Period Three Reading Comprehension
授课人：洞口一中 彭先君 任教班级：高三181班，183班
Teaching goals （教学目标）
1. Target language (目标语言)
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 ( 能力目标)
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 (学能目标)
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 (教学重点)
The explorers’ great contribution to world trade and economy
Teaching difficult points (教学难点)
Guide the students to pick out the main clue of the passage and the development method of the text.
Teaching methods (教学方法)
Team work learning
Task-based learning
Teaching aids (教辅设备)
The computer media system in the classroom
a tape recorder
Teaching procedures & time arrangement
（教学过程与时间分配）
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 (本节课教学流程)
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:（课后感受）
1． 本节课是阅读理解课, 内容较丰富，学生要完成7个任务。由于学生课前预习得好，又运用了多媒体辅助教学，课堂较活跃，任务完成得好，同时又节省了许多时间。
2． 由于时间紧，课文中的细节无暇顾及，比如：Du Huan was taken prisoner by the Arabic army. 一句中的be taken prisoner 来不及解释和举例。
3． 课后有学生问及下例英语短语和句子的意思：find one’s way over land, a small bronze stature of a lion, China prospered under a new dynasty. 下节课或辅导时再集中解释。
2005年9月