Unit 1 Festivals and Celebrations

Reading and Thinking

【教材分析】

该板块的活动主题——探究节日与庆典的缘由（Discover the reasons for festivals and celebrations），是前面听说板块主题内容的延续，从展示几个不同节日的场景过渡到探讨人们为何欢庆节日、对世界各地的人们庆祝节日的现象追根溯源，进而谈论节日的传承与发展变化，目的在于启发学生的深层思考，体会节日文化的内在实质，感悟世界各国人民共同的精神追求和美好愿望。

【教学目标】

1. Read the essays with the theme of “why we celebrate festivals”, analyze the discourse structure and textual logic of the essays, understand the development and changes of festival customs, and understand the connotation and significance of festivals;

2. Guide students to find the topic sentence quickly and accurately;

3. Guide students to summarize and accumulate related vocabulary used to express emotions;

4. Guide students to understand the festival culture of different countries and nationalities, sort out, analyze and refine the spiritual connotation of festivals, and understand the common emotional and spiritual pursuit of people all over the world.

【教学重难点】

Importance:

1. Guide students to find the topic sentence quickly and accurately;

2. Guide students to correctly understand and master the new vocabulary in the reading text;

3. Guide students to understand the festival culture of different countries and nationalities, analyze and refine the spiritual connotation of festivals, and understand the common emotional and spiritual pursuit of people all over the world.

Difficulties:

1. To analyze the discourse structure and textual logic of argumentation, understand the development and change of festival customs, and understand the connotation and significance of festivals;

2. Guide students to understand the festival culture of different countries and nationalities, analyze and refine the spiritual connotation of festivals, and understand the common emotional and spiritual pursuit of people all over the world.

【课前准备】

1. Read the text in advance and understand the meaning of new words in the text according to the context or the dictionary;

2. Find the topic sentence of each paragraph according to the text content, and understand the content of the article;

3. Find out the long and difficult sentences, analyze the sentence structure, and make notes of the sentences you don't understand.

【教学过程】

Step 1 Pre-reading

Activity 1

1. In groups, Ss discuss how to celebrate the festivals with family each year, answer the following questions and fill in the table.

Q1: What festivals do you celebrate with your family each year?

Q2: Why do you think people celebrate different festivals?

Names of the festivals	Reasons for celebrating the festivals

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Have the Ss look at the two pictures in the passage. Students say the English name of the festival and the basis of their judgment according to the situation, objects and words presented in the two pictures.

Q: What festivals are the two pictures about? How do you know?

3. Based on the title of the article and the illustrations in the passage, the students can guess what the author may be talking about. The teacher can ask individual students to express their opinions and list the points mentioned on the blackboard.

Step 2 Reading

Activity 2

1. Students read the text “Why do we celebrate festivals?” carefully. The teacher can present the following sentences for the students to fill in after reading:

People all over the world celebrate different festivals because:

*they would like to______________________________.

*festivals _____________________________________.

2. After the students have filled in the blanks, the teachers and students check the answers.

T: Read the passage again. Let's find out all the reasons and factors for celebrating the festival.

The teacher can guide the students with the following questions:

①Why do people celebrate the harvest festivals?

②What role do customs and traditions play in festivals? Do you think they are also the reasons for celebrating festivals? Why?

③Why did the writer mention the commercialization of festivals? How is it influencing people's way of celebrating festivals?

④What are some other reasons for celebrating festivals?

Activity 3

1. Look for topic sentences. The reading strategy in the box on the right of student reading Activity 3. The teacher can check whether the students' understanding of the strategy is accurate or not by the following questions.

*Do you know how to identify the main idea of each paragraph?

*Where can we usually find the “topic sentence”?

2. Students read the text again and complete the activity independently. When checking the answers, students should read the complete topic sentence.

Activity 4

1. Explore the roots of the festival. Students have a group discussion around the first question in activity 4. Teachers can inspire students to think and express their opinions through a series of questions, such as:

*When we talk about festivals, we may think of many different kinds of festivals around the world. Their names, origins, celebration activities can be quite different. However, since festivals exist in every country and culture, there must be some similarities. What are they? Please discuss these questions with your partner and share your ideas.

*What do you think most festivals seem to have in common? Can you give some examples to illustrate your opinion?

*What do you think are the most important things in most festivals?

*Why do you think people around the world find these things important? Do they have something to do with the human history/social life/people’s spiritual needs?

After finishing the discussion, Teacher asks different groups to tell their opinions.

2. Discuss the changes of festival customs. Teacher's question “What festival customs have already faded away?” Let the students brainstorm about the festivals and traditions that are gradually withdrawing from modern life. Then write down what the students have said on the blackboard.

After the discussion, the teacher may call in different groups to report. When students report, teachers should use courseware or blackboard to present some expressions for students’ reference, such as:

*People in…used to…during…, but now…

*Nowadays people no longer…

*I think it is because…

*People have given up the custom of…in order to…

*As for the custom of…, I…

*I think I would love to…

3. Comment on the commercialization of festivals. Students discuss the third question in Activity 4 in small groups. Before the discussion, the teacher should remind the students to find relevant statements from the text and draw a conclusion by analyzing the author's wording. In addition, teachers can also let students express their true feelings and views on the commercialization of festivals.

4. Teacher shares his/her views on this issue:

During Festival, the happiest moment for my parents is when all the children and grandchildren come back home, chatting and preparing the big family dinner together. These years, we often have our family dinner in restaurants. However, the splendid dishes in a restaurant do not bring so many joyful and sweet memories to all the family members.

On Mother's Day, my child’s special gift hand-made with love and care is always my favorite. So you see, sometimes the best gifts don't cost much.

Step 3 Analyzing discourse structure

Activity 5

1. Students discuss in pairs, analyze the structure of the discourse by drawing a mind map, and demonstrate the textual structure and logical level of the discourse.

 

Step 4 Understanding difficulties

Read the text again and find some sentences or expressions that you find difficult to understand. Teacher can also ask students to find some subtle sentence patterns and expressions in the text and encourage them to use them in writing. According to the students' feedback, the teacher will write some typical sentences on the blackboard. Such as:

*wide range of origins (= a great number of different origins, many kinds of origins)

*It featured a parade and a great feast with music, dancing, and sports. (= A parade and a great feast with music, dancing, and sports were included as important parts of the Egyptian harvest festival.)

*some traditions may fade away and others may be established. (= Some traditions may disappear gradually, while other new traditions may come into being.)

Step 5 Practice

(1) Listen and follow the tape. The teacher may remind the students to pay attention to the meaning and usage of the black words in the context, so as to prepare for the completion of the blanks in Activity 5 and vocabulary exercises in the exercise book.

(2) Students complete the text of Activity 5 by themselves. The teacher needs to remind the students to fill in the blanks with the correct form of the vocabulary they have learned in the text. Students exchange their answers with their partners, and then teacher and students check their answers.

(3) Finish the Ex in Activity 5 of students’ book.

Step 6 Homework

1. Read the text again, in-depth understanding of the text.

2. Discuss the origin of festivals, the historical changes of related customs, the influence of commercial society on festivals and the connotation and essential meaning of festivals.

3. Complete relevant exercises in the guide plan.

【教学反思】

1.通过本节内容学习，学生是否理解和掌握阅读文本中的新词汇的意义与用法；

2.通过本节内容学习，学生能否结合文本特点快速而准确地找到主题句；

3.通过本节内容学习，学生能否理清论说文的语篇结构和文本逻辑，了解节日风俗发展与变迁，感悟节日的内涵与意义。