News media

 The First Period

Teaching Aims:

1. Learn and master the following words and phrases:

  media, reliable, fire, face, difficulty, elect, go up, burn down, injure

2. Practise expressing opinion using the following:

  What do you think of…?

  What's your opinion?

  Why do you choose…?

  Perhaps…is more important.

  I would rather choose.…

  I don't think we should choose…

   Maybe it would be better to choose…

  Our readers want to know about…

3. Talk about news and the media.

4. Train the students' listening and speaking abilities.

Teaching Important Points:

1. Master the useful words and expressions appearing in this period.

2. Train the students' listening and speaking abilities by talking about news and the media.

Teaching Difficult Points:

1. How to help the students understand the listening material exactly.

2. How to help the students finish the task of speaking.

Teaching Methods:

1. Listening-and-answering activity to help the students go through the listening material.

2. Individual, pair or group work to make the students finish each task.

Teaching Aids:

1. a tape recorder

2. a projector

3. the blackboard

Teaching Procedures:

Step I Greetings and Lead-in

T: Being the members of the society, we all cares about what happens around us or even what happens at home and abroad. How can you do so?

Ss: By reading newspapers and magazines, watching TV programmes, listening to the radio and by a website.

T: What do you call these things which help us know about to the world?

Ss:新闻媒体

T: In English, we call it news media. Today we'll begin to learn Unit 2 News media (Bb: Unit 2 News media). First, let's learn the new words in this period. Look at the screen.  

New words: media  reliable  fire  face  difficulty  nosy  editor  elect  go up  injure  rumour

(Teacher first asks some students to read the words on the screen. Correct the Ss' mistakes in prononciation. Then teacher gives brief explanations. At last, let the Ss read and remember them for a while.)

Step Ⅱ Warming up

 T: Well, now please open your books at Page 9. Warming up first. Look at each of the pictures and tell me which kind of news media it shows?

T: Now, please work in groups of four and discuss the five questions below the pictures. A few minutes later, I’ll cotleet your answers. OK?

(A few minutes later. )

T: Which group would like to talk about the first question? Choose one member of your group to answer the question.

S₁: I think TV is the most reliable among the news media. TV consists of a series of lively consecutive pictures. For the people who want to know what is exactly happening, a picture responds better to offer the truth of a fact than the mere words upon a page. It can offer an unique function of seemingly on-the-spot feeling, which is not available to the other media.

S₂. I think TV programmes are easy for most people to understand. Radio, can only be heard and sometimes can’t be picked up clearly. Newspapers and magazines are only useful for people who can read. Websites have many different pages, but you should be careful to read some of the pages.

S₃ : I will check other sources.

S₄: Every morning, the newspaper chief editor and the journalists discuss the main events of the day. Reporters are then sent to cover the events. They usually do some interviews and then check the information. They must work very fast. Later in the day, everything is put together at the news desk. Then the editors read the stories and make any necessary changes and choose a good title for each story. At last, they print them quickly and deliver them. Making a magazine is more or less the same as making a newspaper. But the articles in a magazine are more like stories, which are written by all kinds of writers. Magazines are not published as quickly as newspapers.

T: The last question? Have the Ss brainstorm some vocabulary about the news media

Ss: News broadcast, newspaper, magazine, radio programme, website, report, reporter, editor, interview, write articles…

Step Ⅲ Listening

 T: Next, let's come to the Listening. Look at the two pictures on page 10. The four people are talking about Mr. Gray. Please predict the following:

1.      Who are the people ?

2.      What do they think of Mr. Gray?

  We are going to listen to two parts of conversations. The first part is an interview; the second part is a dialogue. Now, look at Exercise 1: Listen carefully to what is said and tick the information you hear in each part. If necessary, I'll play it twice.        (Teacher begins to play the tape, and checks the answers after listening. Then ask the students to finish the rest of the tasks. )

T: OK. Now, please listen to each part once again and then work in pairs to talk about the questions in Exercises 2,3,4 and 5. Are you clear?

  (Teacher allows them enough time to talk about the questions. Then ask some students to say their answers.)

Step IV Speaking

T:　Well,　now it's time for us to be the editors of a newspaper. Here is a list of ten things that happened today. Look at the screen. (Teacher shows the screen and read through the list to the whole class.) SB page10.

    (Bb :go up, burn down)

    T: Now, you've known the ten things, but you only need to report five of them. So, first decide which events you are going to put in your newspaper. Then give reasons for your choices and compare with your classmates. Work in groups of four or five. And the following expressions on the screen can help you with your dialogue. After a while, I'll ask some of you to act out your dialogue.

   (Teacher shows the screen. ) SB page11表格

  (Teacher goes around the Ss and checks their work. If necessary, teacher may join in them. ) Sample dialogue:

A: Hello!  How is everything going? Have you finished your work?

B: I'm very busy today. I've chosen five events among ten things that happened today to report in our newspaper. But I'm not sure whether I made the best choices. I need your advice.

C: Tell us more about your choices.

B: The first event I chose is "France elected a new President". It is an important event these days. I think it may have a great effect on international affairs. The second is "There is a rumour that a large company wants to build a factory in our town." What is your opinion?

 A: I agree with your first choice, but why do you choose the second one? We should report something true to our readers, not rumours. Maybe it would be better to choose "A Chinese scientist has invented a new car engine that does not pollute the air." It shows our country's science advancement.

B: Good idea. Then I'd rather choose "2 000 people in our city were happy today and moved into new buildings. “ and” China beat Brazil 5-1 in football. “They are both exciting news. They also reflect the improvement of people's life and the achievement in sports.

D: I think you made a good choice. What about the fifth one? Have you decided yet?

B: I think two events are suitable. I really don't know which is more important. It is hard to choose. They are “Food prices are going up. “ and ”200 people died in an earthquake in Turkey.”   

D: Perhaps the former is more important. Our readers want to know more about their life. And this thing is related to everybody's life.

B: It sound reasonable. Let's think them over. Thank you for your advice.

Step V Summary and Homework

T: Up to now, we've talked a lot about news media. By listening and speaking, we've become more familiar with news media. At the same time, we've learnt some useful words and phrases. You should remember them and practise using them freely and exactly. After class, please collect more information about news media and talk about them with your classmates. Besides, don't forget to preview the contents of the next period. So much for today.  See you tomorrow .

Ss: See you tomorrow.

Step VI The Design of the Writing on the Blackboard