prehension is an interactive process between the reader’s background knowledge and the text (Carrel and Eisterhold, 1983), or between the new information and the old knowledge store (Anderson and Pearson, 1984). So in order to improve the students’ reading speed and reading comprehension, language teachers should try to activate the Ss’ old knowledge store and add more relevant background knowledge before they get the students to read. According to the top-down model, general idea of the text will be got first, and then come the details.
II. Understanding of the teaching material
My understanding of the teaching material includes 3 parts: the status and the function, teaching objectives, the important and difficult points.
At the beginning, let’s focus on the first part. Journey down the Mekong is a piece of travel journal written by Wang Kun. It’s mainly about Wang Kun and his sister’s dream of taking a great bike trip down the Mekong River, their preparation for the trip and some more details of the Mekong River. General speaking, it is not difficult for the students to understand the text, but there are some new phrases and sentences that may be a little bit difficult. So before the students’ first reading, I will explain the new words and phrases briefly and after reading the whole passage, I will embody the usage of the news words and phrases, and get the student understand the difficult sentences. As it is a piece of journal, besides learning the new words and phrases, students can get the general idea of how to write a journal.
That’s all for the first part, now let’s move to the second part. According to the teaching material and the new curriculum of English, in order to fulfill the learning task of this lesson, I establish the following objectives:
a) Knowledge objectives
By the end of the lesson, Ss will have a better understanding of the meaning and structure of the text. Then Ss will grasp some useful words and expressions such as determined, make up one’s mind, give in, be fond of …, care about…, stubborn, etc.
b) Ability objectives
Actually students should be encouraged to do speed reading in the first period of reading lesson. But the students in my class are lack of independent reading ability. In this class, I will encourage and help them to read, think and find out information by themselves most time. Since the main objective of reading course is to improve the Ss’ reading ability, I’ll train their ability of identifying the general idea in the fast reading. And in intensive reading their ability of information-gathering and summarizing is developed. And the whole class is for Ss to develop their reading skills as scanning, skimming, information-gathering, summarizing and guessing the new words from the text.
c) Moral objectives
Though Journey down the Mekong is mainly about the trip down the river, it also talks about the scenery and life along the river. So before learning the text, we will have a short discussion about the importance of the river. I want the Ss to have the awareness of protecting the river and protecting our environment.
Well, so much for the teaching objectives, let's come to deal with the third part: the important points and the difficult points. According to the national curriculum of English and language learning theory, when teaching reading, we should encourage the Ss to do speed reading for the first time, that’s to say, we should encourage our Ss to read as fast as they can when they do the first reading. So much emphasis should be put on reading skills and reading comprehension as well. So the important points are that how to make Ss grasp the new words and phrases and how to improve their reading skills as scanning, skimming, information-gathering and summarizing. As to the difficult points, they are the same as the important ones.
III. Teaching methods and studying ways
That’s all for my understanding of the teaching material. Now let’s focus on the ways of teaching and learning.
Generally speaking, I adopt task-based language teaching and communicative approach in my class. As for learning, Ss will learn through independent reading, discussing and cooperating.
I will use computer and blackboard as my teaching aids.
Ⅳ. Teaching procedure
Here comes the most important part, the teaching procedure. It includes 5 steps: Step I: Lead-in and pre-reading, Step II: While-reading, Step III: Consolidation, Step IV: Post-reading, Step V: Homework.
Step I: Lead-in and pre-reading (7mins)
Now let’s come to the first step. There are three activities in this step and I will spend 7mins on them.
In activity one, I will ask Ss two questions "Do you know some great rivers in China?" and "Why they are great?” Here, as the Ss get familiar with the Chinese great rivers, I choose to ask them some great rivers in China. And the answer to the second question can lead in the next activity--brainstorming.
In activity two, I will ask the Ss to discuss in pairs and answer the question "How do people who live along a river use it?” My purpose of this activity is to remind the Ss the importance of the river, thus stimulate the Ss' awareness of protecting the rivers.
In the last activity, I will show the Ss a picture of the Mekong River and ask them to list the countries that it flows through. This activity leads in the while-reading.
Step II: While-reading (21mins)
While-reading is the main part and it will take 21mins. Here I adopt the top-down reading model. This step is divided into 2 parts: fast reading and careful reading. Before reading, I will ask the Ss to predict what will talk in the text according to the title. It can exert the Ss' imagination.
1) Fast reading
During fast reading, I will ask the Ss to reading the whole passage quickly and get the main idea of each paragraph. Usually, the main idea of each paragraph is the first sentence or the last sentence, but this text is not. So the main idea of each paragraph will be matched because the Ss are lack of the skill of summarizing the main idea by themselves.
2) Careful reading
After getting the general idea of each Para., I will deal with the details Para. by Para..
In paragraph one, I will ask the Ss to read quickly and do the exercises T or F. And if it is F, I will ask them to correct it. This exercise can help the Ss get the key information of the first paragraph in a short time and can deepen the Ss’ understanding of the first paragraph.
In paragraph two, I will ask Ss one question “Is it a difficult journey to cycle along the Mekong? Why?” This can help the Ss develop their ability of summarizing. If the Ss can’t answer the question briefly, I will encourage them to find the key sentences and try to join them together.
And in the last paragraph, I will ask Ss two questions “How does the water of Mekong River change?” and “What can you see when you travel along the Mekong River?” Both questions are required to answer in keys word. In order to lower the difficulty of the questions, I will show them the examples. After that, I will present some pictures to deepen the Ss’ impression on the new words. And these two questions can help the Ss gain a deeper understanding on the Mekong River.
Step III: Consolidation (6mins)
After dealing with the detailed information of each paragraph, I will ask the Ss to read the whole passage again and answer two questions to consolidate what they’ve learnt. It will take 6 minutes. The two questions are “Where is the source of the Mekong River and which sea does it enter?” and “How do Wang Kun and Wang Wei prepare for the trip?” It is easy for the Ss to find the answer to the first question in the text. As to the second question, it may be a little difficult, so I will list some tips for the Ss to find the answer more easily.
Step IV: Post-reading (10mins)
That’s all for the while-reading. Now let’s move to the fourth step. In this step, I will design two activities and I will spend 10 minutes on them.
The first activity is filling in the blanks. In this activity, Ss are required to find the different attitudes of Wang Kun and Wang Wei to the trip, and then the teacher will express her attitude to this trip. After demonstrating, Ss are encouraged to express their attitudes. It can help the Ss train their ability of information-gathering and expression.
The second activity is thinking. In this activity, I will ask the Ss to discuss in groups of four and try to use some words to describe the characteristics of Wang Kun and Wang Wei according to their attitudes. It is really difficult, but it can not only train their ability of analysis and comprehension, but also cultivate their spirit of cooperation
Step V: Homework (1min)
Finally it comes to the homework. Ss are required to review the learnt lesson and underline the useful words and phrases in the text. This one is for them to consolidate what they’ve learnt and make preparation for the next lesson―Learning about the Language..
Ⅴ. Blackboard design
On the top, there is the title of this lesson. On the left, it lists some important roles that the river plays. On the right, there are some useful words and expressions.
That’s all for my interpretation. Thank you for your att