高一英语人教版必修三Unit 4 Warming up Reading 教案

Unit 4 Astronomy: the science of the stars

Warming up & Reading

Textbook Edition: NSEC Book3

Sections: ModuleⅠ Unit4 Astronomy: the science of the stars

Topic : How Life Began On The Earth

Teaching Materials Analysis教学分析

This lesson is mainly a reading skills training class. How life began on the earth, is the

passage from Student’s Book 3 Unit 4 , is concerned with astronomy and how human beings first

evolved on the earth and understand the universe around them. This lesson is the first part of Unit

4. Focusing on the topic of the unit, astronomy, students are trained to learn the knowledge about

astronomy and the language used to describe the development of life through speaking and

reading activities. Most importantly, students are supposed to command the effective way of

reading a expository writing written in the order of time and get trained to improve their reading

ability, like skimming, summarizing the main idea of the passage, guessing the meaning of new

words in the context and so on.

Teaching goals 教学目标

1). Target language目标语言

a. Words and expressions: astronomy, theory, atom, billion, globe, violent, carbon,

atmosphere, fundamental, harmful, acid, multiply, oxygen, exist, prevent…from, block out, cheer

up, now that

b. Grammar: Noun Clauses as the subject

What it was to become was a mystery. (主语从句)

It was not clear whether the solid shape was to last or not. (主语从句)

2). Ability goals 能力目标

a. Enable Ss to talk about the science of the stars, the development of life.

b. Enable students to improve their speaking skills and reading ability.

3). Learning ability goals 学能目标

a. Enable Ss to learn how to talk about the beginning of life on the earth.

b. Foster the Ss’ interests of science and lead the Ss to study scientifically.

c. Train the Ss’ creativity and expand their imagination.

Teaching important points教学重点

1). Talk about the beginning of life on the earth.

2). Discuss the order of development of life.

Teaching difficult points教学难点

Understand the beginning of life on the earth.

Teaching methods教学方法

1). Task-based teaching and learning

2). Cooperative learning

3). Discussion and practice

4). Fast-reading, scanning and careful-reading

Teaching aids教具准备

Multimedia and PowerPoint

Teaching procedures & ways教学过程与方式

Step 1 Lead in

Talk about science subjects

T: Good morning/afternoon, everyone. What class do you have today?

S1: Maths, English, Chinese, physics, history, and geology.

T: What other subjects do you have in school?

S2: Computer, chemistry, biology, music, PE, and politics.

T: Which is your favourite? Why?

S3: My favourite one is …because it’s very interesting/exciting/instructive/…

S4: I like …best because …

T: Which ones are science subjects?

S5: Physics, chemistry, biology, geology and mathematics.

T: All these subjects play an important role in the study of science. What subjects are used to

study medicine? How about biochemistry? What about geophysics? What subjects are part of

astronomy?

S6：Mathematics and physics.

T: Can you understand the following combined science subjects?

→physics + mathematics = astronomy

→geology + physics = geophysics（地球物理学）

T: What does astronomy deal with?

S7: Astronomy is the scientific study of the universe and the heaven bodies (such as the sun,

moon, and stars), gas, and dust within it.

T: What do we call people who study astronomy?

S8: Astronomer.

Step 2 Warming up

Talk about universe and solar system

T: Let’s follow this astronomer to learn about universe. How did the universe come into

being?

S9: After the “Big Bang”, the universe came into being.

T: Do you know the solar system in the universe? What is it made up of?

S10: The solar system contains eight planets and many comets and other objects.

(Note：According to the present day scientific study, there are only eight planets, with the

Pluto excluded. Why the planets remove the Pluto?)

T: Can you name the eight planets?

S11: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

T: Which planet do we live on? Can you describe what it looks like?

S12: Earth. It supports a variety of life and 70% of the earth is covered with seas or oceans.

T: Is there life on other planets?

S13: Not yet.

T: Right, there is a famous saying “Water is the headspring of life”. But how did the water

appear on the earth? If you want to get the correct answer, please read the passage on P25. It will

tell you.

Step 3 Reading

Task1: Fast-reading

Fast reading for the main idea and the structure

1. Ask the students to number the paragraphs and pay attention to the first and the last

sentences of each paragraph.