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TỔ NGOẠI NGỮ Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc
NHÓM: TIẾNG ANH
Hải Dương, 21 ngày tháng 11 năm 2022

BIÊN BẢN SINH HOẠT CHUYÊN ĐỀ

Thời gian: 14 giờ 15 phút ngày 21 tháng 11 năm 2022

Địa điểm: Phòng họp tổ Ngoại Ngữ
Thành phần: Giáo viên nhóm Tiếng Anh
Chủ tọa: Nguyễn Thanh Lương Chức vụ: Tổ trưởng tổ Ngoại Ngữ
Thư ký: Nguyễn Thị Bích Vân
Nội dung: Báo cáo: Useful techniques to guide students’ generating ideas for
essay writing
I. Đồng chí Phạm Phương Chi báo cáo tóm tắt nội dung chuyên đề:
1. RATIONALE (HOÀN CẢNH NẢY SINH SÁNG KIẾN)
Among the four language skills, Writing is always considered the most
challenging and frustrating of all. The reasons for this can be narrowed down into
several big issues encountered by students while conducting any writing activities
including struggling to generate ideas and failure in recalling related lexical
resources. While numerous books and digital tools like websites or mobile apps
have aided the latter, the former has drawn little attention from experts or
experienced teachers. Evidently, this has not only slowed down the student’s
writing, but also demotivated students from starting to write. As a result, writing
teachers, including me, find it so dispiriting to start a lesson. What haunts us is the
fear of a tedious classroom atmosphere as well as nights spent on marking and
redirecting unconvincing arguments.
All of the aforementioned struggles have motivated and guided me to dive
into looking for ways to assist students while generating ideas for their writing.
What I have found is rather unsurprising that in order to get students started to write
without obvious reluctance, not only in-class engaging activities, but also building
students’ general knowledge are crucial. These can be achieved by some classroom
pre-writing activities along with extensive reading assigned regularly and
systematically mentioned in the later part of the research.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW (CƠ SỞ LÝ LUẬN CỦA VẤN ĐỀ)

2.1. The importance of extensive reading in generating writing ideas
It is agreed by experts that Integrating reading and writing benefits the
development of literacy. Research has shown that reading development does not take
place in isolation; children develop simultaneously as readers, listeners, speakers, and
writers (Cohen & Cowen, 2010)
Extensive reading is a language teaching procedure where learners are
supposed to read large quantities of material or long texts for global understanding,
the principal goal being obtaining pleasure from the text (Bamford, Extensive
Reading Activities 1). The reading is individualized, which means that students
choose books they want to read, they read it independently of the teacher and they are
not required to do any tasks after reading.
With regard to meaning construction, the reading and writing also share similar
processes such as drafting, redrafting and negotiation with each other and so both the
reader and writer should be keeping each other in mind (Olson, 2003). Apart from
that, proficient reader and writer automatically use their skill, which means they
should both read and write actively and strategically. Similarly, Tierney and
Shanahan (1991, cited in Olson, 2003) believe that both the reader and writer need to
make sense either of or with print by activating their prior knowledge of the topic and
genre, experience, expectations of the reader, writer and culture, and contextual
frames of reference. Overall, it seems that the reader and writer adopt similar
processes while performing tasks including having confidence and motivation in
order to read and write effectively.
2.2. The importance of generating ideas as a pre-writing activity
While discussing the significance of building ideas during pre-writing stage,
Cohen and Cowen (2010) also emphasized that integrating reading and writing
benefits the development of literacy and that reading development does not take place
in isolation; children develop simultaneously as readers, listeners, speakers, and
writers. It was also agreed by Freire (1987) and Larson and Marsh (2005) that to
raise the critical consciousness of learners, students should also be encouraged to
think about their lives out of the classroom. The Critical Literacy Theory encourages
students to uncover inequalities within their homes and communities. Being able to
express themselves will give students the opportunity to see what is meaningful in
their lives. Students need written language if they want to participate in school and
their communities.
For most students, one of the toughest parts about writing is thinking about
what to write. According to Rao (2007) many students complain that they lack ideas
and cannot think of anything interesting or significant to write about. Having students
brainstorm (by themselves or with peers) either to themselves or aloud, helps to get
their imagination running. Within his study, Rao (2007) looked to find if the
brainstorming strategy lead to more gains in writing, and how students felt about
brainstorming. By giving students four different brainstorming tasks thinking
individually, verbalizing ideas in pairs, brainstorming ideas in note form, and
classifying ideas into appropriate categories, the author was able to see gain from pre
to posttest scores. Along with proof of gains in writing score, students also completed
a questionnaire that states the majority of them (86%) benefitted from brainstorming
because it helped to stimulate their thinking (Rao, 2007). Rao’s (2007) study is
consistent with Jacobs (2004), Read (2005), and Williams (2011). Although these
studies were conducted in very different manners, all of the mentioned authors came
to the conclusion that having students brainstorm before beginning to write showed
positive effects on their writing.
3. SOLUTIONS TO THE ISSUE (GIẢI PHÁP)
3.1. Adopting extensive reading materials
3.1.1. Paper-based
Following are several book series I would like to recommend other teachers to
introduce to their students as extensive reading materials

“Global issues” series by National Geographic Learning

“Exploring debate” series by Jack Clancy and Sean Bienert

“Points of View” series

 “Hot topics” series
The above book series do not only provide a great amount of authentic lexical
and grammatical resources, but they also back students up with general knowledge on
what it going around them. Teachers can divide the series into smaller parts and
assign them to students to take turns reading individually or in groups, then share the
summaries of idea in forms of presentation of writing on a shared document. Doing
this can also arouse the motivation for students’ writing as they can always reach out
for help and lower the burden of exploring the knowledge.
3.1.2. Digital platforms
Apart from the paper based material introduced above, there are several
websites teachers can access to assign students with individual reading tasks.
 www.learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading with A1-C1 reading materials

www.newsela.com with available latest news attached with comprehension questions

and individual assignments.

