Teaching Aims:

To talk about high school life and school activities both in China and in the UK

To help the students to realize the differences between high school life and middle school life

To help the students adapt themselves to high school life as soon as possible

To assist Ss to get ready for the learning of Reading.

Teaching Important & Difficult Points:

To find out the difference of their life between senior high and junior high.

To learn something about the high school life in the UK.

To know how to get on well with high school life/study.

To get all the students involved in the group discussion and pair-work

Teaching Methods:

Discussion in pairs or in groups; task-based in-class activities; explanations of some language points

Teaching Aids: a multimedia classroom

Teaching Procedures:

StepⅠGreetings and Lead-in.

When we are talking about our school life, what will we probably think of?

StepⅡ Presentation

1. Say the following to students:

It’s the beginning of the new term. You’ve just finished your junior high and are about to enter a new period in your studies. I am happy to give your lessons and I hope we can be friends.

I can see that some of your are eager to know what studying at senior high will be like. Will it be different from junior high? Well, there are certainly many differences between junior high and senior high, but there are also some things that are the same in every school in China.

What about schools in other countries? Do you have different experiences? Are schools all over the world the same? This is the subject of our first unit.

2. Ask students to read the instruction and tell them:

Here are three pictures that show some aspects of school life in the UK. Please read the instructions, look at the pictures: what's the difference between schools in China and the UK?

Step Ⅲ Discussion

1. Divide the students into four groups and discuss the four pictures on P1. Let’s describe what they can see in each picture in groups of four. After three minutes, I’ll ask one of each group to report what you talk about.

Possible answers:

Picture one

We can see s wide playground and some low-rise buildings in the picture. From it we can see that the campus is a huge one, and it is larger than the normal high schools in cities of China. But the buildings there are lower than those of China we have a large population, so the local government cannot afford to provide as large an area as that in the UK for each high school.]

From the points of view, larger schools are better for the school activities of our students than the crowded ones.

Picture two

We can see a lot of lockers in the picture as we often notice in the movies about school life in the west. We like the idea that we can have a locker of our own. We can keep our secret or things in it, such as the posters of my favourite stars, our diary and our letters as well.

Picture three

In this picture, we find a huge and bright classroom in which there are only twenty students or so. Their desks are not in good order, which is not allowed in our school. They are even not facing the teacher when they sit there. It is very different from the classroom in our school.

Picture four

There are two students and a teacher in the picture. The teacher is carrying a snake in his hand while the students are making notes of maybe what the teacher is saying. Perhaps they are studying the snake. They seem to be enjoying their staying together. So we think the phrase “at ease with our teacher” means our teacher and we get along well with each other. We are not only teachers and students, but also we are friends. We like the idea that we can make friends with our teachers. Anny, do you want to be our friend?

2. We have studied the four pictures about schools in the UK. Now discuss with your group members about the following question: What’s the difference in schools between China and the UK? Then draw some conclusions to complete the following form.

Aspects Schools in the UK Schools in China

campus and buildings Students can see huge campus and low-rise buildings.

It is the biggest difference from schools in China. School in China usually have a large enough campus to make sure students have enough space to study and play in.

But most school buildings are taller, at least three storeys.

facilities There are rows of lockers by the classrooms for students to put their stationary, books, exercise books and other belongings. Students bring what they need for lessons to school and then take it all back home after school. Most schools in China do not have the equipment in the classroom.

size of every class There are fewer students in a class, no more than 30 per class. There are usually more students in high school, perhaps 40 to 50 per class. Recently some schools are beginning to limit the number of students in each class.

relationship between teacher and students Students have a close relationship with their teachers. They feel at ease and comfortable with them. It is similar in China. Nowadays, lots of teachers and students have established a good relationship with each other. They respect each other and work to gain a better understanding of each other.

some other aspects you know Students in the UK can choose whatever subjects they like or drop ones they are not interested in; they are graded A, B, C, D for every subject they choose rather than 100 points. In China, students have to learn the subjects required for all the high school students. They are not free to drop subjects even though they hate learning at all. They are scored according to the fixed points, such as 100, 120 and 150.

3. Ask students to discuss the three questions in pairs, and them ask some of them to report their answers to the questions to the whole class.

What is your dream school life like?

What kind of school activities do you enjoy?

What do you think of your life here in the new school?

Step Ⅳ Language point

1. at ease with our teacher

ease 1) vt. & vi. (eased, easing)減輕（痛苦、負擔）

我給他些藥使他減輕疼痛. I gave him some medicine to ease the pain.

2) n. 輕松, 自在 at (one’s) ease 輕松, 自在, 隨便，不拘束

他在這個陌生的房間里感到很緊張..He didn’t feel at his ease in the strange room.

Her boyfriend was not at ease seeing her parents.

with ease 容易地, 輕松地 = easily

他們有望在這次比賽中輕松獲勝.They are expected to win the game with ease.

take one’s ease 休息,輕松一下

Step Ⅳ Summary

Today we have known about the differences between the life of Chinese and British high school students. I hope we’ll get on very well and all of you will enjoy yourselves during the high school, and you are on the way to becoming a college student.

StepⅤHomework.

Find more about any other differences between the high school lives in the UK and in China, either by surf the Internet or by reading some articles in newspapers or magazines.

Make a plan of your studies in the coming years and make a list of goals that you want to achieve in the coming three years.

Preview Reading by going through all the relative words and expressions in the wordlist.