Reading to Learn

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Reading to Learn
YAU Wing Yee St. Stephens Girls College
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Why is Reading introduced?

• Reading is IMPORTANT!
• Introduction of URT in school
• (students rarely select science-related books
  due to reading schemes in English and Chinese
  languages)
• Study more on SBA methods for NSS
• Self-learning skills are emphasized in the
  department for years.
• (limited content)
• Passage reading has been introduced for years
  (limited content and length)

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Reading Project -

• Method 1 Book report (F.3 and 4)

Preparation - 1. Try as Book report
competition, organized by Science Society.
(Findings Students tended to write more on
personal feelings than on the content of the
book, not sure if they learned from reading.) 2.
Decide the purposes of the project and prepare an
instruction for students. 3. Check the reference
list from school library, to ensure sufficient
books of different types are available. 4. Give
individual guidance for students in selecting
books.
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Reading Project -
Student questionnaire and teacher interview were
arranged to evaluate the results.

• Findings on student learning
• Students selected books according to own
  interest. (68 picked from public libraries)

• Students seriously selected the book for writing
  report (65 read 2-4 books before the picking the
  book)

• Students did not spend sufficient time in
  understanding the content. (68 used less than 1
  week in reading the book)

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Model making, investigations, Ocean Park Project
Findings on student learning (F.4 and before
returning the marked reports)
mostly disagree1 ------5 mostly
agree
Compare with average
Marking is necessary!
Useful in learning Physics 3.15 4.1
Gaining knowledge 3.25 3.7
Improving communication skills 3.15 3.8
Satisfaction 3.72 3.7
Complete the work independently 3.94 ----
Like the poster design 3.51 3.8
Poster design useful in learning 2.08 3.7
Prefer not to use in calculating term
grade 3.65 ----
Difficult for me to find a book for the
project 3.36 ----
Greater interest in learning Physics 2.75 4.0
Enjoy doing the project 2.34 3.9
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What do students learn?

• - know more about Physics
• - reading and self-learning skills
• - useful in checking concepts
• - presentation skills etc. (marked report)
• if provide chances to present, students can share
  their work learn from each other.

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Problems

• - not easy to find suitable books
• students lack of motivation because the content
  is not much related to syllabus
• some students copied directly from books without
  much understanding
• insufficient background knowledge for F.3
  students to understand Physics books and they
  reflected nearly no improvement in skills and
• give useful comment to students.
• Example

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Why Poster Design?

• From experiences,
• It is a helpful tool in checking students
  understanding
• It makes the work and marking more enjoyable

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Samples of poster design (1)
Instead of presenting a concept, students drew
book covers. They drew experimental set ups or
settings of events, presented as questions. Some
even did not have the related concept illustrated
in the book reports. Understanding cannot be
checked!
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Samples of poster design (2)
Students directly copy diagrams from the
books. For example, a diagram to illustrate a
definition.
Understanding cannot be checked!
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Samples of poster design (3)
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Suggestions on poster design

• show good and bad examples to illustrate what is
  expected
• have students working in groups for presenting
  the same concept (discussions improve
  understanding)
• arrange students presentations so that they can
  explain their work and ideas can be discussed
  among students
• select topics for students instead of students
  choices.

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Another possible method -Literature review

• as part of an investigation
• Eg. Egg protector (after F.4 mechanics)
• Score sheet
• Eg. Learning of a new concept Sample 1 (F.4
  summer project)
• Sample 2 (F.6 mechanics)

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Students view

• They found literature review more useful than
  book report writing.
• Clear target topics.
• They found Physics more useful.
• They learned more in Physics.
• They enjoyed.

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Teachers view

• Can assign topic according to student ability
• students obtain information from the Internet
  instead of books
• Less time in marking (group project)
• Peer learning
• Can check understanding and
• More enjoyable.

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Problems

• Ensure every member works
• - Each member reported their review before
  discussions.
• - Individual questions to questionable
  students.

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Problems

• Students found it time consuming. It took a long
  time for time to collect useful data.
• Some sources (esp. from the Internet) are
  unreliable (concepts are inaccurate, terms used
  are not the same as in HK.)

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Contact

• YAU Wing Yee
• wyyau_at_ssgc.edu.hk

THANK YOU!