Teaching Aims:
To learn two letters written to an agony aunt of a teenage magazine and how to understand the feelings and emotions in a text
To learn how to get along with others and gain some insight into the problems that can exist between friends.
To improve their reading comprehension skill by fully participating in akk the activities
Teaching Key Points:
How to improve their reading ability through teaching activities
How to help students to understand a writer’s the feelings and emotions
How to let them gain some insight into friendship and get on well with their classmates at school
Teaching Difficulties:
The usages of words such as betray, mean, swear etc.
Teaching Procedure:
Step One: Leading-in
T: (Greet the students as usual)In the last lesson we learnt four proverbs and talked about friendship. Could you tell me the proverbs and their Chinese meanings?
Ss: … (Ask four students to answer the questions)
T: Ok. Now please look at the screen and discuss the following questions in groups of four.
1) Do you keep in touch with your friends?
2) Have you ever argue with a good friend?
3) If you had a quarrel with your friend, how would you deal with it? Would you feel embarrassed when you met them again?
4) How would you mend a broken a friendship?
5) What do you think are the reasons that might lead to a broken friendship?
(Choose several groups to present their discussions to the class. Any forms of presentation are acceptable. Collect the answers to the question 5)
Possible answers to the question 5:
Having little in common
Lacking trust
Misunderstanding
Being jealous of each other
Conflicts of interest
Step Two: Reading Comprehension
T: Good. Besides these, I think there are other reasons that might cause a broken friendship. Next you will read two letters about broken friendships. Now open your book to page 2. Go through the questions in part A first and then read the two letters silently as quickly as possible to find the answers to the three questions:
1) Are the writers of the two letters feeling happy or sad?
They are feeling sad.
2) What did Sarah get for the surprise Maths test?
She got a D.
3) Is Matthew usually a quiet boy?
No, he is usually cheerful and outgoing
(Remind students to only focus on and identify the information needed to answer these questions.)
T: Wonderful! Now lets’ read the passage again (read aloud) and answer the question in part C1 and fill in the table in part C2.
Part C1:
1) What did Sarah think about the surprise Maths test?
She thought it was easy.
2) What did Sarah tell Hannah in the girls’ toilets?
She told Hannah how badly she had done in the Maths test.
3) Why did Sarah tell Hannah that they weren’t going to be friends any more?
Because she thought that Hannah had told everyone how badly she had done in the Maths test
4) Why did Andrew shout at Matthew after the match?
He thought Matthew played badly and did not try hard enough. As a result, they lost the game.
5) What did Matthew think about losing the match?
He thought it wasn’t his fault.
6) What king of boy is Mathew?
He is usually cheerful and out going?
Part C2:
Letters How Sarah/Andrew felt Why she/he felt so
Sarah’s letter She felt betrayed. She thought her best friend Hannah didn’t keep her secret.
She felt ashamed. She scored the lowest mark in her class
She was upset and felt like crying. She found a piece of paper on her desk that said ‘Stupid Sarah got a D’
Andrew’s letter He had a dilemma. His best friend Matthew has stopped talking to him.
He felt really guilty. He said some cruel things to Matthew.
He was angry with Matthew. They lost the game because of Matthew’s carelessness.
(Make sure that students can distinguish and pick out the relevant information within the given time. After students finish the exercises, check the answers as a whole. While checking the answers of part C2, pay close attention to students’ mistakes. Some students might be confused about the statements or expressions about feelings and those about thoughts. )
T: Now you have read the two letters. Different types of passages require different reading strategy. In these two letters, strong feelings about an unforgettable situation are illustrated clearly. Please read Reading Strategy on page 3.
(Remind them to concentrate on the difference between feelings and thoughts by emphasize the information in the table: on the left are feelings while on the right are thoughts)
T: Ok, from the letters we know that these two students are involved in difficult situations, so they write to Agony Aunt Annie for help. And Annie wrote back to the two students but some words are missing in the two letters. Next please use the given words to fill in the blanks in Part E.
Part E:
Dear Sarah,
1.betrayed 2.apologize 3.mark 4.proud 5.secrets
Dear Andrew,
6.match 7.guilty 8.mean 9.friendship 10.determined
Step Three: Post-reading Discussion
T: Well done. Now, could you tell me what have learnt from the two letters? Please discuss the following questions:
1) If you were Sarah or Andrew, would you try to fix the broken friendship with your friend? What would you do to fix it?
2) If you had a problem with your friend, would you write to an agony aunt? If not, who would you talk to?
3) If you were the agony aunt from the magazine, what advice would you give to Sarah or Andrew?
(This serves as a consolidating exercise for students to practise their spoken English.)
Step Four: Language Points
1) betray vt. 出賣，泄露；辜負，對……不忠；流露（情感）
betray sb/sth (to sb) 泄露消息（給某人）；（向某人）出賣某人
betray oneself 暴露自己的真面目
e.g. He betrayed my secret to all his friends.
e.g. Judas betrayed Jesus to his enemies to in the last dinner.
e.g. The expression on his face betrayed his anger.
2) overlook vt. 忽略；俯視；視而不見，不予理會；不予考慮
e.g. We couldn’t overlook such a serious offence.
e.g. She’s been overlooked for promotion several times.
e.g. His apartment on the twenty-second floor overlooks a little park.
3) swear vt./vi. 發誓，許諾；咒罵
swear to do sth發誓做某事
swear at 咒罵，辱罵，詛咒
swear by 依靠，信任；確定
swear in 宣誓就職
e.g. He swore to tell the truth.
e.g. The boss is always swearing at the workers.
e.g. He swore in a mayor yesterday
e.g. I think she said she was going to the library, but I couldn’t swear by it.
4) forgive vt. 原諒；寬恕
forgive sb sth 原諒某人某事
forgive sb (for sth) 原諒某人（某事）
e.g. The teacher forgave the student for his coming late
e.g. Could you forgive me my fault?
5) mean vt. 意思是；意味著；圖謀，打算
mean doing sth 意味著做某事
mean to do 打算做某事
be meant to do sth 應該做某事
e.g. What do you mean by saying that?
e.g. I didn’t mean to hurt you.
e.g. You were meant to ask why I was disappointed with the idea.
e.g. Learning a foreign language doesn’t mean just working in a class.
mean adj. 自私的；吝嗇的；麻煩的，困難的
e.g. Tom is mean.
e.g. This is the meanest storm in years.
6) stand vi. 站（起）；坐落，位于
vt. 忍耐，忍受；為……付賬，請客
stand for 代表，象征；
stand by 站在旁邊，和……站在一起
stand sb a dinner 請某人吃飯
e.g. On the riverside stands a row of weeping willows.
e.g. The Monument to People’s Heroes stands at the center of the square.
7) apologize vi. 道歉，認錯，悔過
apologize to sb (for sth/ doing sth ) （因某事/做了某事）向某人道歉
apologize for oneself 為自己辯解或辯護
e.g. Tom apologized to her for stepping on her foot.
e.g. You should apologize to your teacher for your fault.
8) since conj./prep. 自……以后，自……以來；既然，因為
e.g. I have been there many times since the war.
e.g. Since many of the customers work during the day, Billy has to collect the money at night.
Step Five: Homework
to complete the part D on page 4
to do parts A1 and A2 on page 90 in workbook