Unit 4 American Dream

By 魏华

Objectives:

1. Understand the main idea (Tony Trivisonno realized his American Dream through his own efforts) and structure of the text (one part telling the story of Tony’s life and the other giving the author’s comments on it);

2. Learn to describe a person by his/her characteristic features, together with supporting details which demonstrate the features;

3. Grasp the key language points and grammatical structures in the text;

4. Conduct a series of listening, speaking and writing activities centered upon the theme of the unit.

Focuses:

1. Understand the main idea and structure of the text;

2. Learn to describe a person by his/her characteristic features;

3. Grasp the key language points and grammatical structures in the text

Outline:

Pre-reading activities

1. Asks several Ss the following questions to check if they have listened to the taped interview with Dr. Hertz. (5 mins)

2. Ss do Cloze B in after-text exercises to have a better understanding of the American Dream; when they finish T and Ss will discuss what they have filled in those blanks. (15 mins)

3. Based on the above two activities, T asks Ss’ opinion on the essence of the American Dream. (10 mins)

4. T sums up the things mentioned above and leads in to the text. (5 mins)

While-reading activities:

1. Story narrated according to time sequence. (15 mins)

2. T explains the language points and gives Ss practice. (2 periods)

Post-reading activities

1. Ss read Writing Strategy and instructions for Theme-related Language Learning Tasks. (15 mins)

2. T guides Ss through several after-text exercises. (20 mins)

3. Theme-related Language Learning Tasks (1 period)

Time Allotment

Pre-reading activities

1. T asks several Ss the following questions to check if they have listened to the taped interview with Dr. Hertz:

---- What did American Dream mean to Dr. Hertz’s grandparents? (hint: it first meant getting out of poverty; later it meant the chance for their children to succeed)

---- Why does Dr. Hertz say that the American Dream is in one’s head and in one’s pocket? (hint: it is in one’s head because one wants to live as well as or better than others; it is in one’s pocket because one has to keep on spending money so as to have things other people have). (5 mins)

2. Ss do Cloze B in after-text exercises to have a better understanding of the American Dream; when they finish T and Ss will discuss what they have filled in those blanks. (15 mins)

3. Based on the above two activities, T asks Ss’ opinion on the essence of the American Dream. (10 mins)

4. T sums up and leads in to the text by saying: We’ve often heard about the American Dream, and by now we know it means the belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/she works hard enough. Of course, we must realize that here success is narrowly defined as financial success. In this unit you will read how such a dream came true. (5 mins)

While-reading activities:

1. A story narrated according to time sequence

(1) Ss scan the text to circle all the time words, phrases or sentences in this text. (They are: one evening, The next two days, Summer passed into fall, The months passed, one day, A year or two passed, After about two years, Sometime later, Then , during the war, After he passed away.). By this they will see that the text is written according to time sequence.

(2) T explains to Ss that Tony fulfilled his American Dream step by step, and that the time phrases serve as transitions between steps.

(3) T draws Ss’ attention to Text Organization Exercise 2. Here they will see that, between the first time phrase –“ one evening”—and the time sentence –“ Summer passed into fall”, Tony took the first step by working as a help at Mr. Crawford’s house.

(4) T lets Ss know that they are to complete Text Organization Exercise 2 as he/she goes through each step, which is similarly defined by the appearances of time phrases.(15 mins)

2. T explains the language points from Line1 to Line 21 and gives Ss practice. (15 mins)

3.  Pairing: What does a gardener do?

(1) T copies down the following two columns on the blackboard;

A B

To mow the garden

To weed the yard

To sweep the lawn

To clean up any little tasks

To take care of heavy objects

To lift the walks

To fix things

(2) Ss try to pair the verbs in Column A with objects in Column B. For some verbs, more than one collocation is possible. (Possible pairings: to mow the lawn, to weed the garden, to

Sweep the walks, to clean up the yard, to take care of any little tasks, to lift heavy objects, to fix things)

(3) T stresses the importance of looking out for collocations in the course of reading. (10 mins)

4. T explains the language points from Line 22 to Line 27 and gives them practice. (7 mins)

5. Ss sum up what Tony achieved during this time interval. (hint: Tony got a job clearing snow at Mr. Crawford’s factory) (3 mins)

6. T explains the language points from Line 28 to Line 36 and gives them practice. (7 mins)

7. Ss sum up what Tony achieved during this time interval. (hint: Tony learned to be a skilled worker) (3 mins)

8. T explains the language points from Line 37 to Line 49 and gives them practice. (7 mins)

9. Ss sum up what Tony achieved during this time interval. (hint: Tony bought a house with Mr. Crawford’s help) (3 mins)

10. T explains the language points from Line 50 to Line 63 and gives them practice. (7 mins)

11. Ss sum up what Tony achieved during this time interval. (hint: Tony bought a farm and sent for his family in Italy)(3 mins)

12. T explains the language points from Line 64 to Line 67 and gives them practice. (7 mins)

13. Ss sum up what Tony achieved during this time interval. (hint: Tony died, leaving his family a prosperous farm and his children educated)(3 mins)

14. T explains the language points of the remaining paragraphs and gives them practice. (10 mins)

15. Ss sum up the main idea of this section. (hint: Author’s reflections on the story of Tony)(5 mins)

16. (1) Ss scan the text again to find out all descriptions of Tony’s physical appearance.

(They are: Line 3 He was about five-foot-seven or eight, and thin.

Lines 50-51 He seemed to stand a little straighter. He was heavier. He has a

Look of confidence.

Line 60 …Neatly dressed)

(2) T points out to Ss that a good writer only includes those details that will help get across his/her points to the reader. The above-mentioned descriptions of Tony’s physical appearance, for example, show how Tony became more and more successful. (5 mins)

Language Points

1. Turn away: refuse to help

He’s my son after all; I can’t just turn him away when he is in trouble.

2. Work out: plan

My mother allowed me to take the trip, but asked me to work out the total cost first.

Finally I worked out that the parcel had been sent to Paris by mistake.

3. Do with: used in questions with what: deal with

What do you do with such rude boys?

4. Personnel:

Personnel has/have received you’re application form.

All personnel in this company are entitled to medical insurance.

5. Turn down: refuse

He was offered the job but he turned it down because it involved too much traveling.

6. Call on: visit

He wanted to call on his girlfriend after work, and then go to see a movie with her.

7. Down payment: an initial amount of payment

8. Discard: throw away

I’m going to discard those magazines if you finished reading them.

8. Abandon: give up

My car broke down and I had to abandon it on the main road.

9. Pass away: die

The old lady passed away peacefully.

Post-reading activities

1. (1) Ss read Writing Strategy and instructions for Theme-related Language Learning Tasks;

            (2) Ss read Lines 68-71 in text;

            (3) Ss work alone or in pairs to find out those details that illustrate Tony’s “vision, determination, self-control, optimism, self-respect and above all, integrity”.

            (4) Some Ss report their findings to the class. (15 mins)

2. T guides Ss through several after-text exercises. (20 mins)

3. Theme-related Language Learning Tasks (1 period)

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