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KWL Chart
KWL Chart
1. Background to study: According to Pang E., Muaka A., Bernhardt E., and Kamil M.L. (2003), the purpose of reading belongs to the motivation of the readers and it affects the way they read. When readers are motivated, they will receive more information from the text they read. Motivation is a key factor in successful learning because students need to be motivated so teachers duty is to set up the means and methods to motivate students. (Reid G., 2007). Moreover, the prior knowledge of readers supports comprehension a lot. Prior knowledge is the ideas, information, beliefs and attitudes that have belonged to learners before they go to the classroom for studying. When learners are introduced any new things, what they already know impacts on that learning (Loughran J., 2010). In addition, Vietnamese students have been using Tieng Anh 10 textbook from 2006 until now. Tieng Anh 10 textbook is compiled toward Communicative approach with a lot of communicative tasks that require and give students an opportunity to use English as much as possible in the classroom. There are five parts in Tieng Anh 10 textbook: Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing and Language focus with Pronunciation and Grammar. Although the aim of Tieng Anh 10 textbook is to develop students skills totally, Vietnamese students just only focus on Reading skill (and Grammar). They study Reading without interest or it can be said students just only focus on Intensive Reading that attends to their exams but not extensive reading which is for enjoyment any more. In consideration of these things, K-W-L chart was introduced by Dr. Donna Ogle (1986) is one of the most effective strategies that develops active reading of expository text. With K-W-L chart, students prior knowledge can be exploited for intensive reading
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and students also have motivation for extensive reading. Thanks to it, this study is going to recommend applying K-W-L chart as a strategy for teaching Reading in Tieng Anh 10 textbook in order to not only improve students reading skill bur also attract students attention to extensive reading. 2. Objective of the study: The major aims of the study are: To introduce K-K-L chart as a teaching model that develops active reading. To emphasize the topic of each unit in Tieng Anh 10 textbook and pick up its expository reading texts that K-W-L chart can be used for designing lesson plan. To give some sample lesson plans based on the expository reading texts of Tieng Anh 10 textbook. 3. Scope of the study: It is necessary to limit the study to the areas which are managed while giving the background and the aims of the study. This study is going to concentrate on using K-W-L chart to teach reading in Tieng Anh 10 textbook. Therefore, this study does not include any mentions as well as sample lesson plans in other textbooks. 4. Organization of the Research paper:
1. Teaching reading: Besides listening, reading is a receptive skill. Every language learners need reading. According to Harmer J. (2007), there are many reasons to have students read English text. First, reading English texts is one part of students objective when they learn English either for their jobs, studying or any personal reasons. Second, reading is useful for language learner goal because it effects students language knowledge such as vocabulary, spelling or writing. Third, texts of reading are good models for English writing as they demonstrate English structure and writing style. Finally, good reading texts can provide interesting topics and it makes lessons more fascinating. There are two kinds of reading: extensive reading and intensive reading. Intensive reading usually takes place in classroom that students are required by the teacher to read texts in textbook that for specific purposes, especially for studying, so it is called one of study activities. Extensive reading or joyful reading is the reading that students do out of classroom like novels, webpage, newspapers or any material. It is called joyful reading because students have a chance to choose what they want to read. (Harmer J., 2007). Hedge T. (2000) mentioned that intensive reading activities in the classroom and it trains students in the strategies needed for successful reading such as using connectives for predicting content or guessing the meanings of unfamiliar words. However, extensive reading gives students opportunities to practice reading strategies and develop different types of knowledge.
With Harmer and Hedges ideas about intensive and extensive reading, it can be said that extensive reading plays a more important role and it is necessary to encourage students with extensive reading. Extensive reading certainly has the benefit of greatly increasing a students exposure to English and can be particularly important where class contact time is limited. If students have more chance to use English with extensive reading, their language competence and reading ability will be more independent in their studies. (Hedge T., 2000). Moreover, Harmer J. (2007) also mentioned six principles for teaching reading. One of them is to encourage students to read as often and as much as possible. When students read more, they will have more opportunity to practice and use English. Consequently, reading is one of the most important skills and anything teachers can do is to find out the way to teach reading easier, to make reading lessons more interesting and to motivate students to read more not only intensive reading but also extensive reading. 2. K-W-L chart: 2.1. Introduction:
Dr. Ogle (1986) said that K-W-L is the name of three basics steps during reading. It is accessing WHAT I KNOW, determining WHAT I WANT TO LEARN and recalling WHAT I DID LEARN as a result of reading. This chart is prepared as a handout and delivered to students to work individually or in group during the thinkingreading process.
