Unit 4 A Glimpse of the Future-Starting out 教案-2025-2026学年高中英语外研版选择性必修第三册

Language Competence: Students master future-technology-related vocabulary and expressions, and improve their ability to talk about future life in English.

Cultural Awareness: They understand the development of global science and technology, cultivate a scientific perspective, and reflect on the relationship between technology and human society.

 Thinking Quality: They develop divergent and critical thinking by imagining future scenarios and discussing technology’s pros and cons.

Learning Ability: They enhance autonomous and cooperative learning skills through group discussions and interactive activities, forming effective learning strategies for theme-based English learning.

Key Points: Master core vocabulary and phrases related to future technology (e.g., artificial intelligence, self-driving, virtual reality) and basic sentence patterns for describing future scenarios; understand the theme of the unit through video watching and group discussions.

 Difficult Points: Using the learned vocabulary and sentence patterns to express personal views on future technology fluently and accurately; cultivating critical thinking to dialectically view the opportunities and challenges brought by technological development, and avoiding one-sided views on future technology.

Step 1: Lead-in (Warm-up & Theme Introduction)

Activity 1: Brainstorming - “Imagine the Future”

The teacher starts the class by asking open-ended questions in English: “What will our future life be like? Can you think of any new technologies that may appear in the future? For example, how will we travel, work or study in 50 years?” Then, the teacher invites students to share their ideas freely, and writes down the key words and expressions they mention (such as flying cars, smart homes, AI assistants, online education) on the blackboard or multimedia screen. During the sharing process, the teacher corrects students’ pronunciation and grammar mistakes gently, and supplements relevant vocabulary if necessary, such as “artificial intelligence (AI)”, “automation”, “virtual reality (VR)”.

Design Intention: This activity aims to stimulate students’ interest in the theme of “future technology” at the beginning of the class. By asking familiar and interesting questions, it lowers students’ psychological threshold for speaking English, activates their prior knowledge and imagination about the future, and lays a foundation for the subsequent learning of the unit. Meanwhile, it helps the teacher understand students’ existing vocabulary reserve related to future technology, so as to adjust the teaching focus in the following links.

Activity 2: Visual Aids - Appreciation of Sci-fi Movie Posters

The teacher shows several classic sci-fi movie posters on the multimedia screen, such as “Blade Runner 2049”, “Her”, “Interstellar” and other works related to future technology. Then, the teacher guides students to observe the posters carefully and asks them to answer the following questions in groups of 4: “What can you see in the posters? What kind of future world do these posters show? Do you think the technologies in the movies will come true one day? Why or why not?” After group

discussion for a few minutes, each group sends a representative to share their views with the whole class. The teacher listens carefully, gives positive comments, and guides students to focus on the core elements of future technology reflected in the posters, such as AI, space exploration, and intelligent life.

Design Intention: Sci-fi movies are closely related to students’ daily life and can easily arouse their emotional resonance. By appreciating movie posters, students can intuitively feel the charm of future technology, further deepen their understanding of the unit theme, and cultivate their ability to observe and express. Group discussion allows every student to participate in the activity, exercise their cooperative learning ability and oral expression ability, and create a positive and active classroom atmosphere.

Step 2: Presentation (Key Vocabulary & Sentence Patterns)

Activity 1: Vocabulary Learning - Core Words and Phrases

Based on the brainstorming and poster appreciation activities, the teacher sorts out and focuses on teaching the core vocabulary and phrases of the Starting out part: artificial intelligence (AI), self-driving, virtual reality (VR), automation, breakthrough, potential, convenience, threat, be bound to, around the corner. For each word and phrase, the teacher explains its meaning clearly, gives simple and easy-to-understand example sentences combined with future scenarios, and guides students to read aloud repeatedly to master the correct pronunciation and intonation. For example, when teaching “be bound to”, the teacher gives the example sentence: “With the development of science and technology, AI is bound to change our lives greatly.”; when teaching “around the corner”, the example sentence is: “The era of intelligent life is around the corner, and we need to prepare well for it.”

In addition, the teacher introduces word formation rules appropriately, such as the negative prefixes “il-” and “im-” (illegal, immoral), and the derivation of words (assistant → assist → assistance; potential → potentially), to help students master vocabulary more efficiently. After explaining, the teacher organizes a quick response game: the teacher says the Chinese meaning, and students say the corresponding English words or phrases quickly; or the teacher says the English words, and students make sentences orally.

Design Intention: Vocabulary is the foundation of language learning. Combining the previous activities to teach core vocabulary can help students connect new knowledge with existing experience, improve the efficiency of vocabulary memory. The example sentences closely related to the theme of future technology can help students understand the usage of words in specific contexts, laying a foundation for their subsequent oral expression and writing. The quick response game increases the fun of vocabulary learning, mobilizes students’ enthusiasm, and helps them consolidate the learned vocabulary in a relaxed atmosphere.

Activity 2: Sentence Pattern Learning - Describing Future Scenarios

On the basis of mastering vocabulary, the teacher focuses on teaching several basic sentence patterns commonly used to describe future scenarios, which are closely related to the Starting out part and the subsequent learning of the unit: 1. In the future, people will be able to... 2. It is likely that... will... 3. With the development of..., we will... 4. ...be bound to bring great changes to... 5. While..., it may also...

For each sentence pattern, the teacher explains its structure and usage in detail, gives example sentences combined with future technology scenarios, and guides students to practice. For example, for the sentence pattern “While..., it may also...”, the teacher gives the example: “While AI can bring great convenience to our life, it may also bring some challenges, such as job loss.” Then, the teacher asks students to practice making sentences with these sentence patterns, using the core vocabulary they just learned. Students can practice individually first, then pair up to check each other’s sentences, and finally the teacher invites several students to share their sentences with the whole class and makes appropriate comments and corrections.

Design Intention: Sentence patterns are the basis of oral and written expression. Teaching sentence patterns related to describing future scenarios can help students organize their language more standardizedly when expressing their views on