Can’t save?You aren’t using your brain’s left side!第一课时教学设计

李陆桂

Language objectives

With the help of dictionaries and advanced students，the students of elementary&intermediate levels will be able to understand the meaning of the following lexical chunks—have a “live for today”attitude，have a casual attitude to，manage one’s finances，on top of one’s finances，financial return and so on.

Ability objectives

1.Develop the students’ability to read Englishmen’s English.

2.With the help of the teacher and the advanced students，the students of elementary&intermediate levels will be able to read the lines such as：“With interest rates at a low record for over a year now，it’s more important than ever for people to stay on top of their finances and make sure that they are with a provider that will give the best service and financial return for their individual circumstances.”

3.The majority of the students will be able to read between the lines such as“People who tend to use the right side of their brain...poor management.”and so on.

4.The advanced students will be able to read beyond the lines，that is，what is not written in the passage.It should probably be like this：what activities must we do to develop the potential of our left brain?

Teaching focus

the understanding of the last paragraph

Teaching method

co-operative learning，task-based approach

Teaching aids

a white board，an overhead projector

Teaching procedures

I.Pre-reading—Survey（5′）

Activity：The students are asked to do a survey by interviewing 3 or 4 students and asking them a question related to the names of bank（s）where he or she，or their parents deposit money and another question concerned with the quality of bank service.Three students will be chosen to report their survey to the class.

Aim：What we are going to teach should be relevant to the background knowledge.Therefore this activity is to activate the student’s prior knowledge.

II.While-reading（20′）

Activities：The students are asked to

1.read for the gist of each paragraph and the passage.（一读大意）（5′）

Note：independent reading.After reading，the students are asked to tell the main ideas of each paragraph and the passage.It is better for the teacher to tell the gist of each paragraph and the text.

2.read the lines and read between the lines.（二读细节）（3′）

Note：solve the language problems in groups and there should be one student whose English is better so that he or she may help others with the problems.

3.read the last paragraph and discuss the meaning of the long sentence，“With interest rates at a low record for over a year now，it’s more important than ever for people to stay on top of their finances and make sure that they are with a provider that will give the best service and financialreturn fortheirindividualcircumstances.”（三读解惑）（5′）

Note：solve the language problems in groups.Each group must contain one students whose English is better so that he or she can help solve the problems.

4.read the passage again and pick out the sentences they appreciate and share the reason.（四读欣赏）（7′）

Aim：The students are given enough time to read in order to fully digest the passage.

III.Post-reading（13′）

Activities：The students are asked to...

1.imitate the original sentences（仿写）（五读运用）（6′）

（1）It was found out that they fewer savings and a casual attitude toward to finance management.

仿写：据说大多数学习成绩不好的学生对学习持一种随意的态度。

It was found that__________________________________________________________________.

（2）It’s more important than ever for people to stay on top of their finances.

仿写：It’s more important than ever___________________________________________________.

2.read beyond the lines：2 students of advanced level are asked to introduce the main points of a passage they surfed from the Internet about how to balance the use of the right and the left side of the brain.（7′）

Aims：To encourage the students of the advanced level to deepen the understanding of the passage and develop their ability to think critically.Although the number of the advanced students is not very big，yet they will exercise greater influence over the other students.

IV.Homework（2′）

Further reading：Why most Japanese can’t speak English well?Because they use their right side of brain more often than other Asian people.According to an experiment done by a scientist with Cambridge University.

Aim：To widen the students’perspective and consolidate their reading comprehension ability.

V.设计思路

1.采用“五读”法：一读大意、二读细节、三读解惑、四读欣赏、五读运用，同时由浅入深、循序渐进地培养学生的三种英语阅读理解的基本能力，即read the lines（读字面意思），read between the lines（读字里行间的意思）和read beyond the lines（读弦外之音的意思）。

2.因材施教，分层教学。不同语言水平的学生在真实的语境中对语言都有真实的体验，形成一种语言的“觉性”（语感），从而达到理解性输入、有效输出、提高思维品质和心智的目的。任何一个班级均有不同层次的学生，教师如果对他们管理得当，教学效果会得到很大的提高。文本中有若干不太容易理解的句字，在小组讨论时可安排一个英语程度较好的学生充当“小先生”到每个小组当中负责解答其他同学的疑惑。

3.通过自主探究、合作性学习，让“知识流”“思想流”在课堂上真正流动起来，使英语学习回归到教学的原点，即“以生为本”。阅读课是比较适合采用合作探究模式的，但合作学习应建立在自主探究的基础上。

教学反思

本课的课文材料选自一篇课外阅读材料，语言地道、生活气息浓厚，与学生的生活密切相关。这节课的亮点有如下五个方面：

第一，阅读理解第一课时的教学目标明确。阅读课是高中英语教学的主要课型之一。本课的课型为阅读理解新授课，是两节阅读理解课的第2课时。阅读理解课到底要分几个课时完成，这是一个仁者见仁、智者见智的问题。笔者的观点是：分几个课时要视阅读材料、教学需要和学生的情况而定。有的时候，阅读理解课完全可以用1个课时解决，而另一些时候则要根据教学的需要可以分几个课时完成。无论是用几个课时，“阅读”应该是阅读课的主旋律，教师应该激发学生阅读的欲望。

这节课基本体现了阅读理解课的第一课时的主要特征，有“梳理课文背景知识”“理解整体大意”“概括段落大意”“查询细节信息”等教学活动，但也有创新突破之处，例如：“五读运用”环节，让学生学以致用，仿写文本的核心句型。

