Unit 3 Tales of the unexplained

Welcome to the unit

1 to cultivate students’ prior knowledge

2 to train students’ ability of finding information , collecting and reorganizing it

3 to provide students with sufficient chances to communicate with the teacher and with each other

4 to help students enlarge their vocabulary, especially those related to the topics

The topics we are going to deal with in our next period are not

only very interesting and attractive, but a bit mysterious as well.

They are beyond our knowledge. Even the advanced science and

technology of today cannot offer satisfactory answers, so I

recommend if we’d like to discuss these topics, it is best for all of

us to make preparations first, either by searching for information

on the Internet or looking up background information in some

books. Besides collecting information, you have to note down your

answers. It’ll be more convenient for you to report back your

answers if you do so.

Preparations for Welcome to the unit

What kinds of programs do you prefer to watch in your spare time?

programs

entertainment and recreation

fun and amusement

excitement and thrilling

……?

Welcome to the unit

programs

about science and technology

broadcast the latest news at home and abroad

report and analyze the current situations

comment on the global economy and finances

related to sports and music

introduce different local customs

……

Are you interested in a program called ‘Discovery”?

Are you curious about mysteries?

Have you ever thought of exploring some of the mysteries?

Do the five pictures have something in common?

If so, what are they?

(unexplained; no satisfactory answers;

mysterious; no evidence．．．．．．）

How do you feel about them? Are you a bit curious?

Teacher: What information have you got about UFO?

Student A: ... … …

Teacher: Do you think student A’s introduction interesting? What about the information you’ve got? Is there something different?

Student B: ………

(Picture 1) Have you ever read some reports about UFO in Chinese? Are you interested in it?

Is it really from another planet? What does UFO stand for?

For what reasons do you think UFO visits our planet?

UFOs are unidentified flying objects, but no one really knows what they are.

The chances for seeing a UFO are greater for those people who live in small towns or in the country and are outside late at night.

UFOs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are only small spots of light that move in strange patterns across the night sky.

Some can be seen in the daytime are often disk- or saucer-shaped.

(Picture 2) Where is Himalayas? What’s the weather like there? Why do some people make great efforts to climb it?

Yeti is reported to be half-man and half-beast, have you heard of it?

Do you think some climbers’ disappearance have some connections with Yeti?

The yeti is a humanlike monster who is supposed to live in the Himalayas, the highest

mountain range in the world. Several sightings, mainly of footprints, have been

reported by westerner explorers throughout the years. Yet none of them have been

supported with evidence in any way.

(Pictures3, 4 and 6) Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt are both cultural relics. Where are the pyramids built, on the east coast of the Nile or on the west of it? What are their reasons?

Do you think the Great Pyramid a wonder in the human history?

I haven’t heard of Stonehenge or the Ness Monster. They are a bit new to me. What about you? Would you be interested in discovering more about them some day?

On the 21st December 1933, the Daily Mail carried the following headline: "Monster of Loch Ness is not a Legend but a Fact." The hunter, M A Wetherall said: "It is a four fingered beast and it has feet or pads of eight inches across. I judge it to be a powerful soft footed animal about 20 feet in length....... I am sure that it can breathe like a crocodile with just one nostril out of the water."

Not much is known about Khufu. The tomb had been robbed long before archeologists came upon it. Any information about Khufu was taken with the objects inside the tomb. He is thought to have been the ruler of a highly structured society and he must have been very wealthy. He was buried alone in this huge tomb. His wives may have been buried nearby in smaller mastabas.

How did these stones stand upright? The truth is nobody really knows. It required sheer muscle power and hundreds of men to move one of these ,the heaviest of them weighing probably about 45 tons.

There are some wonderful myths and legends and you can hear them on the audio tour at Stonehenge in nine different languages, English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Russian and Japanese.

