Unit 2 Sports and Fitness-Lesson 1 The Underdog 教案-2025-2026学年高中英语北师大版必修第一册

Unit 2 Sports and Fitness-Lesson 1 The Underdog 教学目标和重难点 1. 教学目标 Language competence: Master core vocabulary and reading strategies to understand the narrative. Cultural awareness: Perceive sports spirit across cultures. Thinking quality: Analyze character changes and explore the theme. Learning ability: Improve independent and cooperative learning skills through diverse activities. 2. 教学重难点 Key points: Grasp the plot and character traits, master core vocabulary and reading skills. Difficult points: Understand the theme “Opportunities favor the prepared”, and apply what is learned to express personal views in English. 教学过程 Step 1: Warm-up and Lead-in The teacher starts the class by showing a 1-minute short video about underdog counterattack in sports, such as a short clip of a weak team winning a crucial game or an athlete with physical disadvantages achieving success. After playing the video, the teacher asks two questions in English: “What factors help the underdog succeed in the video?” and “What qualities does a successful underdog usually have?” The teacher invites students to answer freely, and guides them to put forward words like “persistence”, “hard work”, “courage” and “determination”. Then, the teacher presents three contextual sentences containing the word “underdog”, such as “In the basketball game, the small team was considered the underdog but finally won.”, and asks students to work in pairs to guess the meaning of “underdog”. After 2 minutes of discussion, each pair sends a representative to share their guesses and the reasons. Finally, the teacher summarizes and clarifies the meaning of “underdog” — a person or team that is not expected to win or succeed, and leads to the topic of the lesson: “Today, we will read a story about an underdog in a high school basketball team and explore how he changed his fate through his own efforts.” Design Intention: This part adopts situational teaching method. The short video about sports counterattack is close to students’ life and can quickly attract students’ attention, arouse their interest in the topic, and activate their existing knowledge and experience about sports and success. Guessing the meaning of “underdog” in context helps students master the vocabulary learning strategy of contextual inference, lays a foundation for the understanding of the text theme, and naturally leads to the main content of the lesson, realizing the connection between prior knowledge and new learning content. Step 2: Pre-reading First, the teacher presents the core vocabulary and phrases of the lesson on the screen, including “underdog, champion, inspiration, bench, replacement, tough, crash, let sb. down, pay off, extra” and so on. For each word and phrase, the teacher provides corresponding contextual examples combined with the text, such as “Paul was only 1.6 meters tall, so he was often on the bench as a replacement.”, to help students understand their meanings and usages in specific contexts. Then, the teacher guides students to read the words and phrases aloud twice, correcting their pronunciation and intonation in time. Next, the teacher shows the title of the text “The Underdog” and the pictures in the text (Paul practicing basketball alone, the basketball game scene), and asks students to predict the content of the text: “Who is the underdog in the text? What difficulties did he encounter? Will he succeed in the end?” Students can express their predictions freely, and the teacher writes down the key points of their predictions on the blackboard without commenting on their correctness. Design Intention: Pre-reading vocabulary teaching focuses on combining context, which avoids the boring memory of isolated words and helps students master the usage of vocabulary in practical communication. Reading aloud helps students consolidate their pronunciation and lay a foundation for smooth reading. Predicting the text content based on the title and pictures can stimulate students’ reading desire, cultivate their ability of logical prediction, and enable them to have a preliminary understanding of the text direction before reading, improving the efficiency of subsequent reading. Step 3: While-reading This step is divided into three parts: skimming, scanning and intensive reading, guiding students to understand the text from the overall to the details, and gradually deepening their understanding. Skimming The teacher asks students to read the whole text quickly, and complete two tasks: first, divide the text into two parts and summarize the main idea of each part; second, confirm who the underdog in the text is. After students finish reading, the teacher invites several students to share their answers, and then summarizes with the whole class: The text is divided into two parts. Part 1 mainly introduces Paul’s situation: he is 1.6 meters tall, loves basketball, works hard, but is only a replacement on the team and not trusted by the coach. Part 2 tells the story of Paul getting a chance in a crucial game and helping the team win. The underdog in the text is Paul. Design Intention: Skimming training aims to help students master the reading strategy of quickly grasping the main idea of the text. Dividing the text and summarizing the main idea can help students sort out the structure of the text, form an overall cognitive framework of the text, and lay a foundation for in-depth understanding of the details later. Confirming the underdog helps students focus on the core character of