江苏省淮安市清浦中学 倪士俊
Preface
The topic of this unit is Green World, which concerns flower, grass, fruits and how to grow and classify them in terms of botany. The text in the reading part is about the science of botany. In NMET, from the five reading comprehension articles, we quite often find that at least one article is about science and students generally think them hard to understand. In fact, although there’re a few more new words in these articles, the passage and questions are not difficult to understand if we use proper methods to read them carefully. So how to help students understand these science articles in a limited time is very important.
The reading text in this unit, the Birth of a Science, is also difficult for students to understand. However, if we can change our traditional teaching methods and help students to use efficient reading strategies, it’ll be much easier to master the text The teaching plan below is my attempt to solve such problem.
Teaching Plan
I. Teaching Aims:
1. Train and improve the students reading methods and strategies.(Clue Reading)
2. Enable the students to understand the text better.
3. How to apply the reading strategies to practical reading, especially in the English examination.
II. Teaching difficult points:
1. How to improve the students’ reading interest in science articles.
2. How to increase the students’ reading speed.
3. How to help the students master the main idea quickly in a limited time.
III. Teaching methods:
1. Group discussion to help the students to learn the style of the text and orders of the exposition.
2. Scanning to make students find the information quickly.
3. Questions-and-answering activity to help the students understand the text more deeply.
4. Generalizing the content of the text according to time clue and character clue.
IV. Teaching aids:
1. Some pictures of plants and scientists.
2. A tape recorder.
3. A projector or multimedia.
V. Teaching procedures:
Step I. Greetings and revision
(To greet the whole class as usual)
T: Yesterday we have learned about many plants. Can you tell me the names of different plants as many as possible?
S: I’ll try, roses, tea…. (Students are active in answering such questions.)
T: Good, you’re doing fine. (Teacher can list the names on the screen.)
Then, who can tell me how to grow plants at home? Let’s take strawberries as an
example.
S: Let me have a try. Take a pot that is big enough to grow a strawberry plant and….
T: Well done.
Note: In this step, teacher can dictate some new words or revise the student’s homework. It can varies.
Step II. Lead-in
(Teacher shows some pictures to the students.)
Today we’ll learn the science of botany. Ask some questions:
Can you classify them into groups?
What do we call the persons doing the research on the plants? (Botanists)
Do you know any botanists?
How do scientists classify them in the past? What about now?
Now, let’s come to the reading part, the Birth of a Science.
Step III. Reading Tasks
1. To explain the title: the Birth of a Science.
①The meaning of the title is when and how was a science, botany born.
②To guess the style of the text according to the title. (B)
A. Narration (记叙文)
Present three styles of articles: B. Exposition (说明文)
C. Argumentation (议论文)
Note: If the students can’t understand the 3 styles in English, the teacher can explain them in Chinese for different students.
2. Scanning and discussion: Students scan the text quickly and judge the order of the text.
A. Time order （时间顺序）
B. Space order （空间顺序）
Four orders of exposition: C. Logical order （逻辑顺序）
D. Cognitive order （认知顺序）
3. Fast-reading 1: Read the text fast and find the details about development of botany according to the time order. (Also we can call it time clue.)
①Before the eighteenth Century, botany was merely a branch of medicine.
②In 1759, Daniel Solander traveled to England to promote the new system.
③In 1761, Banks had an appetite for knowledge.
④In 1766, Banks made a first journey to study wild plants.
⑤In 1768, Banks joined the team of botanical explorers on the Endeavour.
⑥In 1771, the Endeavour returned to England.
⑦In 1778, Banks was elected president of the Royal Society.
4. Fast-reading 2: Find the achievements and contributions of 3 famous scientists according to the character clue of the text.
①Carl Linnaeus: He developed the system how to classify plants into groups. His system conquered the world.
②Daniel Solander: He traveled to England to promote the new system and traveled on the Endeavor with Joseph Banks.
③Joseph Banks: He made his first journey to study wild plants in 1766. His second expedition was the great voyage with James Cook to the Oceania. He supplied about 10,000 pounds. His three-year voyage achieved a lot on botany. He not only studied and described the new plants he found but also looked out for new economic species. After his return, he helped develop the royal gardens at Kew into one of the great botanical gardens in the world and made it a center of scientific and economic research.
5. Listen to the tape and then do the true and false questions:
①Before the 17th Century, botany was only a branch of medicine. (18th )
②Banks made a first journey to study wild animals in 1766. (plants)
③Captain Cook’s expedition to Tahiti had 3 goals. (T)
④Joseph Banks borrowed much money to equip the expedition. (used his own money)
⑤When Banks was elected president of the Royal Society, he was 36 years old. (35)
6. Post-reading Exercise I. Choose the best answer. (DDBDC)
7. Real practice of reading comprehension:
In general , people talk about two groups of colors : warm colors and cool colors . Researchers in psychology think that there are also two groups of people : people who prefer warm colors and people who prefer cool colors .
The warm colors are red , orange and yellow . Where there are warm colors and a lot of light , people usually want to be active . People think that red , for example , is exciting. Sociable people , those who like to be with others , like red . The cool colors are green , blue and violet . These colors , unlike warm colors are relaxing . Where there are cool colors , people are usually quiet . People who like to spend time alone often prefer blue .
Red may be exciting , but one researcher says that time seems to pass more slowly in a room with warm colors than in a room with cool colors . He suggests that a warm color , such as red or orange is a good color for a living room or restaurant . People who are relaxing or eating do not want time to pass quickly . Cool colors are better for offices or factories if the people who are working there want time to pass quickly .
Researchers do not know why people think some colors are warm and other colors are cool . However , almost everyone agrees that red , orange , and yellow are warm and that green , blue , and violet are cool . Perhaps warm colors remind people of warm days and the cool colors remind them of cool days . Because in the north the sun is higher during summer , the hot summer sunlight appears yellow .
1．Which of the following colors belong to cool colors ?
A．Yellow, green . B．Blue , violet . C．Black , blue . D．Brown , white .
2．Which of the following statements is not true ?
A．Sociable people like warm colors . B．Warm colors can make people excited .
C．People who like to be with others don’t like red .
D．Where there are warm colors , people want to be active .
3．Which is the right color for different rooms ?
A．Red or orange for offices . B．Orange for dining-rooms .
C．Blue for bedrooms . D．Red for studies .
4．What is the main idea of the last paragraph ?
A．It shows the reason why people think some colors are warm and others are cool .
B．Warm colors remind people of warm days . C．Cool colors remind people of cool days .
D．People have an agreeable opinion of warm colors and cool colors .
(Key: BCBA)
Note: The clue of this passage is very clear: warm and cool. If students can consider this and read carefully according to this clue, it’ll be much easier and quicker to master the whole passage.
8. Homework: Encourage students to find out some language points from the text by themselves and prepare some problems they cannot solve.
VI. Evaluation:
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