Book 2 Unit 4 Wildlife Protection (Reading)

Teaching Design

Teaching goals

1. Language goals:   

(1)Students understand words, phrases and sentence patterns in the passage and finally thoroughly understand the whole passage;（eg. distant, powerful, affect, appreciate, respond, relief, protect…from, in relief, burst into laughter）

(2)Students understand the present continuous tense used in the passage.(eg. We are being killed for the wool beneath our stomachs.)

(3)Students learn to use phrases and sentence patterns learned in class to express one’s ideas.(eg.We should do something in order to help/save endangered animals.)

2. Ability goals:

(1)Students learn to predict the main idea of a passage through the title of the passage(HOW 

DAISY LEARNED TO HELP WILDLIFE);

(2)Students get to find the main idea of each paragraph in a short period of time by using fast reading technique: skimming;

(2)Students have a chance to practice using first-hand information in the reading passage to draw 

conclusions about causes of endangered animals and how to protect them and to pose their own 

ideas;

3. Emotional goals:

(1)Students get to know the current situation of wild animals; 

(2)Students will realize the importance of wildlife protection, and develop a strong sense of 

responsibility in wildlife protection; 

(3)Students will realize our unremitting efforts can make a difference in wildlife protection and have faith in wildlife protection.

Teaching key points & important points

1. Students read between the lines to find problems the three animals are faced with and what are the results of the problems ;(eg.You should pay attention to the rainforest where I live and appreciate how the animals live together. No rainforest, no animals, no drugs.)

2. Students summarize the reasons why the three kinds of animals are endangered. 

3. Students get to work with their classmates through brainstorm and discussion in order to provide 

constructive solutions to save wild animals.

4. Students get to voice their opinions using the words and phrases learned in this lesson.

Teaching methods

Task-based approach to reading, communicative and cooperative methods, 

Teaching aids

A multiple-media computer, a poster made before class by the teacher..

Teaching procedures:

Step One: Pre-reading

1. Greeting. 

       Say hello to students and tell students that the topic of today’s lesson will be very interesting.

Design purpose

To intrigue students’ interest in the topic of this lesson.　　　

2. Lead-in.

Ask student the following questions:

Q1: Do you love animals?

Q2: Besides pets, how often can you see another kind of animals in the world which is wild animals?

Q3: Why can’t we see them very often even in the mountainous terrain?

By asking the questions above, students will be lead to the phrase “endangered animals”. Then students will be shown many photos of endangered animals and try to tell the names of them.

Design purpose

To lead students to get closer to the concepts “wild animals” and “endangered animals”.

3. Warming-up

After seeing the lovely and beautiful photos of the endangered animals, students’ love to wild

animals and desire to save endangered animals will be intensely aroused. Right at this point, the teacher will raise the question

Q1: Why are these animals endangered?

Q2: Do you want to see these precious and lovely animals disappear from the planet?

    Then the teacher will say “ First, let see what some famous people are doing to prevent wild animals from dying out.” And the teacher will play a video of Hilary Clinton. After the video the teacher will say : “from the video we get to know why some wild animals are endangered and know we can join the wildpleage to protect wild animals. But are there other ways for us to protect wild animals in our daily life?”

Step Two: Reading

1.Hearing the above questions, students will not hesitate to reveal their determination of saving endangered animals. However, not many of them will come to the method of wildlife protection. Thus, the teacher will introduce the main character in the passage “Daisy” to them, from whose story they can derive much inspiration on wildlife protection.

1. Predicting and scanning: Ask student students to turn to page26 and read the title of the passage

with one question in mind “What is the main idea of the passage?” After reading the title the students will predict the main idea of the passage.After reading, another four questions will be given to students

Q1: Is this a real story in Daisy’s life?

Q2: How many places did Daisy fly to?

Q3: How many animals did Daisy see?

Q4: Where do they live?

Design purpose

By answering these questions, students will have a clearer idea about what the passage talks 

about, know the basic structure of the passage and the key information in each paragraph.

2. Careful reading: 

1) Students will be given more time to read each paragraph carefully and fill in the blanks

Place 1 Place 2 Place 3

Paragraph

Place

Animal

Problem

Result

Feelings

Place 1 Place 2 Place 3

Paragraph 1 2 3

Place Tibet Zimbabwe rainforest

Animal Antelopes Elephants Monkeys

Problem Antelopes are being killed for their fur. Elephants used to be hunted and their number decreased rapidly. The rainforest is being destroyed.

Result Antelopes are endangered species.

Good things are being done to save local wildlife. No rainforest, no animals, no drugs.

Feelings Sorry Happy Amazed

2) Further questions

Q1.Do you think it is right for people to kill antelopes and use the fur to make

sweaters?Why?

