Unit 20 Reading

Laughing Matter(說(shuō)課稿)

ⅠIntroduction of teaching material

This unit’s topic is “Humour”, including jokes, comedy, comedians, crosstalk, clown and so on. Language skills and language knowledge are all about humour. Humour is an very important part of western country’s culture and also a sign of western country’s culture. Chinese students are always influenced by humour unconsciously from they studied English in primary school or middle school. This topic can stimulate students’ interest and conform to the features of students’ age.

This reading passage “Laughing Matter” is a typical exposition to introduce entertainment. This passage introduce three kinds of performances: comedies, the show of a clown and the show of a comedian which are laughing matter in people’s ordinary life and compare their similarities and differences. First, the whole passage revolves around one topic, the topic is supported by several subtopics, and these several subtopics are supported by many information and descriptions, it seems as a pyramid. Besides, each section is launched around a sub topic drawn by theme sentence tightly. Second, the method of exposition is very typical: Use three kinds of common explanation methods of giving examples, presenting details and making comparison. As a language bearing the weight of the national culture of English, Ss will get in touch with a large amount of the language material about foreign culture while studying English. Helping Ss to master the reading ability of exposition is an important content of senior reading study. In the 12 units of Senior One, there are 9 articles of exposition, and 3 narrations. So, before studying this unit, the student had already accumulated the enough experience of reading about the exposition. In this unit to make a more detailed reading guide can not only be regarded as a phased generalization and summary but also can be a guide of later relevant articles reading.

ⅡTeaching methods: The task-oriented teaching methods.

After leading in, the teacher give Ss the tasks, emphasizing on reading comprehension, guide the Ss to use the skimming, scanning, careful reading to understand the whole reading passage. The teaching principle is Student-centered. All the Ss’ thinking activities are around the center of passage and the teacher give one task to Ss when they do every activity.

ⅢTeaching aims:

1. Understand the origin and development of a traditional cross-talk art of nationality in detail and compare with western comedy in order to promote the understanding of each other.

2. Understand the literary style characteristic of the exposition and read with this guide.

3. Training skimming, scanning, careful reading and others reading ability.

4. Grasp relevant language knowledge.

ⅣImportant points:

1. Understand the literary style characteristic of the exposition and read with this guide.

2. Training skimming, scanning, careful reading and others reading ability.

ⅤDifficult points: task two in post reading: discuss what a show will look like.

ⅥSteps:

Step1

Pre reading: In order to attract the student's attention and increase the interest, enliven the atmosphere of the classroom, I choose parts of Dustin Hoffman and馬季’s performing to be watched by students.

Step2 Skimming:

1. In order to lead Ss to pay attention to the four common types of writing Task1. Study the title and skim the whole passage to decide which type of writing the passage is, description, narration, exposition or argument?

2. Then the teacher summarize the characteristics of the organization of an exposition so as to give them a general guide on the reading of expositions. Present the following form.

3. Task2. Skim the whole passage, find out the topic sentences for each paragraph and discuss the subtopics conveyed in the topic sentences.

4. Discuss the organization of the passage. Present to Ss the following form.

Step 3 scanning

1. Scan the whole passage and find out the supporting information for

each subtopics. Discuss the writing techniques used in each part (group work).

2. The procedures are designed as follows:

1) Teacher distributes the following form to Ss and lead them to fill in the first two columns(topic and subtopics)together.

2) Give Ss necessary directions on scanning. For example, the teacher may mention the three commonly used writing techniques in expositions so as to make the reading task less difficult.

3) In groups of four, Ss read the passage, collect information and discuss it among them. One of them does the job of taking notes and fill in the form.

4) Teacher asks some groups to report their results for the whole class to discuss. Present the following form to the whole class to check up.

3. Ss answer the following questions:(class work)

1) Why are some of Shakespeare’s comedies not so funny for us?

2) How long has the tradition of crosstalk existed in china?

3) Is the show of a comedian more like the show of a clown or a comedy? why?