Unit4 Customs and Traditions-Reading B Further Exploration 教学设计-2025-2026学年高中英语沪外版必修第一册

Unit 4 Customs and Traditions-Reading B-Further Exploration 教学目标和重难点 教学目标 It focuses on developing students’ language ability to understand and express customs-related contents, cultural awareness to respect cultural diversity, thinking quality to analyze the evolution of customs, and learning ability to explore independently and cooperate in groups. 教学重难点 Key points: Master core vocabulary and sentence patterns about wedding customs evolution; grasp the text’s time-line structure. Difficult points: Understand the dialectical relationship between symbolism and practicality in customs and express views logically. 教学过程 Step 1: Lead-in (Warm-up and Lead-in) The teacher starts the class by showing a short video clip (3-5 minutes) that presents the evolution of wedding customs around the world, from ancient Roman handfasting ceremonies to modern diverse wedding forms. The video includes scenes of different wedding costumes, vows and rituals, with simple English narration to avoid language barriers. After playing the video, the teacher asks two guiding questions: “What wedding customs have you seen in the video? How do they differ from the wedding customs you know?” Then, invite students to share their opinions freely. Some students may talk about traditional Chinese weddings with red dresses and tea ceremonies, while others may mention Western weddings with white veils and ring exchanges. The teacher responds positively to each student’s sharing, guides them to focus on the changes of wedding customs, and naturally leads to the topic of Reading B — The Evolution of Wedding Customs. Finally, the teacher briefly introduces the text: “Today we will read an expository text that takes the evolution of wedding customs as the main line, helping us understand the logical changes of wedding customs in different periods and the cultural connotation behind them.” Design Intention: The video clip is used to create an immersive situational atmosphere, which can quickly arouse students’ interest in the topic of wedding customs and activate their prior knowledge. The guiding questions connect students’ life experience with the text content, reducing the difficulty of text understanding. By introducing the text briefly, students can form a preliminary cognitive framework of the text, laying a foundation for the subsequent reading link. At the same time, this link also implicitly cultivates students’ cultural awareness, allowing them to initially perceive the diversity of wedding customs in different cultures. Step 2: Pre-reading (Vocabulary and Background Preview) First, the teacher presents the core vocabulary and phrases in the text on the blackboard or multimedia courseware, including “evolution, handfasting, symbolism, practicality, vow, ritual, simplify, preserve, core, societal shift” and so on. For each vocabulary, the teacher explains its meaning in simple English, combines it with the scenes in the lead-in video or specific examples to help students understand, and guides students to read the words aloud twice to consolidate their pronunciation. For example, when explaining “handfasting”, the teacher says: “Handfasting is an ancient Roman wedding ritual, in which the hands of the bride and groom are tied together to symbolize their lifelong commitment.” When explaining “symbolism vs practicality”, the teacher combines the wedding ring: “The wedding ring is a symbol of loyalty and permanence (symbolism), and it is also a simple and easy-to-carry ornament (practicality).” Then, the teacher briefly introduces the background knowledge related to the text: “Wedding customs have a long history. In ancient times, they were often related to religion, customs and social norms, while modern wedding customs are more personalized and simplified. The text takes the time line as the clue to introduce the changes of wedding customs, focusing on the balance between tradition and modernity.” At the same time, the teacher reminds students: “When reading, pay attention to the time signal words, which can help us sort out the evolution process of wedding customs.” Finally, the teacher arranges a small group activity: students work in groups of 4 to discuss “What are the core elements of a wedding? Why are these elements preserved even as wedding customs evolve?” Each group selects a recorder to write down the key points of the discussion, and then invites 1-2 groups to present their opinions. The teacher makes appropriate comments and guides students to realize that the core elements of weddings (such as vows, rings) carry cultural and emotional connotations, which is the reason for their preservation. Design Intention: Vocabulary is the foundation of text understanding. By explaining vocabulary in combination with specific scenes and examples, students can not only master the meaning and pronunciation of words, but also understand their usage scenarios, avoiding isolated vocabulary memory. The introduction of background knowledge helps students understand the social and cultural context of the text, which is conducive to in-depth understanding of the theme of the text. The small group discussion activity not only cultivates students’ cooperative learning ability, but also guides them to think about the core connotation of wedding customs in advance, laying a foundation for the in-depth analysis of the text in the reading link. Step 3: While-reading (In-depth Reading and Analysis) This link is divided into three sub-steps: skimming, scanning and intensive reading, which guides students to understand the text from shallow to deep, and at the same time cultivates their reading skills and thinking quality. Skimming: The teacher asks students to read the text quickly and answer two questions: (1) What is the main idea of the text? (2) What is the structure of the text? After students finish reading, invite them to share their answers. The teacher summarizes: “The main idea of the