一、教学目标

1. Students can understand the text and retell it correctly and fluently.

2. Students can grasp and use the key words such as stress, continue, training, development and so on according to the context.

3. After learning, students’ reading skills of predicting, skimming, and scanning are improved through different kinds of reading activities and they can guess the meaning of the words in bold according to the context.

4. Students will understand the attitudes and deeds that American and Chinese parents have about after-school classes, which helps them to look at the problem from different perspectives and foster positive values of keeping a balance between study and relaxation.

二、教学重难点

1. How to understand the main idea of the text and guess the meaning of the key words in the text better.

2. How to improve different reading skills, such as predicting, skimming, and scanning through different reading activities.

3. How to keep a balance between study and relaxation.

三、教学过程

Step 1. Lead-in

Play a video of a schoolboy’s busy weekend when he attends various after-school activities including ping-pong training, calligraphy courses and piano practice.

Question:

What’s your opinion about the phenomenon? Why is the boy unhappy?

【设计意图】通过呈现视频，激发学生的学习兴趣，创建和谐的课堂氛围。同时以学生们熟悉现象导入，引起学生的共鸣，为接下来的授课奠定基础。

Step 2. Pre-reading

1.Students think about what the problem is for Chinese students nowadays.

2. Students guess if American children have the same problem.

【设计意图】顺承导入的问题，由一个学生的例子思考现今中国学生普遍面临的问题，并猜想美国学生的情况，为接下来的阅读教学做好铺垫。

Step 3. While-reading

Activity 1: Skimming

1. Students read the text quickly and answer the question “What problem do American students have?”

2. Students discuss with their partners and match the headings with the paragraphs.

3. Check the answers together.

Activity 2: Scanning

Task 1: Guess the meaning of some key words according to the context.

T: When you read, do these words hamper your understanding of the text? Guess according to the context and try to choose the best answer.

( ) Many children learn a lot on weekends so that they can compete and win. What does “compete” mean?

A. try to be the best of the first to finish something

B. make their parents happy

( ) “In some families, competition starts very young and continues until the kids get older” What does “continues” mean?

A. begins

B. goes on

( ) The doctor say too much pressure is not good for a child’s development. “Kids should have time to relax…”

A. getting better or bigger

B. getting worse or smaller

Task 2: Answer questions

(1) Does Cathy Taylor think it’s important for kids to join after-school activities? Why?

(2) Does Linda Miller agree with Cathy? What’s her opinion?

(3) Does Dr. Green agree with Cathy or Linda? What does she say?

Activity 3: Intensive reading

?

1. Read the passage again and fill in the following chart

2. Try to retell different opinions from different people with the guidance of the chart above.

【设计意图】在本环节中，首先通过略读、寻读和精读，帮助学生理解文章，掌握重点词汇，同时渗透阅读策略的培养，提高学生的自主学习能力。

Step 4. Post-reading

Students work in groups to discuss “What do you think of after-school activities?” Students are asked to express their opinions and then give a report.

Sentence patterns for reference:

Ways of expressing opinions: I think…, I don’t think…, in my opinion…, I agree with… because …, I don’t agree/ disagree with… because…

【设计意图】学生们通过讨论关于课外活动的看法，在真实语境中巩固本节课的知识点，同时提高学生的综合语言运用能力。

Step 5. Summary

Students summarize what they have learned in this lesson and the teacher gives supplements if necessary, and reminds them that the importance of keeping a balance between study and relaxation.

【设计意图】学生总结本课重点，教师进行必要的补充，可以检查学生的掌握情况，进行查缺补漏。除此之外，教师提醒学生应该注意在学习和休息之间保持平衡，实现文化意识目标。

Step 6. Homework

(1) Retell the whole text.

(2) Make a weekend plan including balanced learning and relaxing activities and share it next class.

【设计意图】通过做周末计划，提高学生的应用能力，将课堂延伸到课外。

四、板书设计