吳佩瑤

NSE 9A Module 4 Unit 2 I became so bored with their orders that I wished they would leave me alone.

My “perfect holiday”

Analysis of teaching material

1. The topic：My “perfect” holiday

2. The Function：Describing personal experiences

3. The teaching material：

a）Most teenagers dream to have a perfect holiday without their parents supervision. However，when the chance arrives，first because they are given too much freedom，they will indulge themselves. As a result，they will pay for that. Meanwhile，they will gradually find they lack basic life skills. They will experience lots of failure. And finally they understand what their parents did for them and know how deeply their parents love them. Eventually，they will learn to cherish for what they have owned and learn to be independent. Meanwhile，learn to share the responsibility with their parents.

b） As the second unit of the module，this lesson aims to promote students reading skills. We hope to achieve the following three targets step by step：read the lines;read between the lines，read beyond the lines. Students can understand the main（thought）of the passage. Perfect holiday is not as perfect as you think. Learn to be independent and learn to have self-discipline. Cherish what you have owned and learn to express your love to them. Try to do what you can to help them at home if you have free time.

c） Here is a grammar focus：adverbial clauses with although，so…that

Analysis of students

Students are very interested in the topic. As for teenagers，they dream to have a perfect holiday without their parents supervision. Although they understand their parents love for them，they are eager to have some freedom to do what they like to do，not only following their parents orders or management.

Teaching objectives：

The purpose of teaching reading

1. Text dimension--Read the lines. Get the summary of the story by talking about the five elements of narrative---what/ who/ when/ why/ how.

2. Literary dimension--Read between the lines. Students are able to understand the main idea（thought）of the passage.

3. Cultural dimension--Read beyond the lines. Students are able to explore the hidden wisdom/ philosophy of the story.

Teaching focuses：

1. T will ask Ss to preview the vocabulary before the class.

2. The learning process is：Information-facts-knowledge-wisdom-philosophy

3. Let Ss get the information and facts autonomously.

4. Help Ss to summarize the knowledge gradually.—whole input，whole output

4. Guide Ss to acquire wisdom and philosophy wisely.

Anticipated difficulties：

Students may feel it difficult to

1）. Summarize correctly and completely

2）. Read beyond the lines---explore the hidden story behind the plain topic;

3）. Enhance cultural awareness and enhance humanity accomplishment.

Solutions

1）. Give Ss a general structure of the whole passage

2）. Guide them to get the whole input instead of fragmented reading.

3）. Design the questions step by step and lead Ss to think critically and express complicated thoughts in simple words.

Teaching methods：Pre-reading，while-reading，Post-reading.

Learning methods：interactive approach，critical thinking，discussion，report

Teaching aids：Multi-media，blackboard

Teaching and learning arrangement

Stages/ timing：

Pre-reading（2mins）

Step 1 Pre-reading--Predict

1. T Shows the title of the story—My “perfect holiday” and ask the questions：

1）What are we going to read？

2）The double quotation mark is used in the title，why？

[Methodology]

To teach Ss the reading skills—predict and get useful information from the title.

To involve students and stimulate their background knowledge. Get them ready for getting ready to talk about the five elements of the narrative--what/ who/ when/ why/ how.

While-reading（28 mins）

Step 2 While-reading-- Text dimension--Read the lines.

1. Since the title of the passage is My “perfect holiday”，we can predict the story is about the “perfect holiday”.

Heres the structure of the story

before the holiday

During the holiday

After the holiday

[Methodology]

To avoid the instructional fragmentization，teachers should realize the importance of the whole input and the whole output.

2. Lets divide the passage into three parts. And underline the topic sentences for each part.

a. Ss：Before the holiday---Para. 1

During the holiday—Para. 2，3，4

After the holiday—Para 5.

b. Before the holiday：I became so bored with their orders that I wished they would leave me alone.

During the holiday：My wish came true！ …. Then I realized being home alone was not always perfect.

After the holiday：My parents were happy to find that I could cook and tidy now.

[Methodology]

T tells Ss that the topic sentences usually lie at the beginning of the paragraph or the last of that. In this way，Ss can get some reading skills and faster get the key words or sentences.

Based on the methodology --“whole input，whole output”，we first guide Ss to read fast and get the general idea of the whole passage and learn to get the reading skills--- find the topic sentences of each paragraph or each part. The reading skills are very helpful for Ss to improve their ability to answer the subjective items in senior high school entrance examination.

3. Let Ss put the topic sentences together. Then we get the main idea of the whole passage.

I became so bored with their orders that I wished they would leave me alone.

My wish came true！ …. Then I realized being home alone was not always perfect.

My parents were happy to find that I could cook and tidy now.

Post-reading（10 mins）

Step 4 Post-reading—read beyond the lines to explore the hidden wisdom/ philosophy of the story.

1. Make a list of the changing feelings of Zheng Chenyu，

Bored/ unhappy

Excited/ happy/ enjoyable change

（change）

Tired/ sleepy/ lonely/ missing，

[Methodology]

Guide Ss to think critically so as to acquire wisdom and philosophy wisely.The ultimate teaching aims of reading are to enhance cultural awareness and to? enhance humanity accomplishment.

How did the changing feelings happen？

1）. a lot of failures and embarrassment at school the next day：

woke up late，hurried to school without breakfast，late for school，couldnt hand in the homework. unable to play with his classmates because of the empty stomach，felt tired and sleepy because of staying up the last night.

2）. a lot of failures and embarrassment at home：

Burnt the rice，dropped his fathers cup，felt lonely，thought of what his parents did for him and how well they took care of him，including his daily life and helping with his study

Then realized …..

[Methodology]

Guide Ss to think critically and make self-reflection so that Ss can improve themselves. To cultivate Ss thoughts.To cultivate Ss emotion. To inspire Ss mind.

2. Think more about Zheng Chenyus story

1）. Is what happened to Zheng Chenyu accidental or inevitable？ Why？ What suggestions do you want to give him？（Possible answer）

Ss：I think it is inevitable because he lacks basic life skills. He cant take good care of himself.

Ss：I advise him to learn to take care of himself，to be independent，eventually to achieve mental maturity.

3. Is there a “Zheng Chenyu” in your life？ Lets share.

[Methodology]

Enhance cultural awareness and enhance humanity accomplishment.

T should focus on the nature of the language while teaching reading. Focus on the thinking，the mind and the humanity.

T should try to guide Ss to explore the hidden story behind the plain topic and guide Ss to express complicated thoughts in simple words.

4. Think：how to understand the following main ideas（thoughts）of the passage？

a. Perfect holiday is not as perfect as you think.

b. Learn to be independent and learn to have self-discipline.

c. Cherish what you have owned and learn to express your love to them.

d. Try to do what you can to help them at home if you have free time.”

5. Think：What caused Zheng Chenyus change？

Possible answer：He thought it was ashamed that he couldnt do some simple cooking tasks. He realized that he should take the responsibility to help his parents do some housework. He should study hard，so that they neednt worry a lot about him.

6. Write the end of the story.

After Zheng Chenyus parents came back home，how did he change？

7. Think critically： Is Zheng Chenyu a loser inevitably？

How can you help him make changes？

Is there a “Zheng Chenyu” in your mind？