By Zhang Wei

Teaching Aims:

1. To improve the Ss’ reading comprehension

2. To help the Ss to learn more about the British Isles

3. To teach the Ss how to describe a country or a region.

Teaching Aids:

Computer, overhead projector

Teaching Procedures:

Pre-reading:

Step 1 Students do a small quiz about the UK

Step 2 Students guess what will be mentioned in the text by looking at the title “The British Isles”.

Reading:

Step 1 Skimming: Students go through the text and try to find out what are mentioned in the text and match the paragraphs with the topics.

Step 2 Scanning: Students scan the whole text to complete the form and the geography exercise:

Language study:

Ask the student to pick out the useful expressions for describing a country from the text.

Class Activity: Guess the country

Students work in groups to describe a country from different aspects (geography, climate, culture, history, languages, etc) and others guess which country it is.

Homework: Students write a short passage about the country they described.

Para Main Idea Detailed information

Para. 1 Introduction The UK is a nation of _different_ countries held together by a common _language_ and _culture_.

Para. 2 Geography The British Isles is a group of islands that _lies_ _off_ the _west_ coast of Europe.

Check the geography Exercise

Para. 3 Climate Climate：__mild__ with a lot of _rain_.

Scotland: _colder_, more __rain____

England and Wales：_rain__ a lot, temperatures are more __pleasant__.

Coldest months: _January_ and _February__

Warmest months: _July_ and _August_

Para. 4-5 Culture European mainland influence：

In the 5th century, people from _northern_ Europe settled in England. Their languages formed the basis for __English_.

French influence：

In 1066, England was conquered by _French _. Result: English language ended up with many __French__ words.

Para. 6 History 1536：_England_ and _Wales_ made up the UK

1707: _England_ ,__Wales_ and _Scotland_ made up the UK

The southern part of Ireland is a _independent_ country.

The Isle of Man is ruled by _the King of England_.

Para. 7 Languages 6 languages and 2 local accents

Main language：_English_

Other languages: Welsh, Irish and Scottish.

1.North Sea

2.Atlantic Ocean

3.English Channel

4. Scotland

5.Wales

6.England

7.Northern Ireland

8. Ireland

9.Isle of Man

10. Irish Sea

11.London 12. Dublin