the text and clarify the main line of the story. Scanning The teacher asks students to read the text again quickly, and complete a “Protagonist’s Profile” form individually. The form includes five columns: Height, Team, Advantages, Disadvantages and Situation. After students finish filling in the form, the teacher invites a student to present his/her form on the screen, and checks and corrects it with the whole class. The correct answers are: Height: 1.6 meters; Team: The Lions (the school basketball team); Advantages: Hard-working, has real basketball skills, strong desire to play for the team, takes Tyrone Bogues as inspiration; Disadvantages: Shorter than other players; Situation: Had to try out many times to join the team, usually on the bench as a replacement, not trusted by the coach, not given the chance to play. Then, the teacher asks students to scan Part 2 again and sort out the plot sequence of the game: a teammate was injured → someone suggested letting Paul play → the coach hesitated and refused at first → the teammates persuaded the coach → Paul took the initiative to ask for a chance → Paul played well and helped the team win. Students can sort out the sequence in groups of four, and then the teacher invites a group representative to share the result, and sorts out the correct plot sequence with the whole class. Design Intention: Scanning training focuses on cultivating students’ ability to quickly find specific information in the text. The form filling task makes the information sorting more visualized and targeted, which helps students accurately grasp the key information of the protagonist’s situation. Sorting out the plot sequence helps students clarify the development context of the story, understand the logical relationship between the plots, and lay a foundation for analyzing the character’s changes and the theme of the text. Intensive Reading First, the teacher guides students to read Part 1 carefully, and focuses on analyzing Paul’s character traits. The teacher asks questions: “What can we know about Paul from the sentences ‘Paul knew that being shorter than other players meant that he had to practise more’ and ‘During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his inspiration’?” Students are invited to discuss in pairs, and then share their views. The teacher summarizes Paul’s character traits: hard-working, persistent, determined and positive. Then, the teacher asks: “Why was the coach not sure about Paul? What does this show?” Students answer freely, and the teacher guides them to understand that the coach judged Paul by his height, which reflects the coach’s initial prejudice and also sets a contrast for the coach’s subsequent attitude change. Next, the teacher guides students to read Part 2 carefully, focusing on analyzing the coach’s attitude change and the reasons for the change. The teacher asks students to find the sentences in the text that reflect the coach’s attitude towards Paul, and sort out the process of the coach’s attitude change. Students work in groups of four to complete this task. After discussion, each group shares their findings, and the teacher summarizes the coach’s attitude change process: Worried → Doubtful → Hesitant → Hopeful → Recognized. Then, the teacher asks: “What makes the coach change his attitude towards Paul?” Students are guided to combine the text details to answer: Paul’s active request, the teammates’ persuasion, and most importantly, Paul’s excellent performance in the game, which proves his strength with practical actions. In addition, the teacher focuses on explaining the key sentences and grammar points in the text, such as “Paul was only 1.6 metres tall, which made him the shortest player ever in the NBA.” (non-restrictive attributive clause), “If Bogues could make it, why not me?” (rhetorical question), and “I won’t let you down!” (phrase “let sb. down”). The teacher explains the structure and usage of these sentences with specific examples, and asks students to make sentences by themselves to consolidate their understanding. Design Intention: Intensive reading is the key link to deepen students’ understanding of the text. By analyzing Paul’s character traits and the coach’s attitude change, students can not only grasp the details of the text, but also cultivate their ability of logical analysis and reasoning. The explanation of key sentences and grammar points helps students master the language knowledge in the text, lay a foundation for language output, and realize the organic combination of language learning and text understanding. Step 4: Post-reading This step includes three activities: group discussion, role-play and language output, aiming to help students consolidate what they have learned, deepen their understanding of the theme, and improve their language application ability. Group Discussion The teacher puts forward two discussion topics: ① What is the theme of the text? Do you agree with the view that “Opportunities favor the prepared”? Why or why not? ② Combine your own experience, talk about how to become a successful “underdog” when you are at a disadvantage. Students are divided into groups of six to discuss these two topics. The teacher walks around the classroom, guides students to express their views freely, helps students solve the language difficulties encountered in the discussion, and reminds students to use the vocabulary and sentences learned in the lesson. After 10 minutes of discussion, each group sends a representative to share their discussion results. The teacher comments on the