Q 2.How did the government of Zimbabwe help protect wild animals? 

Q 3.What does “No rainforest, no animals and no drugs” mean?

Q4.What can we conclude from the end of the story ?

Design purpose

By careful reading, students are expected to fully understand the passage, which means no 

details should be neglected. This will prepare students better for the possible detailed questions in their exams.  

3. Pair work: Students are asked to summarize the whole story by putting the following sentences

in right order. In the process, they are encouraged to discuss it with their desk mate about their answers.

A: The antelope told her they were hunted because of their fur which can be used to make sweaters like hers. 

B: She got to know the farmers there no longer hunt them.

C: In three years they may all be gone. 

D: That’s because the government decided to help and the farmers finally made a lot of money.

E: Although finally everything was gone, she had learnt so much. 

F: One day, Daisy dreamed a strange dream. She flew in a flying carpet to talk with an antelope in Tibet. 

G: Later, she flew to Zimbabwe where she talked with an elephant. 

H: At last she arrived at the thick rain forest where a monkey told her “No rain forest, no animals and no drugs.” 

After finishing the pair work, 2 to 3 pairs of students will be invited to share their answers with

other classmates. If there are disagreements, the teacher will lead students to discuss and go back to the passage to find the right answer.

Design purpose

If students can put wrong ordered sentences back to right place, they must have grasped the

main clues and skeleton of the passage, which, of course, shows not only their full understanding of the passage but also their ability to organize various information together.

Step Three: Thinking and Summarizing.

The teacher will use pictures as clues, steering them into the causes of wildlife extinction. In the end, four main caused are summarized, which are food shortage, pollution, over-hunting and destroy of habitat. But the causes of wildlife extinction are diversified and more than four, which leaves students room to present their own opinions on this issue.

Design purpose

Besides accomplishing the reading task, another main task of the lesson is moral education,

a part of which is to provoke students’ deep thought on the cause of endangered animals. This class activity aims at developing students’ ability to put pieces of information together to make it a logical and complete unit.

Step Four: Discussion.

Knowing the causes of wildlife extinction is the preface of exploring ways to stop the dangerous trend of wildlife extinction. Hence, students will be given the topic 

“What do you think we should do to protect wild animals?”

and go on a discussion. During the discussion, students will be divided into groups of four, and they will be assigned to set down their ideas on the work sheet given to them before class, using the sentence patterns shown on the PPT. The teacher should tour the classroom, watching the whole discussion and giving adequte guidance. It is important that students should be provided with proper guidance during the discussion and the whole discussion should proceed in English. After discussion, 3-4 representatives will stand in the front of the classroom and present their ideas. 

Absorbing the ideas from students, the teacher will do a summary for the discussion, and write the key points on the balckboard in two categories. Dos and Don’ts

Don’ts                          Dos

Don’t kill!                      Make laws! 

Don’t buy!                      Set up nature reserve!

Don’t ignore!                   Join organizations!

Design purpose

Discussing on a meaningful topic and expressing one’s ideas is one of best ways to imporve the

comprehensive English ability, which also expands students’ horizon on this area and makes them  think deeper.

Step Five: Homework

Some photos of animals in Qinling Mountain will be shown to students, letting them known we

have made great progress in animal protection in Shaanxi Province. So as successors of this duty, they should have confidence in it. So they are given the following assignment as today’s homework.

“Supposing you are a club member of “ProtectingWildlife in Qinling Mountain”, write a poster to call on more people to join you to protect a kind of endangered wild animal in the Qinling Mountain.”

     Specific writing requirements will be given to students.

It should include 4 main parts:

      The name of the animal;

A picture or photo of the animal;

A brief introduciton of the animal;

Simple ways we can adopt to protect the animal.

Design purpose

It is important to let students know that our long-lasting efforts have changed some serious 

situation of endangered animals. By showing them the photos of animals in Qinling Mountain, they will have confidence in wildlife protection.The homework wll be a perfect summary of what students have learnt both in knowledge education and moral education, which is an effective after calss revision and consolidation .

Step Six: Conlusion

After that students will be shown a series of photos showing the harmonious relationship between wild animals and human beings, which is based on the idea that if we love and care about wild animals, one day we will live in peace with wild animals.

Design purpose

Moral education, at the same time a natural ending for the class.

Blackboard Design

Unit 4  Wildlife Protection

Reading

                Dasiy             Causes of endanerment   Don’ts        Dos

Tibet         Zimbabwe   rainforest   over-hunting       Don’t kill!     Make laws!

Antelopes     Elephants    Monkeys  destory of habitat   Don’t buy!     Set up reserves!

Para 1        Para2        Para3     food shortage      Don’t ignore!  Join organizations!