The article deals with the integrated educational programs that are being introduced into Kazakhstan general education schools, their characteristic being integration of school subjects, unity of students’ learning and up-bringing, teaching them to apply their knowledge in problem solving; a Russian language textbook concept is described in the context of integrated education in which the Russian language is considered as a subject with a special status among others, as an important tool in forming students’ personality, their intellectual, emotional and moral development; characterizes the methods of learning using the works by Olzhas Suleimenov at Russian lessons which contributes to the formation of students’ creative attitude to the word and critical thinking.
Integrated educational programs
Integrated educational programs are being introduced into Kazakhstan general education schools [1]. These programs are characterized by integration of several subjects, unity of learning and up-bringing, teaching students to apply their knowledge in educational and professional problem solving. It reflects the integration of scientific knowledge that implies a shared vision on the problem from the point of view of the Humanities (or natural sciences), as phenomena, objects and processes in the world around are closely connected. The advantage of this program is that it is focused on active learning, and it fully meets the requirements of our century that is filled with information.
The teaching aims of Russian at school
The Russian language is not just a subject; it is a means of studying other subjects, experiencing the surrounding reality, a powerful weapon in self-development and socialization. Therefore, in teaching Russian we should not just give information about the language itself, but teach students to use it in different situations and teach them how to learn themselves. The integrated approach to teaching Russian allows overcoming the learning practice that reduces oral and written speech acquirement to the ability of making orthographic, punctuation and other types of word, sentence and text analysis.
The change in the objective – the integration of subjects – has led to changes in the content of the Russian Language subject and in the system of its realization in the textbook. In creating “Russian Language” textbook for 7th grade we gave priority to the principles promoting various types of oral activity acquisition – listening, reading, speaking, and writing. It is the language that helps people communicate, receive and store information, become familiar with the people’s culture, history and belles-lettres. That is why at the Russian Language lessons it is important not only to give knowledge about the Russian language but to form the skills to use this knowledge in practice. In other words, at the Russian Language lessons it is necessary to talk not about the Russian language but in the Russian language.
“Russian Language” textbook for 7th grade includes the following topics: “Climate and Its Change”, “Customs and Traditions”, “Knowledge: The World and Foreign Language Learning”, “Do the landscape and climate influence on the national character?”, “Youth Culture: the Internet and Social Network”, “Problems of Social Security for the Homeless”, “Genetically Modified Foods”, “Victory Day”, “If I were the Ruler of the World…”. The contents of the textbook integrates information on the Russian and Kazakh literature, geography, history, cultural studies, ethnography, social studies, computer science, etc. based on which students study the Russian language, acquire functional literacy that encourage students to utilize their abilities and socialize successfully.
Works by Olzhas Suleimenov at the Russian Language lessons
In the textbook we turned to the creative work by Olzhas Suleimenov, a public man, poet, writer, writing in the Russian language, who has been doing his years long research in linguistics, semiotics, literary studies, etc. using the works by Olzhas Suleimenov at the Russian lessons enables to create a learning atmosphere that contributes to the formation of creative people who can think critically, who have a fine appreciation of a word, who are able to embrace the world on a large scale, as a cosmopolitan, and perceive their motherland as the beginning of everything.
Studying the Topic 10 called “How to Study?” of Chapter 3 “: The World and Foreign Language Learning”, students consider such questions and ‘actions’ as How to study? What is motivation? How to put smart questions in learning? How to set smart goals in learning? How to train memory, attention and concentration? What types of knowledge are there? How and where to find information? Why is our century called the Information Century? Why is it important to study continuously, retrain and adapt to the ever increasing flow of information?
In this topic we study the poem Волчата (“wolf cubs”) by Olzhas Suleimenov that is studied at Russian Literature lessons (Exercise 231) [2, p. 26]. The exercise offers to identify the type of knowledge (of common life, practical, scientific or literary) it includes, what information can be obtained from it [3].
The poem deals with the problem of violation of harmony in nature that leads to man’s self-destruction. In order to identify the main idea of the poem, one can hold a conversation using the following questions: What problem is raised by the author? What is the main idea of the poem? What feelings did the she-wolf cause in the wolf hunter? Why didn’t the wolf hunter touch the wolf cubs? What is the tragedy described in the poem? Why wasn’t the person guilty of the she-wolf’s death mentioned in the poem? Can a person decide whether an animal should live or die? etc. At the end of the discussion using the questions students make a conclusion that the poem shows the interrelation between the world of nature and the world of man, that his nature is revealed through his attitude towards animals. Olzhas Suleimenov’s idea that wolf cubs learn the feeling of revenge “with their mother’s thick milk growing cold” sounds like a warning to people.
