(Senior 1B)
Part 1 阶段目标卡 Topic : Festivals
I 认知目标（ Knowledge）
1. Can remember the following words and expressions (by pronunciation, spelling and writing):
theme, parade, holy, Easter, symbol, fighting, conflict, argument, opinion, destruction, major, probably, honour /honor(Am.E), ancestor, principle, nation, purpose, creativity, faith, commercial, joy, light (v.), similar, generation, salute, kiss, cheek, nod, celebration, respect, gift, cycle, fool, invitation, self-determination, reminder
dress up, in one’s opinion, play a trick on /play tricks on, take in, in common
2. Can use the following structures in different situations:
1) Useful expressions in the text
in my opinion, play a trick on /play tricks on, take in, in common, have something/nothing in common with …,as well as, get together.
2) Expressions on expressing and supporting an opinion
In my opinion, we should… I believe we should…
I don’t think it is necessary to… We must decide…
I hope we can make a decision. If we do this, we can…
3) Modal verbs (2): must, have to, have got to.
3. Can be familiar with the following world festivals and talk about them:
Chinese festivals: the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao), Tomb Sweeping Festival (Qingming), Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu), Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival (Chongyang), National Day, New Year’s Day, Chinese Youth Day, Party’s Day, Army’s Day, Teachers’ Day, Tree-planting Day…
Foreign festivals: Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, Easter, Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Ramadan, Day of the Dead (from Mexico), Bon Odori Festival/ Ghost Festival (from Japan) (盂兰盆节), Mardi Gras, Kwanzaa…
4. Can read the reading materials correctly, including pronunciation, intonation, pause and fluency. And recite five to eight beautiful or important sentences.
5. Can understand the teaching material well, and retell the text and have a discussion according to the text after class.
6. Can get further information about festivals through classes, magazines, newspapers, related books, Internet and so on.
II 情感目标 ( Affect )
1. To get Ss to enjoy festivals and customs from different countries, and enlighten Ss to enjoy the beauty and the importance of festivals and customs.
2. To encourage Ss to show positive and healthy attitude towards festivals and customs from different countries.
3. To get Ss to know how to hold effective and successful festivals.
4. To get Ss to further understand the differences between Chinese and foreign cultures by comparing Chinese and foreign festivals and customs.
III 技能目标 ( Skills )
1. To train Ss’ four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) in different periods.
2. To make Ss’ know how to write an invitation in English.
3. To help Ss to develop the ability of learning English through different ways, such as reading newspapers, magazines and books, surf the Internet, etc.
Part 2 Pre-unit Activities: Preview Task
1. Find information about the following festivals as much as possible through newspapers, magazines, related books and Internet.
Chinese festivals: the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao), Tomb Sweeping Festival (Qingming), Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu), Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival (Chongyang), National Day, New Year’s Day, Chinese Youth Day, Party’s Day, Army’s Day, Teachers’ Day, Tree-planting Day…
Foreign festivals: Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, Easter, Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Ramadan, Day of the Dead (from Mexico), Bon Odori Festival/ Ghost Festival (from Japan) (盂兰盆节), Mardi Gras, Kwanzaa…
2. Read the following introductions of some famous foreign festivals.
Mardi Gras The America's most favorite celebration, and famous Mardi Gras takes place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Carnival has religious roots associated with Judeo-Christian tradition. Mardi Gras is set to occur 46 days (the 40 days of Lent plus six Sundays) before Easter and can come as early as February 3 or as late as March 9. Known as the "biggest free show on earth", people there dress up in costumes for these events and enjoy this celebration by going to public parades where they catch "beads, doubloons, cups, and trinkets" that are all thrown from floats. They also have private celebrations, masquerade balls, held by clubs called krewes. The official colors of Carnival are purple, green and gold, chosen in 1872 by that year's Rex. The colors have meaning: purple for justice, green for faith and gold for power. King Cakes are eaten during this holiday.
Valentine’s Day February 14th, Valentine’s Day, is sweethearts’ day, on which people in love with each other express their tender emotions. People sometimes put their love message in a heart-shaped box of chocolates, or a bunch of flowers tied with red ribbons. Words or letters may be written on the flower covered card, or something else. Whatever the form may be, the message is almost the same -“ Will you be my valentine?” The symbol of valentine is a picture with a Heart and Cupid armed with bow and arrow. Many universities, high or elementary schools hold a sweethearts’ Ball for the young students to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Bon Odori Festival (Ghost Festival) Japanese has been looking upon Ghost Day Ceremony originating in Buddhist Ullambana. These two festivals were not only public holidays with enthusiastic festivities but also times when people gave presents to each other and enhance amity between them. The custom of giving presents might root in the transfer from the kind-heartedness of giving alms to the concern for the living families and friends. The Japanese also hang lanterns on July 15 to lead the spirits back to the earthly world and have them enjoy grand banquet. It is like our custom of releasing water lanterns and firing lanterns. Besides, they hold a “pot” ceremony, called “pot-reciting”, which praises Buddhist sutras, singing and dancing, receiving the departed spirits and sending away the solitary ghosts. Today, there are various scales of “pot ceremony” all over Japan, which is kind of an amusement gathering. However, current Ghost Day Ceremony is not full of gloomy atmosphere in its form, remaining only enjoyable sentiment in spite of the existing original meaning.
