Unit 2 School life
Reading (II)
I. Teaching aims and learning objectives
By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
1. get further understanding of the two passages by comparing Nancy’s and John’s schools;
2. learn how to use some important words correctly properly;
3. write a short passage about special school activities in our own school;
4. activate the students’ awareness of enjoying their school by talking about their ideal school life.
II. Teaching contents
1. New words and phrases: mixed, French, foreign, language, during the week, discuss sth with sb, buddy, offer sb help, end, play baseball
2. New structure: It is a mixed school.
Among all the subjects, I like French best.
Learning foreign languages is fun.
I often read more books than my classmates.
Near the end of the week, we discuss the books with our classmates in class.
On Friday afternoon, our school ends earlier than usual.
III. Focus of the lesson and predicted area of difficulty
Learn how to use these important words properly.
IV. Teaching procedures
Step 1 Lead-in
1. Show a short video about school life and then ask students some questions
What did the boy Greg and his friend Rowley want to do?
(They wanted to have lunch in the school dining hall.)
What problem did they have?
(They didn’t find a suitable place to sit and have their lunch.)
What do you think of their school life?
(Their school life is so terrible.)
What do you think of the other students in the video?
(The other students are so rude and unfriendly to Greg and his friend Rowley.)
2. Let’s review
Please fill in the table with right details according to the two short passages in Reading.
Students
Nancy, in Year 8,
John, 14 years old, in the
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a ___1___ student
8th grade, an American student
Schools
Woodland School near ___3___
___2___ near Denver
School types
a ___4___ school
a mixed school
Favorite school subjects
___5___
/
Special school activities
___6___
___7___
Feelings
Learning ___8___.
Time ___9___.
He is my hero.
Our team ___10___.
(Keys: British, Rocky Mountain High School, London, mixed, French, the Reading Week, the Buddy Club, foreign languages is fun, seems to go faster when we are reading interesting books, won two games last month)
【设计意图】通过有趣视频的导入,激发学生的学习兴趣以及引起学生对文中学校生活和片中学校生活的简单对比,而任务型表格帮助学生回顾课文内容细节,提示学生如何梳理、整合文章的内容。
Step 2 Presentation
1. Let’s retell
T: You’re great! But who can retell the short passages with the information in the table.
2. Explain the word “mix”
(1) Explain the word
T: Let’s analyze the two passages and divide them into two parts. The first part is “About me” and the other part is “About school life”. In the first part, Andy says that her school is a mixed school. What is a mixed school? In a mixed school, boys and girls have lessons together.
(2) Exercise
Fill in the blanks with the right forms of “mix”
Our school is a __________ (mix) school.
Our P.E teachers always _________ (mix) different classes to form different clubs to have P.E lessons.
Sometimes, our P.E. teacher __________ (mix) boys with girls to form training teams in table tennis.
We practise hard and often win table tennis __________ doubles in Yangzhou.
3. Explain “discuss”
(1) Ask students to finish a diagram
T: “About school life” talks about their own different school lives. Do they have something in common? They have special school activities, a Reading Week in Nancy’s school and a Buddy Club in John’s school. How does the Reading Week work? (Showing pictures) And then complete the diagram.
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the Reading Week
/ \
Where do books come from? What do students do during it?
/ / \ \
(borrow… from…; bring in … from …) (read…after class; discuss… with…in class)
(2) Explain the word with more examples
(3) Exercise
Translate some sentences.
T: Can you guess what we will have a discussion about next?
4. Explain the word “buddy” and “offer”
(1) Explain the word “buddy”
T: Now, let’s discuss the Buddy Club in John’s school. How does the Buddy work? From the two pictures, we can guess who the buddy can be. Why?
S: Here, the buddies are older students in the school and they aren’t teachers.
T: What do the buddies usually do in the Buddy Club? Please put a tick in the boxes below.
A. listen carefully to their problems
B. help them learn more about the school
C. help them become heroes
D. offer some help with their problems
(Keys: A, B, D)
(2) Explain the word “offer”
a. Explain the word
T: The older students don’t help new students become heroes. How do they help the new
ones?
S: They mainly help them learn more about the school and solve their problems.
T: In Paragraph 2 of Passage Two, the last sentence is “He is my hero”. What does he refer
to here?
S: Tony. Tony is John’s hero.
T: Why?
S: Because he often listens carefully to his problems and offer him help.
b. Exercise
(a) Fill in the blanks with right forms of the words
Each student is willing to _________ (提供) books to the students in poor areas.
