Unit 2 Lessons in Life-Starting out 教案-2025-2026学年高中英语外研版选择性必修第四册

Unit 2 Lessons in Life-Starting out 教学目标和重难点 1. 教学目标 Language Competence: Students will master core words and phrases related to life, such as “anticipate”, “phrase” and “be reunited with”, and use simple sentences to express their views on life. Cultural Awareness: They will understand proverbs about life in different cultures, respect cultural diversity and accumulate life wisdom. Thinking Quality: It cultivates students’ critical thinking and divergent thinking by guiding them to analyze the connection between pictures and life and express personal insights. Learning Ability: Students will improve their abilities of autonomous exploration and cooperative communication through group discussions and independent reflection. 2. 教学重难点 Key Points: Master the meaning and usage of core words and phrases in the Starting out section, understand the connotation of life-related proverbs, and be able to talk about simple life experiences and views in English. Difficult Points: Correctly use the key phrases and sentence patterns to express personal feelings and insights on life, deeply understand the metaphorical meaning of the “life jar” in the video, and effectively combine language learning with life reflection to achieve the integration of language and thinking. 教学过程 Step 1: Lead-in (Lead-in to Arouse Interest and Lay a Foundation) Activity 1: Greeting and Free Talk The teacher greets the students in English: “Good morning, everyone! How are you today? I hope you are in a good mood. As we grow up, we all experience different things in life—happiness, sadness, success, failure. These experiences are like lessons that teach us how to grow. Today, we will start our journey of exploring ‘Lessons in Life’ together.” Then, the teacher asks two simple questions to guide students to think: “What is the most unforgettable lesson you have learned in your life? Can you briefly describe it in one sentence?” After asking the questions, the teacher invites 2-3 students to share their answers. For example, if a student says, “I learned that I should be honest from a small mistake”, the teacher responds positively: “That’s a valuable lesson. Honesty is an important quality in life. Thank you for sharing.” For students who have difficulty expressing themselves, the teacher gives appropriate prompts, such as “Did you learn a lesson from a failure? Or from a friend’s help?” Design Intention: The greeting and free talk create a relaxed and harmonious English learning atmosphere, narrowing the distance between teachers and students. The questions about life lessons are closely related to students’ real life, which can arouse their emotional resonance and interest in learning. At the same time, it guides students to initially think about the theme of “life lessons”, laying a emotional and cognitive foundation for the subsequent study of the Starting out section. In addition, it can also check students’ basic oral expression ability and provide targeted guidance for the follow-up teaching. Activity 2: Video Watching and Discussion The teacher says to the students: “Now, we will watch a short video. Please pay attention to the content of the video and think about a question: What does the video compare life to? And why?” Then, the teacher plays the video in the Starting out section— the video that compares life to an empty jar. After watching the video, the teacher gives students 2 minutes to discuss the question in pairs. After the discussion, the teacher organizes the whole class to share. First, invite a pair of students to express their views. If the students can point out that “life is compared to an empty jar”, the teacher asks further: “Why do you think life is compared to an empty jar? What can we put into this ‘life jar’?” Guide students to think of things like family, friendship, knowledge, dreams, experiences and so on. If students have difficulty understanding the metaphor, the teacher can give hints: “When we are born, we have nothing, just like an empty jar. As we grow up, we experience many things and gain many precious things, which are like the things we put into the jar.” Then, the teacher makes a summary: “Yes, the video compares life to an empty jar. We fill this jar with all kinds of things in our life—love, friendship, knowledge, dreams, challenges and lessons. These things together make our life rich and meaningful. Today, we will start to explore these ‘lessons in life’ and learn how to make our ‘life jar’ more wonderful.” Design Intention: The video is vivid and intuitive, which can effectively attract students’ attention and help them understand the metaphorical meaning of life. Pair discussion enables students to communicate and exchange ideas, improve their oral expression ability and cooperative learning ability. By guiding students to analyze the metaphor of the “life jar”, it deepens their understanding of the theme of the unit, and naturally leads to the core content of the Starting out section, realizing the smooth transition from lead-in to new