必修5&选修6Unit 3 Life in the future教学设计

Period 4　Reading and Writing

The General Idea of This Period

This period teaching and studying will center on reading and writing.As usual, the teacher can begin the teaching with revision the former knowledge, that is to say, the content of First Impressions.This part can be also regarded as the lead-in, because the passage to be learned is the continued part of First Impression.It will describe amazing things that Li Qiang has seen in the future AD 3005.

As to reading training, the purpose of doing it is to help the students to form the good habit of reading with some strategy.The teacher should develop the students’ ability of scanning and skimming, including the implied meaning beyond lines.So at the beginning, get the students to prepare knowledge for reading.In order to reach that purpose, the teacher firstly will ask some questions about what they have learned in the second period, and then let them talk about what they can see in the picture.

Then let the students scan the passage and find what amazing things are mentioned.Later, the teacher will ask the students to skim it and find out the main idea for each paragraph.The purpose of doing these is to help the students to form the good habit of reading.When reading a passage, we had better first read it as whole, that is, understand the structure of the passage and catch the main idea with the help of structure and title.

The following step is to read the passage for the details.The teacher can design some teaching activities to help the students to know about more and more information by taking part in the reading activities.As a result, the teacher should be careful, cautious and creative when designing the reading activities.The reading activities had better be various, which can cause more students’ attention.

At the end of reading, some activities should be designed to lead the students to understand the implied meaning beyond the passage.At the same time, let the students consider the writing purpose, which serves the purpose of the author writing it.

Besides reading, the class is also expected to learn and practise writing skill.By studying the passage, the students should learn the ability of describing the things and what they imagine imitating the passage.The teacher should give the students some advice on how to succeed in describing the things and what they imagine.

Teaching Important Points

Master the skill of gist reading.

Develop the students’ ability of understanding the implied meaning.

Improve the students’ writing ability.

Teaching Difficulties

Develop the students’ ability of understanding the implied meaning.

Teaching Aids

Multi-media classroom and other normal teaching tools

Three Dimensional Teaching Aims

Knowledge Aims

Get the students to know about what Li Qiang found in the future in AD 3005.

Learn the knowledge about how to write a passage about description of the things.

Ability Aims

Master the skill of gist reading.

Develop the students’ ability of understanding the implied meaning.

Improve the students’ writing ability.

Emotional Aims

Reading the passage is to attempt to cultivate students’ spirit of exploring science and future.

Teaching Procedure

Step 1 Greeting

T: Hello, my friends.

Ss: Hello, Miss Wang.

Step 2 Revision

T: Do you still remember what we learned in the second period?

S: First Impressions.

T: How did Li Qiang travel to the earth in AD 3005?

S: With the help of his friend, he traveled by time capsule to the earth but one thousand years in the future.

T: How did he feel when he found him in a completely strange world?

S: He was confused by the new surroundings.

T: Good.Now let’s make some sentences with“Li Qiang”to describe what he saw and experienced.

S: Li Qiang suffered from the lack of fresh air on his arrival at the new world in the future.

S: Li Qiang felt much better after putting on a special mask, though the air seemed thin there.

S: Li Qiang got separated from his friend when they reached what looked like a large market.

Ss: ...

Step 3 Pre-reading

T: You did a good job.Most of you reviewed what we learned.Now let us guess what Li Qiang would go on visiting.

S: He was to visit other planets by time capsule.

S: I guess he would go to visit some interesting places.

S: I think he would pay a visit to a family and a school.

Ss: ...

T: If you were the author of the passage, what would you like to introduce to readers?

S: I might introduce the aliens who he met in the future.

S: I think I would describe the way of future life.

S: If I were the author, I would prefer to write something about future school.

T: Some students seem to have the same opinion as the author, while some might be able to write a new passage for us to enjoy.I am glad to know you all have used your heads to have various answers.Now study the picture on Page 21 to tell me what you can see in the picture.

S: I can see a strange thing is working in a special place.

S: The strange thing has six hands and one leg, but its head is similar to ours.

