Period Three Reading Comprehension

授課人：洞口一中 彭先君 任教班級：高三181班，183班

Teaching goals （教學目標）

1. Target language (目標語言)

A. Make the students master the key words and phrases:

curious, wealthy, in exchange for, central position, ambassador,

existence, accurate, exist, ripe, command, renew, expedition

B. Make the students master the key sentences:

1. Trade and curiosity have often formed the foundation for mankind’s greatest endeavor.

2. Over the next few hundred years, the Swahili kingdoms and the islands off the African coast developed into the world’s trading centre for ivory, spices, rhinoceros horns, shells, animal skins and sugar.

3. The Arabic contacts to the African coast led to the next meeting between

black people and a Chinese.

4. In the eleventh century, the Africans made several voyages to the court of

the Song Dynasty.

5. … Du Huan was taken prisoner by the Arabic army.

2. Ability goals ( 能力目標)

a. Enable the students to know Chinese contribution to world exploration in the 15th century.

b. Develop students’ ability of basic reading strategies of bottom-up and top-down.

3. Learning ability goals (學能目標)

a. Students will understand the great contribution Zheng He had done to the world, thus they may take these national heroes as example and follow them.

b. By using the strategies of bottom-up and top-down, students will learn to generalize and collect information.

Teaching important points (教學重點)

The explorers’ great contribution to world trade and economy

Teaching difficult points (教學難點)

Guide the students to pick out the main clue of the passage and the development method of the text.

Teaching methods (教學方法)

Team work learning

Task-based learning

Teaching aids (教輔設備)

The computer media system in the classroom

a tape recorder

Teaching procedures & time arrangement

（教學過程與時間分配）

Step I Revision (4m.)

Task One: Check words and expressions

T: First let’s have a cloze test on the slide and see how well you’re prepared for

the lesson.

( show the slides on the screen )

Teacher check answers with students with the help of the slides.

(the slides with the answers to the test)

Step Ⅱ Lead-in (3m.)

Task Two: Talk about great explorers

A quiz on great explorers in the world

1. Zheng He was a great explorer of the Ming Dynasty. His expedition

to the Indian Ocean was 87 years later than Columbus’s exploration to

the Atlantic Ocean (false)

2. Zheng He’s purpose of expedition was to make trade and show friendship to other lands while Columbus was to seek

treasure. (true)

3. Marco Polo traveled from Italy to China and he

stayed in the Ming court for a long time. After

that, he wrote stories about their travels

in the Far East. Europeans were so inspired

by Marco Polo's accounts that they began

searching for sea routes to China, Japan, and

the East Indies. （false)

T: July 11, 2005 was the 600th anniversary of Zheng He’s expedition to the

Indian Ocean. Today we are going to learn a lot about the great explorers in

the world. Now let’s have a quiz to check your knowledge about them. Please

look at the quiz and tick true or false after your reading.

(show the slide above)

Students look at the above quiz and make judgment.

Notes: 1. 87 years earlier than Columbus’s exploration to the Atlantic Ocean

3. not the Ming court but the Mongols’ court

Step Ⅲ Pre-Reading (4m.)

Task Three: Background information

1. The Silk Road

The“Silk road”began from

Chang’an, the city of Xi’an now,

along the Gansu Corridor, then to

West Asia and Europe.

2. A discussion

T: Now please turn to page 12 and look at question 2 and 3 of Pre-reading. Discuss the two questions with your partner, and then I will call three students to come to the front to make three presentations.

Students discuss the two questions in pairs.

Ask three students to make presentations in the front.

Sa: In the Ming Dynasty, the passage to the west, where now the central Asia

stands, was controlled by Mongols. When the Mongols’ court was overrun by

the Ming government, the two powers were unfriendly to each other. As a

result, it was almost impossible for the merchants or ambassadors to cross

the passage to the west.

Sb: Gan Ying, a great explorer and ambassador of the Han Dynasty, took the route of the Silk Road over land to accomplish a mission given by the Han emperor. He reached many countries along the Silk Road, though he was not able to arrive at his estimated destination-Da Qin (the west Roman empire).

Sc: Zheng He, a national hero, was famous for his seven voyages across the Indian Ocean, which established China’s rule of the sea in 15th century.

Step Ⅳ While-Reading (15m.)

Task Four: ( 12m.)

Complete the forms with words from the text, each blank at most

three words, in 15 minutes.

T: Please look at the title of the reading material (Reaching Out Across the Ocean) and guess who reached out across the ocean.

S: Maybe they were China and other countries along the Indian Ocean.

T: Why did China reach out across the ocean?

S: They wanted to trade with western lands and show friendship to them.

T: Ok. Read through the text and complete the form, each blank at most three

words, as is required by MET.

