Unit 5 Working the Land教案

Reading andThinking: A Pioneer for All People

文本简析

本单元阅读文本话题是袁隆平和他的创新性农业研究成果。通过介绍袁隆平的成就与梦想，特别是他从事农业研究的初衷，引导学生认识农业创新对缓解世界饥饿问题的重要意义，与此同时，启发学生树立崇高的理想，执着地追求梦想。

本文是一篇人物介绍。全文六个段落呈现了人物介绍类文本常见的内容结构：身份简介（第一段）——核心事件（第二、三段）——影响力（第四段）——人物评价（第五、六段）。本文以标题“A Pioneer for All People”为统领，以袁隆平研发杂交水稻这个事件为核心，描述了他从事农业研究的初衷、为消除饥饿问题所做的努力、贡献及影响，赞扬了这位“全人类的先驱”的悲悯之心、使命感、创新能力、淳朴品质和追梦精神。

设计教学活动时，应帮助学生整理人物介绍和杂交水稻的话题类语言。值得关注的是，文本多处运用了对比的写作手法来突显袁隆平的品格和特质。在强调杂交水稻的影响力时，则主要运用了列数据的手法。让学生分析文本的写作手法，能提高学生运用写作技巧表达意图的意识和能力。此外，可引导学生关注第五段首句在内容上的承上启下作用，以及第六段首句作为段落主题句的作用。让学生对句子的作用进行分析，能增强学生对段落架构技巧的感知。

第1课时

一、教学内容

理解全文，明确文本的内容结构；细读前三段，以“pioneer”和“pioneeringwork”为主线梳理文本，完成关于杂交水稻研发的“袁隆平自述”。

二、课时目标

1. 速读全文，归纳段落大意，提取文本的内容框架。

2. 通过细读前三段，了解袁隆平的身份和研发杂交水稻的相关信息，并学习相关语言，如：be known as, consider…as…, boost yields, attain a higher yield,expand their output, a cross between two or more varieties of a species,characteristic, conventional crops, self-pollinating plants。

3. 通过分析对比这一写作手法的作用，提升学生运用写作技巧表达意图的意识和能力。

4. 通过角色代入式复述，巩固内容和语言。

三、教学过程

Activity 1: Introducing the topic

本活动为落实所有课时目标做铺垫。

1. Discuss the hunger problem and what YuanLongping has done to tackle this crisis.

Ask the students to read Yuan Longping’squote “My lifelong pursuit is to keep all the people away from hunger” on theopening page of the unit.

Q1: What information can you get from thequote?

Q2: What do you know about the hungerproblem in China and the world today? (Provide Hunger Map 2019 and ask thestudents to read the map to find relevant information.)

Q3: Do you know what Yuan Longping has doneto relieve (alleviate) the hunger problem?

【设计意图】该单元首页的引言为袁隆平的名言“我毕生的梦想就是让所有人都远离饥饿”，这句话是对袁隆平一生探求的总结，也恰巧可用于启动阅读课的话题。问题1让学生练习获取句子中的重要信息，可分字面的(literal)和隐含的(implied)两种。问题2则利用名言导入“饥饿”话题。在PPT上呈现世界饥饿问题图片，让学生读图找相关信息。问题3用于激活学生的内容图式，即关于袁隆平的杂交水稻背景知识，同时使学生在之后的阅读中更具主动性。问题2和问题3在逻辑上构成problem—solution结构。

Activity 2. Making predictions

本活动旨在为课时目标1作铺垫。

1. Understand the title.

Q1: What is a pioneer?

Q2: How do you understand the title “apioneer for all people”?

2. Predict the contents of the text.

Ask the students to predict the contents ofthe text based on Yuan Longping’s quote and the title of the text.

【设计意图】本文的标题是全文的统领，对标题的解读有助于学生把握全文的内容要点。再则，本课时以“pioneer”和“pioneeringwork”为主线梳理文本，因此有必要理解标题中关键词的内涵。让学生依据标题和袁隆平的名言推断文本内容，能激活学生对于人物介绍类文本的背景图式，促使学生主动获取文本信息。

Activity 3: Getting thecontent structure of the text

本活动旨在落实课时目标1。

1. Skim the text and check theirpredictions.

2. pide the passage into several meaningfulparts and pair-check the pision (based on the main idea of each paragraph andthe aspects they discuss about Yuan Longping).

