Using LanguageⅠ教学实录

Teaching goals 教学目标

1. Target language 目标语言

a. Key words and phrases (重点词汇和短语)

rare, survive, valuable, dynasty, vase, amaze, amazing, select, honey, design, fancy, style, decorate, jewel, artist, belong, troop, reception, remove, wooden, doubt, former, worth

b. Key sentences (重点句型)

The amber which was selected had a beautiful yellow-brown color honey. It was also a treasure decorated with gold and jewels, which took the country’s best artists about ten years to make. Later, CatherineⅡ had the Amber Room moved to a palace outside ST Petersburg where she spent her summers.

In 1770 the room was completed the way she wanted.

This was a time when the two countries were ay war.

There is no doubt that the boxes were then put on a train for Konigsberg, at that time a German city on the Baltic Sea.

After that, what really happened to the Amber Room remains a mystery.

In 2003 it was ready for the people of St Petersburg when they celebrated the 300th

birthday of their city.

2. Ability goals能力目标

Enable students to learn about the history of Amber Room. Enable students to give opinions on rebuilding lost cultural relics.

3. Learning ability goals学能目标

After learning this reading passage, students should have the ability of reading passages about cultural relics, learn more languages about this topic and have the sense of protecting cultural relics. Teaching important points 教学重点

The main idea of each paragraph. Teaching methods教学方法

Listening to the tape (individuals)

Group discussion and presentation (cooperative learning) Multi-functional teaching equipment (CAI) Teaching aids教具准备

A recorder, a projector and some slides Multi-functional teaching equipment (CAI) Teaching procedures and ways教学过程与方式

Step I Warming up The warming-up exercise raises students' awareness that there are some well-known cultural relics both at home and abroad. Ask the students to try their best to think of the cultural relics that they know.

T: Do you know what a cultural relic is? S1: Cultural relic is something that has a long history. S2: I know Mount Emei and the Le Shan Giant Buddha is a cultural relic. T: Good. Although we don’t know what exactly a cultural relic is, we really know some cultural relics both in china and other places. Now please answer Question 2: Does a cultural relic always have to be rare and valuable? S3: I don’t think so. Some old and shabby buildings can be cultural relics because they represent part of our history.

T: Is it enough to have survived for a long time? S4: Not enough. As a cultural relic, it also has to be typical and contain some cultural or meaning. T: Question 3. Are cultural relics only objects like vases or can they be buildings too? S5: Some people said that cultural relics are more than works of art. According to this, I think that cultural relic may be anything that are symbols of history and the people who lived in the past for example the Great Wall. T: Now look at the pictures and discuss what they are and whether they are cultural relics or not. With the activities above, students will have a clear idea of what a cultural relic is.

Step II Pre-reading

The pre-reading activity has two functions. Question 1 is a warming up activity to

check students’ understanding of amber, and meanwhile lead them to the topic of the reading passage —

Amber Room.

Question 2 gives the students a chance to predict the main idea of the passage and then skim it. T: Look at the picture. Have you ever seen a piece of amber? What do you know about it?

Some information about amber: Amber is a semi-precious stone used in jewelry and art work. Amber is really the fossil form of resin(树脂) from trees. It has got its shape after a process that has taken millions of years to complete. Trees in very ancient forests produced this resin, which slowly dropped from trees and was buried. Prediction T: Now look at the title and the pictures of the reading passage. What do you think it is mainly about? Students may have different predictions.

T: Now skim the passage quickly and see if you were right.

Step III Reading This reading passage tells the amazing history of the Amber Room.

1. Skimming Ask the students to read the text quickly and grasp the main idea of the passage.

After reading T: What’s the main idea of the passage? It may be difficult to summarize. But if you can grasp the main idea of each paragraph, you will easily get the main idea of the whole passage. Look at Exercise 2 on page 2. The following five questions summarize the main idea of the five paragraphs in the passage. Match the questions with the paragraphs.

After they finish, check their answers.

T: Have you finished? Who can tell me your answer? S1: Let me try. Paragraph 1, How was the Amber Room made. Paragraph 2, Why did

the king of Prussia give the Amber Room to the Czar of Russia as a gift? Paragraph 3, How did the Amber Room become one of the world? Paragraph 4, How did the Amber room get lost? Paragraph 5, How was a new Amber Room built? T: Good! Now try to answer these questions.

Ask some students to answer these questions one by one.

2. Scanning T: Now let’s look at Exercise 2, join the correct parts of the sentences together.

Then check the answers.

3. New words and structures

1) The German title for king was Kaiser, but king is used to introduce a target word. Likewise, the Russian title for queen is Czarina. In the Europe an royal tradition, the ruler to use a certain given name like William was called William I，which is said as “William the First”. Thus FrederickⅡis better known in history as Frederick the great. So Peter I is also Peter the Great and CatherineⅡ was Catherine the Great. To avoid translation problems from English to Chinese, Roman numbers have been used in this passage.