S: There is another creature, which is very small with many hands, compared with the big one.

Ss: ...

Step 4 Fast Reading

T: Now let us read the title together.

T: Can you predict what the passage may be about?

S: It may be about what he had seen, especially about the amazing things in the future.

T: You are right.As we all know, the best title is the one which can show the main idea of the reading passage.As a consequence, we should read the title when we begin to read one, which will help us to understand a passage.Now, read the passage quickly to find what amazing things are mentioned in it.

(After one minute.)

S: a pace station, some alien creatures, mu-mu, dimpods

T: Yes.Please look through it again and find out main idea for each paragraph.You’d better finish it in two minutes.

(Two minutes later, ask the students to show their opinion to the whole class.Then discuss it and decide the best answer.The teacher should tell them the answer in the end.)

Suggested answers:

Para.1 a space station considered the most modern in this part of space

Pare.2 the friendliest creatures, mu-mu

Para.3 the most interesting creatures, dimpods

Para.4 the differences and similarities between them

Step 5 Careful Reading

T: Please read Para.one and answer the questions: Where did he first visit?Describe the place.

(After one minute.)

S: His first visit was to a space station considered the most modern in this part of space.It is an enormous round plate, and it spins slowly in space to imitate the pull of the earth’s gravity.Inside of it, it is divided into zones with extraordinarily differ atmospheres and gravities.

T: Right.What other strange things can be found?

S: There live the alien creatures while they work with human space scientists searching for new worlds.

T: Now please read the next two paragraphs to tell the following sentences true or false.

1.The friendliest creatures are the tiny dimpods, while the most interesting creatures are the mu-mu.

2.The mu-mu must wear red nightlights on the helmets so that they can see in the dark.

3.The World Space Agency will send a spaceship to examine the fourth star in the Pleiades system next year.

4.The mu-mu can skip around the pipes and between the wooden walls of the space station.

5.The tiny dimpods are great engineers, which require the same the same atmospheres as humans.

6.The tiny dimpods van produce a liquid from their bodies, which melts metal and very useful for the outside for spaceships.

(Give students four minutes to read and consider the statements.)

T: Let’s check the answers.If it is wrong, please correct it.

S: 1.I think the first sentence is wrong.The two objects should be exchanged.That is to say, the friendliest creatures are the mu-mu, while the most interesting creatures are the tiny dimpods.

T: Right.What about the next?

S: 2.It is false.Human beings must wear red nightlights on the helmets so that they can see in the dark.But the mu-mus don’t need it because they can see in the dark.

T: Good.Is the third one wrong?

S: 3.I think it is right.

T: Right.What about the next one?

S: 4.It is wrong.The tiny dimpods can skip round the pipes and between the wooden walls of the space station.

T: I agree with you.

S: 5.The fifth and the sixth are right.

T: Excellent.Now, let’s read the last paragraph and combine what we just read to finish the following chart.

Step 6 Post-reading　

T: What’s the main idea?

S: The passage mainly tells us the strange things that he saw in the future.

T: Right.What is the purpose of writing the passage?

S: Writing the passage is to let us know what will happen in advance.

S: I think the author attempted to encourage us to be brave enough to search for the future to speed up the development of science.

T: What a clever head!We should have a creative spirit to explore the development of the future to build up our society.We should work hard to make contributions to our country, trying to make our homeland highly developed.

T: Now let’s imagine to add two extra characteristics of the creatures.Discuss what an alien creature of your own might be like with your partners.

(About three minutes, ask some students to describe what an alien creature might be like in their minds.)

Step 7 Writing

T: Just now you discuss what an alien creature of your own might be like.Now please draw a picture of your alien.Then write a description based on your drawing and the notes in the chart.Show your drawing to your classmates and read your description to them.

(Give them ten minutes to do it.First, let them do it by themselves.Later get them to exchange with their deskmates.Finally ask some students to show their work to the whole class.During doing it, the teacher can design a competition to arouse their interest.If possible, get some excellent works shown to the whole school to encourage students to have a creative spirit.)