Suggested pision:

【设计意图】根据段意归纳文本的内容框架，有助于学生把握全局，实现整体性阅读，同时促成之后学生对文本更高层次的理解，由此培养学生归纳、总结文本重点内容，并解构文本框架的能力。同时，本文为典型的人物介绍类语篇，提取其内容框架难度不高，适合中等及以上英语水平的学生。

Activity 4: Analyzing the keyinformation in Paragraphs 1—3.

本活动旨在落实课时目标2。

1. Read Paragraph 1 carefully and try tofind out the link between Paragraph 1 and the title.

Q: What does Paragraph 1 tell us about YuanLongping as a “pioneer for all people” directly and indirectly (at least 3points)?

Possible answers: 1. Yuan is known as“father of hybrid rice”. Father means the first person to do something, or apioneer. 2. His method of doing the pioneering work is mainly field research.3. Yuan has devoted all his life to pioneering agricultural research.

2. Read Paragraphs 2—3 and draw a mind-mapin pairs about Yuan Longping’s pioneering work. Then make a presentation of themind-map. The mind-map should include a title, the key information and thelogic between the information.

The following can be an example of themind-map:

【设计意图】以上两项任务围绕标题设置，让学生主动阅读、提取文本的关键信息，分析其逻辑结构。任务1让学生从直接和间接两个角度去解读第一段落，既有浅层的信息获取，又有推断层面的设计。任务2提供了mind-map的要素，让学生在自主分析文本时有章可循，同时，该任务开放度较高，学生可以真正从自己的视角去表达解读到的信息。由此培养学生综合分析信息的能力。另外，在完成任务2的过程中，可增加中国“三年饥荒”的背景知识。

Activity 5. Commenting on Yuan’squalities and evaluating the writing technique

本活动旨在落实课时目标3。

Talk about what special qualities of YuanLongping are exhibited in Paragraphs 1—3 and how the writer manages to makethese qualities stand out.

Q1: What special qualities of Yuan Longpingare exhibited in Paragraphs 1—3? Use three adjectives to describe him and givesupporting evidence.

Q2: What technique does the writer use tomake these qualities stand out? Find out all the examples in these paragraphs.

The following examples are for reference:

【设计意图】该活动旨在突出袁隆平作为农业先驱的品格，如：compassionate, devoted, innovative等，让学生用三个关键词来形容袁隆平，能让学生聚焦人物最突出的品质；让学生提供证据，能培养其求证思维。同时，该活动要求学生在分析人物品格时把内容与写作技巧结合在一起考虑，能提升其运用写作技巧描述与表达的意识和能力。

Activity 6. Consolidating the contentand language

本活动旨在落实课时目标4。

Suppose you were Yuan Longping—talk aboutyour pioneering work concerning hybrid rice. You can include the motivation,process, challenges, results, etc.

【设计意图】该任务是巩固文本内容和语言的活动，代入角色的活动设计能让学生深入人物内心，在叙述时更具情感色彩，引起听众共鸣。

Assignment:

Produce a language bank related to YuanLongping’s status and his research into hybrid rice.

【设计意图】学生通过自己动手整理话题相关词汇，能巩固所学，促进主动学习的意识和能力。可鼓励学生使用图表或word-web。

第2课时

一、教学内容

以袁隆平的“毕生追求”为主线梳理文本信息；完成关于“梦想”的演讲。

二、课时目标

1. 通过细读、分析文本，理解作者称袁隆平为“梦想家”的事实依据，培养举证思维，同时学习特别是与“梦想”有关的词汇，如：fulfill one’s dream, envision…as, vision, become a reality, dreamup

2. 通过分析、评价写作手法，探讨文本的优缺点，培养评判性阅读能力。

3. 通过深入理解袁隆平的梦想与成就，探讨缓解世界饥饿问题的途径。

4. 通过运用文本的语言和内容进行创意表达，受到人物德行的启发。

三、教学过程

Activity1: Checking homework and reviewing the contents

本活动为课时目标1作铺垫。

1. Present students’ own “Language Bank”.Talk about words and expressions that impressed them most.

【设计意图】通过分享个性化的“Language Bank”，学生之间可以相互学习，取长补短，同时再一次复习、巩固语言。

2. Review the contents of the text studentslearned in the previous lesson.

Q1: Do you still remember the contentstructure of the whole text and which aspects of Yuan Longping we discussed inthe previous lesson?

Q2: Can you recall Yuan Longping’s quote onthe opening page?

(Let’s find out how much his innovative hybridrice has helped to alleviate the hunger problem.)