1.老师在课前一定要有明确的任务说明和安排，可以让学生事先了解这节课须完成的教学目标和教学任务。

2.提倡先让学生就每个单元的话题寻找相关信息 ,并且鼓励学生把寻找后的信息重新表达 , 即激励学生用自己的语言组织信息。

3.对于基础薄弱的学生 , 建议老师在布置任务前有针对性地分组合作完成。让英语基础差的学生能在优秀同学的带领下做点力所能及的事务。让他们觉得自己能参与到活动中来，帮助他们逐步树立信心。

４ . 在上课时，要留有充裕的时间让学生讨论、发言，互通有无，交流信息。要充分调动每位同学的积极性。

５ . 学生在讨论和交流的过程中，老师可以有的放矢地加以引导，让学生的讨论更加全面、具体；老师还可以利用黑板这一传统教学工具，对于一些重点词汇简要进行整理和归类。

Reading1. to help students comprehend the whole article and successfully complete all the relevant exercises

2. to enhance students’ reading ability

3. to help them equip with the following skills, such as learning how to predict the context, getting the main idea from the passage, identifying and locating detailed information, identifying which statements are facts and which are opinions, guessing the word meanings from the context, learning how to make inferences etc.

4. to teach students some useful teaching strategy by a combination of explicit explanations and concrete pracitice.

Procedures for a basic reading lesson:

Introduction and lead-in

First task (pre-reading)

Tasks to focus on gist

Tasks to focus on specific details

Tasks requiring more comprehensive understanding

Tasks focusing on individual language items

Follow-on task

Closing

Introduction and lead-in

interest the learners in the topic

initial discussion of key themes

making an explicit link between the topic of the text and students’ own lives and experiences

focus on important language that will come in the text

First task (pre-reading)

prediction from some extracted information (eg an illustration, key words, headlines, etc)

read questions about the text

students compose their own questions

Tasks to focus on gist

guess the title

put events in the correct order

check text against predictions made beforehand

Tasks to focus on specific details

answering questions about specific items of information

making use of information in the text to do something (make a sketch, fill out a form, find out which picture is being described, etc)

Tasks requiring more comprehensive understanding

comprehension questions

discussion of issues

summarizing of arguments

comparison of viewpoints

Tasks focusing on individual language items

vocabulary or grammar exercises

use of dictionaries

working out meaning of words from context

Follow-on tasks

role-play

debate

writing task

personalization (Have you ever had an experience like this one?)

Closing

drawing the lesson to a conclusion

tying up loose ends

reviewing what has been studied and what has been learned

Typical characteristic of this course-book

Reading material Reading strategy?

Reading

title

‘Boy missing, police puzzled’

?

A boy is missing and the police are puzzled.

Questions related to the title:

• Are you curious about why the writer uses an incomplete sentence as the title?

• Do you know it’s a feature of a news title?

• What are some other features of a news title?

Focusing on the title:

What kind of information can you predict from the title?

Focusing on the article

the first time reading ----- finish Part A

Do you think all the relevant and important information is in the first paragraph?

Is there any relationship between the first paragraph and the following paragraphs?

Part A

What is the article about ?

Who is missing?

Do the police know what happened to Justin?

The article is about a missing boy / UFOs and aliens.

Justin Foster is missing.

No.

the second time reading ------ locate detailed and specific information

Part C1

Where does Justin Foster live?

Why did Justin’s mother go to bed early?

What sports does Justin play?

What time did the witnesses see Justin walking home?

He lives in Dover, New Hampshire.

Because of a headache.

He plays baseball.

At 10.45 p.m.

Does Justin have any brothers and sisters?

What colour were the aliens?

Who else has been taken by the aliens?

Who is in charge of the case?

He has a sister.

They were white.

Mavis Wood has been taken by the aliens.

Detective Sam Peterson is in charge of it.

Main Points Supporting details

Justin Foster went missing.

Mrs Foster thought __________________.

Mr Foster was surprised ______________.

Justin Foster _______________________.

The police found that Justin returned home.

Justin’s friends said __________________.

Witnesses said _____________________.

Kelly heard ________________________.

The boy was taken away by aliens.

Kelly saw __________________________.

Kelly heard ________________________.

Mavis Wood said ____________________.

photos of aliens

diagram for self-evaluation of the reading comprehension

Justin Foster

strange objects

At 8 p.m. ______________________

At 10.45 p.m. _________________________

At 11 p.m. _________________________

After 11 p.m. , he was heard ______________

The next morning, he was found __________

its appearance

its inside

shape

colour

size

post-reading activities

1 Ask students to retell the story according to the diagram on Page 8.

2 Ask students to give an ending to the story. Though the police have made efforts to investigate the case, how Justin was missing remained a mystery. Was he really seized by aliens or were there any other reasons? If time doesn’t permit, the teacher can assign this activity as homework. All the endings are acceptable.