students’ performances, affirms their positive views, and guides students to deeply understand the theme of the text: Opportunities are not accidental, but belong to those who work hard and are fully prepared. Design Intention: Group discussion can cultivate students’ cooperative learning ability and oral expression ability. The discussion topics are closely related to the text theme and students’ real life, which helps students connect the text content with their own experience, deepen their understanding of the theme, and realize the emotional and value sublimation. The teacher’s guidance and comments can help students standardize their oral expression and improve their language application ability. Role-play The teacher divides the students into groups of five, and assigns roles to each group: Paul, the coach, the injured teammate, another teammate and the narrator. The groups need to perform the key part of the text — the process of Paul getting the chance to play and the coach’s attitude change. The teacher requires students to refer to the text content, use the vocabulary and sentences learned in the lesson, and add appropriate body language and emotional expressions to make the performance more vivid. Each group prepares for 5 minutes, and then two groups are invited to perform in front of the whole class. After the performance, the teacher and other students comment on their performances, focusing on the accuracy of language expression, the vividness of role interpretation and the mastery of the text content. Design Intention: Role-play is a vivid and interesting language practice activity. It can help students deeply understand the characters’ emotions and attitudes in the text, consolidate the vocabulary and sentences learned, and improve their oral expression ability and cooperative ability. The comment link can help students find their own advantages and disadvantages, and promote the mutual learning and progress among students. Language Output The teacher asks students to write a short passage (about 80-100 words) with the title “My Understanding of the Underdog Spirit”. The teacher requires students to combine the text content and their own views, use at least 5 core vocabulary and phrases learned in the lesson, such as “underdog, persistence, hard work, pay off, let sb. down”. Students write independently, and the teacher walks around the classroom to provide guidance for students who have difficulties in writing. After students finish writing, the teacher collects some students’ works, displays them on the screen, and comments on them, affirming the advantages and pointing out the deficiencies, such as the accuracy of vocabulary use, the fluency of sentences and the clarity of views. Then, students exchange their works in pairs, and revise their own works according to their partners’ suggestions. Design Intention: Writing is an important way to test students’ language application ability. The writing task combines the text theme and students’ own views, which can help students consolidate the knowledge learned, improve their writing ability, and deepen their understanding of the underdog spirit. The teacher’s guidance and comments, as well as the peer revision, can help students find their own problems in writing, and continuously improve their writing level. Step 5: Summary and Homework Summary The teacher summarizes the whole lesson with the students: In this lesson, we read a touching story about Paul, an underdog in the basketball team. We mastered the core vocabulary and phrases related to the text, learned to use skimming, scanning and other reading strategies to understand the text, analyzed Paul’s character traits and the coach’s attitude change, and deeply understood the theme that “Opportunities favor the prepared”. At the same time, we also improved our oral and written expression ability through group discussion, role-play and writing activities. The teacher encourages students to learn from Paul’s spirit, keep working hard, never give up when encountering difficulties, and strive to turn themselves into successful “underdogs”. Design Intention: The summary helps students sort out the knowledge and skills learned in the lesson, form a systematic cognitive structure, and deepen their understanding and memory of the lesson content. The encouragement from the teacher can help students establish a positive attitude towards life and realize the emotional and value education of the lesson. Homework ① Read the text aloud for 15 minutes every day, and recite the key sentences in the text. ② Finish the exercise sheet related to the core vocabulary and grammar points of the lesson. ③ Find a real-life underdog story (sports or other fields), write a short introduction (about 100 words) and share it in the next class. ④ Think about how to apply the underdog spirit to your study and life, and write a short reflection (about 50 words). Design Intention: The homework is designed hierarchically, covering listening, speaking, reading and writing. Reciting the text and key sentences helps students consolidate the language knowledge and text content learned. The exercise sheet helps students consolidate the core vocabulary and grammar points. Finding and introducing underdog stories helps students expand their horizons and deepen their understanding of the underdog spirit. Writing a reflection helps students connect the lesson content with their own study and life, and realize the application of the underdog spirit in real life. 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 $