3.2. Techniques to guide students in generating ideas during pre-writing

activities.
3.2.1. Brainstorming
These intuitive techniques are used to get the ideas flowing and to stop
students’ internal censor from editing text.
• Listing: List of all the ideas you can think of that relate to your topic. They don't
have to be in order, and if something ends up on the list that doesn't belong, don't
worry about it; you can throw it out later.
• Clustering: This technique is sometimes also known as webbing. Write your main
topic in the middle of a sheet of paper, circle it and draw lines to the next idea in the
cluster. This method allows you to see some of the connections between ideas.
• Treeing: Here the idea cluster takes the shape of an inverted tree. Start with the
most general idea at the top and "branch" off with more specific ideas.
• Freewriting: Give yourself about ten minutes to write on your topic without
stopping to think or correct grammar, spelling, or punctuation. You'll be surprised by
how quickly the ideas flow when you turn off your editor.
3.2.2. Talking/ Thinking out loud
Hold class discussions in which students share opinions and knowledge on the
targeted topics, then let students pick the points they find most convincing to include
in their own writing.
3.2.3. Analogy
Get ideas flowing by using analogies to explore your topic.
• Personal: Put yourself in the position of problem solver. "When I write, I assemble
ideas like building blocks."
• Direct: Compare your topic to something concrete. "Writing with a plan is like
following an architect's blue- print."
• Symbolic: Compare your topic to an abstract principle. "For every action on the
author's part, there is an equal reaction on the reader's part. "
• Fantasy: Here anything goes. "It was like walking into the writer's head and
watching it work."
3.2.4. The Aristotelian Topoi
These strategies are as old as the Greek city states, and you will recognize
them in many of the strategies you use to develop an essay.
• Definition: Define key terms or concepts that are crucial to your discussion. Are
there conflicting definitions of these terms? Are you debating them or simply
adopting one? How does your definition affect your position?
• Comparison/Contrast: Use your discussion of the differences and similarities
between two objects, options, courses of action, to make your case.
• Cause/Effect: Show the connection between taking an action and a possible
outcome.
• Evidence: To prove an argument, make judicial use of testimony, statistics, and
expert opinion.
3.2.5. The Journalist's Questions
This strategy should be familiar. Just answer the five W's:
• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
3.2.6. Burke's Pentad
Similar to the journalist's questions, Kenneth Burke's pentad gives you a way
to look at a topic from different angles.
• Act: What action is in question and why is it important?
• Agent: Who performed the action and how does the performer's position affect what
has happened?
• Agency: By what means was the action performed and how does this affect the
outcome?
• Scene: In what context did the action take place?
• Purpose: For what purpose was the action performed?
These categories can also be paired in different ways to produce twenty
different ratios-or ways to look at your idea. For example, discussing the relationship
between the agent and the scene may tell you something new about your problem.
3.2.7. Tagmemics
This is another way of producing different views of a problem.
• Particle: consider your topic as a thing in itself.
• Wave: Consider your topic as a thing changing over time.
• Field: Consider your topic as a thing with context.
3.2.8. Using Visual Aids
Show students pictures or videos typically address the targeted topic and ask
students to draw out some ideas or write reflections on events or imaginative plots
based on the audio-visual materials.
3.2.9. Roleplay
Assign roles for groups of students, have them ask themselves: what problem
could this character have? What’s different about them? What do they want? And
what are they prepared to do to get what they want?
 This character could be based on someone they know - a family member, a
friend or even their next-door neighbor. Ask students to write a short story about
something that happens to them or put themselves into someone’s role to discuss a
social issue.
II. Góp ý của tổ chuyên môn:
1. Đồng chí Lương:
Ưu điểm:
+ Chuyên đề trình bày cẩn thận, tỉ mỉ, có tính ứng dụng với quá trình dạy học.
+ Chuyên đề góp phần giải quyết vấn đề trong quá trình dạy kĩ năng viết
Hạn chế:
+ Cần đưa thêm nhiều dạng bài tập ứng dụng hơn.
2. Đồng chí Phương Mai:
+ Chuyên đề cung cấp nhiều kĩ thuật trong quá trình dạy nghe
+ Chuyên đề có tính ứng dụng thực tế cao.
3. Đồng chí Thu Hằng:
+ Chuyên đề cung cấp những cơ sở lí thuyết và thực tiễn hữu ích cho GV.
+ Các phần chính trong nội dung được trình bày tỉ mỉ, rõ ràng.

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