M2 Unit 1 Reading

Boy Missing, Police Puzzled

                                                                                                                  江苏省郑梁梅高级中学   骆晓云

Teaching objectives:

1.         To help Ss know the way of writing a newspaper article

2.         To develop students’ ability of reading a newspaper article

3.        To master some useful words and expressions

Important and difficult points:

The way of writing a newspaper article and the way of reading it

Teaching procedures:

Step 1 Lead in

1. Tell students a piece of news which is about the popular singer, Jay Zhou’s disappearance. The content is as follows.

Missing Jay Zhou

The popular singer, Jay Zhou, has been missing for 2 days. His family, friends and funs are very worried about him. If anyone sees him, please call me on 13862208888.

“What do you think happened to Jay Zhou?”

2. Someone says maybe Jay Zhou was taken away by aliens(外星人), just like the boy in this video.

Step 2 Reading strategy

       Here is a news story , which is also about a missing boy. “Is this boy taken away by an alien?”

       Let’s have a look at the title.

1. Is there anything wrong with the title according to the grammar? (the title is incomplete)

2. How can you complete the title?

3. Why did the writer use an incomplete sentence as its title? (brief)

4. Can you name some other features of a news title?

5. How to read a news article?

title:  ‘Boy missing, police puzzled’  (general idea,  some words are left out)

the first paragraph (lead):  ( key infomation )

the first sentence in the first paragraph:  (the most important information)

the following paragraphs:   (new but less important background information)

Step 3 1^st Reading

       Ask the students to finish reading the rest of the text and get the answers.

1.Where does Justin Foster live? 

(He lives in Dover, New Hampshire.)

2.Why did Justin’s mother go to bed early?

(She went to bed early because of a headache.)

3. What time did the witnesses see Justin?  

(At 10.45 p.m.)

4. What color were the aliens?    

(They were white)

5. Who else has been taken by the aliens?

(Mavis Wood has been taken by the aliens.)

6. Who was in charge of the case?

  (Detective Sam Peterson was in charge of the case)

Step 4 Listening to the tape and filling in the blanks

       A 15-year-old boy called Justin went   1    suddenly last Friday. At 8 pm that evening Justin left home to play    2    with tow friends. After the game he returned   3   at about 11 pm. During the time when he put on his   4   CD, a bright light  5   outside Kelly’s window. Kelly saw a large  6   flying outside. She also saw many white-skinned, strange-looking  7  with large black eyes   8   inside. Then the spaceship moved towards Justin’s   9   . Kelly heard Justin shout. Since then   10   has ever seen him.

(1. missing   2. baseball    3. home    4. favourite    5. appeared    6. spaceship   7. creatures    8. standing    9. bedroom    10. nobody  )

Step 5 Discussion in groups

       Suppose you are Justin and has come back., a reporter is interviewing you, asking what you did during your disappearance

Step 6 Retelling

Retell the story according to this diagram

Justin Foster:     At 8 p.m. ______________________

                At 10.45 p.m. _________________________

                At 11 p.m. _________________________

                After 11 p.m. , he was heard ______________

                The next morning, he was found __________

strange objects:    its appearance : shape  /  colour  /   size

                 its inside

step 7 Making up an ending

Ask students to give an ending to the story. Though the police have made efforts to investigate the case, how Justin was missing remained a mystery. Was he really seized by aliens or were there any other reasons? All the endings are acceptable.

If time doesn’t permit, the teacher can assign this activity as homework.