The First Period Reading

Teaching goals  教學(xué)目標(biāo)

1. Target language  目標(biāo)語(yǔ)言

a. 重點(diǎn)詞匯和短語(yǔ)

poem, recite, aspect, rhyme, rhythm, nursery rhyme, diamond, endless, branch, translation, transform, joy, anger, make up of

b. 重點(diǎn)句式

Some poems tell a story or ... Others ... P10

They delight small children because ... P10

2. Ability goals  能力目標(biāo)

Enable the students to know more about the poems, including the reason why people write poems and the simple types of poems.  

3. Learning ability goals  學(xué)能目標(biāo)

Enable the students to learn more about poems.

Teaching important & difficult points  教學(xué)重難點(diǎn)

The forms of poems.

Teaching methods  教學(xué)方法

Discussion.

Teaching aids  教具準(zhǔn)備

A computer and a projector.

Teaching procedures & ways  教學(xué)過(guò)程與方式

Step Ⅰ Revision

Talk about poems or songs the students learned before. First, show the following to the students. (If possible, present them in audio-visual form.)

   

夜雪

已訝衾枕冷，

復(fù)見(jiàn)窗戶明。

夜深知雪重，

時(shí)聞?wù)壑衤暋?/span>

——李白

 

有的人活著

他已經(jīng)死了；

有的人死了

他還活著。

有的人

騎在人民頭上：

“呵，我多偉大！”

 

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

Because I could not stop for death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

T: Who are the people in the pictures?

S: Li Bai, Zang Kejia and Emily Dickinson.

T: They are all famous poets in history. And they all wrote great poems. Do you know what poems are?

S: Words and their sounds organized in a special way to express emotions.

T: Poems are a kind of literature. Chinese has a long history of writing poems. People who write poems are poets. (Write down the word if necessary.) Do you know some poets in China or in other countries?

S: In China, we have many famous poets in history. Such as Qu Yuan, Cao Zhi, Bai Juyi, Li Bai, Meng Haoran, Du Fu, Fan Zhongyan, Guo Moruo, Mao Zedong, and so on. In foreign countries, there are also many well-known poets, such as Yeats, Byron, Shelly in England; Tagore in India; Goethe in Germany; Emerson in America, etc.

T: Do you still remember some of the poems or songs you learned before?

Sample versions:

S1: 山要找鳥(niǎo)兒玩，鳥(niǎo)兒拒絕他。

山要找風(fēng)兒聊天，風(fēng)兒溜走了。

只留下山愣愣的站在那里。

S2: 從天上

掉下來(lái)

嘩啦啦

嚇跑路上行人

也叫車(chē)兒躲藏

云阿姨

為何事

傷心落淚

到我家

S3: Do-re-mi (Sound of Music)

Let’s start at the very beginning 

A very good place to start

When you read you begin with              

A-B-C

When you sing you begin with do-re-mi

Do-re-mi

Do-re-mi

The first three notes just happen to be

Do-re-mi

Do-re-mi

Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti

Oh, let’s see if I can make it easier

Doe, a deer, a female deer

Ray, a drop of golden sun

Me, a name I call myself

Far, a long long way to run

Sew, a needle pulling thread

La, a note to follow sew

Tea, I drink with jam and bread

That will bring us back to do ... oh oh oh

Doe, a deer, a female deer

Ray, a drop of golden sun

Me, a name I call myself

Far, a long long way to run

Sew, a needle pulling thread

La, a note to follow sew

Tea, I drink with jam and bread

That will bring us back to do

Doe, a deer, a female deer

Ray, a drop of golden sun

Me, a name I call myself

Far, a long long way to run

Sew, a needle pulling thread

La, a note to follow sew

Tea, I drink with jam and bread

That will bring us back to do

Do re mi fa so la ti do, so do

S4: Happy and You Know It

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands (clap clap)

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands (clap clap)

If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it

If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands. (clap clap)

 

If you’re happy and you know it, stomp your feet (stomp stomp)

If you’re happy and you know it, stomp your feet (stomp stomp)

If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it

If you’re happy and you know it, stomp your feet. (stomp stomp)

 

If you’re happy and you know it, shout “Hurray!” (hoo-ray!)