knowledge learning. Step 2: Presentation of New Knowledge (Master Core Vocabulary and Proverbs) Activity 1: Vocabulary Learning The teacher presents the core vocabulary of the Starting out section on the blackboard or courseware, including words and phrases such as “anticipate”, “phrase”, “fee”, “outstretched”, “cram”, “transparent”, “be crammed with”, “point of view”, “be reunited with”. For each word and phrase, the teacher explains its meaning, pronunciation and usage, and combines it with simple sentences and real-life examples to help students understand and remember. For example, when teaching “anticipate”, the teacher says: “Anticipate is a verb, which means ‘to expect or predict something will happen’. For example, we can say ‘I anticipate that there will be many challenges in my life, but I will face them bravely.’” Then, the teacher asks students to make a simple sentence with “anticipate” by themselves, and invites 1-2 students to share their sentences to check their mastery. When teaching the phrase “be crammed with”, the teacher explains: “This phrase means ‘to be filled with a lot of things’. For example, ‘The classroom is crammed with students who are eager to learn.’” Then, the teacher shows a picture of a crowded library and asks students to describe it with “be crammed with”: “Look at the picture. The library is crammed with books and readers.” For some difficult words, such as “outstretched” and “transparent”, the teacher uses body language or pictures to assist explanation. For example, the teacher stretches out his hands and says: “This is outstretched hands. Outstretched means ‘spread out or extended’. Transparent means ‘allowing light to pass through so that objects behind can be seen clearly’, like a transparent glass.” After explaining all the vocabulary, the teacher organizes a quick memory game: the teacher says the Chinese meaning of the word or phrase, and students quickly say the English expression; or the teacher says the English word or phrase, and students say the Chinese meaning. This game can help students consolidate the newly learned vocabulary and improve their learning interest. Design Intention: Vocabulary is the foundation of language learning. By explaining the core vocabulary in detail with examples and body language, it helps students accurately grasp the meaning and usage of words and phrases, laying a foundation for their subsequent listening, speaking, reading and writing. The quick memory game makes the vocabulary learning more interesting, avoids the dullness of mechanical memory, and improves students’ learning efficiency and enthusiasm. Activity 2: Proverb Learning The teacher says to the students: “In our life, there are many proverbs that contain profound life wisdom. These proverbs are the summary of people’s life experiences and can teach us valuable lessons. Now, let’s learn some proverbs related to life in the Starting out section.” The teacher presents 3-4 key proverbs on the courseware, such as “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”, “Every cloud has a silver lining.”, “Experience is the best teacher.” For each proverb, the teacher first reads it aloud, and asks students to read it after him, paying attention to the pronunciation and intonation. Then, the teacher explains the meaning of the proverb in simple English, and combines it with life examples to help students understand its connotation. For example, when teaching “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”, the teacher explains: “This proverb means that a true friend is someone who helps you when you are in trouble. For example, when you fail an exam and feel sad, a true friend will comfort you and help you find the reason. That is a friend in need.” Then, the teacher asks students: “Do you have such a friend? Can you talk about your experience with him/her?” Invite 1-2 students to share, which not only helps students understand the proverb better, but also combines with their real life. When teaching “Every cloud has a silver lining.”, the teacher explains: “This proverb means that even in bad situations, there is always something good. For example, if you miss a bus, you may meet an old friend who you haven’t seen for a long time. So, when we face difficulties, we should be optimistic, because there is always hope.” Then, the teacher guides students to think: “Have you ever had such an experience? When you were in a bad situation, what good things happened to you?” After learning all the proverbs, the teacher organizes students to read them aloud together, and asks them to remember their meanings. Then, the teacher asks: “Which proverb do you like best? Why? What life lesson can you learn from it?” Invite students to share their views, which helps students deeply understand the connotation of the proverbs and internalize the life wisdom contained in them. Design Intention: Proverbs are an important part of language and culture. Learning life-related proverbs not only enriches students’ language accumulation, but also helps them understand the life wisdom of different cultures, cultivating their cultural awareness. By combining proverbs with students’ real life experiences, it makes the learning of proverbs more vivid and practical, and guides students to apply the life wisdom in proverbs to their own life, realizing the integration of language learning and moral education. Step 3: Interactive Practice (Consolidate New Knowledge and Improve Comprehensive Ability) Activity 1: Picture Analysis and Discussion The teacher presents the six pictures in the Starting out section on the courseware, and says to the students: “Now, we have six pictures here. Each picture shows a different life scene. Please work in groups of 4 to analyze these pictures. Discuss the following questions: 1. What is happening in each picture? 