Teaching Design

Grammar — The Attributive Clause (I)

(who, whom, which, that, whose)

I. Teaching aims:

1. Help students understand what the Attributive Clause is and its function.

2. Enable students to use relative pronouns (who, whom, which, that, whose) in the Attributive Clause properly.

3. Encourage students to express their love to fathers using the Attributive Clause.

II. Teaching important and difficult points:

Enhance students’ proficiency and accuracy in using the relative pronouns to write the Attributive Clauses.

III. Teaching methods:

Task-based teaching method; Audio-lingual method; Cooperative learning; Group discussion 

IV. Teaching steps:

Step I：Lead in   

1. Guess a riddle.

This is a man who loves us very much.

This is a man whose love is as great as a mother’s.

Purpose: Help students get a general understanding about what the attributive clause is and attract their attention to fathers.

2. Show a picture of a great father and ask students to say what they know about him. Then combine the two sentences.

He is Li Wei. He took part in Super Brain for his daughter.

He is Li Wei who took part in Super Brain for his daughter.

The Attributive Clause (定语从句): who took part in Super Brain for his daughter

Antecedent (先行词): Li Wei

Relative word (关系词): who

                      relative pronouns (关系代词)                         Relative words (关系词)   who, whom, which, that, whose

                      relative adverbs (关系副词)

Purpose: Introduce basic elements of the attributive clause.

Step II：Discovery 

1. Read the letter from Li Wei, work in groups to combine sentences and discover the usage of relative pronouns.

My dear daughter,

Thank you for being my daughter.

I want to be a qualified father. I can help you achieve your dream. I hope you will become a clever and brave girl. Your mom and I love you.

Unfortunately, you were born with heart disease. Your heart disease is so serious that you have to be operated on. At first, I was very worried. But now I dare to face you and your disease. You and your disease make me stronger.

I believe in you. Your future will be colorful.

Dad

After combining the sentences, ask students to find out the antecedents and relative pronouns.

My dear daughter,

Thank you for being my daughter.

I want to be a qualified father who can help you achieve your dream. I hope you will become a clever and brave girl who/whom your mom and I love.

Unfortunately, you were born with heart disease which is so serious that you have to be operated on. At first, I was very worried. But now I dare to face you and your disease that make me stronger.

I believe in you whose future will be colorful.

Dad

Purpose: Enable students to discover the usage of relative pronouns by themselves and feel fathers’ love.

2. Ask a volunteer to fill in the table on the blackboard and sum up.

The usage of relative pronouns: 1. 连接主从句

                            2.指代先行词

                            3.在定语从句中作句子成分

Purpose: Enable students to have a more clear understanding about the usage of relative pronouns.

Step III：Practice

1. Fill in the blanks and finish the letter from Li Wei’s daughter.

Dear dad,

I’m fortunate to be your daughter who/that receives much courage and love from you. It is certain that I will be the bravest girl who/whom/that you are proud of.

Although I suffer from heart disease which/that worries you, I’m sure to overcome it. I always remember you and your love that I will treasure forever.

 I’m grateful to you whose help makes me healthier and stronger.

Yours daughter

2. Listening

Listen to a song about love and find out the attributive clauses.

For all those times you stood by me        

For all the truth that you made me see
For all the joy you brought into my life      

For all the wrong that you made right
For every dream you made come true      

For all the love I found in you

I'll be forever thankful baby                       

You're the one who held me up  

Never let me fall
You're the one who saw me through   

through it all

3. Writing & speaking (Group work)

As Father’s Day is coming, encourage students to make a card and speak out their love to fathers using as many attributive clauses as possible. After several minutes’ preparation, students share their works in class.

4. Competition (NMET)

Correct the mistakes.

1) My mother has a good book which cover looks terrible.

                          whose

2) This is the boy whom likes English very much.

                who

3) This is the pen that you gave it to me before.

Multiple choice.

1) Happiness and success often come to those ____ are good at recognizing their own strengths.  (B)

A. whose    B. who      C. what        D. which

2) Finally he reached a lonely island ___ was completely cut off from the outside world.  (C)

A. when   B. where   C. which   D. whom

Fill in the blanks and translate the sentences.

1) He _________ doesn’t reach the Great Wall is not a true man. (who/that)                  不到长城非好汉。

2) Those______ make most people happy are the happiest in the world. —— Karl Marx        (who)

能使大多数人幸福的人是世界上最幸福的人。——卡尔·马克思 

Rational cloze (语法填空).

1) People shouldn’t do things ____________ will disturb their neighbors unnecessarily. (which/that)

2) Maybe you leave a habit ___________ is driving your family crazy. (which/that)

Purpose: Enable students to have a good command of what they have learned, through various exercises.

Step IV：Use the attributive clauses to end the class.

First ask students to read the following sentences together.

Don’t forget all that once you owned.    曾经拥有的，不要忘记；

Treasure something that you can’t get.   不能得到的，更要珍惜；

Don't give up anything that belongs to you.属于自己的，不要放弃；

Keep everything that is lost in memory.  已经失去的，留作回忆。

Then ask students a question “Can we use ‘which’ instead of ‘that’?” The answer is “No”. That’s what we will talk about next period.

Purpose: Stimulate students’ curiosity and interest, make them realize that knowledge is endless and encourage them to enjoy learning.

Step V: Homework

Write a letter to your father before Father’s Day. (Use as many attributive clauses as possible)

Purpose: Writing is one of the most important skills, but it is always ignored by students. Writing a letter to father is an extension of this period, which not only enables students to express their love but also improves their writing ability by using the Attributive Clause.

StepⅥ: Blackboard design

The Attributive Clause

       Relative pronouns: who, whom, which, that, whose

V. Teaching reflection

As Father’s Day is coming, the designer wants to make grammar teaching full of love and fun. Therefore, there are two clues.

One clue is love. The teacher begins this class with a riddle and the answer is father. Then a father is introduced who is well-known for taking part in Super Brain for his daughter. Later students read the letters between this great father and his daughter to feel fathers’ love. Last students are enabled to enjoy a song full of love, make a card speaking out love to their fathers, and do some exercises.

The other clue is self discovery and cooperative learning. Students work in groups to discover the usage of relative pronouns and sum up. They also cooperate with each other to make cards for fathers. The teacher creates an atmosphere to direct students to master the usage of the Attributive Clause while they are feeling the deep love from fathers and daughters. Students are the real masters of the class.

In a word, by the drive of the students’ emotion, by means of cooperation, with the help of peers and under the guidance of the teacher, students will have a good train of the Attributive Clause and want to learn more.