高中英语必修4Unit 1 Women of achievement教案设计

Unit 1　Festivals around the world

单元要览

Period 1　Warming up and reading

整体设计

教材分析

This is the first teaching period of this unit. At the beginning of the class, the teacher can lead in the topic of the unit by having a free talk with students about their winter holidays and the Spring Festival.

The Warming Up is intended to have students start thinking about the variety of events and festivals that are celebrated in China, and connect them with seasons of the year and reasons for the celebrations. The teacher can use this part to introduce information that Chinese students should have about their country’s cultural events.

The Pre-reading is a continuation of the Warming Up and it moves the discussion to a more personal level. It is intended to help students enter imaginatively into a discussion of festivals and their importance to the society. It also directs their attention to the variety of events and activities those festivals include. The teacher should let students discuss the questions and predict what kind of information will be introduced in the Reading.

The reading passage titled FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS briefly describes the earliest kinds of festivals with the reasons for them, and then four different kinds of festivals that occur in most parts of the world. Encourage students to look at the pictures and the heading of each section to guess what the text might be about. Then let them skim for the general idea for each section, and scan for further understanding. Because this passage introduces a lot of useful new words and expressions which are only used for festivals, in order not to let students feel much difficult, the teacher should deal with any language problems while they are reading.  After reading, students are required to do the four exercises in the Comprehending to see how much they have understood the reading passage. The teacher can first let them work in pairs or in groups to find the answers cooperatively, and then check their answers with the whole class.

To consolidate the contents of the reading passage, students should be required to talk about festivals in their own words at the end of the class. In order to arouse students’ interest, the teacher can hold a competition between groups.

教学重点

1. Let students learn more about history and basic knowledge of festivals.

2. Get students to learn different reading skills.

教学难点

1. Develop students’ reading ability.

2. Enable students to talk about festivals and celebrations.

三维目标

知识目标

1. Get students to learn the useful new words and expressions in this part: beauty, harvest, starve, origin, religious, ancestor, Mexico, feast, bone, belief, poet, arrival, gain, independence, gather, agriculture, award, rooster, admire, energetic, Easter, clothing, Christian, custom, take place, in memory of, dress up, play a trick on, look forward to, day and night, as though, have fun with

2. Let students learn about history and basic knowledge of festivals both in and out of China.

能力目标

1. Develop students’ reading ability and let them learn different reading skills.

2. Enable students to talk about festivals and celebrations.

情感目标

1. Stimulate students’ love for their own national culture and customs.

2. Develop students’ sense of cooperative learning.

教学过程

设计方案(一)

→Step 1 Leading-in

Have a free talk with students. Ask them the following questions:

Did you have a good time in your winter holidays?

When did you feel most happy and excited?  Why?

(At the Spring Festival. Because it’s the most important festival in our country. . . )

→Step 2 Warming up

1. Let students brainstorm the other Chinese festivals.

(Lantern Festival, Pure Brightness Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, New Year’s Day, Chung Yeung Festival. . . )

2. Let students read the information about Chinese festivals below and discuss another three Chinese festivals:

When does the festival come?

What do people celebrate?

What do people do?

3. Ask students to fill in the following form and ask some to share their opinions with the whole class. The first one is given as an example.

4. Talk about some foreign festivals with students.

(Christmas, April Fools’ Day, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, . . . )

→Step 3 Pre-reading

1. Let students discuss the following questions:

What festivals or celebrations do you have in your city or town?  What part of a festival do you like best—the activities, the music, the sights, the food or the people who visit?

2. Ask students to look at the pictures and title of the passage in Reading. Discuss in pairs what kind of information will be introduced in the passage.

→Step 4 Reading

1. Fast reading

Ask students to skim the reading passage and then fill in the following chart.

(Let students look through the chart and then read the text silently. Three minutes later, check the answers with the whole class. Show the suggested answers on the screen. )

2. Intensive reading

Allow students to read carefully this time to understand the main ideas of each paragraph and the important details, and then finish the following:

1)Choose the best answer to each question or to finish each sentence according to the text.

(1)Why do Japanese people light lamps during the Festival of the Dead?

A. Because they want to make the festival colorful.

B. Because they want to light up their rooms.

C. Because they want to light up their way.

D. Because they want to lead their ancestors to return to earth.

(2)Which of the following was not mentioned as a famous person in the text?

A. Mohandas Gandi.

B. Christopher Columbus.

C. Abraham Lincoln.

D. Qu Yuan.

(3)The place where people will usually decorate churches and town halls with flowers and fruits is ______________.

A. India

B. America

C. Europe

D. China

(4)Easter is held in memory of the return of Jesus for Christians and also celebrates ______________.

A. the coming of spring

B. the autumn harvest

C. the Lunar New Year

D. the end of a year

Suggested answers: (1)D　(2)C　(3)C　(4)A

2)Use the information from the reading passage to answer the following questions.

(1)What are festivals of the dead usually for?

(2)What makes autumn festivals happy events?

(3)What do people usually do at spring festivals?

(4)What is one important reason to have festivals and celebrations?

(5)Compare the festivals of the dead in Mexico, Japan and China. What things are similar?  What things are different?

3. Reading and discussion

Read the text a third time and then work in pairs to do the following.

1)Based on the reading passage, what do most festivals seem to have in common? Why do you think these things might be important to people everywhere?  Talk with your partner and fill in the chart below.

2)Discuss in pairs which festivals you think are the most important and which are the most fun. Then fill in the chart with your ideas.

(Let students have enough time to read the passage carefully and discuss the questions and charts with their partners. Encourage them to expand their answers according to their own experiences. )

4. Explanation

Help students analyze some difficult, long and complex sentences and guess the meanings of some new words. Encourage them to try to deal with the language points in the context.