Step 8 Consolidation

T: In this period, we mainly focus on reading the passage: I Have Seen Amazing Things.Would you please make a sentence with“What I have seen...”?

(In order to get more students to take part in this activity, the teacher can let them have a competition between groups.)

Step 9 Homework

T: After class write a passage titled An Alien in My Mind, imitating the passage.In your description there will be name of creature, size, appearance, color, how to move, personality and so on.

The Design of the Writing on the Blackboard

Unit 3　Life in the future

Period 4　Reading and Writing

Research and Activities

Get the students to participate in a competition about designing the future.The theme of the competition is robots in the future home.The students are asked to work in groups of four to design the robots in their minds.They will draw the pictures of the robots and also describe the size, appearance, personality and how to work.In order to attract more attention, the designers should give a vivid description about its outstanding advantages and function.In addition to beautiful appearance and extraordinary function, the designing should also be full of imagination. The group whose description is wonderful, together with imaginative, beautiful and functional design, will be the winner.

Reference for Teaching

Space program in the future

The risk takers and visionaries of this agency have expanded human knowledge, have revolutionized our understanding of the universe, and produced technological advances that have benefited all of humanity.

Inspired by all that has come before, and guided by clear objectives, today they set a new course for America’s space program.They will give NASA a new focus and vision for future exploration.They will build new ships to carry man forward into the universe, to gain a new foothold on the moon, and to prepare for new journeys to worlds beyond their own.

Their current programs and vehicles for exploring space have brought them far.The Space Shuttle has flown more than a hundred missions.It has been used to conduct important research and to increase the sum of human knowledge.Shuttle crews, and the scientists and engineers who support them, have helped to build the International Space Station.

Telescopes—including those in space—have revealed more than 100 planets in the last decade alone.Probes have shown them stunning images of the rings of Saturn and the outer planets of our solar system.Robotic explorers have found evidence of water—a key ingredient for life—on Mars and on the moons of Jupiter.At this very hour, the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is searching for evidence of life beyond the Earth.

It is time for America to take the next steps.Their first goal is to complete the International Space Station by 2010.They will focus their future research aboard the station on the long-term effects of space travel on human biology.The environment of space is hostile to human beings.Radiation and weightlessness pose dangers to human health, and we have much to learn about their long-term effects before human crews can venture through the vast voids of space for months at a time.Research on board the station and here on Earth will help us better understand and overcome the obstacles that limit exploration.Through these efforts we will develop the skills and techniques necessary to sustain further space exploration.

The second goal is to develop and test a new spacecraft, the Crew Exploration Vehicle, by 2008, and to conduct the first manned mission no later than 2014.The Crew Exploration Vehicle will be capable of ferrying astronauts and scientists to the Space Station after the shuttle is retired.But the main purpose of this spacecraft will be to carry astronauts beyond our orbit to other worlds.This will be the first spacecraft of its kind since the Apollo Command Module.

The third goal is to return to the moon by 2020, as the launching point for missions beyond. Beginning no later than 2008, they will send a series of robotic missions to the lunar surface to research and prepare for future human exploration.Using the Crew Exploration Vehicle, they will undertake extended human missions to the moon as early as 2015, with the goal of living and working there for increasingly extended periods.

With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, man will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond.Yet the human thirst for knowledge ultimately cannot be satisfied by even the most vivid pictures, or the most detailed measurements. And only human beings are capable of adapting to the inevitable uncertainties posed by space travel.

Galaxy

Any of the systems of stars and interstellar matter makes up the Cosmos.Many such assemblages are so enormous that they contain hundreds of billions of stars.

Nature has provided an immensely varied array of galaxies, ranging from faint, diffuse dwarf objects to brilliant, spiral-shaped giants.Virtually all galaxies appear to have been formed soon after the universe began, and they pervade space, even into the depths of the farthest reaches penetrated by powerful modern telescopes.Galaxies usually exist in clusters, some of which in turn are grouped into larger clusters measuring hundreds of millions of light-years across.(A light-year is the distance traversed by light in one year, traveling at a velocity of 300 000 kilometers per second, or 650 000 000 miles per hour.) These so-called super clusters are separated by nearly empty voids, causing the gross structure of the universe to look somewhat like a network of sheets and chains of galaxies.