2. What life lesson can we learn from each picture? 3. Which picture do you think best reflects the theme of ‘Lessons in Life’? Why?” Before the group discussion, the teacher divides the students into groups of 4, and assigns roles to each group member: a recorder (responsible for recording the group’s views), a speaker (responsible for sharing the group’s views with the whole class), a timekeeper (responsible for controlling the discussion time) and a questioner (responsible for putting forward questions that the group cannot solve). Then, the teacher gives students 8 minutes to discuss. During the discussion, the teacher walks around the classroom, observes the discussion situation of each group, and provides timely guidance for groups that have difficulties. For example, if a group has difficulty analyzing the picture of a person helping an old man cross the road, the teacher prompts: “What is the person doing in the picture? What kind of quality does he show? What lesson can we learn from his behavior?” If a group cannot reach an agreement on which picture best reflects the theme, the teacher guides: “Think about the theme of the unit—‘Lessons in Life’. Which picture tells us a clear life lesson that can help us grow?” After the group discussion, the teacher invites 2-3 groups to share their views. Each group’s speaker introduces the group’s analysis of the pictures and their views on the life lessons. After each group shares, the teacher makes a comment, affirms the advantages of the group, and puts forward appropriate suggestions. For example, if a group analyzes the picture of a person learning from a failure, the teacher says: “Your analysis is very detailed. You found that the picture tells us that failure is a lesson that can make us stronger. That’s a very valuable insight. If you can combine the proverb we learned just now—‘Experience is the best teacher.’—to explain, it will be better.” After all groups share, the teacher makes a summary: “All groups have done a good job. Each picture shows a different life scene and contains valuable life lessons—helping others, learning from failure, cherishing friendship, being honest and so on. These lessons are very important for our growth. They are like the precious things we put into our ‘life jar’, making our life more meaningful.” Design Intention: Group discussion is an effective way to carry out cooperative learning. It enables students to exchange ideas, complement each other’s strengths, and improve their cooperative communication ability and problem-solving ability. By analyzing the pictures, students can apply the newly learned vocabulary and proverbs to practical communication, consolidating the new knowledge. At the same time, it guides students to deeply understand the theme of “Lessons in Life” through specific life scenes, and cultivates their ability of observation, analysis and thinking. Activity 2: Role-Play The teacher says to the students: “Now, we will do a role-play activity. Please work in pairs. Each pair will create a short dialogue based on one of the pictures we just analyzed. The dialogue should include the newly learned vocabulary and proverbs, and reflect the life lesson in the picture. You can also add your own imagination to make the dialogue more vivid.” The teacher gives students 5 minutes to prepare the dialogue. During the preparation, the teacher walks around the classroom, provides guidance for students who have difficulties in creating the dialogue. For example, if a pair of students chooses the picture of a person helping an old man cross the road, the teacher prompts: “You can use the phrase ‘be willing to help others’ and the proverb ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed.’ (extended to helping others). You can design the dialogue between the old man and the helper.” After the preparation, the teacher invites 3-4 pairs of students to perform their dialogues in front of the class. After each performance, the teacher and other students make comments: whether the dialogue uses the newly learned vocabulary and proverbs, whether it reflects the life lesson, whether the pronunciation and intonation are correct, and whether the dialogue is vivid and natural. For example, if a pair of students performs a dialogue about learning from failure, the teacher says: “Your dialogue is very vivid. You used the word ‘anticipate’ and the proverb ‘Experience is the best teacher.’, which is very good. Your pronunciation is also very standard. If you can add some emotional expressions, it will be better.” After all performances, the teacher makes a summary: “All pairs have performed very well. Your dialogues are vivid and creative, and you have successfully applied the newly learned vocabulary and proverbs to the dialogue. Through this role-play activity, we not only consolidated the new knowledge, but also improved our oral expression ability and imagination. More importantly, we deeply understood the life lessons contained in the pictures.” Design Intention: Role-play is a practical and interesting language practice activity. It enables students to apply the newly learned knowledge to real communication scenarios, improving their oral expression ability and language application ability. By creating dialogues, students can give full play to their imagination and creativity, and enhance their interest in learning English. At the same time, it further deepens students’ understanding of life lessons, and realizes the integration of language learning and life education. Activity 3: Sentence Making and Expansion The teacher presents 3 key sentence patterns on the courseware: 1. It’s up to us to find out what is important in our lives and establish our own values. 2. Reading this book made me feel as if I’d been woken up from a long sleep and finally opened my eyes to the world. 3. We should learn from our experiences and become better people. First, the teacher explains the structure and usage of each sentence pattern. For example, when explaining the first sentence pattern “It’s up to us to do...”, the teacher says: “This sentence pattern means ‘It is our responsibility to do something.’ For example, ‘It’s up to us to study hard and realize our dreams.’” Then, the teacher asks students to make sentences with this sentence pattern, combining their own life experiences. For the second sentence pattern “make sb feel as if...”, the teacher explains: “This sentence pattern means ‘make someone feel as if something is true.’ For example, ‘The warm smile of my mother made me feel as if I was in the warmest place in the world.’” Then, the teacher invites students to share their sentences. After students master the sentence patterns, the teacher guides them to expand the sentences. For example, for the third sentence pattern, the teacher says: “We can expand the sentence like this: ‘We should learn from our past experiences, learn from our mistakes, and become better people who are brave and responsible.’” Then, the teacher asks students to expand the sentences they made, and invites 2-3 students to share their expanded sentences. Design Intention: Sentence pattern learning is an important part of language learning. By explaining and practicing key sentence patterns, it helps students master the basic structure of English sentences and improve their ability of sentence making and expansion. Expanding sentences enables students to use more rich vocabulary and expressions, improving their language expression ability. At the same time, the sentence patterns are closely related to the theme of life, which helps students express their views on life more accurately and deeply. Step 4: Summary and Reflection (Sort Out Knowledge and Deepen Understanding) Activity 1: Class Summary The teacher says to the students: “Today, we have learned the Starting out section of Unit 2 Lessons in Life. Let’s review what we have learned together. First, we learned some core vocabulary and phrases related to life, such as ‘anticipate’, ‘be crammed with’ and ‘be reunited with’. Then, we learned some proverbs that contain life wisdom, such as ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed.’ and ‘Experience is the best teacher.’ Next, we analyzed six pictures and discussed the life lessons contained in them. Finally, we did role-play and sentence making activities to consolidate the new knowledge.” Then, the teacher invites students to summarize what they have learned today. Ask 2-3 students to share their gains, such as “I learned many new words and proverbs, and I know how to talk about life lessons in English.” or “I understand that life is like an empty jar, and we should fill it with precious things like love and friendship.” After students share, the teacher makes a final summary: “Today, we not only learned a lot of English knowledge, but also gained valuable life wisdom. Life is a journey full of lessons. Every experience, whether happy or sad, is a lesson that helps us grow. I hope you can apply what you have learned today to your own life, cherish every experience, and make your ‘life jar’ more rich and meaningful.” Design Intention: The class summary helps students sort out the knowledge they have learned today, form a systematic knowledge framework, and consolidate the learning results. Inviting students to summarize by themselves can improve their ability of induction and summary, and enhance their sense of participation and achievement. The final summary of the teacher not only reviews the knowledge, but also elevates the theme of the lesson, guiding students to connect language learning with life, and realizing the educational significance of the lesson. Activity 2: Personal Reflection The teacher asks students to take out a piece of paper and write a short reflection in English. The reflection should include the following contents: 1. What did you learn today? 