Around Our School
--- Huiping Xie Hangzhou Foreign Languages School
I. Warming up activity
A song: Big Big World
In this part, the students are going to listen to and sing along with an English song “Big Big World”.
(T: Wow, we live in a big big world. There are many different places in this big big world.
And there are many different sounds in the places. Now we are going to listen to the tape and can you find out what these places are? )
II. Lead-in
1. Listen to the tape and guess the places.
(T: You know the places very well. Do you know the places around your school very well? Can you tell the teachers and me what’s around your school? )
There is/ are … -- On the BB
2. What’s around your school?
III. Presentation
A story line is imaged for the following language points to be input and also for the students to practice them.
flat
café
in the north / south/ east/ west of …
has got a population of …
… one of …s
(T: There are a lot flats around the school. In America, people call it apartment. Do you live in a house or in a flat? )
flat – On the BB
(T: There is a lake near your school too. It’s called the West Lake. And there are a lot of cafes near the lake. What can people do in a cafe?)
cafe – On the BB
(T: Why is the West Lake called the West Lake?)
– Because it is in the west of Hangzhou.
in the … of – On the BB
(T: Where is Hangzhou in Zhejiang?)
– It’s in the north of Zhejiang.
(T: Where is Zhejiang in China?)
– It’s in the south of China
(T: China is a big country. There are a lot of people. The number is 1,300,000,000
China has got a population of one billion three hundred million. )
has got a population of … On the BB
(T: What a bout Zhejiang? ) See PPT
(T: What about Hangzhou? ) See PPT
(T: Hangzhou is one of the most beautiful cities in China. )
one of … s – On the BB
(T: What about Jianlan? ) See PPT
(T: What about Class Seven?) See PPT
IV. Reading
Prediction before reading: Anne from Wales wants to find a pen pal in your class. She has sent us a letter. What might she write in her letter?
1. Read for the first time: What did Anne talk about in her letter?
2. Read for the second time: Complete the jigsaw puzzle and give the reason why.
(T: Class Seven is the Heaven！You are so good that even some foreigners would like to make friends with you. Anne, is a girl from Wales, the UK. Wales is one of the four parts in the UK. She plans to study in China. She wants to find a pen pal in your class. She wrote you a letter.) （Show the letter）
(T: What might she write in her letter?)
She might write … On the PPT (Take down what the students come up with)
(T: Now let’s read the letter. What did she talk about in her letter?) （While reading, skip to the next ppt）
(T: Together with the letter, she also sent us a jigsaw puzzle. Let’s work in pairs and put the pieces into the right places. )
1 is the Teacher’s House
2 is the school.
3 is the park.
4 is the swimming pool.
(T: Can you tell us why you put the piece in the place? )
V. Brainstorming
(T: We know her town and school now. What does she want to know about us? – Our town and school too. What else might she want to know?)
What else might she want to know about? – On the BB (Take down what the students come up with)
VI. Dialogue time:
The students are going to make up a dialogue between a child and a parent about the letter the child received.
(T: You are very excited, aren’t you? Now you are going to share this with your parent. What are you going to tell him or her? Would you please work in pairs: a dialogue between you and your parent. Take your work sheet please. )
VII. Letter writing and map designing.
Four students are in a group. They are going to write Anne a letter back about our town and our school.
? A + B? make a map of the school and its neighborhood, and one of them is going to show and point out the places while C/D is reading out the letter
? C + D? write a letter to Anne on behalf of the group, and one of them is going to read out the letter
(T: Well you and your parent go on discussing. Finally you have got an idea. You are going to send her a map and a letter too. You invite two friends to help make the map. Your parent and you are working on the letter. Student A and B are friends. You make the map about your school neighborhood. Student C and D you are going on discussing and finally, the child is going to read out the letter. )
VIII. Homework:
Polish the project and send them to our blog sayyourgrace.tianyablog.com. Anne is going to read them.