 

If you’re happy and you know it, shout “Hurray!” (hoo-ray!)

If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it

If you’re happy and you know it, shout “Hurray!” (hoo-ray!)

 

If you’re happy and you know it, do all three (clap-clap, stomp-stomp, hoo-ray!)

If you’re happy and you know it, do all three (clap-clap, stomp-stomp, hoo-ray!)

If you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it

If you’re happy and you know it, do all three. (clap-clap, stomp-stomp, hoo-ray!)

Talk about why people write poems with the students.

T: There are many reasons why people write poems. Some want to pass on some information, some tell a story, some express feeling of love, anger, joy, etc. We’ve learned a lot of poems before, especially in Chinese. But what are the reasons why people write poems? Work in groups and list some.

Sample answers:

People write poems: to express one’s hopes and intentions; to call up people to do something; to practice writing; to pour out one’s feelings; to show dissatisfaction or praise ...

Step Ⅱ Lead-in

Task 1: Talk about the kinds of poems.

T: People in different countries make different kinds of poems. For example, in some western countries, there are epics, sonnets and so on; in Japan, there is haiku. Can you give examples of poems of different kinds both in Chinese and English you like best? Why?

Sample answers:

S1: A Chinese poem: 杜甫《春望》

國(guó)破山河在，城春草木深，感時(shí)花濺淚，恨別鳥(niǎo)驚心。烽火連三月，家書(shū)抵萬(wàn)金。白頭搔更短，渾欲不勝簪。（I like the poem because it shows people’s miserable life because of war.）

S2: A Chinese poem: 王昌齡《從軍行》

青海長(zhǎng)云暗雪山，孤城遙望玉門(mén)關(guān)。黃沙百戰(zhàn)穿金甲，不破樓蘭終不還。（I like the poem because it shows the determination to defend the motherland.）

S3: An English poem: Dare to Believe

Everybody Knows:

You can’t be all things to all people.

You can’t do all things at once.

You can’t do all things equally well.

You can’t do all things better than everyone else.

Your humanity is showing just like everyone else’s.

So:

You have to find out who you are, and be that.

You have to decide what comes first, and do that.

You have to discover your strengths, and use them.

You have to learn not to compete with others,

Because no one else is in the contest of *being you*.

Then:

You will have learned to accept your own uniqueness.

You will have learned to set priorities and make decisions.

You will have learned to live with your limitations.

You will have learned to give yourself the respect that is due.

And you’ll be a most vital mortal.

Dare To Believe:

That you are a wonderful, unique person.

That you are a once-in-all-history event.

That it’s more than a right, it’s your duty,

to be who you are.

That life is not a problem to solve,

but a gift to cherish.

And you’ll be able to stay one up on what used to get you down.

(Because it makes me know myself well and feel confident.)

Task 2: Ask the students to skim the poems in the Reading. Then tick the box.

T: Poems are mostly written to show people’s emotions, as we know. In Chinese, we have “詩(shī)言志”，“詩(shī)言情”，“詩(shī)歌合為事而作”. That is, people write poems for different reasons, then we have different kinds of poems. Next please go over quickly the poems in the Reading part. And then tick the correct box / boxes for each question. Sample answers:

Which poem	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
describes a person				√
tells a story								√
describes an aspect of a season					√	√	√
is about sport			√
is about things that don’t make sense		√
is recited to a baby	√
describes a river scene
has rhyming words at the end of lines	√	√
repeats words or phrases	√	√

Step Ⅲ Introduction  

Task 1: Ask the students to read the passage quickly and fill the form below.

T: Poetry is a great form of literature. There are different kinds of rules for poems, so the forms of poems are quite different from country to country. The passage in Reading will tell us something about forms of English poems. Now read and find out the information to complete the following form.

Show the following.

Forms of poems	Features

Sample answers:

Forms of poems	Features
Nursery rhymes	strong rhythm and rhyme, a lot of repetition, easy to learn and to recite
List poems	repeated phrases and some rhyme
Cinquain	made up of five lines, convey a strong picture in just a few words
Haiku	give a clear picture and create a special feeling in just a few words
Tang poems

Task 2: Ask the students to listen to the recording of the passage and try clapping the beats.

