Read books to help you write open-ended essays.

According to the new General Education Program (GDPT 2018), the Literature subject will use materials outside of the textbook for both reading comprehension and writing (essay) sections in periodic tests. This requires both teachers and students to read more.

Students read books at the library of Nam Chinh Secondary School (Tien Hai district - Thai Binh province). Photo: NTCC.

Associate Professor Dr. Do Ngoc Thong - chief editor of the 2018 General Education Program for Literature - shared that the new aspect of Literature is the change in approach. Previously, textbooks followed content and genre, from folklore to medieval and then modern. However, the new textbooks organize the books along a skills axis, helping teachers and students visualize the skills they need to achieve.

With the implementation of the new general education program, each set of textbooks is compiled differently according to the author's perspective. However, for teachers to teach effectively, they should base their lesson plans on the curriculum and textbooks to suit their students. If teachers rely solely on one particular textbook for teaching, success is unlikely. Therefore, according to experts, reading and self-study to expand the body of linguistic resources beyond textbooks is essential for the Literature subject to achieve its goals.

Literature teachers say that teaching practice shows that the amount of knowledge in textbooks cannot adequately meet the needs, orientations, and goals of the 2018 General Education Program. To improve teaching quality and ensure the holistic development of learners, teachers themselves must update their knowledge with additional resources. For example, with the "Connecting Knowledge with Life" textbook series, if teachers do not proactively read and update their knowledge of the open-ended questions, they will not be able to explain the content in detail to the learners. The advantage of using materials outside of textbooks is that it somewhat reduces the need for model essays and model answers, thereby fostering students' abilities and qualities. However, this places very high demands on the test setters. Without serious and consistent investment from teachers, creating test questions becomes very difficult, leading to hardships not only for the test setters but also for those reviewing the questions.

Furthermore, students are required to actively read books and newspapers to broaden their knowledge and vocabulary. According to Ms. Tran Thanh Mai, a Literature teacher at Chu Van An Secondary School (Thanh Tri District, Hanoi ), Literature is the subject with the most significant changes in the new general education program. Students learn and are tested with completely different materials. Previously, students only needed to understand the knowledge and characters to write good essays, but now they must understand how each genre is explored from different perspectives to write a good essay. In the old program, students had already learned and reviewed the knowledge in the works repeatedly, while in the new program, students must grasp the thinking and methods. Now, with the implementation of the new general education program, the teacher's task is to make students love literature, avoiding excessive talking and teaching too much, and instead focusing on the program's requirements. Teachers mainly focus on guiding, sharing experiences, and teaching students how to write essays. Develop essay structure, writing style, outline creation, and master writing skills and techniques to avoid relying on model essays or rote memorization.

Observations show that reading culture in general, and reading culture in schools in particular, has not been truly promoted. This is because most students have access to social media from an early age, limiting their opportunities to access books. Furthermore, the reading movement in schools has not been effectively implemented; schools have yet to find solutions to stimulate students' interest in reading. This is not surprising, as sociological statistics show that Vietnamese people only read one book per year and spend about one hour a day reading, among the lowest in the world .

Ms. Thanh Nha, a teacher at Van Giang Secondary School (Hung Yen province), believes that reading is an indispensable activity for students to develop their abilities, qualities, and knowledge. Even without curriculum changes, reading remains a necessary activity that should be maintained and further developed. Reading is the easiest way to acquire knowledge. Maintaining a daily reading habit will help one cultivate a large amount of knowledge. Therefore, reading in the school environment should be nurtured into a habit and a passion, not merely a formality.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/doc-sach-de-lam-van-theo-huong-mo-10295076.html