课后感想
临时抽题，二十四小时备课，半封闭考验，一切仿佛已过去很久。但回头想时，这二十四小时重新变得无限的长，因为这是紧凑浓缩的二十四小时。
在对这段难得经历的回顾中，不止有对于课或课的内容形式本身的反思，也有我对一些问题的思考。
什么是公开课？干国祥评说公开课，有“嫁衣神功”与“七种武器”；郭初阳在定义公开课的非常态之后，提出“从你成为教师的那一天起，哪一节课不是公开的呢？”； 汪吟在点评公开课之余，说道，“细节成就课堂”；夏谷鸣撇开公开课的常态做秀之外，倡导那是教师课堂实践理念的铺展，求实求新求是。简而言之，公开课就是有本不属于课堂的他人进入课堂。既然是一堂对他人开放的课，教师就需要展示一些东西。至于想要展示的是教师原本的上课风格或是理想风格尝试，全在于个人的意愿和选择。对教师而言，公开课不是完美无暇的课，但是它必须具备被记取的价值。
解读课堂四要素：教师准备授课的过程与编剧撰写剧本何其相似。编剧关注舞台因素，重视舞台效果。教师备课也应注意解读影响课堂的四要素：learners、teacher、teaching materials、milieu，以取得最佳的课堂效果。对于临时抽题的比赛型公开课，课前的准备有些茫然。从学习者、教师、教材、环境来看，除了教师自身，其它都是未知的。但是，整个教学准备过程应该是相同的，它应该包含了对于上述四要素的最大解读。从教材的角度看，在教材未知前，可以通读学生目前使用的教材，关注话题与语言，如此在拿到新的教材与教学内容时，可以有机的结合学生现有的知识与话题，进行导入与活动。在拿到教材时，教师需要解读教材，弄清“话题是什么？新的语言知识是什么？话题是如何展开的？语言是如何组织的？” 等问题。从学习者的角度看，教师要了解两个问题：他们对于话题与语言已经知道多少？教材中他们所存在的难点是什么？接触同类学生，了解普遍的兴趣爱好，个别交谈，掌握一个年龄段的心理特征都是很重要的。也可与该年段的任课教师交谈，掌握学生的语言基础与课堂活动习惯。从教师的角度看，教师拿到教材，也需要解读自身，即“我对话题了解多少？”“我如何驾驭话题？”教师本身要做的，一个是条理化日常事务，关注细节，另一个恐怕是在心理压力底下适度的排遣。从环境因素（Milieu）来看，教师要设想“What in the classroom can be made use of in the performance?”“What will affect students or me in the performance?”。将环境因素纳入教学资源，是教材整合的另一种发展。环境因素构成纷繁复杂，即使细微的一点都能产生“蝴蝶效应”，影响到学生与教师以及听课教师的情绪，从而影响整堂课的达成效果。课堂的急智建立在把握自身的特点与对课堂生活化幽默化处理之上。
一点尝试：这次的公开课，在课后延伸方面借用了时下最火的网络平台――博客。使用博客的前提：1.学生认可该种沟通方式。2.学生可以获得途径上网。3.学生熟悉网络基本操作。4.教师参与维护博客运作。使用博客的目的是为了1.引起学生兴趣。 2.倡导真实任务。3.拓展立体课堂。4. 实现多维互动。
在此次公开课中使用博客的过程：
1.在与学生见面时，先给出名卡。引导学生阅读名卡中关于老师的信息，观察到博客地址以及它的缩写―― BBW。
2.引发学生猜测BBW的全称，留下一个小悬念，告知第二天课上会让学生有所发现。（当然，也有学生会因为迫切想知道，回家去上网的。如此，目的也达到了。）
3.第二天的课一开始，就打开博客页面，博客歌曲为Big Big World。 以音乐为支架，帮助学生猜测出BBW的全称，big big world。 并朗诵一下，开博词：
Over the Language Rainbow
Come He and She
Through the BBW Window
Meet You and Me
4.在授课结束时，重复网址：sayyourgrace.tianyablog.com。请学生将作业，发至名卡上的电子邮箱。 一周以后，作业与点评将刊登在博客上，并欢迎同学的点评与讨论。
遗憾的是，学生对于任务的真实性抱有怀疑，并没有做出积极的反馈。这也值得我们反思，在平时的任务型教学过程中，是否注意到了任务的真实性。
几点遗憾：课堂是遗憾的意识。毫不讳言，个人觉得这节课有着以下的遗憾。
1.预设太强
师生互动，生生互动，或者生师互动局限于教师强预设，貌似互有余，实际动不足。
2.节奏略拖
在不放弃语言质量的前提下，教师要清楚课堂活动走向，适时变化。
3. 怯于尝试
真正的任务型课堂，区别于所谓的“任务型”教学对于输入的歧视、甚至排斥语言知识。它具备两个基本特征：学生在课之初对于所要完成的任务就知情，所要完成的任务具有真实性。学生在做的过程中学习，learning by doing。而这一次的课，止步于常规熟悉的课堂类型，缺乏更大的创意与新意。
通过优质课的评比与反思，相信能够引发我们对平时的教育理念和教学活动进行更多的反思与探索，并使得我们在日常的教学活动中能更地以学生为中心、合理设置教学目标、创设真实情景、注意培养学生的思维发展和学习技能等，并敢于磨练细节，使之真正落到实处，而不是流于形式。
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