Unit 1 Laughter is good for you
Reading: Stand-up for your health!
Teaching aims:
(1) Students are expected to gain some knowledge about stand-up comedy and
reinforce their reading comprehension.
(2) How to guess the meanings of new words.
Important points & difficult points:
(1)Help Ss understand the text better by analyzing the structure.
(2)Help Ss guess the meaning of some new words using reading strategy.
Teaching Aids:
the multimedia
Teaching Procedures:
StepⅠLead-in
T: Today we will get to learn something relaxing. First let’s enjoy a short video.
(a short video of Mr. Bean. on the screen)
T: Do you know him? How do you feel while watching this kind of film?
S: Happy; relaxing; keep laughing…
T: Yeah, it makes us laughing all the time, right? Do you enjoy laughing?
There are many things and many people that can make us laugh in our daily life, especially some performances of the comedians. Today we are going to introduce a new type of performance.
StepⅡReading
- Fast-reading:
T: Today we are going to read an article entitled ‘Stand-up for your health’. Do you know what ‘stand-up’ means here? Does it mean we should stand up or do some exercise to keep healthy? What is the exact meaning of ‘stand-up’ here?
Ask Ss to go through the passage as quickly as possible and find the answers to
the three questions.
(1)What is special about stand-up comedy?
A: It is special because the comedian is right there in front of the audience and may talk directly to audience members.
(2) How many types of stand-up are there?
A: There are four main types.
(3) In what way is laughter good for your health?
A: When you laugh, your brain sends chemicals around your body that are good for you.
2. Careful-reading:
T: After reading quickly, we can easily see the structure of this article is very clear, isn’t it? Now let’s see it together. From the passage we can see there are in total 3 main parts and before each main part there is a short phrase or sentence there. In English we call this short phrase or sentence ‘subtitle’. Do you know in Chinese what ‘subtitle’ means?
S: 附标题
T: Usually these subtitles indicate the main ideas of each part, right?
(1).Find out the main idea of each paragraph and analyze the structure of the article.
(2)Reading, Listening and Better-understanding
①Ask Ss to listen to the first main part and match the examples with the proper type.
Here are four examples of stand-up and please decide which types they are.
a. A comedian puts on glasses, changes his or her voice and pretends to be someone else. -----Impressionist
b. A comedian stands on stage and holds a banana to his ear and pretends to be making a phone call. -----Props
c. A comedian walks on stage. As she introduces herself, she falls down. -----Physical
d. A comedian says, ‘My grandma started walking 1km a day when she turned 60. She’s 89 now, and we don’t know where she is！’ -----Observational
②Please listen to the second main part carefully and finish the exercises on the screen.
- Find out the answers to the three questions.
When did Billy Crystal begin practicing stand-up?
What is one reason Billy Crystal has become so famous?
Who were Bob Hope and George Burns?
B. Please decide the statements T or F.
- Most of stand-up comedians have become famous as television and film actors later on in life.
b. Crystal has hosted the Academy Awards ten times.
c. He always keeps a toothbrush in his pocket because it is one of his props.
d. Crystal has been considering stopping telling jokes and making films.
③Please read the last main part carefully and find out the reason why stand-up is good for our health.
The reasons: make us laugh, send chemicals, fight pain, keep us in a good mood…
(3)Reading strategy
T: Until now we have fully understood the whole text. But when we read an article for the first time, we may come across some new words. How can we know the meaning of these new words? Let’s take a word as an example. ‘comedy’(line 3)
(Sentence: People have always enjoyed laughing, and there has always been humour. One of the most well-known and well-loved types of comedy is called stand-up.)
T: From this sentence we can see that the word ‘comedy’ is a noun, right?
S: Yes, it means something makes us laugh.
T: How do you guess that? From which word or phrase can we get the meaning?
S: enjoy laughing; humour
T: Exactly. Good job！From the phrase before the word we can guess ‘comedy’ probably means something can make us laugh. Now let’s practise some words.
①What does the word ‘routine’ in Para 3 probably mean?
A. roadB. something like performance C. linesD. style
②What does the word ‘improvise’ in Para 4 probably mean?
A. perform with permission B. perform without preparation
C. act well D. act fast
T: Now we’ve known how to guess the meaning of a new word. You can read the sentence before and after the one containing the new word. You can briefly refer to the reading strategy on Page 3 after class.
StepⅢDiscussion:
Ss are divided into groups of four.No.1 student is the leader of the group. No.2 in each group should write down what they are discussing and No. 3 should give us presentation at last.
T: We know laughter is good for our health, so why don’t we make our life full of laughter? Just as the author suggests at the end of the article, go and make someone laugh. OK. Let’s imagine if you were the author, what would you write in the next part?
S: How to make others laugh…
T: Maybe. Now let’s have a short discussion about how to make others laugh.
1. While laughter is good for you and for everyone else. How do you try to make other people laugh? (at least 5 ways)
S: tell a funny story, tell jokes, make faces, watch crosstalks……
T: Good. We have so many ways to make other people laugh. Please discuss in groups to tell a funny story and then give your presentations.
2. Tell a funny story to your classmates.
StepⅣHomework
Please write down what you’ve discussed in class. What might be written in the next part of our article? No. 4 in each group are required to hand in the writing of your group.
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