Module 5 Unit 1 Reading

Teaching aims:

1.       Students will understand the two passages well;

2.       Students will know the basic formation of a letter to a magazine advice columnist;

3.       Students will learn and use the reading strategy: reading to understand feelings;

4.       Students will learn how to mend a broken friendship and how to make their friendship last long.

Teaching procedures:

Step 1 lead in (PPT4-7)

1.       Students do self-reflection: Think of the most recent fight with your friend. What caused it?

2.       Group discussion:

(1)    Students work in a group of four and discuss all the possible reasons leading to a broken friendship.

(2)    Students think about their puzzles in getting along with friends and write all of them down on a piece of paper. Then different groups exchange the pieces.

3. Brainstorming:

Who can we turn to for help when we have problems with our friends?

Students express their ideas freely.

parents, teachers, … magazine advice columnists

In this way, the topic of the lesson is introduced.

Step 2 Reading of Secrets and Lies (PPT 8-14)

1. Students read the title of the passage and the first sentence of the first paragraph, and try to predict the main idea of the letter.

2. Fast reading: Students are asked to go through the whole letter to find out what the secret is and what the lie is.

Secret: Sarah got a D in a surprise Maths test.

Lie: Hannah denied having let out the secret.

3. Careful reading: Students read the letter again, this time carefully and try to answer the following questions:

(1)    Why do you think Sarah and Hannah could be good friends before?

(2) Why did Sarah tell Hannah that they weren’t going to be friends any more?

(3) What might have caused their friendship to break?

Keys: (1) They were like each other and had much in common.

     (2) Because she thought Hannah had told everyone how badly she had done in the Maths test.

     (3) Sarah didn’t trust her friend. Hannah may have betrayed her friend. Sarah and Hannah lacked communication.

Step 3 Reading strategy: reading to understand emotion (PPT 15-17)

1. Teacher guides students to analyze the letter: what is a letter asking for help like?

A letter to a magazine columnist usually includes:

1)      Descriptions of problems

2)      Descriptions of feelings

While reading such a letter, it’s important to identify the writer’s feelings towards a certain problem and then think about what advice to give him/her.

2. Teacher guides students to take Sarah’s letter: Secrets and lies for example. In this way students will have a clearing understanding of how to read such a letter.

3.       A game: Students are encouraged to express different emotions without mentioning the words for the emotions.

The choices given are: angry, proud, upset, excited, surprised, ashamed, sad, puzzled, worried.

Students are free to choose any one of the emotions to express by using a sentence, different tones, or even body language.

For example: To express they are excited, students can say: I got full marks in the most difficult maths test!

Step 4 Reading of A friendship in trouble and the practice of Reading strategy（PPT 18-19）

1. Students read A friendship in trouble, and try to find out Andrew’s problem and how he feels about it by filling in the blanks.

2. Students work in pairs and in their own words, tell each other what Andrew’s problem is and what caused his friendship with Matthew in trouble.

Key: Andrew blamed the losing of the match on Matthew’s bad performance and they had a bitter quarrel with each other. Now they aren’t talking to each other any more and Matthew seems to want to make friends with another boy. Andrew really shouldn’t have blamed Matthew without thinking twice.

Step 5 Problem solving（PPT 20-22）

Students work in a group of four, and try to finish the following two tasks:

Task one:

1. Suppose you are the columnist, what advice will you give Sarah and what to Andrew? Choose one of the topics and try to think of as much advice as possible.

2. Write down your advice on the blackboard freely.

3. Finish Exercise E on page 5 and get to know what advice it is that the magazine advice columnist actually gives to Sarah and Matthew.

Task two:

Go through the puzzles your classmates have about getting on with friends and give useful advice to them by writing it down on the back of the paper. Then exchange the piece again.

Step 6 Conclusion (PPT 23-24)

Teacher gives all the students the following advice on how to mend a broken friendship:

1. You have to talk to your friend. When there is no one around, have an honest talk.

2. If your friend doesn’t want to talk, you could write a letter.

3. Always remember there are three steps to being friends again:

Tell your friend how you’re feeling;

Say what your friend has done wrong, and explain why you did this or that;

Remember that friendship is the most important thing in your life.