Discuss the following important sentences and phrases in the passage.

1)Some festivals are held to honour the dead, or to satisfy the ancestors, who might return either to help or to do harm.

2)in memory of

3)India has a national festival on October 2 to honour Mohandas Gandhi, the leader who helped gain India’s independence from Britain.

4)People are grateful because their food is gathered for the winter and the agricultural work is over.

5)The most energetic and important festivals are the ones that look forward to the end of winter and to the coming of spring.

6)The country, covered with cherry tree flowers, looks as though it is covered with pink snow.

Suggested explanations:

1)The sentence contains a non-restrictive attributive clause who might return either to help or to do harm. It means people hold some festivals either to show respect to the dead or to make their ancestors happy in case they might come back to do harm.

2)in memory of: serving to recall sb. , to keep him fresh in people’s minds

He wrote a poem in memory of his dearest wife, who died in an accident.

in honor of: showing great respect or high public regard

3)the leader who helped gain India’s independence from Britain: a noun phrase followed by an attributive clause as the appositive

4)two clauses for reason

5)energy n. → energetic adj. : full of or done with energy

look forward to: “to” is a preposition here.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

be devoted to; be/get used to; get down to; stick to. . .

6)covered with cherry tree flowers: a past participle phrase equal to “which is covered with cherry tree flowers”

as though: as if

He talks as though he knew all about it.

He looks as if he had seen a ghost.

5. Reading aloud and underlining

Ask students to read the passage aloud to the tape and let them pay attention to the pronunciation of each new word and the pauses within each sentence. Tell them to pick out all the useful expressions or collocations from the passage while reading and copy them to the notebook after class as homework.

→Step 5 Consolidation

Ask students to talk about festivals in their own words according to the text. Then let them complete the following passage with proper words or phrases.

There are all kinds of festivals and ______________ around the world, which are held for different ______________. The ancient festivals were mainly held at three times a year—the end of the cold ______________, planting in spring and ______________ in autumn. Some festivals are held to ______________ the dead or ______________ the ancestors, who might return either to help or ______________, while other festivals are held to honor famous people or to the ______________, such as Dragon Boat Festival, Columbus Day, and so on. Harvest and ______________ festivals are happy events because their food is ______________ for the winter and the ______________ work is over, to which Mid Autumn Festival belongs. And the most ______________ and important festivals are the ones that ______________ the end of winter and to the coming of ______________ such as the Lunar New Year, at which people have a very ______________.

Suggested answers: celebrations; reasons; weather; harvest; honor; to satisfy; to do harm; gods; Thanksgiving; gathered; agricultural; energetic; look forward to; spring; good time

→Step 6 Homework

1. Learn the useful new words and expressions in this part by heart.

2. Read the reading passage again and again and try to talk about festivals both in and out of China.

设计方案(二)

→Step 1 Leading in the topic by learning vocabulary about festivals

1. Make a circle on the blackboard and write the word “FESTIVAL” in it.

2. Ask students, “We have learned ‘festival’. Can you name some festivals? ”

3. Students list as many festivals as possible. Then the teacher adds some students can’t think of, such as Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day.

4. Let students read them aloud and try to learn them by heart.

→Step 2 Warming up by talking about festivals

Work in groups and list three more Chinese festivals that you know. Discuss when they take place, what they celebrate and what people do at that time. Then tell the group which festival is their favorite and why. 

→Step 3 Predicting by looking and discussing

1. Look at the pictures and title of the reading passage and discuss in pairs what the passage might be about.

2. Two or three students are to give their opinions.

→Step 4 Reading

1. Give students 2 minutes, and ask them to skim the passage for information to tell if the following sentences are True or False.

1)The ancient people needn’t worry about their food.　(F)

2)Halloween used to be a festival intended to honor the dead. 　(T)

3)Qu Yuan was a great poet who people honor a lot in China. 　(T)

4)The Mid-autumn Festival is held to celebrate the end of autumn. 　(F)

5)Easter celebrates the birth of Jesus. 　(F)

2. Give students 5 minutes to read the passage carefully, and complete the chart according to the passage.

3. Listening and reading aloud

Play the tape of the text for students and let them pay attention to the pronunciation of each new word and the pauses within each sentence. Then ask them to read the text aloud to the tape.

→Step 5 Closing down by spoken practice

1. Have students get prepared in 3 minutes or so and then ask them to talk about festivals and celebrations.

2. Ask as many students as possible to have a try in front of the class.

→Step 6 Homework

1. Go over the text and try to learn all the useful words and expressions in this part by heart.

2. Finish the exercises in Comprehending on Page 3.

板书设计

Unit 1　Festivals around the world

Festivals and celebrations

活动与探究

Group discussion & speech

As is known from the reading passage, festivals of all kinds are celebrated around the world. Most festivals have celebrations that include food, music, clothing and dances. These events originated from some similar ideas, but they take different forms in different regions and societies. What festivals and celebrations do you know all over the world?  Have you ever taken part in them and enjoyed yourself?  Discuss festivals in groups and then make speeches.

Step 1: The teacher divides the class into four groups and gives the tasks to students in each group. Group 1 will list the festivals around the world as many as possible, and then categorize them according to the origins of these festivals. And they should prepare for a short speech. Group 2 will discuss two traditional Chinese festivals and prepare for their presentation. Group 3 will discuss two Western festivals and prepare for their presentation. Group 4 will discuss the differences between Chinese festivals and Western festivals, then contrast and compare their styles, celebrations, dates and so on. And they should prepare for a short speech.

Step 2: Groups 1, 2 and 3 give their speeches on the festivals they have discussed. Group 4 gives their speech on the differences between Chinese festivals and Western festivals.

Step 3: The teacher makes proper remarks about students’ speeches and sums up the different cultural practices between China and other countries according to them.