2. What life lesson did you gain? 3. How will you apply what you have learned today to your own life? 4. Do you have any questions or suggestions about today’s lesson? The teacher gives students 5 minutes to write the reflection. During this period, the teacher walks around the classroom, and provides guidance for students who have difficulty writing. For example, if a student doesn’t know how to express their reflection, the teacher gives prompts: “You can start with ‘Today, I learned...’, then write ‘I think the most important life lesson is...’, and finally write ‘In the future, I will...’.” After students finish writing, the teacher invites 2-3 students to share their reflections. For example, if a student writes: “Today, I learned many new words and proverbs. I learned that experience is the best teacher. In the future, I will learn from my mistakes and become a better person.” The teacher responds positively: “Your reflection is very good. You have a deep understanding of what we learned today. I believe you will become a better person by learning from your experiences.” Then, the teacher collects all students’ reflections, which can help the teacher understand the learning situation of each student, find out the problems existing in the teaching, and provide a basis for the subsequent teaching improvement. Design Intention: Personal reflection is an important way to improve students’ learning ability. It enables students to sort out their own learning gains and deficiencies, and deepen their understanding of the knowledge and life lessons learned. Writing reflections in English can not only consolidate the newly learned vocabulary and sentence patterns, but also improve students’ writing ability. At the same time, the teacher can understand the teaching effect through the students’ reflections, and adjust the teaching plan in time to improve the teaching quality. Step 5: Extended Application (Connect with Real Life and Expand Learning Space) Activity 1: Homework Arrangement The teacher arranges the following homework for students: 1. Recite the core vocabulary and proverbs learned today, and make 5 sentences with the key words and phrases. 2. Write a short passage (about 80-100 words) about a life lesson you have learned, using the vocabulary, proverbs and sentence patterns learned today. 3. Collect 2-3 more life-related proverbs by yourself, and find out their meanings and usage. 4. Discuss the life lessons you learned today with your family or friends in English. The teacher explains the requirements of the homework: “For the short passage, please write it truthfully, combine your own real life experiences, and make sure that the vocabulary and sentence patterns are used correctly. For the collected proverbs, please write down their English expressions, Chinese meanings and simple examples. When discussing with your family or friends, try to use the English you learned today to express your views.” Design Intention: Homework is an important extension of classroom teaching. It enables students to consolidate the knowledge learned in class and apply it to real life. Reciting vocabulary and making sentences helps students consolidate the basic knowledge. Writing a short passage improves students’ writing ability and enables them to deeply reflect on their own life lessons. Collecting proverbs and discussing with family or friends expands students’ learning space, improves their autonomous learning ability and oral expression ability, and realizes the integration of classroom learning and daily life. Activity 2: Preview Guidance The teacher says to the students: “Next class, we will learn the Understanding Ideas section of this unit, which tells a specific story about life lessons. Please preview the text before class. When previewing, please pay attention to the following points: 1. Understand the main idea of the text. 2. Find out the new words and phrases in the text and try to guess their meanings according to the context. 3. Think about what life lesson the story tells us. Previewing can help us learn the new lesson better. I hope you can finish the preview carefully.” Design Intention: Preview is an important link in autonomous learning. It enables students to have a preliminary understanding of the new knowledge, find out the difficulties and problems in advance, and improve the efficiency of classroom learning. By guiding students to preview the next section, it helps them form a good learning habit, improves their autonomous learning ability, and lays a foundation for the subsequent teaching. 1 / 1 学科网（北京）股份有限公司 学科网（北京）股份有限公司 学科网（北京）股份有限公司 $