2)

The design of the room was in the fancy style popular in those days.

This is a reference to the Baroque style (巴洛克艺术风格) of the 17th and 18th century in much of Europe. 3) The Amber Room is “a

wonder of the world”

but not one of the Seven Great Wonders of the World, such as Egypt’s pyramids of China’s Great Wall. Have students compare the meaning of wonder as a noun (as it is used here) and as a verb. 4) There is no doubt is a phrase that means “it is clear” or “beyond argument” that something happened. If something is “beyond doubt” in a court of law, it means that enough evidence exists to say that it is true. 5) In 2003, it was ready for the people of St Petersburg when they celebrate the 300th

birthday of their city. The 300th anniversary of an event is also called its tri-centennial. Interestingly, the small art objects and furniture rescued by Russian soldiers before the Nazis arrived are now once again on display in the reproduced Amber Room. St

Petersburg is both the current and original name of one of Russia’s oldest, largest and most beautiful cities. During the period of the Soviet Union, the city was named Leningrad. It is sometimes nicknamed the “Venice of the East” because of its many canals. 4. Discussion 1) Do you think the Amber Room is a cultural relic? 2) Why the history of Amber Room is an amazing one? 3) Why would Frederick William I like to give Amber Room to Peter the Great? 4) What’s the author’s attitude towards the Amber Room? How do you know?

5) Is it worth rebuilding lost cultural relic such as the Amber Room or Yuan Ming Yuan in Beijing? Give your reasons. Suggested answers: 1) I think the Amber Room is a cultural relic because of its artistic design and historic value. 2) The history of the Amber Room is an amazing one. First it had several famous owners, from Frederick WilliamⅠ, to Peter the Great, to Catherine Ⅱ, to the Nazi army and finally to the Russians and Germans. Second, in fact, the room was not made to be a gift, but designed for the palace. Third, as a gift, it built friendship between Frederick William Ⅰ and Peter the Great. Fourth, today it is a symbol of friendship between the Russians and Germans. Fifth, even now, several teams of treasure hunters continue to search for it. So the history of Amber Room is an amazing one. 3) I think it’s a way of making friends with other countries. So Frederick William’s gift of the Amber Room to Peter the Great was a sign that the two were allies and would co-operate in other ways too. 4) From the first paragraph we can see that Amber Room is valuable. From the second paragraph, we know that it’s a symbol of friendship between Frederick William and Peter the Great. It should be remembered. From the third paragraph, we know that the Amber Room was considered one of the wonders of the world, but it is now missing. From the last paragraph, we know the Russians and Germans have built a

new Amber Room. All the facts show us that the Amber Room is worth rebuilding or finding. I think this is what the author wanted to tell us. 5) (This question can be treated as a debate. Students fall into two groups and debate with each other.) Step IV Learning about language

Discovering useful words and expressions

Ask students to read the instructions of each part of the Discovering useful words and expressions, and then finish these three exercises quickly. A few minutes later, check the answers with the whole class. Later, the teacher gives the answers, using a slide projector. Discovering useful structures

T: From Reading, pick out the sentences that use the attributive clause with that/which/who/where/when.

1 The gift was the Amber Room, which was given this name because several tons of amber were used to make it. 2 The amber which was selected had a beautiful yellow-brown colour like honey. 3 It was also a treasure decorated with gold and jewels, which took the country’s best artist about ten years to make. 4 However, the next King of Prussia, Fredrick William I, to whom the Amber Room belonged, decided not to keep it. 5 Later, Catherine II had the Amber Room moved to a palace outside St Petersburg where she spent her summers.

6 In 1770 the room was completed the way she wanted. 7 This was a time when the two countries were at war. 8 there is no doubt that the boxes were then put on a train for Konigsberg, which was at that time a German city on the Baltic Sea.

9 In 2003 it was ready for the people of St Petersburg when they celebrated the 300th

birthday of their city.

First let students read the sentences they underlined. Then show the correct sentences using a slide projector and let students analyze them.

T: Observe these sentences carefully. Some contain commas before the relative pronouns, for example 3, 4 and 8. These sentences are different from the others. How are they different? Can you tell me?

Students try to tell the differences in their own words. T: We call these three sentences non-restrictive clauses. The relative clause carries extra information that is not necessary to identify the person or thing being discussed. Now finish Exercise 3. Judge whether restrictive or non-restrictive clauses are required.

Later, the teacher gives the answers, using a slide projector. Exercise 4 also provides semi-open practice with the grammar. After they complete the sentences, first let them check with each other. Then let some read their sentences and check them with the whole class. Step V Homework Review the key sentences in this part.