interested Specially, project-basedactivities are good at teaching procedures to students or at helping them tomemorize fact, so include these things as part of their task will miss the point ofPBL Memorizing information is boring Discovering the solution to a puzzle is

invigorating Present material to be learned not as a fait accompli such as state

high school curricula, but as a live question begging to be explored Somelearning tasks, like memorizing the multiplication table or a list of names or facts,are simply not interesting in themselves Generate motivation by encouragingstudents to compete against them: run through the material once to establish abaseline, and then keep track of how much they improve (in speed, in accuracy)each time

Integrating technologies where appropriate;

Choosing multi-faceted resources; part of what a project-based learning issupposed to do is present different points-of-view and get student to from theirown opinions after reading about “facts” that often oppose each other Therefore,that’s not easy to do if we use resources that all seem to be staying the samethings Project-based learning can be applied to all age-group, and all levels inwhich students have to collect information from website, seveys, and interviews.Besides, Internet use can bring back students advantage of opportunities to betaught critical thinking skills

Collaborating with colleagues to develop interdisciplinary projects;

Developing authentic assessments indeed, we may have to be willing totake risks to overcome initial challenges Almost students do projects at the sametime They complain that they have more than three projects due in the sameweek Therefore, we should talk to one another and space projects out over thecourse of the year This would result in higher quality projects A supportiveadministration can help by implementing more flexible schedules, such as blockschedules or team planning time, and providing teachers with professionaldevelopment opportunities

According to my observation, the best way to know if we have created asuccessful project-based activity is if our students come up with different answer

to the same problem This way, we know that they have engaged with the topicand formed their own distinctive viewpoints based on the information As ourworld continues to increase in speed and complexity, this kind of higher-leverthinking is going to be invaluable to ensure that they have a successful future Onthe other hand the teacher should be well trained and embrace the constructivistmethodological principles that are supported by the usage of this tool

As a teacher of English in secondary school we can see that the use ofacquiring project-based ware can open the door for incorporating other teachingtools in while accommodating the needs of new generation of students who arecurrently or will come into classrooms It is possible that using project-based ware

as a constructivist internet based tool will also help meet the school modernizationand technology incorporation push currently underway by the MOET as part of anattempt to reach the modernization standards set by the most developed countries

2.2 The process of doing the project work.

2.2.1 Solve with the time problem

Because we do not have much time to do a project in a period at school, theteachers and students have to prepare the assignment before the lesson Each unitconsists of 7 periods and part "project" is usully taught with part Looking Back

In the first lesson, Getting started, students get to know the topic of the unit, so we(teachers) should tell our students about their project By this way, we will save alot of time in class and students will be able to think of their project morecarefully and also have time to find more information related to the project

2.2.2 G eneral overview of part "project" in English 6

Our secondary English teachers recognize that the language arts skills of

reading, writing, listening, and speaking contribute to the success of all students

as self-sufficient and productive citizens We encourage students to:

Enrich their lives and increase their understanding of themselves and others through the broadening study of literature To that end, we have included in our