Unit 4 Astronomy: the science of the stars(Period 1 Warming up and reading)
period 7 revision: summing up and learning tipperiod 1 warming up and reading
整體設計教材分析this is the first teaching period of this unit. at the beginning of the class, the teacher can lead in the topic of the unit by having a free talk with students about some famous scientists and what they have discovered. then turn to warming up. it is intended to have students think about and then discuss these two groups of questions:1. in our solar system eight planets circle around the sun. what are they? can you match the names with the planets?2. what interests you in astronomy? do you know any questions that astronomers are interested in?pre-reading is to remind students that the origin of life on the earth is a question that interests astronomers and each religion and culture has its own ideas about how life began on the earth. the teacher should ask students what they know about these and then let them predict what kind of information will be introduced in the next part reading.the reading passage titled how life began on the earth provides students a brief introduction on how the universe developed and how life began on the earth. it provides a scientific background to any investigation into space and it is factual. students are encouraged to preview the text and find out the useful new words, expressions and structures themselves. they should try to work out the meanings of the new words through the context. then if necessary, they can look them up in the dictionary or turn to the teacher for help. also encourage them to look at the pictures and read the title to guess what the text might be about. then let them skim for the general idea, and scan for further understanding. in order not to let them feel much difficult, the teacher should deal with any language problems while they are reading. after reading, students are required to do the five exercises in the comprehending to see how much they have understood the reading passage. the teacher can first let them work in pairs or in groups to find the answers cooperatively, and then check their answers with the whole class.to consolidate the contents of the reading passage, students should be required to retell the passage. in order to arouse the students’ interest, the teacher can hold a competition.教學重點1. let students read the passage and learn about the development of the earth.2. get students to learn different reading skills, especially the reading ability of understanding implied meaning of the author.