3 Ask students to turn their attention to the questions in F. Let students do some speaking practice according to the sample.

Reading strategy

‘how to read a newspaper article’?

title

the first paragraph

the first sentence in the first paragraph

the following paragraphs

title ‘Boy missing, police puzzled’

key words in the first paragraph

the most important information from the first sentence

the less important information in the following paragraphs

Word power

1. to enlarge students’ vocabulary with the help of the context, pictures or by teaching them some rules of word formation

2. to provide students with chances of applying some new words to practical use

3. to build up an easy and comfortable atmosphere and help students to alleviate the burden and pressure of vocabulary accumulation

Vocabulary extension

space exploration

space

exploration

words related to space:

universe star planet ( Earth Mars Jupiter …) solar / lunar system galaxy…

words related to exploration:

spaceship man-made satellite astronaut rocket space station

How can a satellite be sent into space?

Is it easy to become an astronaut?

How much do you know about space exploration?

……

the process of space exploration

The first artificial satellite was launched.

People could orbit the Earth in 1961.

Photos are taken and samples are collected from the planet.

Grammar and usage

1. to explain to the students basic rules and structures of grammar items

2. to make students fully understand the essences of grammar items with the simple English explanations

3. to help students strengthen grammar knowledge with the aid of making comparisons between some grammar items and applying them to practical use

Grammar and usage

Are you familiar with the present perfect tense?

Can you make sentences using present perfect tense?

Try to invent a real situation in which present perfect tense can be fit in.

If you are asked to explain or teach the tense to your fellow classmates, what kinds of tips will you give to them?

Do you know about the differences between present perfect tense and past tense?

Do you know about the differences between present perfect tense and present perfect continuous tense?

Task

1. to teach and instruct students some specific procedures when trying to achieve a goal

2. to make students be aware of the appropriate ways of performing each individual procedure and master the skills

3. to make sure students have opportunities to combine the skills they have learned with reality

4. to aid students to choose and organize the information they have got and help them complete their products

5. to enhance students’ overall abilities and improve their integrated skills

Task Conducting a survey

In order to conduct a survey, what kinds of things should we take into consideration?

How do we collect information, by surfing the net or by making a questionnaire?

Can you tell me how to construct a questionnaire? Are there any rules for us to follow?

When a questionnaire is completed, what should we do with it?

Do you know how to conduct an interview?

Do you think it important to interview persons in appropriate ways?

I’m at a loss about all the information I’ve got from the interview, can you give me some suggestions?

What’s the purpose of analyzing statistics?

……

project

1. to provide students with some other information related to the main theme of the unit and train students to identify the relationships between the title and the paragraphs, the cohesions between paragraphs.

2. to familiarize students with the outline of the article

3. to make every student realize the importance of his/ her responsibility after they are assigned with different tasks

4. to encourage students to find and collect information, discuss it with their team members, analyze and solve their common task

5. to teach students how to co-operate with each other

6. to instruct students the basic rules of how to write a story, a report or etc.

Tips you have to take into consideration:

clear assignments

audience

in a logic and clear way

• give suggestions

• search for more information from different sources

• write an outline or make a draft

• proofread or peer revision • presentation

reported sightings of yeti

evidences about yeti’s appearances provided by witnesses

discoveries about yeti’s footprints

different viewpoints

for against

Yeti: myth or reality?

Project

conclusions drawn by the students themselves on how to write a story:

tips given by the teacher on how to write a story:

specific things you’ve done in the course of learning Unit 3

specific skills you’ve mastered while doing these things

surf the net, locate and collect some information

practise spoken English

read a newspaper article know how to read a newspaper article

read part of a speech and finish the relevant exercises

guess meanings of some news words from the context and the pictures

strengthen the usages of the two grammars by reviewing, exercising and comparing

identify the differences between the two grammars

Self-assessment

task

things to do in Step 1 skills to learn in Step 1

things to do in Step 2 skills to learn in Step 2

things to do in Step 3 skills to learn in Step 3