Halloween 1,000 years ago, the Celts living in the Great Britain believed that human is mastered by gods. They also believe that Samhain, the death god, would come back to the earthly world with the dead at the night on October 31. The Celts built bonfires and fired animals as sacrificial offerings to the death god. Some Celts were dressed in costumes made from animal heads or furs, which was the origin of contemporary Halloween masquerade. The night of the death god was a horrifying time that signified the coming of winter and was the beginning of Halloween eve. Today, the religious meaning of Halloween has been weakened; instead, the holiday expresses man’s cherishing memory of Halloween via innovative, ever-changing modern masquerade.
Day of the Dead, Mexico On November 2nd, each house roasts bread of animal forms, broiling chicken, hot chocolate and sweet corns, plus laying some toys on the altar because Mexicans believe that the dead children will come back to their own homes in the midnight. The altar for the dead elder is stocked with belongings of the merriment as they do; therefore, their Ghost Festival is just like a carnival when people walk around with masks, eating skull-shaped candies. And even a ghost image is put on the bread. In the evening, the whole family goes to the cemetery and clears the grave. Women praise all night in kneeling or sitting position while men are talking or singing. The flickering midnight candlelight is filling up the cemetery whereas walking singers are chanting for the dead Spirits.
Easter Easter, with its religious character, falls on the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after March 21st. Therefore, Easter happens sometimes in March, and sometimes in April. It commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb where he had lain for three days following his Crucifixion. His rise after three days indicates that he would accomplish his promise to rise again from the dead as proof of eternal life. As Christ’s return to life had occurred during the season of spring, some of the rites of Spring were still retained. Therefore, we see that although Easter is based on the events in the life of Christ, it has been influenced by older traditions. For example, the custom of dyeing eggs is still very popular among American children. Originally the egg symbolized fertility for the ancient Persians and Greeks who exchanged eggs at their spring festivals. But up to the Christian time, the egg symbolized the tomb from which Christ rose. For Christian lamb is the symbol of the sacrifice of Christ and pig the symbol of good luck. That is why both in Europe and in America, people have lamb and ham as their main meat on Easter Sunday. In all the spring season, people enjoy the Easter message of hope, joy and the resurrection of spirit.
Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving Day, which originated in America and was first celebrated in 1621 by the pilgrims of the Plymouth Colony, is the most typical and true national holiday of all the holidays observed in the United States of America. Because of the religious persecution by the established church in England, the pilgrims left their native land with the purpose of enjoying religious freedom. They first fled to Holland, and then sailed to America on a ship called the Mayflower. When they arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, it was November, 1620. The first winter was very difficult for them and over half of them died because of hunger and illness, hard work and severely cold weather. In the spring of the next year, 1621, a friendly Indian named Squants, who had been captured and released by other English men, came to help them in planting the corn and fertilizing the soil. Then Squants brought the Indian chief called Massasoit who also treated them in a friendly way. With the help of the Indians, the pilgrims had a bumper harvest that year. They thought the harvest was a kind of deliverance by God, so they decided to have a day of celebration after their harvest to express their thanks to God. And they also invited the Indian chief Massasoit in gratitude and prepared a grand dinner out-doors. The celebration lasted for 3 days. On October 3rd, 1863, Lincoln issued the first National Thanksgiving Proclamation. Since then it has been the custom for the President of the United States to Proclaim annually the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. The Thanksgiving dinner is mainly stuffed with roast turkey, squash and corn, pumpkin pie and Indian pudding a custard made from corn), etc. Today, American people have four days for this holiday, although the first Thanksgiving lasted three days. One is probably surprised to find the uniformity in the holiday scene of every family, wherever one goes in the United States. People go back home to enjoy the reunion of their family at the arrival of Thanksgiving Day.