text is to introduce the evolution of wedding customs from ancient Rome to modern times, focusing on the changes of costumes, vows and rituals and the reasons behind them. The text adopts an expository structure with a time line as the clue, which is a typical chronological structure.” Then, the teacher helps students sort out the text structure: Introduction (the importance of wedding customs), Body (the evolution of wedding customs in different periods: ancient Rome, medieval Europe, modern times), Conclusion (the significance of the evolution of wedding customs). Design Intention: Skimming is a basic reading skill. Through this link, students can quickly grasp the main idea and structure of the text, form an overall understanding of the text, and cultivate their ability to extract key information. At the same time, guiding students to analyze the text structure helps them master the characteristics of expository texts, which is conducive to improving their reading ability of similar texts. Scanning: The teacher asks students to read the text again, focus on the key information, and fill in the following form. The form is presented on the multimedia courseware, including three columns: Time Period, Wedding Customs (Costumes, Vows, Rituals), and Characteristics. Students can work in pairs to complete the form, and the teacher walks around the classroom to provide guidance for students with difficulties. After students finish, the teacher invites several pairs to present their forms, checks and corrects them, and emphasizes the key information in the text, such as “In ancient Rome, brides wore red veils to symbolize good luck; in modern times, many couples personalize their vows to express their true feelings.” Design Intention: Scanning helps students accurately extract specific information from the text, improve their reading efficiency. Completing the form in pairs not only reduces the difficulty of the task, but also cultivates students’ cooperative learning ability. By checking and correcting the form, the teacher can timely grasp the students’ understanding of the text details, and lay a foundation for the subsequent intensive reading link. Intensive Reading: The teacher guides students to read the key paragraphs of the text intensively, focusing on analyzing the difficult sentences and the dialectical relationship between symbolism and practicality in wedding customs. First, the teacher selects several difficult sentences in the text, such as “While modern weddings have simplified many traditional rituals, they still preserve the core symbolic elements, such as the exchange of rings.” and “The evolution of wedding customs reflects the changes of society and people’s values.” For each difficult sentence, the teacher guides students to analyze the sentence structure (such as attributive clauses, adverbial clauses), explains the key phrases, and helps students understand the meaning of the sentence. Then, the teacher asks guiding questions: “Why do modern weddings simplify traditional rituals? Why do they still preserve the core symbolic elements?” Guide students to discuss in groups, and then share their opinions. The teacher summarizes: “Modern weddings simplify traditional rituals because of the changes of social rhythm and people’s pursuit of practicality; while preserving the core symbolic elements is to inherit the cultural connotation and emotional sustenance behind wedding customs, which reflects the dialectical relationship between symbolism and practicality.” In addition, the teacher guides students to pay attention to the rhetorical devices used in the text, such as contrast and example, and analyzes their functions. For example, the text contrasts the ancient Roman wedding customs with modern wedding customs, which makes the evolution of wedding customs more clear; the text takes the ring exchange as an example to illustrate the preservation of core symbolic elements, which makes the argument more convincing. The teacher asks students to find other rhetorical devices in the text and analyze their functions, so as to deepen their understanding of the text. Design Intention: Intensive reading is the key link to in-depth understanding of the text. By analyzing difficult sentences, students can break through the language barriers in reading and improve their ability to understand complex sentences. By discussing the dialectical relationship between symbolism and practicality, students’ critical thinking quality is cultivated, enabling them to understand the evolution of wedding customs from a deeper level. Analyzing rhetorical devices helps students master the writing skills of expository texts, which is conducive to improving their writing ability. Step 4: Post-reading (Consolidation and Application) This link is designed to help students consolidate the knowledge and skills learned in the reading link, and apply them to practical language communication, so as to achieve the goal of “learning to use”. Vocabulary and Sentence Pattern Practice: The teacher arranges two exercises. Exercise 1: Fill in the blanks with the core vocabulary learned in the pre-reading link. The sentences are closely related to the text content, such as “The ______ of wedding customs reflects the development of society.” (evolution) “We should ______ the core cultural elements of traditional customs.” (preserve) Exercise 2: Rewrite the sentences according to the example. The example is “While modern weddings have simplified many traditional rituals, they still preserve the core symbolic elements.” Students are required to use the structure “While..., they still...” to rewrite sentences, combining their own understanding of customs. After students finish the exercises, the teacher checks and corrects them, and invites several students to read their rewritten sentences, so as to consolidate the mastery of vocabulary and sentence patterns. Design Intention: Vocabulary and sentence pattern practice is an important way to consolidate the language