第二，本课的核心教学活动突出。这节课的核心活动就是读懂文章，即通过各种教学活动确保学生的理解性输入，确切来说是真正读懂一篇由英国人写的学生好像熟悉又不太熟悉的文章。可以这么说，读懂了文章就是这节课的最大收获。为了使学生能理解文章的思想，教师必须给予他们较为充裕的阅读时间。北京一个英语教研员在评论一节阅读课时，曾一针见血地说过：“阅读课的核心任务是让学生去阅读，我们上阅读课是上给圈内人看的，无需有太多与主题毫不相干的花架子。”

一篇英语文章之所以不好读懂，往往是因为某些段落或者是某些句子不好懂。本文的最后一段有个长句：With interest rates at a low record for over a year now，it’s more important than ever for people to stay on top of their finances and make sure that they are with a provider that will give the best service and financial return for their individual circumstances.教师通过小组活动，让学生就自己对这个句子的理解进行讨论和解惑，直至学生心中没有任何疑惑。

The trouble with such people is that while they have acquired a knowledge of the English language，they not learnt much about the English mind，the English character，the English life，the English traditions，and so forth.They have got，so to speak，the spirit of the language.Imagine a man who knows several thousands Han characters and a great deal of Han syntax and yet is entirely ignorant of the Chinese mind，the Chinese character，etc.Do you think thisman could read even the ordinary Han-language newspaper and general literature in Han?（这些人的困难是：虽然他们习得了英国语言方面的一些知识，但他们不太知道英国人的心理、性格、生活、传统等。可以这样说，他们没有抓到英语的精神。设想一个人识了几千个汉字和大量汉语句法，但是完全不知道中国人的心理、性格等。你认为这个人能够读懂即使是普通的汉语报纸和用汉语写的一般读物吗？）

第三，教师安排“仿写”环节的目的是检测学生理解性输入的情况。学习外语是学习别人说的母语，别人怎么说我们就怎么说，别人怎么写，我们就怎么写。仿写在中学英语学习中十分重要，它是写作的一项重要训练形式。

第四，课后作业别具匠心。课后作业是一篇延伸性阅读。文章的内容也与人的左右脑使用有关，这与学生刚学的文章主题契合，文章内容令人忍俊不禁，同时也增长了知识，从而进一步提高学生的阅读兴趣。

第五，所谓的“教学改革”即任务到人，确保人人有事做。教师通过任务型教学和小组活动中学生的自我管理（小组中每个人都有具体分工），有效提高了学生的“双商”：即，在阅读体验中加强自我管理的“情商”，在输出活动中有效表达思想的“智商”。

然而，经过对本课的试教，笔者发现教学设计有如下方面需要加以改进：

第一，尽管本节课耗费了较多时间让学生进行阅读，确保他们对文本有理解性的输入，但学生对文本的理解，特别是深层次的理解仍浮在表层，教师没有采用较为可行的手段检测学生对文本，尤其是一些较为晦涩的语句的理解，如...stay on top of their finances and make sure that they are with a provider...“stay on top of their finances”究竟是什么意思？这个短语的理解即使对于教师也是有一定困难的。解决这个问题，教师可以用传统的“翻译法”，重点翻译文段中几个重点句子。上文提到的“stay on top of their finances”的意思是“keep checking the coming and going of the money”。翻译句子，不要求学生达到“信、达、雅”的境界，只要他们能基本理解句子即可；教师还可以根据文章内容设计若干“阅读理解题”，但这些阅读理解题必须要有高考题的难度，否则无法检测出学生是否真正理解了文章。笔者通过对一些阅读理解试题的研究，发现了两个弊端：一是阅读的文章较深，理解题较浅，学生往往不需要读文本就可以猜出答案；二是文章较浅，但题目较难，学生的答对率较低。因此，在设计阅读理解题时，应以高考试题为蓝本，设计出仿真性强的试题（力求做到文章与试题的质量同一档次），提高试题的可信度和有效度。

第二，本课授课教师考虑到了学生在英语学习方面的差异，通过“分层教学”让不同层次的学生做不同难度的教学活动，取得了一定的效果。但在阅读时间的分配方面做得不够好。pre-reading和while-reading两个环节所给出的时间只是平均时间，并没有考虑到英语水平较强的学生其阅读速度相对较快这一事实。针对这一问题，教师应在阅读活动开始之前向学生说明，所给出的时间是平均时间，建议那些提前完成阅读任务的学生可以做其他的练习，比如：记忆单词、整理笔记等。

第三，不管采用何种方法教学，教师必须要牢记，帮助学生有效掌握语言形式始终是教学的核心。语言形式承载语言的内容，不了解语言形式就难以理解语言的内涵。有一次，笔者在学校调研时遇到一个学生，他问了这么一个问题：“文章我读懂了，可为什么题目答对率不高呢？”笔者告诉那个学生，根本原因是他没有真正弄懂，而没有读懂文章的最主要原因是被文章中的语言形式所迷惑。

本课第一课时的主要教学任务是梳理课文背景知识、理解整体大意、概括段落大意、查询细节信息，但是这些教学活动均建立在对词汇的理解基础上。因此，教师有必要在学生开始阅读之前，对一些妨碍学生理解的核心词汇（如：reveal，manageone’s finances， have a casual attitude to，tend，interest rates，at a low record，stay on top of their finances，provider，stay on top of one’s finances，individual circumstances等）进行必要的解释，以免学生，特别是中下水平的学生在阅读时，有囫囵吞枣的现象。