Christmas Christmas Day, which is the greatest of the Christian festivals, falls on December 25th on which Christian people believe Jesus Christ was born, although no one can tell the exact date of his birth. This is the biggest and best-loved holiday in the United States, which is full of joy and gaiety, love and laughter, hospitality and good will. People usually have two weeks for this holiday. They begin to prepare Christmas long before the holiday comes. Small families and large business firms prepare the holiday differently. Stores are decorated with the traditional Christmas colors of green and red. Goods associated with Christmas become best sellers at this time. People like to decorate their stores and homes with Christmas tree, which is usually covered with strings of colored lights and a star fixed on top representing the star in the East which guided the three Wise Men to where Jesus was born. And Christmas food is special: peppermint-flavored red and white striped canes of sugar, bright colored hard sweets, chocolate bonbons, creamy homemade fudge and clusters of chocolate-covered raisins, walnuts or pecans, etc. On Christmas Eve families have a big dinner. Children hang their stockings by the fireplace, hoping that Santa Claus will fill them with sweets and toys.
Part 3: While-unit Activities: Five Separate Periods
Period 1: Warming up & Listening
Before having this period, the Students (Ss) are asked to collect information about the three festivals: Halloween, Bon Odori Festival, Day of the Dead.
Step 1 Lead-in
1. First, greet Ss with the questions “How are you feeling today?” “ Do you feel happy today?”
Then, Teacher (T) can lead in the topic festival/ holiday by asking some questions such as:
When do you usually feel happy? (Ss can give different answers)
Do you feel happy when there is a festival and you have holidays?
Then which festival or holiday do you like best? And why?
2. Chinese have many festivals. How many Chinese festivals do you know? And what are they?
( the Spring Festival, the Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao), Tomb Sweeping Festival (Qingming), Dragon Boat Festival (Duanwu), Mid-Autumn Festival, Double Ninth Festival (Chongyang), National Day, New Year’s Day, Chinese Youth Day, Party’s Day, Army’s Day, Teachers’ Day, Tree-planting Day…)
Which is the greatest and the most important festival to our Chinese people? When do Chinese celebrate the Spring Festival? How long does the Spring Festival last? Why do Chinese people celebrate it? What is the theme of the Spring Festival? How is it celebrated?
3.Different cultures have different kinds of customs and festivals. How many foreign festivals do you know? And what are they?
( Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day, Easter, Valentine’s Day, April Fool’s Day, Ramadan, Day of the Dead (from Mexico), Bon Odori Festival/ Ghost Festival (from Japan) (盂兰盆节), Mardi Gras, Kwanzaa…)
Step 2 Warming up
1. Show the Ss three pictures and ask them to discuss in pairs according to the following guiding questions:
Q1: Do you know the names of the festivals? (Halloween, Bon Odori, Day of the Dead)
Q2: Do you know which countries the festivals come from?
Q3: What are the people in the pictures doing? Why are they doing this?
2. Ask individual students to talk about the three festivals. The information of the festivals should include the name of the festival, when, where and how to celebrate it.
3. Which Chinese festival is similar to the three festivals? (Tomb Sweeping Festival)
Then get Ss to compare the Chinese Tomb Sweeping Festival with one of the three festivals. (Differences: time, people, place, the way of celebrating, etc. Similarity: ghost festival)
Step 3 Dialogue
Get Ss to work in pairs to make up a dialogue. One describes his/her favorite Chinese festival and the other describes his/her favorite foreign festival. Trying to compare them.
(The following form is presented for Ss to prepare.)
Festival
When is the festival celebrated?
Who celebrates the festival?
How do people celebrate it?
Why do people celebrate it?
What are some important themes, e.g.“family” and “peace”?
How old is the festival?
Step 4 Listening
1. Pre-listening: Present three pictures about Mardi Gras, Ramadan and Easter and let Ss to guess out the names of the festivals from what they can see from the pictures.
2. While-listening: Do the three festivals one by one. For each one, Ss can listen to it twice. The first time, Ss’ task is to find correct answers to the choices in the book. The second time, Ss’ task is to check their answers and T check the correct answers with the whole class.
3. Post-listening: Get Ss to listen to each festival again. While listening, try to take notes and get more information about the festival. Then ask Ss to describe the three festivals in their own words.
Step 5 Summary
Help Ss to have a revision of the festivals learnt in this class.
T: Different histories and cultures have different kinds of festivals and customs. We should get to know they all play important parts in learning a country’s language. We should respect and show positive attitudes towards foreign festivals and customs as well as Chinese ones.
Step 6 Homework
1. Listening work: Listen to the listening material about Christmas in workbook on page 77.
2. Written work: Write a description of your favorite festival. The description should include 1) the name 2) the time 3) characteristics 4) activities, etc.
Period 2: Reading
Step 1 Revision
Get Ss to work in pairs to ma tch the festivals in Column A with the information in Column B.
