Unit 4 Natural Disasters - Reading and Thinking
教案 (Lesson Plan)
I. Teaching Objectives:
1.Knowledge: Students will identify the chronological structure (warning signs, earthquake hits, damage, rescue, and revival) and main ideas of the text "The Night the Earth Didn't Sleep".
2.Skills: Students will practice and apply reading strategies such as predicting from titles/photos, summarizing paragraphs, and applying context clues to guess the meanings of new words (ruin, brick, trap, bury).
3.Affective: Students will appreciate the themes of hope, unity, and human resilience in the face of disasters, and understand the author's emotional intent ("灾害无情, 人有情").
II. Important and Difficult Points:
1.Important Point: Guiding students to follow the text's timeline (before, during, and after the earthquake) to understand the event's progression and the severe damage caused.
2.Difficult Point: Helping students understand and appreciate the language features of literary journalism (报告文学), particularly the use of specific data for authenticity (纪实性) and rhetorical devices (like simile and personification) for emotional impact (文学性).
III. Teaching Aids
Multimedia PPT (displaying photos, text, key questions), whiteboard and markers, worksheet.
IV. Teaching Procedures:
Step 1: Lead-in (5 minutes)
1.Teacher's Activity:
Begin by asking students to discuss Activity 1 in pairs: "Discuss what can happen to a city during a big earthquake." (激活背景知识).
Show the text's title ("THE NIGHT THE EARTH DIDN'T SLEEP") and the main photo (Page 2) on the PPT.
Ask students to complete Activity 2: "Look at the title and photo below and guess what the text is about." Ask follow-up questions: "What does the title mean Does the earth sleep ".
2.Purpose: To activate students' background knowledge about earthquakes and use the title and photo to generate interest and predictions about the text.
Step 2: Reading Comprehension (Skimming for Main Ideas) (10 minutes)
1.Students' Activity - Fast Reading:
Task 1: Skim the text quickly to check if their predictions from Step 1 were correct.
Task 2: Complete Activity 3, summarizing the main idea for each paragraph. (Teacher provides Para 1 as an example: Warning signs before the earthquake.).
2.Teacher's Activity - Guidance & Summary:
Monitor and set a time limit for fast reading.
Invite students to share their main ideas for Paras 2-5.
Guide the class to summarize the text's clear chronological structure:
1. Warning signs → 2. Quake hits → 3. Damage → 4. Rescue → 5. Revival.
3.Purpose: To train students' skimming skills (fast reading) and help them grasp the overall structure of the text.
Step 3: Detailed Reading (Scanning for Details) (13 minutes)
1.Teacher's Activity - Guided Questioning:
Para 1 (Warning): Ask students to read carefully and find the answer to Activity 6, Q1 ("What were some of the strange things... ").
Para 2-3 (Damage): Ask for specific details: "When did it happen " "What was the damage " (e.g., "90 percent of its homes... gone"). Have students complete Activity 4 (guess ruin and brick) using context.
Para 4 (Rescue): Ask: "Who came to help " "What did they do " Have students complete Activity 4 (guess trap and bury).
Para 5 (Revival): Ask students to answer Activity 6, Q2 ("What does the writer mean by 'Slowly, the city began to breathe again' ").
2.Purpose: To develop students' skills in scanning for specific information and guessing word meanings from context.
Step 4: Language Focus & Appreciation (7 minutes)
1.Teacher's Activity: Draw attention to the style of the text.
Focus 1 (Authenticity): Ask: "Why does the author use so many numbers " (e.g., "400,000", "150,000 soldiers", "3:42 a.m.").
Guide to answer: To enhance authenticity and the feeling of realism (突出和体现了报告文学的纪实性特色).
Focus 2 (Literary Devices): Ask: "Which sentences impressed you most " Guide them to specific examples:
Simile (明喻): "Bricks covered the ground like red autumn leaves..."
Personification (拟人): "Slowly, the city began to breathe again."
2.Purpose: To address the "Difficult Point": appreciating the features of literary journalism (兼具文学性和纪实性).
Step 5: Post-reading (Discussion & Application) (8 minutes)
1.Activity 1: Vocabulary Consolidation:
Students complete Activity 5 (fill-in-the-blanks) on their worksheet to consolidate the new vocabulary.
2.Activity 2: Group Discussion:
In groups, students discuss the questions from Activity 7:
"What do you think helped in the revival of Tangshan city " (e.g., strong government support, army/doctors, tireless efforts of the people, unity).
"What lessons can we learn from these events "
3.Teacher's Role: Monitor, provide language support, and invite groups to share their insights.
4.Purpose: To consolidate vocabulary and encourage students to think critically about the text's themes (unity, hope, resilience), moving to a deeper level of understanding.
Step 6: Homework
1.Consolidation: Complete the related exercises in the workbook.
2.Production (Optional): Write a short dialogue (at least 6 lines) between a journalist and a survivor of the earthquake, using the new vocabulary.
V. Blackboard Design
Unit 4: The Night the Earth Didn't Sleep
Structure (Timeline):
1.Before (Warning): Strange things (water rose/fell, animals nervous)
2.During (Quake): 3:42 a.m., 28 July 1976; shaking
3.After (Damage): City in ruins; >400,000 dead/injured
4.After (Rescue): Soldiers, doctors; dug out those trapped, buried the dead
5.After (Revival): New Tangshan built; "began to breathe again"
Key Vocabulary:
ruin (n.)
brick (n.)
trap (v.)
bury (v.)
survivor (n.)
Theme: Hope, Unity, and Resilience (灾害无情, 人有情)
VI. Teaching Reflection
This lesson plan successfully integrates the reading comprehension into the provided template. It follows the suggested "读前-读中-读后" (Pre-while-post) reading procedure. The adaptation of the template (especially Step 4: Language Focus) directly addresses the "Difficult Point" of analyzing literary journalism. The discussion in Step 5 ensures students engage with the affective objectives (hope, unity). The steps are logical, moving from surface comprehension (main idea, details) to deeper language appreciation and thematic reflection.