【设计意图】本教学设计把语篇拆成了两部分来处理，因此，有必要在第二课时开始时回顾全文的内容架构和第一课时讨论的内容，让学生清楚地了解本课时将要学习的内容。整个教学设计以袁隆平的名言开始，他的“毕生追求”又是设计两个课时的主导性线索，并且袁隆平毕生追求的结果在文本中有具体的表现，因而再次提出，并以此为契机让学生继续文本的阅读，获取相应的信息。

Activity 2: Analyzing and evaluatingParagraph 4

本活动旨在落实课时目标1和2。

Q1: How much has Yuan Longping’s innovationhelped to alleviate the hunger problem? What language and writing techniquedoes the writer employ to emphasize such influence?

Q2: Suppose one person consumes 150 kg ofrice per year. How many people can hybrid rice feed?

Suggested answer: It can feed about 1.3billion people—approximately the whole population of China.

Q3: To make the abstract number concreteand give the readers a vivid impression, can you add some words to the sentence“…his strains have allowed China’s farmers to produce around 200 million tonsof rice per year”?

Possible answer: …his strains have allowedChina’s farmers to produce around 200 million tons of rice per year, enough tofeed the whole of China.

(By making abstract things concrete, thewriting will be more vivid and readers will have a better understanding of thecontent.)

【设计意图】问题1的设计针对第4段落的核心内容和语言，列数据、举例子是作者强调杂交水稻影响力时所用的主要写作手法，另外，表达因果关系的语言也特别典型，如allow…to do, because of…但是，教师可能会发现，作者使用的数据比较抽象，读者无法形成一个具体的、形象生动的印象，让学生自己去发现会有一定难度，因此设计了问题2、3，用以帮助学生感知、评价写作手法的优缺点。

Activity 3: Analyzing and evaluatingParagraphs 5&6

本活动旨在落实课时目标1。

(Yuan Longping’s innovation has not onlyrelieved the hunger problem but also earned himself numerous awards and a bigfortune. If you were Yuan Longping, would you retire to a life of leisure?)

1. Read Paragraphs 5 & 6 closely tofind out what Yuan Longping did after his great success.

Suggested answer: He didn’t retire to alife of leisure. Rather, he continued to do research on rice, such as seawaterrice. Also, he made large donations to support agriculture research.

2. In the writer’s eyes, what kind ofperson is Yuan Longping? (Opinion) Why does he/she think so? (Supportingevidence) Is the writer’s idea well conveyed?

【设计意图】该活动围绕袁隆平的品格设计，关注语言和段落的内部结构。任务1需综合两段文字的内容来回答，而且，需要一定的推断能力。任务2中的提示性问题帮助学生理解段落的内容和语言架构。在整个解读过程中，学习相关语言，特别是有关梦想的表达，回顾“对比”写作手法的运用（Paragraph 5），学习段落结构（Topic Sentence + Supporting Details）。

Activity 4: Exploring ideas

本活动为旨在落实课时目标3。

1. Discuss Yuan Longping’s dreams.

Examine Yuan’s dream of sorghum-like riceand find out how far this dream has been realized.

(The teacher shows pictures of sorghum and super-yieldrice on PPT.)

Translate Yuan Longping’s dream fromChinese to English.

“我梦见我们的超高产杂交稻长得比高粱还高，穗子有扫帚那么长，谷子有花生米那么大。我好高兴！我走过去，坐在那个稻穗下乘凉。”（袁隆平的“禾下乘凉梦”）

Possible version：“I dreamed that our super high-yield hybrid rice grew taller thansorghum, with each ear as long as a broom and each grain as big as a peanut.How delighted I was! I went up, sitting underneath the crops to enjoy thecool.”

2. Suppose you were an official fromFAO—comment on the significance of Yuan Longping’s lifelong pursuit in terms ofalleviating world hunger.

【设计意图】任务1让学生近距离地、准确地理解袁隆平的梦想，通过细读和中英翻译活动，准确理解内容和语言（特别是在语境中猜词，如“ear”，“envision”等词在文中的含义），并运用语言。任务2回应了单元首页袁隆平的引言，让学生综合全文的学习提炼观点、分享观点，提升对单元主题意义的理解。

Activity 5.Consolidating and transferring the knowledge.

本活动旨在落实课时目标4。

Suppose you were Dr. Yuan again. Pleasemake a short speech about dreams to inspire students to pursue their dreams.

【设计意图】该活动以梦想为主题，是对整个文本的创意性总结与意义的升华，留给学生一定的想象空间，更重要的是，本活动提供机会让学生运用文本语言表达人物精神对他们的启示。因为课堂时间有限，教师给出了以上发言稿的框架。