Unit 4 Making the news

Reading: My First Work Assignment

(沈丽华)

Ⅰ. Teaching aims:

1.  Enable the students to recognize the variety of jobs there are in newspapers and what is needed to work in a newspaper office.

2.   Enable the students to know what is needed to become a journalist and how to conduct an interview.

3.   Train the students’ reading ability (skimming, scanning and detailed reading).

Ⅱ. Teaching important and difficult points

Help the students learn about the qualities needed to be a good journalist, how to get an accurate story and how to protect a story from accusation.

Ⅲ. Teaching procedure

Step 1 Lead-in

1.       Show the students some pictures of recent events and talk about them.

2.       Ask the students to brainstorm through what ways they can get the information they want to know.

Step 2 Skimming

Let the students skim the passage and underline the questions Zhou Yang asks. Try to look at the way the questions develop.

Suggested answers:

1)      Can I go out on a story immediately?

2)      What do I need to take with me?

3)      What do I need to remember when I go out to cover a story?

4)      What should I keep in mind?

5)      Why is listening so important?

6)      How can I listen carefully while taking notes?

7)      Have you ever had a case where someone accused your journalists of getting the wrong end of the stick?

All these questions are finding out more about the qualities and skills needed for the job.

Step 3 Scanning

1.       Read through line 1-15 and answer the following questions.

1)      Is it the first job for Zhou Yang to do at the office of a popular English newspaper?

2)      Can he go out on a story on his own?

3)      Who will take photographs?

Suggested answers:

1)      Yes, it is his first assignment at the office of China Daily.

2)      No. The first time they will send him with an experienced journalist.

3)      Photographer.

2.       Read through line 16-29 and fill in the blanks which include some skills needed to be a good journalist.

3.       Read through line 30-41 and find out the correct answer to the following question.

Why did Hu Xin use the example of the footballer?  (C)

A.     To say they have never made any mistake.

B.      To prove a liar can never hide any secret.

C.      To show a journalist has to be careful about facts.

D.     To describe one of his terrible memories.

Step 4 Post-reading

Tell students that Zhou Yang is trying to help his readers see whether they would make good journalists or good photographers. Let them discuss in pairs and finish the following.

1.       Work out which adjectives best describe what is required for these two jobs. Some may be needed for both jobs.

(The words underlined are appropriate for both a reporter and a photographer.)

2.       What is the main difference between being a journalist and being a photographer?

A journalist needs to be thorough, curious, careful and concise but a photographer needs to be creative, imaginative, technically good and gifted. They both need to be professional, well-organized and patient. I think I would make a good        because I am                  .

Step 5 Discussion

Ask students to make up a dialogue between a journalist and a famous person, such as Jay Chou, Zhang Ziyi, Liuxiang. Give them some useful expressions if necessary.

Useful expressions:

I’m the journalist from …

May I ask you some questions?

Please, can you tell me …?

Thank you for …

Step 6 Homework

1.         Go through the reading passage and underline the difficult expressions or sentences.

2.         Finish the reading task on Page36 in《金版》.