SKKN History – geography – literature – civic education and fine art integrated teaching in an english period of grade 6 period 33: Unit 5: natural wonders of the world lesson 1: getting started

• INTRODUCTION

• The reason for choosing the topic

In the context of further international integration, English teaching and studying are of greater and greater significance. Accordingly, a good command of English and great success gained in puttting English in action definitely enable you to improve your own status and position in the eye of international friends. Generally, English is widely considered the most popular language on the globe, at the same time it is the key to the world. For the businessmen circle, English is regarded as the tactic for every potential achievement. Above all, English absolutely raises its voice on every aspect of daily life. Nowadays, it is not only a compulsory subject in educational settings at any level, but has also been developed into an all-round critical communicative tool. Thus, it is more increasingly important to determine which English study approach is the most effective. In fact that once studying approach has been mis-executed, we probably face bigger challenges in achieving planned goals as a result. As a rule, English teaching and studying are interrelated. In the setting of further global integration, the Vietnamese education has been changing basically and the teachers are very important volunteers in this, in which greater importance has been attached to learner- oriented teaching. Specifically, teacher plays the role as the guider for students during their English acquisition. In the spirit, teacher’s traditional function, known as pure teaching performance, should be taken into consideration. Accordingly, something should be changed. That is, there is a demand in integrated teaching approaches in which social science subjects (Literature, History, etc) or natural science ones (Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography) are integrated into one subject. Based on it, students are taught how to perform information, collection, processing and assessment, therely well applying acquired knowledge to their real situations of daily life.

• Research purposes

Integrated teaching can be performed in the scope of one unit, one theme, or one certain period in class. In the period of in this topic, I have made most use of inter-subject knowledge acquired in order to enable students to well deal with physical and sport activities after school. Therefore, the performance of the topic of study on the 33th period (Lesson 1, English 6) is in need of inter-subject teaching involved in subjects as follows:

– History: Students know how to use their historical knowledge to inculcate their understanding of time of birth; the process of building ancient wonders, new world wonders and natural wonders of Vietnam as well as artistic values of natural wonders, thereby helping students understand and appreciate labor achievements and creative talents of people

• • Geography: Using Geography knowledge to introduce students how to determine the geographical location of natural wonders.

• Literature:

Studying skills about writing paragraphs or articles on natural wonders

• Civic education:

Educate students to love consciously, preserve and protect the wonders.

– Fine arts: using the Art knowledge to help students drill their imagination and illustrate with pictures through paintings as well as see all the beauty and values of artistic architectural masterpieces of the world’s natural wonders. In order for them to appreciate the cultural and historical values of humanity and consciously preserve them.

• Being a teacher in the current situation, I am well aware of greater significance of integrated teaching approach in dealing with potential problems in each subject, thereby facilitating students to have further understading of every aspects of the subject involved. Also, integrated teaching helps students bring into full play their own thinking and creativity in knowledge acquisition and application in reality. In the spirit, I would like to express certain experiences in integrated teaching in the topic:

“History – Geography – Literature – Civic education and Fine Arts Integrated Teaching in an English period of Grade 6 –

Period 33: Unit 5: Natural wonders of the world – Lesson 1: Getting started

• Research subjects

• History – Geography – Literature – Civic education and Fine Arts Integrated Teaching in an English
• Objective of Study includes 28 students of class 6A of Dong Quang Secondary School, Dong Son District, Thanh Hoa Province.
• The   school year.

• Research methods

During the teaching of the topic, I have used many methods such as:

• Methodology of theoretical research
  
• Methodology of reasoning
• Observation method
• Conversation method
• Investigation method
• Test and evaluation methods

• SOLUTION OF THE ISSUE

• Theoretical basis of the initiative experience.

1. 1. • In the current process of national industrialization and modernization, further internation integration is of greater significance. In the spirit, our State and Party have reaffirmed the policy “Education is National Top Priority”, in which English has been paid more and more attention and listed in the compulsory educational curriculum. In fact, English is open to all learners at any level, but it requires reasonable learning approaches and know-hows for truly great effectiveness. In other words, how to study English well is an issue of much interest.
      • Above all, English studying requires all learners to make ultimate self-motivation, which drive them to be patient in their practices of English skills listening, speaking, reading and writing, at the same time determining specific goals within a certain period of time. What is English studying for? Just be well aware of individual goals, like foreign business communication, abroad travelling, tourism, or overseas study, and so on. Once specific goals have been set and determined, best English studying approaches are probably found out. The same can be said about English teachers. Thus, integrated teaching should be soon taken into consideration, mostly because it enables students to precisely acquire knowledge, skills and positive attitudes, at the same time integrating all of them into real social situations, as well as inspiring them to learn English and lead meaningful lives.

• The real situation before applying the initiative experience.

In fact, English teaching and studying at Dong Quang Secondary school are facing a great number of issues, caused by certain things as follows:

– As for students and their parents:

A certain number of students and their parents are not clearly aware of English significance. As a result, students take little interest in English studying, while their parents pay no attention to their children’s performance at school.

A contingent of students take no notice of their lessons (due to chatting; inattention in teachers’ performance, as well as distraction caused by outer- social factors like online games, social networks and teenager tendencies, and so on.

Also, students generally show signs of laziness and poor awareness of self-study. They frequently forget to review lessons, do homework, and make preparations for new classes. In addition, they fail to balance their interests in life.

A certain number of students have lost their English background, that is proven via the outcome of schoolyear-beginning placement test.

• As for teachers:

Regardless of numerous efforts made during their lessons, namely diversified teaching approaches aimed at further student mobilization, eventual results are to some extent limited. Teachers fail to apply their favourite teaching approaches to all lessons, as well as all students. It is partly because of overloaded coursebook content, over-sized classes, poor student background, and poor awareness of self-improvement. As a result, the English teaching outcome has failed to meet the demands up to now.

• As for the English curriculum:

Despite its further attraction in content, the English curriculum, in fact, is much more difficult, therefore acts as a huge challenge to students of poor background. Apart from it, English is in close connection with other subjects in the over-all curriculum at secondary school level. Thus, it requires learners a certain level of background which ensures them a relatively performance at school. In reality, a lot of students, as a result, fail to keep pace with the curriculum and eventually are left behind.