Show the slides on the screen

Period Name 1 Goods brought to China

2 GanYing 3 Rhinoceros horns

From Han Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty unknown 4 Ivory, Rhinoceros horns, spices, shells, animal skins, sugar

Tang Dynasty 5 Over land and by boat 6

7 unknown By sea unknown

Ming Dynasty 8 9 10 Ivory, Rhinoceros horns, shells

the slide with the answers to the test:

Period Name Way of travel

Goods brought to China

Han Dynasty

GanYing Over land

Rhinoceros horns

From Han Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty unknown not mentioned

Ivory, Rhinoceros horns, spices, shells, animal skins, sugar

Tang Dynasty Du Huan

Over land and by boat Unknown

Song Dynasty

unknown By sea unknown

Ming Dynasty Zheng He

By sea Zebras, giraffes, Ivory, Rhinoceros horns, shells

Task Five: questions (3m.)

T: Now find the answers to the questions as follow:

T: Now I will ask some students to answer these questions.

Sa: Trade and curiosity formed the foundation of mankind’s interest in

exploration.

Sb: His purpose of searching was to seek treasure.

Sc: It referred to part of the Pacific Ocean west of Brunei and part of the Indian Ocean along the coast.

Sd: Many people explored the Western Ocean, of whom Zheng He was a great

one.

Step Ⅴ Post Reading (13m.)

Task Six: Build the schema chart of the passage.

T: Now read the whole passage again while listening to the tape recording of

the passage and find out or sum up the topic sentences of each paragraph and

build the schema chart as below.

Students read the whole passage while listening and build the schema chart.

Schema chart

Title Reaching Out Across the Ocean

Thesis sentence Many great explorers made expeditions across the Indian Ocean long before Columbus, among whom Zheng He was the most prominent.

Main idea

(before Zheng He) P2 China had contacts with countries along the Indian Ocean from the early time, and during ancient time explorers had begun to contact with each other.

P3 Between the Han and the early Tang Dynasty, Swahili kingdoms and the islands off the African coast developed into the world trade centre and attracted merchants from the world.

P4 During the Tang Dynasty, Du Huan, who traveled to many lands, wrote the book Record of My Travels.

P5 In the eleventh century, the Africans made several voyages to the court of the Song Dynasty.

Main idea

(after Zheng He) P6 By the beginning of the fifteenth century the time was ripe for a grand meeting.

P7 In the years between 1405 and 1433, under the command of Zheng He, seven large treasure fleets sailed westwards on voyages of trade and exploration.

P8 Zheng He renewed relations with the kingdoms of the East African coast.

P9 The fleet made several expeditions before the exploration was stopped.

Step VI Reinforcement (5m.)

Task Seven: Explain the following phrases and sentences from the text

in English. (Exercise 5)

T: Now look at Ex 5, p14, paraphrase the phrases and sentences from the text

in English using your own words.

Original sentences Explanations

The Africans were reaching out to China. The Africans left the African land and came for a visit to China by sea.

The time was ripe. In the Ming Dynasty both China and the eastern coast countries became very prosperous, and there came the great need for state-to-state contact.

The mouth of the Red Sea the part of ocean where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean.

For a short time, China had ruled the seas. For a short period of time, China held the power of sea for she had large navy, experienced sailors and an excellent admiral-Zheng He.

Key to exercise 4: (Only for reference)

Animal goods Only in Africa In both Africa and Asia

Zebras √

giraffes √

Ivory √

Rhinoceros horns √

shells √

Step Ⅶ Assignment (1m.)

1. Discussion

Page 154 Talking. Read the short passage and find out the topic to be talked about.

2. Seeking information

Find more information about the life of Zheng He and Christopher

Columbus with the help of the library or the internet.

( http://www.zhenghe.org.cn/)

PS: the general process of the lesson (本節課教學流程)

Step I Revision Task 1: Checking (4m)

StepⅡLead-in Task 2: Talking (3m)

StepⅢ Pre-Reading Task 3: Background information (4m)

Task 4: Complete the forms (12m)

StepⅣ While-Reading

(15m)

Task 5: Questioning (3m)

StepⅤ Post Reading Task 6: Build the schema chart (13m)

Step VI Reinforcement Task 7: Explanations (5m)

Step Ⅶ Assignment Discussion & Seeking information (1m)

After class teaching comment:（課后感受）

1． 本節課是閱讀理解課, 內容較豐富，學生要完成7個任務。由于學生課前預習得好，又運用了多媒體輔助教學，課堂較活躍，任務完成得好，同時又節省了許多時間。

2． 由于時間緊，課文中的細節無暇顧及，比如：Du Huan was taken prisoner by the Arabic army. 一句中的be taken prisoner 來不及解釋和舉例。

3． 課后有學生問及下例英語短語和句子的意思：find one’s way over land, a small bronze stature of a lion, China prospered under a new dynasty. 下節課或輔導時再集中解釋。

2005年9月