The buddies often _________ (提供) new students with useful advice on how to learn
English well in the past.
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(b) Can you translate it into Chinese?
The buddies sometimes offer to help us practise playing baseball.
5. Explain the word “end”
(1) Explain the word “end”.
T: Do you have something else you to share with us about activities in John’s school? Then fill in the table with the right information.
Time
Activities
every Monday
go to the Buddy Club
(Keys: on Friday afternoon; do sports together; twice a week; play baseball)
T: But don’t they have lessons together on Friday afternoon?
S: Because his school ends earlier than usual.
T: Have you noticed there are two sentences including the word “end”?
On Friday afternoon, John’s school ends earlier than usual.
Near the end of the week, we discuss the books with classmates in class.
Let’s discuss how to use the words “end”!
(2) Exercise.
Choose the right answers.
—When shall we have another baseball match?
— __________ the term.
A. On the end of B. By the end of
C. Near the end of D. In the end of
I am too busy to listen to her ________ talking. She has
talked for about two hours.
A. hopeless B. endless
C. harmless D. careless
_________, we’ll have a break as soon as we ________ the discussion.
A. Than usual; end B. As usual; end
C. Than usual; ended D. As usual; ended
【设计意图】 在课文上下文中自然地过渡到对生词用法的讲解,并配以一定量的针对性练习。
Step 3 Practice
1. Show a picture of Nancy and ask students some questions:
T: Do you know the words on the blackboard? (I love Paris.)
What language do the words in Line 1 belong to? (French)
To Nancy, a British girl, French is a foreign language, right? (Yes.)
As a Chinese, can you speak French? Can you read the French words below aloud? (No.)
Now read after me. (Salute, Bonjour, Merci)
Do you think it’s interesting? (Yes.)
Nancy also thinks French is interesting and easy to learn. And she thinks learning foreign languages is great fun.
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2. Do you know what John thinks is great fun? (Playing baseball.)
That’s great!That is to say, John thinks playing baseball is great fun.
Let’s enjoy a short video and learn some knowledge about baseball.
【设计意图】通过对文中内容French和baseball的挖掘以及对文本的分析和视频的观看使学生能准确地了解foreign language和play baseball的概念和运动项目,同时也不断通过对动名词做主语的句型的表述,强化了学生对该句型的掌握。
Step 4 Consolidation
1. Complete the passage
T: Please complete the short passage with the right forms of 10 words or phrases among 12 words or phrases
win one game; seem; end early; offer some help; mix; have a discussion about; foreign language; at the end of; play baseball; discuss; learn French; near the end of
My name is Akira. I am from Japan. My school isn’t a (1) __________ high school and there are only boys in it.
On weekdays, I have my school uniform on, like all of my classmates. I walk to school while many of my friends choose to take the bus. I know it (2) __________ strange to walk so far to school, but I think walking can help me keep healthy. We often ___________ (3) how to keep a balance between our schoolwork and hobbies.
In our school, I like (4) _________________ best. Chinese, English and French are all covered in our courses. (5) _________________ is great fun. I often go to the Baseball Club after school on Wednesday afternoon because our school (6) _______________ than usual. We practise (7) ________________ hard on the playground and (8) _______________ to each other during the game. Last week, we (9) __________________. That made us very happy.
We have to clean our classroom (10) _________________ each day and make sure that it is very well cleaned.
We always try to be polite, helpful and hardworking. I am proud of my school.
(Keys: mixed; seems; discuss; foreign languages; Learning French; ends earlier; playing baseball; offer some help; won one game; at the end of)
2. Writing
Ask students to discuss what they think of their school lives.
T: And think the two passages over and learn how to write a passage about their special school activities.
What is it?
When is it held?
Who takes part in it?
What do we do during it?
How do we feel about it?
3. Speaking out
Talk about their ideal school lives. (Showing some pictures)
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【设计意图】在完成对本课重要生词的讲解之后,让学生运用本课所学的单词或词组的正确形式去补全日本学生对学校生活描述的一篇文章,可以检测出学生是否能在恰当的语境中正确地使用新词汇或词组;同时这篇文章也对后面的学生描写特别的学校活动提供了参考、讨论理想的学校生活提供了蓝本。
V. Homework
1. Read the passage fluently.
2. Write an article about your ideal school life.
3. Search the Internet for more information about school lives in other countries.
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