Let’s explore the Ming Tombs!
Selected from Unit 6 Topic 2 Section C, Ren’ai Project English Book 2.
Part One Analysis of Teaching Material
I. Status and Function
This is a reading text about the topic “Let’s explore the Ming Tombs”. It aims to enhance students’ reading skills. It also provides some new language points for the students to master.
II. Teaching Aims and Demands
The teaching aims are based on Junior High School English syllabus' provision.
1. Knowledge objects
(1) To help the students master the new words and expressions.
(2) To teach the students how to use the adverbial clauses of time.
2. Ability objects
My teaching procedure is designed to promote the students' abilities of reading, listening, speaking and writing.
3. Emotion objects
(1) To arouse the students’ interest in class activities.
(2) To train their team spirit by working in groups.
(3) To educate the students to follow the public rules.
III. Key Points and Difficult Points
Key points:
(1) To help the students to master the new expressions.
(2) To enable the students to communicate with each other.
Difficult points:
(1) How to use adverbial clauses of time.
(2) How to retell the text.
Part Two Analysis of Students
The students of my two classes are very active. They enjoy taking part in all kinds of class activities. At present they can express their own ideas with simple oral English. Also writing a short passage is among their abilities now. And most of them can retell the text at the end of the class. Gradually, they have taken great interest in English.
Part Three Analysis of Teaching Methods
1. Audio-visual teaching method
2. Task-based teaching method
3. Free discussion method
Part Four Analysis of Learning Methods
1. To take an active part in class activities.
2. To summarize the language points through their own thinking.
3. To make use of the new language material to express their own ideas.
Part Five Analysis of Teaching Procedure
Step 1 Brain storming (3 minutes)
Step 2 Digest the text (23 minutes)
Step 3 Outline the story (5 minutes)
Step 4 Discussion (3 minutes)
Step 5 Additional materials (5 minutes)
Step 6 Project (6 minutes)
The six tasks are designed to follow the gradualism principle. Each task is harder than the former one.
Step 1 Brain storming
This task aims to help the students remember the new words.
First, I will guide the students to read the new words according to the pronunciation rules.
Second, I will ask the students to make up four short stories with the new words. And the main structure of the story will be given to make the task easy and interesting. The students just need to fill in the blanks with the right words to complete the story.
The interesting stories will help the students to remember the new words quickly. And also this task can begin this lesson with exciting atmosphere.
Step 2 Digest the Text
Here I adopt four steps for the students to digest the text.
1. Listening (3 minutes)
The students are supposed to listen to the tape and get some main ideas about the text. Then I will ask the students to answer some simple yes-or-no questions to check their listening comprehension.
2. Skipping and Scanning (5~6 minutes)
After listening, students begin to read the text for the first time.
First, they should underline the new expressions while reading.
Second, they should number the pictures in the right order. They should finish this part by skipping and scanning.
Third, I will explain the new expressions and ask the students to fill in the blanks with them. This exercise will make the new points more impressive.
At last, some translation should be done here for the students to practice more.
3. Grammar Focus (10 minutes)
This is a difficult point in this lesson.
First, I will pick out all the sentences with adverbial clauses of time from the text. And I will ask the students to find out all the conjunctions about time.
Second, I will use examples to help the students summarize how to use these conjunctions by comparison. And in this way the students will go through the old grammar points with their own thinking.
Then we will move on to the new points. I will help the students to master these new points with explicit illustration with examples.
Third, I will show an abstract of the text with blanks. And the students should fill in the blanks with the right conjunctions. This exercise can help the students learn to make use of the former summary to distinguish the right conjunction from the other ones.
At last, sentence making is employed here. So the students can practice how to use the adverbial clauses of time to consolidate what they have learnt.
4. Intensive Reading (3~4minutes)
Intensive reading helps to get details. So I design some questions about detail information to check the students' comprehension.
Step 3 Outline the Story
In this task, I design two activities:
Activity 1. Use one sentence to sum up the main idea of each paragraph. It can help students to master the whole story. And it can also help them to go through Activity 2.
Activity 2. Retell the story in your own words. Retelling the story demands the students' higher ability to organize the whole passage orally. And it needs their good understanding and good memory as well as good language ability. This activity is a challenge for the quick learners to improve themselves.
Step 4 Discussion
After the former task, the students can master the whole story. To go further, I'd like to enlighten the students to think more about the text. And the discussion about the public rules will help me to achieve the emotion objects I mentioned.
First, I will ask: Do you think the three boys' travel experience was pleasant? Why not? If you go traveling, should you do the following things? For example, should you wait in the queue? Should you push other people? The students will tell me yes or no.
Second, I will let the students discuss and name some other public rules.
Step 5 Additional Materials
Activity 1. Listen More. This is Part 2 from this lesson. Here the students are supposed to get some detail information to fill in the blanks with.
Activity 2. Read More. Here I select an interesting short story about traveling. Most of the new words are not translated. So the students will guess the meaning of these words while understanding the whole story. It can help the students to cultivate their language sense. And here is only one question to check their reading comprehension.
Step 6 Project
I will show some pictures first and tell students about my travel experience to arouse their interest. Then, I will ask them to write an e-mail to their friends to tell him or her about their own travel experience. At last, I will ask some students to read their compositions as examples for the class.
In the end, I will show the assignment for the students to do at home.
This is my design of the blackboard. All the useful expressions and grammar points are listed on the blackboard.
Part 6 Reflection
In the process of teaching, I carry on task-based teaching method. I design six tasks for the students to complete, and each task is harder than the former one. I try to make the lesson rich, effective, and instructive. But as we know, not all the students are of the same level, a few of them may have difficulty in Task 5-- retelling the story. However, every coin has two sides. If all the activities are designed for the average students, the quick learners will not improve their ability in such a class. I hope I can find out some multi-activities for students of different levels to solve this problem.