III. Teaching methods and studying ways

That’s all for my understanding of the teaching material. Now let’s focus on the ways of teaching and learning.

Generally speaking, I adopt task-based language teaching and communicative appro

ach in my class. As for learning, Ss will learn through independent reading, discussing and cooperating.

I will use computer and blackboard as my teaching aids.

Ⅳ. Teaching procedure

Here comes the most important part, the teaching procedure. It includes 5 steps: Step I: Lead-in and pre-reading, Step II: While-reading, Step III: Consolidation, Step IV: Post-reading, Step V: Homework.

Step I: Lead-in and pre-reading (7mins)

Now let’s come to the first step. There are three activities in this step and I will spend 7mins on them.

In activity one, I will ask Ss two questions "Do you know some great rivers in China?" and "Why they are great?” Here, as the Ss get familiar with the Chinese great rivers, I choose to ask them some great rivers in China. And the answer to the second question can lead in the next activity--brainstorming.

In activity two, I will ask the Ss to discuss in pairs and answer the question "How do people who live along a river use it?” My purpose of this activity is to remind the Ss the importance of the river, thus stimulate the Ss' awareness of protecting the rivers.

In the last activity, I will show the Ss a picture of the Mekong River and ask them to list the countries that it flows through. This activity leads in the while-reading.

Step II: While-reading (21mins)

While-reading is the main part and it will take 21mins. Here I adopt the top-down reading model. This step is divided into 2 parts: fast reading and careful reading. Before reading, I will ask the Ss to predict what will talk in the text according to the title. It can exert the Ss' imagination.

1) Fast reading

During fast reading, I will ask the Ss to reading the whole passage quickly and get the main idea of each paragraph. Usually, the main idea of each paragraph is the first sentence or the last sentence, but this text is not. So the main idea of each paragraph will be matched because the Ss are lack of the skill of summarizing the main idea by themselves.

2) Careful reading

After getting the general idea of each Para., I will deal with the details Para. by Para..

In paragraph one, I will ask the Ss to read quickly and do the exercises T or F. And if it is F, I will ask them to correct it. This exercise can help the Ss get the key information of the first paragraph in a short time and can deepen the Ss’ understanding of the first paragraph.

In paragraph two, I will ask Ss one question “Is it a difficult journey to cycle along the Mekong? Why?” This can help the Ss develop their ability of summarizing. If the Ss can’t answer the question briefly, I will encourage them to find the key sentences and try to join them together.

And in the last paragraph, I will ask Ss two questions “How does the water of Mekong River change?” and “What can you see when you travel along the Mekong River?” Both questions are required to answer in keys word. In order to lower the difficulty of the questions, I will show them the examples. After that, I will present some pictures to deepen the Ss’ impression on the new words. And these two questions can help the Ss gain a deeper understanding on the Mekong River.