Unit 1 Making a difference
I. Brief Statements Based on the Unit
Do you like science? Do you want to be a scientist in the future? Definitely most of us do. Do you want to know more? The whole unit of Unit 1 Making a difference will tell you more about science and scientists. It will be taught in five periods. Warming up, listening and speaking will be dealt with in the first period. In the beginning, the pictures of one great writer and three outstanding scientists and their famous sayings are shown before the students. They all made great contributions to the world and are respected by thousands of millions of people, including our middle school students. By talking about great scientists and their famous quotes, the students will be encouraged to devote them- selves to science. Listening is about the scientists' description. Detailed exercises are designed for them to do. After doing this, the students' ability to listen will surely be improved. Speaking is well designed. The students are divided into groups to discuss about science and decide which branch is the most important and useful for society. After the debate, the students' ability to speak is improved, for this is an interesting topic and we are sure all the students will be interested in it. In the second period, we deal with Pre-reading, Reading and Post-reading. The text is about an outstanding British scientist of this century. He is a man with disability. He can't speak and can only move on his wheel- chair. When he speaks he has to speak through a computer. He devotes himself to science and achieves great success. In 2002, he visited our country and spoke to many university students. There is no doubt that his unyielding spirit is encouraging thousands of millions of people. His words, “people of- ten think that science is a number of ‘true’ facts that never change…and even the best theory can turn out to be wrong.”. Shorten the distance between science and all of us. While reading the whole text and doing the exercises before and after the text, the students will learn the fine quality of the great scientist, as well as learning plenty of useful words and expressions. Meanwhile their readingability will be improved as well. Word study and Grammar are dealt with in the third period. Especially in Grammar a lot of exercises about infinitive are designed. After doing them, this part will surely be well mastered by the students. The fourth period deals with integrating skills. In the reading passage, the question "how to make a scientist" will be answered. It tells us that if knowledge is power, then perhaps creativity can be described as the ability to use that power. Scientists must be creative and use their imagination all the time. In the end, the students are required to write about their favourite scientist. After learning all the con- tents of this unit, the students are sure to write the passage well. In the fifth period, we'll deal with the grammar--the Infinitive.
Ⅱ.Teaching Goals
1. Talk about science and scientists.
2. Practise describing people and debating.
3. Learn more about the Infinitive.
4. Write a descriptive paragraph.
Ⅲ. Teaching Time: Five periods
IV. Background Information
1. THE BEGINNING OF TIME AND A REMARKABLE MAN CALLED STEPHEN HAWKING
If you have ever thought about how the universe began and whether time has a beginning or an ending, then you should know about a 55-year-old Englishman called Stephen Hawking.
Why? Because he is considered to be one of the brainiest men in the world and to be the modern successor of Albert Einstein.
Stephen has spent his life studying and thinking about the origins of the universe and how it can be explained by using the modern theories of physics such as Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. His discoveries and his scientific proposals have been revolutionary. People call him a genius.
Just as amazing is the fact that since his early twenties, he has been suffering from an incurable disease
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