Column A Column B
1.Ramada A. celebrated on the 15th day of the
first Chinese lunar month
2.the Lantern Festival B. chocolate, bunnies, colored eggs for its
symbols
3.Mardi Gras C. Muslims fast during the daylight day
4.Dragon Boat Festival D. catching “beads, doubloons and cups”
thrown by parades
5.Valentine’s Day E. honoring love and lovers
6.Halloween F. eating Zongzi to honor Qu Yuan
7.Double Ninth Festival G. the time of ghosts, spirits, gravestones
8.Thanksgiving Day H. meaning clear and bright, mourning the dead
9.Easter I. offering thanks, family gatherings and meals
10.Tomb Sweeping Festival J. on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month as Senior
citizen’s Day
Step 2 Pre-reading
1. Make a comparison of Chinese Spring Festival and Christian
Christmas.
T: Which is the greatest and the most important festival to Chinese people? (the Spring Festival) And which is the greatest and the most important festival to Christian people in western countries? (Christmas)
Both of them are quite popular in the world. What are the differences between them?
Festival
Different
aspects
Chinese Spring Festival
Christmas
Time From the 1st day to the 15th day of the first Chinese lunar month
On Dec. 25
Preparation Do spring cleaning, do Spring Festival shopping (new clothes, delicious food, fireworks, New Year paintings, etc.), decorate the houses with Spring Festival couplets, paper cuts, Chinese knots… Do cleaning, do Christmas shopping (gifts, cards, sweet, cookies, etc.), decorate the houses with Christmas tree and colored lights…
Special Food New Year’s cake, dumpling ( jiaozi) , sweet dumpling (tangyuan)…
Candies, cookies, pudding…
Gifts
Anything (foods, fruits, clothes, drinks…)
Anything (foods, fruits, drinks, desserts, Christmas decorations)
Major Activities Have family reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, pay New Year’s visits, recreational activities (dragon dance, lion dance, stilt-walking…)
Family reunion, have a big dinner on Christmas Eve…
purpose Bidding farewell to the old year and welcoming the new year, hoping for the best and the good future.
Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ
Note: The italicized words in the form above are suggested answers.
Step 3 Reading
T: Do you know there is another festival which follows Christmas Day in America. It is an important festival to African Americans. Is there any one who knows the name of the festival? (Kwanzaa)
1. Fast reading: Read the text on page 10 fast and try to get a general idea of Kwanzaa from the text. T can present a diagram of the information about Kwanzaa to help Ss to finish this task.
(Questionnaire: When is Kwanzaa celebrated? How long does it last?
Who created the festival of Kwanzaa? (Dr Maulana Karenga) Who usually celebrates Kwanzaa? Why is it celebrated? What are the characteristics of Kwanzaa?)
2. Careful reading: Get Ss to read the text carefully to get more details. After reading, Ss are asked to do True or False exercises.
1) African Americans have a long history and a rich culture, so Kwanzaa is an old festival. ( F ) (a young festival)
2) People created Kwanzaa to celebrate American culture. ( F ) ( to celebrate African culture)
3) The word Kwanzaa means first fruit in Swahili, one of the largest languages in Africa. ( T )
4) The African first-fruit festivals are completely different from each other. ( F ) ( to have many things in common )
5) Kwanzaa is celebrated on Christmas Day. ( F ) ( from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1 )
6) Kwanzaa is based on old African festivals. ( T )
7) People who celebrate Kwanzaa light a candle for each of the seven principles. ( T )
3. Dialogue.
Suppose you are the reporter of Overseas Wind Programme of Huipu Students’ Broadcasting. Now you are chosen to interview the foreign teacher John about the festival of Kwanzaa. Make up a dialogue with your partner. One acts the role of the reporter, and the other acts the role of John. The dialogue can begin like this:
Reporter (R): Good afternoon, everyone. Here is our Overseas Wind Programme. Today, we have a foreign guest in our progamme. He is our foreign teacher John. Hello, John.
John (J): Hello.
R: Welcome to our Overseas Wind Programme. Today we have a topic about the festival of Kwanzaa. So would you like to introduce Kwanzaa to us? …
J: …
Step 4 Discussion
Topic1: Do you agree festivals can help us understand our history and culture? How do they help us understand our history and culture?
Topic2: Nowadays more and more festivals have been created in my cities for various purposes, such as developing local economy, making the city well-known, etc. Our city Linhai created the Festival of the Great Wall in the South. It has been celebrated for three years. However, some Linhainese think holding such a festival causes some problems to the city. What effects does the Festival of the Great Wall in the South bring to us? Make a list
Good Effects Bad Effects
… …
Step 5 Homework
1. Oral Work: Read and recite the new words learnt in this class.
Read and recite some beautiful and useful sentences in the text.
2. Written Work: Suppose you are the journalist of Huip