K-W-L STRATEGY SHEET (Ogle D., 1986) K- WHAT I KNOW W WHAT I WANT TO LEARN L WHAT I LEARNED
The two first steps while using K-W-L chart that are step K and step W are engaged in oral discussion followed by students personal responses. In the third step, step L, students can fill out after reading or as the same time as completion the text. Especially, with long text, teacher may help students sections by sections and review what has been learned and direct questions for further reading. 2.2. Step K WHAT I KNOW
Step K WHAT I KNOW can be used as before reading activity for preparing prior knowledge of students. There are two levels in this step: Brainstorming and thinking of categories of information 2.2.1. Brainstorming First, students have to brainstorm what they know about the topic for reading. According to Thornes N. (2009), brainstorming provides a variety of creative ideas and ideas are common property; combing or improving previous ideas are encourage.
This is the role of students in this step. How about the teacher? During this step, teacher plays a role as a recorder that means teacher writes every students ideas which relate to the topic of the text in column K on the board. However, the difficulty of this step is choosing a key concept that has to be specific enough for students to brainstorm; otherwise, they will think of a lot of ideas that are not really related to the topic. The most popular trouble while using K-W-L chart is how to control students thought. As Dr. Ogle (1986) supposed, asking some general questions or Bellanca J. (2007) called launch questions, is the good way to control students thought as well as help them in case they are lack of prior knowledge about the topic. The encouraged questions are a key part of brainstorming. Maybe students prior knowledge is not much about the topic but when they are asked some general questions by the teacher, they will discover what they dont know and make it become their knowledge. In fact, every language class in general or English class in specific has both weak students and strong students. The way to deepen students knowledge is asking volunteer about the ideas they have just said. It makes students think more about the sources and substantiveness of their suggestions not only the volunteers but also other students (Ogle D., 1986). 2.2.2. Thinking of categories of information The second level of step K is having students to think of the more general categories of information or the kinds of information. For example, with the topic about TIGER, students may think of some information like YELLOW WITH BLACK STRIPED, SHARP TEETH, FOUR LEGS, and TAIL information is HOW TIGER LOOK. Actually, students usually find the question about categories of information perplexed. It is unusual with students. The solution to resolve it is that teacher should begin by modeling one or two examples from the information students have thought. The category of this
After that, students may be able to think more about the rest of categories to add into the list. Nevertheless, after teachers model students still find hard to think of the categories, teacher should have them read similar but easier text. It helps students to build a background understanding for the content area that can serve them in their future reading and learning (Ogle D., 1986) 2.3. Step W WHAT DO I WANT TO LEARN
When students think about their prior knowledge about the topic as well as the general categories, questions appear because of students disagreement on the same information. All these things can be called as Pre-reading activity that gives students reasons to read the text and find answers to their questions. Furthermore, it can increase students knowledge on the topic. Teacher plays a central role at this step. Teacher highlights students disagreement, classifies information then help students raise questions that concentrate on the topic of the text. Before students start reading, teacher has them write down first on their own handouts (that have K-W-L chart) the specific questions which they want to get the answers. Students personal concentration will guide the reading in this way. Step W should be done in group. According to Pollard L. (2008), there are many advantages to have students work in group. It gives them a difficult focus by taking the attention away from the teacher. Moreover, group work can speed up students to go as the same pace with each other and students spend less time on their work than when they work individually. However, the most important effect of working in group is that students can share their knowledge, explain things to each other and this is the great way for students to communicate. So, with step W, students write questions about the topic that they want to have information. Next, they work in group, read the text, and find and share answers found
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from the reading with their group members. Nevertheless, it is useful to give students the preview of the long text to help them get the overview of the text. The difficult or unclear sections from the text should be explained for students. Again, long text should be read in one by one piece or with some interrupted steps for reflection. 2.4. Step L WHAT I LEARNED
After reading the text, students are required to write down what they learned from the reading. Besides that, students are directed to check their questions in step W again and try to find out answers. If students cannot find more information to their questions, teacher suggests further reading to fulfill their desires to know (Ogle D., 1986) As mentioned above, students just only read because of the need to pass their exams, this way sets the clear priority to students to read more. Each student will have their own questions answered. With questions that students cannot find answers, they will have motivation to read more and by having specific questions prior to reading, students can also better judge the kinds of variations that do exist in different texts students read. The students challenge that they do not find information they need for questions in step W will charge students learning and guide them to get their own knowledge.