Unit 2 The United Kingdom

Reading

Teaching aims:

1. Skill aims: prediction, skimming, scanning and summarizing the main idea of each part.

2. Knowledge aim: To know some useful words and expressions of the passage;

3. Emotional aim: To arouse Ss’ interest in learning about the history of the UK.

 

Important and difficult points of teaching

1. Understand the meaning of the title“puzzles & geography”

2. Generalize information by reading carefully

 

Teaching steps:

Step 1:Lead-in   

The United Kingdom, England, Great Britain, are these three the same place？Different places?

The United Kingdom is not a single country but instead is a country of countries. It  contains inside of it four co-equal and sovereign nations. The part shown in pink is Northern Ireland. …. The part shown in red is England. It is the largest an most populous of the nations.

Step 2: Pre-reading

1. Look at the pictures and the heading and guess what the text might be about. 

puzzle: a game, etc. that you have to think about carefully in order to answer it or do it; something that is difficult to understand or explain

geography: the arrangement of the different parts of a building, city, or other place

Puzzles in Geography: There is something difficult to explain about the geography of a country/place.

Step 3: While-reading  

1. Skimming
Read the passage quickly and:

1) Think about what are the “puzzles” in this passage;

2) Find out what “geography” includes:

    city, history, transportation, geography, agriculture, weather, war,  culture

2. The main idea of each part

Para.1 what’s the function of para.

Para.2 which topic is discussed in this para.?(history)

Para.3 City and culture

Para.4 The key word of para4

Para5. London ( culture which topic is mainly talked about?）

    (Para4 England; para.5 London/ how does the writer make these two paras coherent? Can you find out some context words or sentences?

Read the passage carefully and analyze its structure. Write down the main idea for each para. first and then divide it into three parts.)

Part1: The formation of the UK and how the four countries work together

Part2: The geographical division of England

Part3: The cultural importance of London

3. Detailed reading

Part 1:

How to form the UK(shown by the pictures)

1. The Union Jack flag unites the flags of three countries in the United Kingdom. Which country is left out? Why?

2. What three countries does British Airways represent?

3. What are the four countries’ differences?

Part 2:

How to divide England into three zones

Part 3:

The cultural importance of London (The four groups of  invaders)

4. True or False

1.)The UK includes England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

2. )The three countries were united by war instead of peacefully.

3. )The four countries have developed different educational and legal systems but they do work together in some areas as well.

4. )Most of the population settled in the North of England.

5. )The cities in England are not as large as those in China.

Step 4: Post-reading
Retell the history of the UK.

Step 5: Assignments

      Underlined the words and expressions that you don’t know in the reading passage.

      Recite(背诵） the Reading of Pare.1 to Para.3.