Galaxies differ from one another in shape, with variations resulting from the way in which the systems were formed.Depending on the initial conditions in the pregalactic gas some 15 000 000 000 years ago, galaxies formed either as slowly turning, smoothly structured, round systems of stars and gas or as rapidly rotating pinwheels of such entities.Other differences between galaxies have been observed and are thought to reflect evolutionary changes.Some galaxies are rife with activity: they are the sites of star formation with its attendant glowing gas and clouds of dust and molecular complexes.Others, by contrast, are quiescent, having long ago ceased to form new stars.Perhaps the most conspicuous evolutionary changes in galaxies occur in their nuclei, where evidence suggests that in many cases super massive objects—probably black holes—formed when the galaxies were young.Such phenomena occurred several billion years ago and are now observed as brilliant objects called quasars.

The existence of galaxies was not recognized until the early 20th century.Since then, however, galaxies have become one of the focal points of astronomical investigation.The notable developments and achievements in the study of galaxies are surveyed here.Included in the discussion are the external galaxies (i.e., those lying outside the Milky Way Galaxy, the local galaxy to which the Sun and Earth belong), their distribution in clusters and super clusters, and the evolution of galaxies and quasars.For further details on the Milky Way Galaxy, see Milky Way Galaxy.For specifics about the components of galaxies, see star, nebula, and Cosmos.

A future vehicle

While many technological advances occur in an evolutionary manner, occasionally a revolutionary technological appears on the horizon that creates startling new conditions and profound changes.Such is the case with the privately developed Moller Skycar, which is named after its inventor.

The LAMV is a vertical take-off and landing aircraft that can fly in a quick, quiet, and agile manner.It is a new type of vehicle that combines the speed of an airplane and the vertical take-off capability of a helicopter with some characteristics of a ground vehicle, but without the limitations of any of those existing modes of transportation.

The LAMV is not operated like traditional fixed—or rotary-wing aircraft.It has only two hand-operator uses to direct the redundant computer control twists to select the desired operating altitude and moves fore and aft to select the rate of climb.The right-hand control twists to select the vehicle’s direction and moves side-to-side to provide transverse (crosswise) movement during the hover and early-transition-to-flight phases of operation; it also moves fore and aft to control speed and braking.Simply put, the LAMV is user friendly.

The LAMV of the future will be 18 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 6 feet high and weight 2200 pounds.It will hold four passengers and a payload of 875 pounds (including fuel).The vehicle will have a maximum rate of climb of 6400 feet per minute and an operational ceiling of 30 000 feet.It will attain a top speed of 390 miles per hour at an altitude of 6000 feet and a cruising speed of 350 miles per hour at 25 000 feet, and it will have a maximum range of 900 miles at 80 passenger miles per gallon.The LAMV also will be quiet enough to function as an acoustic“stealth”plane at 500 feet.It will have a vertical take-off and landing capability and emergency airframe parachutes, and it will be capable of using various fuels.

The potential economic advantages of the LAMV are worth mentioning.Its fuel-efficient engines and ability to operate on various fuels will low fuel costs.The LAMV uses one-fourth of the fuel per passenger mile used by the tilt-rotor V-22 Osprey or high performance helicopters.The LAMV’s potential military uses will be numerous.

However, once the LAMV technology matures, its military possibilities are startling.We in the Army combat service support“futures”arena are encouraged by the developments so far and hope that the LAMV will be ready for Army fielding around 2010.The LAMV can become a reality in our Army and possibility in the other armed services as well.Without any doubt, this technological innovation will succeed internationally inn the private, commercial, and military sectors.I hope that the US Army will be the first army in the world to embrace and exploit this technology.But sooner rather than later, this aerial vehicle technology will affect all of our lives.It is just over the horizon.