Welcome to the unit

Step 1 Greetings and lead-in:

T: Hello, everyone. Welcome to my class.

As we know, December is a month full of festivals. From this beautiful picture, we can feel the happy atmosphere of a big festival. What’s it?-----(Christmas).

You’re right. Christmas is just around the corner. First let’s play a game together to share the happiness. OK?

Here’s a gift for every one of you. What’s in the box? I need someone’s help.

Q: Would anyone like to come to the front and play the flash for me?

(Boys and girls, close your eyes and make a wish now…)

OK, thank you, clever boy! (Ask some students about their wishes)

No matter what your wish you’ve just made is, I do hope that everyone will be happy every day and realize your dream! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Q: Are you feeling happy now?

In this season of festivals, it seems that everybody is very happy because we’re saying Merry Christmas to each other and we’re looking forward to the Spring Festival. But you know our life is not always full of happiness. Actually there’re also many people in the world who are suffering from some problems or even disasters for some reason. So they need some help from others (we have the duty to help them), right?

That’s today’s topic. Now let’s go to Unit 4-Helping people around the world.

In this class, we’re going to discover and discuss some problems in the world and try to find out the help offered by different people and organizations.

Step 2 Watch a video and talk about what to do with natural disasters:

First of all, let’s watch a short video and then tell me what kind of disaster the video shows us.

Q: What’s the disaster?---(tornado)

Yeah. And I’ll show you another two kinds of disasters caused by strong wind. They’re---

Typhoon and hurricane

(A hurricane is a huge storm with a big eye in the middle).

Ok, we also have some other disasters, such as?---

Flood, earthquake, volcano eruption.

And all these disasters are caused by nature. That’s why we call them?---natural disasters.

Q: What results do you think these natural disasters may bring to us?

Ss: People will lose their homes-homeless people; people’s lives will be in dangerendangered;

Houses, crops ,trees will be damaged or destroyed; roads will be blocked;

Means of communication, traffic and electricity will be cut off…

Q: If you were involved in a natural disaster, what kind of people or organizations would you turn to for help?

Ss: the police, soldiers, armies; the government…

T: Sounds reasonable.Yes, good idea. If we are unlucky enough to be involved in these disasters, these people may help us: the police, soldiers(We can see the soldiers saving the child and the old man from the flood), and the government.

Q: How will the government help us?

Ss: The government will visit these areas and encourage the people there to rebuild their homes.

They may also provide them with some daily necessities.

T: And personally I think some international organizations will also be involved in helping us.

Right?

Ss: Yes.

Step 3 Talk about what to do with disasters partly caused by nature and partly caused by man.

Next let’s look at some other disasters.

Q: What’s it called?---(Sandstorm)

Yeah. Is it caused by nature? Or by human beings? --- (Partly by nature and partly by human beings)

Q: Can you think of some other kind of disasters like this?

Ss:…

Ok, I’ll show you some of them---drought, fire, SARS (It’s a kind of deadly disease which was popular maybe 2 or 3 years ago, from which people suffered a lot).

Q: For these disasters, who would you ask for help?

Ss: For the disasters like sandstorm and drought, the government, scientists may offer their help

(T: Some scientific methods and advanced technology can be used to solve the problems. Actually, everyone should take the responsibility to stop them from happening.)

For fire, whose help should you ask for?---firefighters.

What about SARS?---doctors and nurses.

Step4 Talk about what to with disasters completely caused by human beings.

T: The last kind of disasters I’d like to mention are those completely caused by human beings.

I think you must be very familiar with these pictures.

Q: What kind of disasters are they?

Ss: the “nine-eleven” attack on the World Trade Center, the conflicts in the Middle East, and the wars in Iraq.

T: Yeah. So these disasters caused by man are attacks, conflicts and wars.

Q: What do you think people may suffer from these terrible disasters caused by man?

Ss: People will suffer great losses, become homeless, live in danger poverty, die frequently.

T: If these situations turn very horrible, some special soldiers will be sent to those areas and countries to help keep the peace. They’re called?---(Peacekeeping soldiers.)

T: And this kind of help is from some international organizations, so we call this kind of help ---international aid.

Step 5 Student’s book study:

International aid helps many people around the world to have better lives, especially when things go wrong.

Now let’s look at some pictures in our textbooks on P49.

Q: Of the 6 pictures, which show us the problems in the world? And which show us the help people may get?

Now it’s your turn to have a group discussion:

(choose the topic by taking turns)

If your group choose to talk about the 3pictures which show problems, here are 2 tasks for you:

First describe each picture and then decide what kind of people or organizations they can ask for help.

If your group want to discuss the pictures about help, again describe them one by one and then talk about what kind of problems they can help people to solve.

Problems:

Q: Whhich group would be first?

T: Yeah. You’ve done a good job. Good idea. Just as these gentlemen and ladies said, these pictures show us the problems in the world such as flood, hunger and poverty. Poverty is really a problem which exists in many countries such as in South Africa; and even in China, we’re also facing such a problem.

Because of poverty, many children have no chance to receive a good education.

Q: Has our government offered any help to these children? In China, we have a very famous project to help these poor children. Have you ever heard of it?

Ss: Hope Project.

T: I’m sure you still remember these two big eyes. Right?

Thanks to the help offered by Hope Project, these children can now sit in the classroom and study happily, just like you. (How is everything going with this big-eyed girl now?)---She has now graduated from school and got a good job now.

Help:

Ok, now let’s talk about some other help people may get.

Q: Would any group like to share your ideas with us?

T: Well done! Just due to these help, the world we’re living in seems to be more and more beautiful. And in addition, more people around us are willing to offer their help to others.

Q: What are they doing?

Ss: They are caring about our environment, looking after the old, helping the sick and teaching the children in poor areas.

Q: Do they get paid for their work?

Ss: No, they all do these things for free. That is, they’re doing some voluntary work. So we call them---

(Young volunteers).

Step6 Group work:

Q: Have you ever been a volunteer to help others? What did you do to help himher?

If you haven’t helped others, have you ever thought of helping others?

T: Great. Now please work in groups and think about these questions:

1. What kind of people around us do you think need help? And how can we help them?

2. And by helping others, what benefit can we ourselves get?

You can present your ideas in the form of a speech, an interview, or even a pay and so on. Just as you like…

T: It seems that you’re born good performers. Really a very good job.

As you mentioned, the weakest members of our society need our help. So we must make every effort to help others whoever they are and whenever they are in trouble.

Here are two sentences for you to keep in mind:

Helping others is the source of happiness!

Let’s join hands, contribute our love and create a better world!

Step 7 Homework

1. Try to find out more information about international aid.

2. Talk about any help you get in your life with your partner.

Step 8 Thank you for attending my class!