Task 3: Comprehending: Ask the students to answer the questions following the text.

T: Which poem do you like best? And why?

S1: I like the first one best. It has strong rhythm and reads easily.

S2: I like the first one best, too. Because it is fun to read.

S3: I like the second one best. It has repeated phrases and strong rhythm.

S4: I prefer the poem F. It is very simple and easy to recite.

...

Sample answers to the rest questions:

（由于教材內(nèi)容不全，本部分未給出全部答案。）

1. (1) The main topic of the reading passage: different forms of English poems

(2) Five kinds of poems are: nursery rhymes; list poems; cinquain; haiku; Tang poems.

(3) Poem A has a strong rhythm. Poems A and B have rhyming lines.

(4) Poem F gives a clear picture in the mind.

3. (1) If the mirror gets broken, the baby’s father will buy a billy-goat instead.

(2) If the goat runs away, the baby’s father will buy another goat.

(3) The speaker is writing about football.

(4) No, his or her team didn’t win.

(5) The players didn’t win because: Jack didn’t score that goal; they didn’t have enough time; they hadn’t train hard...

(6) The speaker doesn’t really believe his or her own excuses, because there has too many ifs...

(7) Yes. I always give excuses when I don’t win or do something. / No. I’ve never given any excuses when I don’t win or do something.

(8) The poem tells a story about a woman who was waiting on the mountain top for her husband. The story goes like this: A loyal wife kept standing on a mountain top waiting for her husband’s coming back. Year after year, the wife became a stone which looks like a woman watching into far distance.

(9) The woman has the feelings of:

loneliness: she was alone watching her husband on the mountain top.

love: she waited year after year despite wind and rain.

trust: she believed her husband would come back one day.

sorrow: year after year, she waited and waited without seeing any hope of her husband’s coming back, she was very sad.

Task 4: Ask the students to know something about poems.

T: As we know, most poems have strong rhythms or rhyming lines. But what are rhyme and rhythm?

Sample answers:

A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. The term usually refers to the repetition of sounds at the end of rhymed words. If two words or lines of poetry rhyme, they end with the same sound, for example “hop” and “pop”.

A rhythm is a regular repeated pattern of sounds or movements.

T: Next try to define the words “cinquain” and “haiku”.

Sample answers:

cinquain: A short poem consisting of five lines arranged in the following structure: line one states a subject in one word, line two describes the subject in two words, line three describes an action about the subject in three words, line four expresses an emotion about the subject in four words (or describes the subject again in two words), line five restates the subject in another single word.

haiku: A Japanese poem composed of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku often reflects some aspects of nature.

Task 5: Ask the students to read the poems on page 52 in the workbook. Then answer the questions followed. (Encourage the students to comprehend the poems on their own.)

T: We’ve known some simpler forms of English poems by now. Next, please read the poems in the workbook. First, get the main idea of each poem. Then complete the following form.

Show the following.

	A	B	C	D	E
Number of lines
Number of syllables
Rhythm
Rhyme
Repetition
Certain part of speech

Sample answers:

	A	B	C	D	E
Number of lines	4	8	10	5	3
Number of syllables				22	17
Rhythm		strong
Rhythm		strong
Repetition		a lot of repetition
Certain part of speech				adjectives

Then ask the students to answer the first question on page 53 in the workbook.

T: What does each poem make you feel or think about?

Sample answers:

S1: The first poem makes me think of such a picture in which a poet wakes up in a very bright spring morning with birds singing in the trees. But the beautiful morning reminds the poet of the blossoms which might have been broken by the night storm.

S2: The second poem makes me think of the following things: a cat eating fish; a hungry boy making a wish; a boy running to the end of the road; a driver taking the next turn; a young man who loves sea; a beautiful girl looking at the poet; a seal diving into the sea; the poet falling into sleep.

S3: The third poem makes me feel the passion between lovers.

S4: The fourth poem makes me think of a beautiful sunshine day and a lovely pair singing cheerfully and calmly. The atmosphere makes me feel happy and relaxed.

S5: The fifth poem makes me think of my father or an old man.

Step Ⅳ Homework

1. Ask the students to collect at least five English poems with different forms.

2. Ask the students to do Exercise 1 in Learning about Language on page 12.