-The First Period
（浙江永康明珠學校 高一外語組 金建良）
Analysis of the Text:
This text is a piece of expositive passage. It is typical of the way countries or regions are described. Students should study the structure of the passage and learn to write similar passages, as nearly all descriptions of countries will follow this pattern. The passage is about New Zealand including geography, climate, natural landscapes and history. Students ought to improve their cultural awareness and promote exchange of different cultures by have a good knowledge of New Zealand. What’s more, students should also develop their reading ability ,increase their awareness of cooperation, improve their tactics in learning and so on.
Teaching Aims:
1. To learn the important and useful words and expressions and have a good knowledge of New Zealand (knowledge object)
2. To cultivate students’ ability of reading comprehension : skimming, scanning , generalization, inference and so on
and enable them learn to read and write descriptive passages (ability object)
3. To strengthen and develop their awareness of foreign cultures
or western cultures and promote exchange of different cultures
(object of cultural awareness)
4. To stimulate their interests and foster their self-confidence, the spirit of cooperation (object of emotion and attitude)
5. To improve their tactics in learning such as taking notes, seizing the chance of speaking, searching the internet for further information
(object of tactics )
Important Points :
1. To learn the important and useful words and expressions
2. To have a good knowledge of New Zealand including geography, climate, natural landscapes and history
3. To encourage students to get to know more about New Zealand by discussion and communication on the base of comprehension of the text.
Difficult Points:
1. To pronounce some difficult words ( place names, names for persons and so on ) correctly and understand some difficult sentences
2. To have a deep understanding of the passage
3 To arose students’ interests in learning the passage (lead in )and evoke their enthusiasm in discussion and communication (travel conference)
Teaching Methods: Task-based Language Teaching
Teaching Aids: multimedia tools
Teaching Procedures:
Task 1 Talk About Traveling
Activity1: Warming up
Look at the picture: Three people are traveling in the mountains. The picture is really beautiful. You can see the beautiful flowers, green grass, and you can even hear the wonderful sound of the running water. So, do you like traveling? Are you happy and excited when traveling?
Activity 2: Experiences sharing
Since you love traveling so much, would you like to share your travel experiences with us?(Where have you been? what about it?)
Task 2 Appreciate Pictures and Lead in
Traveling is really interesting .Now I will show you some beautiful pictures Try to guess where these pictures are from(New Zealand). Learn some difficult words while showing the pictures of volcanoes, harbors, sand beaches, bay and so on
Task 3 Generally Understand the Passage
Activity1: Guessing
If you are the writer of this passage, what will you write to introduce the country-New Zealand? (They may have various answers such as population, geography, history, natural beauty, climate, agriculture, culture, life and so on. Show them on the screen)
Activity2: Listen and answer
Listen to the tape and answer the following question: What are talked about in this passage?(Answer: geography, history, natural beauty, climate)
Activity3: Match each paragraph with the best heading
Paragraph1 geography. Paragraph2 climate. Paragraph3 natural beauty . Paragraph4 history
This is also a typical way to introduce a country
Task 4 Further Understand the Passage
Now we have a general idea of the text. However, we still do not understand why the country is so attractive, charming and beautiful. So, let’s go on to learn more about it. O.K?
Activity1 : Filling in the following form
Read the passage again and read it carefully .Then fill in the following form and try to further understand the text
Items
Detailed Information
Geography
Location: lies off ,be made up of ,surrounded,
Cities: Wellington , Auckland , Christchurch, Queenstown
Climate
Type : mild sea climate, subtropical(north ) Seasons :warmest months (12-2) coldest (6-8)
Natural
Beauty
The coastline: deep blue, bay, harbor, sand beaches
Natural landscape: green hills and mountains, dead volcanoes
the North Island: hot springs, heat make electricity
Animals & plants: kiwi, national bird
History
1000 years ago: the Maori , Aotearoa, Polynesia .3,5ookm, settled
Around 1421: Chinese sailors, one of their voyages
In 1642 : the Dutchman Abel Tasman, named , New Zealand
In 1769: Captain James Cook , took possession of ,
By 1840 2,000 Europeans , mainly British,
On Feb 6: Signed an agreement, celebrated, national holiday
Notes: The underlined parts are the new words or phrases .when filling in the form show the pictures of New Zealand Map, bays, harbors, hills and mountains, Kiwis, location of Polynesia in the Map of 0ceania, Maori village and their celebration of National Holiday
Activity2: Sentence understanding
Para1 Sentence1 (lie off) Sentence2(be made up of).
Para3 Sentence5(non-restrictive attributive clause).
Para4 Sentence4(non-restrictive attributive clause, ”which” means the distance from Polynesia to New Zealand)
Para5 the last Sentence(restrictive--attributive clause. who)
Task 5 Have a travel conference in Beijing to introduce New Zealand
Activity1: Reading
We have learned a lot about New Zealand. Perhaps you can not retell it in English. So I want you to read the passage aloud and then we will have an interesting activity.
Activity2: Travel Conference
First, I need three students to help me. Suppose they are from New Zealand. Now they are to hold a travel conference in Beijing to introduce their own country. One person is a geographer. One is the Heading of the Travel Conference and the third one is a historian.
The rest students will be the reporters or travel lovers from China or other countries. They can ask any questions about New Zealand
Task 6 Think and Reflect
Ask students to think: Is it enough just to know our own country and ourselves? Why?
Answer: We should learn not only about our own culture, but also others
Summary:
We’ve known much about New Zealand(geography, history, natural beauty, climate)and we’ve learned some difficult words and sentences(above).Besides, we should also learn to absorb the rich culture from other counties. In addition, we must learn to cooperate and seize every opportunity to improve our English .
Homework:
1. Search the internet to look for more information about New Zealand
2. Plan a picture exhibition by downloading the pictures from the internet or copying the pictures from books
3. Write a passage to introduce China by imitating the text
Blackboard Designing
New Zealand
Paragraph1 geography
Paragraph2 climate This is a typical way to introduce
Paragraph3 natural beauty a country or a region
Paragraph4 history
Items
Detailed Information
Geography
Location: lies off ,be made up of ,surrounded,
Cities: Wellington , Auckland , Christchurch, Queenstown
Climate
Type : mild sea climate, subtropical(north ) Seasons :warmest months (12-2) coldest (6-8)
Natural
Beauty
The coastline: deep blue, bay, harbor, sand beaches
Natural landscape: green hills and mountains, dead volcanoes
the North Island: hot springs, heat make electricity
Animals & plants: kiwi, national bird
History
1000 years ago: the Maori , Aotearoa, Polynesia .3,5ookm, settled
Around 1421: Chinese sailors, one of their voyages
In 1642 : the Dutchman Abel Tasman, named , New Zealand
In 1769: Captain James Cook , took possession of ,
By 1840 2,000 Europeans , mainly British,
On Feb 6: Signed an agreement, celebrated, national holiday
Reflection after Teaching:
1. Teaching effects and class atmosphere are very good as their interests and enthusiasm have been greatly stimulated.
2. If I ask students to have a competition when filling in the form, the effect will be much better. That means we should design some
tasks which are suitable for their psychological characters.
3. Control and distribute the time carefully in each task
4. How to further understand texts needs discussion and exploration