knowledge learned. The exercises closely related to the text content can help students connect the vocabulary and sentence patterns with the text context, avoiding mechanical memory. Rewriting sentences can improve students’ ability to use language flexibly, laying a foundation for subsequent oral and written expression. Group Discussion and Presentation: The teacher divides students into groups of 5, and assigns the discussion task: “Suppose you are going to design a modern wedding that combines traditional and modern elements. Please discuss and determine the wedding costumes, vows, rituals and other elements, and explain the reasons for your design (combining the symbolism and practicality of the elements).” Each group has 10 minutes to discuss, and assigns roles: recorder (recording the design scheme), speaker (presenting the scheme), and responder (answering the questions raised by other groups and teachers). After the discussion, each group sends a speaker to present their design scheme. The presentation time of each group is 3-4 minutes. After the presentation, other groups can ask questions, such as “Why do you choose this kind of wedding costume? What is its symbolic meaning?” The speaker of the group answers the questions. Finally, the teacher makes comments on each group’s design scheme, affirms the advantages, points out the deficiencies, and guides students to realize that the design of modern weddings should balance tradition and modernity, symbolism and practicality. Design Intention: Group discussion and presentation is a comprehensive language practice activity, which can not only cultivate students’ cooperative learning ability and oral expression ability, but also enable students to apply the knowledge and thinking methods learned in the text to practical situations. The design task is closely related to the theme of the text, which helps students deepen their understanding of the dialectical relationship between symbolism and practicality in customs. The question and answer link can stimulate students’ thinking and improve their ability to respond flexibly. Critical Thinking Activity: The teacher puts forward a controversial topic: “Some people think that traditional wedding customs are outdated and should be completely abandoned; others think that traditional wedding customs are the essence of culture and should be completely preserved. What is your opinion?” Guide students to express their own views, and require them to combine the content of the text and their own life experience to explain the reasons. For example, some students may say: “We should not completely abandon or preserve traditional wedding customs. We should abandon the backward and cumbersome parts and preserve the core cultural elements, so as to make traditional wedding customs adapt to modern society.” The teacher encourages students to express different views, guides them to think dialectically, and helps them establish a correct view of cultural inheritance. Design Intention: This activity aims to cultivate students’ critical thinking quality and cultural awareness. By discussing controversial topics, students can learn to analyze problems from multiple perspectives, express their views logically, and understand the importance of cultural inheritance and innovation. At the same time, this activity also connects the text content with real life, enabling students to apply the knowledge learned to solve practical problems, reflecting the practical value of English learning. Step 5: Summary and Homework Summary: The teacher invites students to summarize the key points of this class, including the main idea and structure of the text, core vocabulary and sentence patterns, and the dialectical relationship between symbolism and practicality in wedding customs. Then, the teacher makes a comprehensive summary: “In this class, we read an expository text about the evolution of wedding customs, mastered the core vocabulary and sentence patterns related to customs, understood the evolution process of wedding customs and the cultural connotation behind them, and cultivated our ability to analyze problems dialectically. We also learned that traditional customs are living cultural carriers, and we should inherit and innovate them to make them adapt to the development of modern society.” Design Intention: Letting students summarize the key points of the class can help them sort out the knowledge system of the class and strengthen their memory of the knowledge learned. The teacher’s comprehensive summary can help students form a complete cognitive framework, and sublimate the theme of the class, guiding students to establish a correct view of cultural inheritance. Homework: The teacher assigns three levels of homework to meet the needs of different students. Level 1 (Basic): Copy the core vocabulary and difficult sentences of the text, and translate the key paragraphs into Chinese. Level 2 (Improvement): Write a short passage (80-100 words) about the evolution of a custom you know (such as Spring Festival customs, Mid-Autumn Festival customs), using the vocabulary and sentence patterns learned in this class. Level 3 (Challenge): Interview your parents or grandparents about the changes of a certain custom in their time, record the key information, and write a short report (120-150 words) to analyze the reasons for the changes of the custom. Design Intention: The hierarchical homework takes into account the differences of students’ learning levels, ensuring that each student can complete the homework within their ability and make progress. The basic homework helps students consolidate the language knowledge learned; the improvement homework helps students improve their written expression ability; the challenge homework connects English learning with real life, cultivates students’ investigation ability and analytical ability, and further deepens their understanding of the theme of customs and traditions. 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 $