Ⅰ.Brief Statements Based on the Unit
This unit mainly tells us the difficulties that the disabled people may face.The text“Disabled? Not me!”shows us a middle school student―Zhong Xiaowen,who could only move around in her wheelchair,could overcome lots of difficulties,and finally succeeded.From her success,we learn something important.There is nothing difficult in the world if you stick to it.When you meet with difficulty in your life and study,please don’t lose heart.
The teacher should train the students’ mental and moral character of taking pleasure in helping the disabled and help the students to know how to help the disabled to build up the spirit of “being stronger,independent and equal to normal people in activities”.Of course it is necessary for students to master the important phrases and sentence patterns in this unit.Meanwhile we should review the usage of the Direct and Indirect Object.
Ⅱ.Teaching Goals
1.Talk about disability.
2.Practise talking about ability and inability.
3.Review Direct and Indirect Objects.
4.Write an argumentative essay.
Ⅲ.Background Information
1.Will Inspired Life
The little country schoolhouse was heated by an old-fashioned,pot-bellied coal stove.A little boy had the job of coming to school early each day to start the fire and warm the room before his teacher and his classmates arrived.
One morning they arrived to find the schoolhouse engulfed in flames.They dragged the unconscious little boy out of the flaming building more dead than alive.He had major burns over the lower half of his body and was taken to a nearby county hospital.From his bed the dreadfully burned,semiconscious little boy faintly heard the doctor talking to his mother.The doctor told his mother that her son would surely die―which was for the best,really―for the terrible fire had devastated the lower half of his body.
But the brave boy didn’t want to die.He made up his mind that he would survive.Somehow,to the amazement of the physician,he did survive.When the mortal danger was past,he again heard the doctor and his mother speaking quietly.The mother was told that since the fire had destroyed so much flesh in the lower part of his body,it would almost be better if he had died,since he was doomed to be a lifetime cripple with no use at all of his lower limbs.
Once more the brave boy made up his mind.He would not be a cripple.He would walk.But unfortunately,from the waist down,he had no motor ability.His thin legs just dangled there,all but lifeless.Ultimately he was released from the hospital.Every day his mother would massage his little legs,but there was no feeling,no control,nothing.Yet his determination that he would walk was as strong as ever.When he wasn’t in bed,he was confined to a wheelchair.One sunny day his mother wheeled him out into the yard to get some fresh air.This day,instead of sitting there,he threw himself from the chair.He pulled himself across the grass,dragging his legs behind him.He worked his way to the white picket fence bordering their lot.With great effort,he raised himself up on the fence.Then,stake by stake,he began dragging himself along the fence,resolved that he would walk.He started to do this every day until he wore a smooth path all around the yard beside the fence.There was nothing he wanted more than to develop life in those legs.Ultimately through his daily massages,his iron persistence and his resolute determination,he did develop the ability to stand up,then to walk haltingly,then to walk by himself―and then―to run.He began to walk to school,then to run to school,to run for the sheer joy of running.Later in college he made the track team.Still later in Madison Square Garden this young man who was not expected to survive,who would surely never walk,who could never hope to run―this determined young man,Dr. Glenn Cunningham,ran the world’s fastest mile!
2.Helen Keller
Helen Keller(1880~1968) was a famous author and educator.She was stricken at the age of 19 months with an illness that left her deaf and blind.She became mute shortly thereafter.Her parents in 1887 got her a teacher Anne Mansfield Sullivan from the Perkings School for the Blind in Boston.A remarkable,close relationship developed between teacher and pupil.Within two years,Miss Keller was able to read and write in Braille.She graduated(1904)from Radcliffe College,where Miss Sullivan had spelled the lectures into her hand.
Helen Keller devoted her life to publicly aiding the deaf and blind.With the aid of a translator,she toured the world to promote the education of persons similarly afflicted.She wrote numerous books,including“The Story of My Life”(1902).
Ⅳ.Teaching Time:Four periods
The First Period
Teaching Aims:
1.Learn and master the following:
Phrases:deal with,overcome the difficulties
Sentence Patterns:
If you were in a wheelchair,you wouldn’t be able to…
If I were blind,I would need a/an…
2.Train the students’ listening ability.
3.Improve the students’ speaking ability by describing,talking and discussion.
Teaching Important Points:
1.Train the students’ listening ability.
2.Make the students master the sentence patterns and describe the pictures freely.
Teaching Difficult Point:
How to improve the students’ speaking ability.
Teaching Methods:
1.Listening-and-answering activity to help the students go through with the listening materials.
2.Individual,pair of group work to make every student work in class.
Teaching Aids:
1.a tape recorder
2.the multimedia
3.the blackboard
Teaching Procedures:
Step Ⅰ Greetings and Lead-in
T:Good morning/afternoon,everyone.
Ss:Good morning/afternoon,Mr/Ms.
T:Sit down,please.First I want to ask you some questions.Have you been to some places of interest?Have you climbed the mountains?
Ss:Yes.(Students may have different answers.)
T:How can you get there?
Ss:We can get to…by bus/by train/on foot…
T:Now please look at the screen.
(The teacher shows a picture of a wheelchair on the screen.)
How do you say it in English?
Ss:Wheelchair.
T:What kind of people uses it?
Ss:People with disabilities/who couldn’t stand up.
T:Good.Now,tell me if you were in a wheelchair,would you be able to get to some places like tall buildings,high mountains?
Ss:I can go to…by myself,because there’s no step.It’s easy for me to get there.
T:Who has different answers?
S1:I can go to…with the help of my friends.They can carry me up there.
S2:I can’t go to…,because it’s high on the top of the hill.What a pity!I can only look at it from far away.
Step Ⅱ Warming up
T:Today we’re going to learn Unit 17“Disabilities”.(Bb:Unit 17 Disabilities The First Period)
First let’s look at some words.
(Show the following on the screen)
disability n.