Reading to Learn

YAU Wing Yee

St. Stephen’s Girls’ College

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)

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.

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)

mostly disagree1 ------5 mostly agree

Findings on student learning:

(F.4 and before returning the marked reports) Compare with average

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

Model making, investigations, Ocean Park Project

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.

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

Why ‘Poster Design’?

From experiences, It is a helpful tool in checking

students’ understanding;

It makes the work and marking more enjoyable;

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!

Samples of poster design (2)

Students directly copy diagrams from the books.

For example, a diagram to illustrate a definition.

Understanding cannot be checked!

Samples of poster design (3)

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.

Another possible method -Literature review

as part of an investigationEg. 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)

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.

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.

Problems:

Ensure every member works :- Each member reported their review before discussions.

- Individual questions to ‘questionable’ students.

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.)

Contact:

YAU Wing Yee wyyau@ssgc.edu.hk