After the conversation you can use one of the methods of developing critical thinking – “RAFT” (“Role (the addresser of the text) – Audience (the addressee of the text) – Form (the genre of the text) – Theme”). This method teaches to analyze your actions and ongoing events, to express your attitude towards the world, to consider the problem from different points of view, to solve it, to arrive at well-founded conclusions, to exercise judgment, and to utilize their creative skills. Students are offered to create different reading “scenarios” of the poem.
|
R – role |
wolf hunter |
wolf cubs |
onlooker |
|
А – audience |
hunters |
animals |
students |
|
F – form |
conversation |
short story |
report |
|
Т – theme |
“Man and Nature” |
||
Working in groups, students discuss the given scenarios of Olzhas Suleimenov’s poem interpretation and create their own texts from the given person to the designated addressee in the given genre, give their own opinion about the main idea and the moral (“Live with the feeling of love to nature, people and home grounds!”). It is necessary to point out to students the importance of getting into the role of the wolf hunter, the wolf cubs, and the onlooker; take into account the conditions the personage is found in. A monitoring is carried out after presenting the results of the work: the most important moments created by each group are defined and discussed.
Such an integrated lesson provides students with the opportunity to utilize their skills in identifying new in the known, to go beyond the usual, to offer unconventional solutions to the problem showing the flexibility and originality of thought.
Studying the Topic 14 called “Russian and Kazakh Nature” in Chapter 4 “Do the landscape and climate influence on the national character?” the poem apples (“apples”) by Olzhas Suleimenov is given (Exercise 326) [2, p. 95]. The integrated lesson on this poem can be held using such methods of developing critical thinking as “The Oak of Predictions” or “Bloom’s Daisy”.
Before reading the poem the work with “The Oak of Predictions” is carried out. This method – “The Oak of Predictions” – was adopted from the American educator J. Bellans. We have changed its name as the oak in the Russian culture possesses a great significance: it is a symbol of strength wisdom and eternity. The rules of working with this method are: the theme is written down on the trunk of the oak – “The poem apples”; suppositions of what the poem is about and of what the title suggests are written on the branches; the leaves contain arguments for one’s own opinion. Such work helps develop creative thinking, the skill of matching arguments and facts, thinking of the perspective, developing visual and logical thinking. After reading the poem students answer the question of whether their guesses written on “The Oak of Predictions” coincide with the content of the poem.
The poem analysis can be carried out using the six questions on the six petals of the “Bloom’s Daisy” that are organized according to students’ levels of cognitive activity – knowledge, understanding, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. This method develops students’ ability to ask questions that require several answers, encourage contemplation, a dialogue and help state the problem [4].
“Daisy” questions should deal with the content and the main idea of the poem. They can be of six types: simple (Where do the events take part? How does the poet describe the setting? What do the apples represent? What are the parts of the poems? What changes have the “shaggy”, “angry” men undergone?), specifying (Is it true that the apples are the symbol of the Sun and Almaty? If I get it right, the poem is entitled apples because…), interpretational (explaining) (Why was the land called “so tenderly”: “snowstorm”? Why is the apple compared with the Sun? Why does the poet address the mother?), creative (Can “the rosy shining smell” of an apple “blaze up”? can one look at “the apples cheeks as children’s”? What would happen if the hero took a tomato or a watermelon out of the backpack instead of an apple?), evaluative (What is your attitude towards apples?), practical questions (e.g. What would you do if were in this situation? What would you take with you when you visited your friend in order to remind him of his motherland?).
Conclusion
Thus, integrated educational programs are focused on not only students’ knowledge acquisition but on students’ ability to analyze the information, evaluate it and after giving their own opinion to use it in their future educational and professional life. In this case students are fully involved in the learning process as its active participants, and the teacher’s role is reduced to that of a coordinator.
The work is submitted to the International Scientific Conference «Modern education. Problems and solutions», Italy (Rome-Venice), December 18–25, 2016, came to the editorial office оn 29.10.2016.