Teaching Aims:
1. Learn the following words and expressions: call up, glory, pattern, belong to, absence, translate, come into being, play with, despite, time, remind…of, lesd to
2. Learn about poets and poems of different countries.
3. Improve the students' reading ability.
Teaching Important Points:
1. The usages of some useful words and expressions.
2. The similarities and differences between the Chinese and English poets and poems.
Teaching Difficult Point:
How to grasp and remember the detailed information of the reading material.
Teaching Methods:
1. Fast-reading to grasp the main idea of the text.
2. Talking method to get every student to want to express himself in English.
3. Pair work or group work to get every student to join in the class activities.
Teaching Aids:
1. a tape recorder
2. a computer
3. a projector
Teaching Procedures:
Step I Greetings and Revision
(Teacher greets the whole class as usual and checks the students' home work.
Then teacher and the students learn the new words of this period together. )
Step II Reading
(A few minutes later.)
T: Are you ready?
Sa : Yes.
T: Who will give us the answers?
Sa: I’ll try. The style and atmosphere in the poems by Wordsworth, Byron, Shelly and Keats often remind readers of Du Fu and Li Bai.
Sb: The works by Donne and Marvell reminds Chinese readers of Su Dongpo.
T: Very well. Now read the text again, and try to grasp as much detailed in formation as you can. Then do the exercise on the screen.
(Teacher shows the screen. )
Read the text carefully and choose the best answer for each of the following questions:
1. Modern English came into being from about the middle of the_____ century.
A. 16th B. 17th C. 18th D. 19th
2. The poetry of Marvell reminds Chinese readers of the poems by_______.
A. Du Fu B. Li Bai
C. Su Dongpo D. Gou Moruo
3. Byron's “Isles of Greece” is an example of_______.
A. a sonnet B. romantic poetry!
C. nature poetry D. modern poetry
4. The wider public in China discovered English poetry at the beginning
of the_________ century.
A. 17th B. 18th C. 19th D. 20th
5. The advantage of reading English poetry in Chinese translation is______.
A. that you have more advice
B. that something of the spirit is lost
C. that you understand it better
D. that you learn how to express yourself in new ways
Suggested answers:
1. A 2. C 3. B 4. D 5. D
T: You've done very well. By the way, have you noticed that there are some
bold words in the text? Read the text again and find out what the 'words in
bold refer to. If necessary, you can have a discussion with your partner. Some minutes later, we'll check the answers.
(Students begin to read the text and have a discussion. After a few minutes,
teacher says the following. )
T: Can you find the answers? (Ss: Yes.)
Please tell us.
Sc :“That”in the first paragraph refers to “poetry plays with sounds, words and grammar”.
Sd :“its” in the fourth paragraph refers to“the poetryn’ s” .
Se : “their” refers to “the nature poems by Wordsworth, Byron's Isles of Greece and the sonnets and long poems by Shelley and Keats”. And it is in the fifth paragraph, on Page 28.
Sf : “they”in the sixth paragraph refers to “modern poets”.
Sg :“They” in the third line from the bottom of the last paragraph refers to
“poems and literature”.
T: Are there any different opinions?
Ss : No, they are right.
T: (Teachers shows the screen.) There are some language points you should
pay attention to. Read the sentences and try to master the usages of the
words and phrases.
1. play with: The little boy is playing with his dolls.(In the text“play with the sounds , words and grammar”means “to use sounds , words and grammar perfectly”.)
2. call up.. I called up my brother and told him the good news.
He was called up at the beginning of the war.
3. despite: He came to school despite (in spite of) his serious illness.
4. time: In his speech, he expressed the feelings of the time.
5. belong to: Taiwan belongs to China.
6. absence: Darkness is the absence of light.
7. remind…of…Remind me of the letter.
8. lead to: Differences of opinion led to fierce arguments.
9. come into being: When did the Great Wall come into being?
Step III Listening and Reading Aloud
T: Now let's listen to the tape. When I play it for the first time, just listen. Then I'll play it for the second time. This time, you can follow it in a low voice. Then read the text aloud, paying attention to your pronunciation and
intonation. Do you understand? OK. Let's begin.
(Teacher goes among the students, answers the students' questions and corrects the mistakes.)
Step IV Discussion
T: Now please turn to Page 29,Post-read-ing 4、5 and 6. Have a discussion about
them. Later, I'll ask some of you to give us the answers.
(After a while. )
T: Who'll give us the answer to the fourth?
S1 : I'll try. If a poem is translated into another language, it's changed a bit. That's to say, something of the spirit of the original works is lost.
T: Quite right. Let's compare a poem by Chao Zhi with its translation.
(Teacher shows the screen. )
七步詩
曹植
煮豆燃豆萁,
豆在釜中泣;
“本是同根生,
相煎何太急?”
They were boiling beans on a beanstalk fire,
Came a plaintive voice from the pot,
“ ( ),why since we sprang from the selfsame root,
Should you kill me with anger hot?”
T: From the poem above, we can find that when a poem is translated into another language, its rhythm and rhyme, the figures of speech, etc. are different
from the original work…
Suggested answers to Ex. 5 and Ex. 6 :
5. They can be ties that bring the East and the West together and fine wine
enjoyed by the East and the West.
6. It means that when people from one country read the poems from another, they will be struek by what is inside the poem, so they will understand each other and become good friends.
Step V Summary and Homework
T: Today we're learnt a text about poems and poets. Read the text after class and collect as much information about the things and persons mentioned in the text as possible. Then do Ex. 3 on Page 29. Besides, we've learnt some useful words and expressions. Please tell me what they are.
Ss: Play with, call up, despite, time,…
(Teacher writes them on the blackboard.)
T: Please remember the words and expressions and make sentences with them when you have time. That's all for today. Class is over.
Step VI The Design of the Writing on the Blackboard
Unit 4 A garden of poems The Second period
English Poetry
Useful words and expressions:
play with absence
call up remind…of
despite lead to
time come into being
belong to
Step VII Record after Teaching
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