Unit1FestivalsaroundtheworldWarmingup.doc

Unit 1Festivals around the worldPeriod 1Warming up and readingI. Teaching aims 1. Knowledge aimsa. 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 withb. Let students learn about history and basic knowledge of festivals both in and out of China.2. Ability aims a. Develop students reading ability and let them learn different reading skills.b. Enable students to talk about festivals and celebrations.3. Emotional aims 1. Stimulate students love for their own national culture and customs.2. Develop students sense of cooperative learning.II. Key points in teaching1. Let students learn more about history and basic knowledge of festivals.2. Get students to learn different reading skills.III. Difficult points in teaching1. Develop students reading ability.2. Enable students to talk about festivals and celebrations.IV. Teaching methods 1. Communicative Approach 2. Task-based Language Teaching3. Whole Language TeachingV. Teaching aids a tape recorder, multimedia and the blackboardVI. Teaching procedures Step 1 Leading-inHave 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 its the most important festival in our country. . . )Step 2 Warming up1. Let students brainstorm the other Chinese festivals.(Lantern Festival, Pure Brightness Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, New Years 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?FestivalsDateFestivalsDateNew YearJanuary 1stTeachers DaySeptember 10thInternational Womens DayMarch 8thNational DayOctober 1stArbor DayMarch 12thThe Spring FestivalLunar New YearInternational Labor DayMay 1stDragon Boat Festivalthe fifth day of the fifth lunar monthInternational Childrens DayJune 1stMid-Autumn Festivalthe 15th day of the 8th lunar monthArmy DayAugust 1stLantern Festivalthe 15th day of the 1st lunar monthChinese Youth DayMay 4thPure Brightness DayApril the fifth3. 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.FestivalsTime of year/dateWhat it celebratesWhat people doMid-Autumn Festivalautumn/fallthe beauty of the full moon, harvest, time with family and friendsgive/eat moon cakes and watch the full moon with family and friends4. Talk about some foreign festivals with students.(Christmas, April Fools Day, Easter, Halloween, Valentines Day, Thanksgiving Day, . . . )Step 3 Pre-reading1. 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 bestthe 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 Reading1. Fast readingAsk students to skim the reading passage and then fill in the following chart.Kinds of FestivalsNames of FestivalsCountriesFestivalsFestivalsHarvestSpring(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 readingAllow 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. IndiaB. AmericaC. EuropeD. China(4)Easter is held in memory of the return of Jesus for Christians and also celebrates _.A. the coming of springB. the autumn harvestC. the Lunar New YearD. the end of a yearSuggested answers: (1)D(2)C(3)C(4)A2)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 discussionRead 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.Three common thingsReasons why they are important to people everywhere1.2.3.2)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.Type of festivalExample of festivalReasons for your choiceMost importantMost fun(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. ExplanationHelp 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 of3)India has a national festival on October 2 to honour Mohandas Gandhi, the leader who helped gain Indias 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 peoples mindsHe wrote a poem in memory of his dearest wife, who died in an accident.in honor of: showing great respect or high public regard3)the leader who helped gain Indias independence from Britain: a noun phrase followed by an attributive clause as the appositive4)two clauses for reason5)energy n. energetic adj. : full of or done with energylook forward to: “to” is a preposition here.Im 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 ifHe talks as though he knew all about it.He looks as if he had seen a ghost.5. Reading aloud and underliningAsk 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 ConsolidationAsk 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 yearthe 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 timeStep 6 Homework1. 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.