Unit 4 Approaching Classics-Reading A-Digging in 教案 -2025-2026学年高中英语沪外版选择性必修第四册

Unit 4 Approaching Classics-Reading A-Digging in 教学目标和重难点 教学目标 It cultivates students’ language competence via core vocabulary and reading skills, develops thinking quality through analyzing the poem’s imagery and themes, strengthens cultural awareness of heritage and labor, and improves learning ability by independent and cooperative exploration. 教学重难点 Key: Master core vocabulary and phrases, understand the poem’s main content, structure and basic imagery. Difficulty: Analyze the deep meaning of “digging” and the connection between manual labor and creative labor, and appreciate the poem’s artistic charm. 教学过程 Step 1: Lead-in The teacher starts the class by showing a series of multi-modal materials, including pictures of farmers digging potatoes, cutting turf, and a short video clip about Seamus Heaney’s rural life in Ireland. Then the teacher asks two open-ended questions in English: “Have you ever seen people do farm work like digging? What do you think digging represents in people’s life?” After that, the teacher invites several students to share their ideas freely. Finally, the teacher naturally leads to the topic: “Today we will read a classic poem titled Digging in by Seamus Heaney, a famous Irish poet. Let’s explore what digging means to the poet and how he expresses his feelings through this image.” Design Intention: The lead-in uses multi-modal materials (pictures and videos) to arouse students’ interest in the topic of digging and rural labor quickly. By connecting the topic with students’ own life experiences, it activates their existing knowledge and emotional resonance, making them more willing to participate in the subsequent learning activities. Meanwhile, it lays a good emotional and cognitive foundation for understanding the poem, as students can easily relate the familiar farm work to the poet’s personal experience in the text. In addition, it subtly introduces the poet Seamus Heaney, helping students build a preliminary understanding of the background of the poem. Step 2: Pre-reading First, the teacher presents the key vocabulary and phrases in the poem on the screen, including “squat”, “rasping”, “gravelly”, “straining”, “turf”, “squelch”, “peat”, “nestle” and so on. For each word and phrase, the teacher provides simple and easy-to-understand definitions, example sentences related to the poem, and pronounces them clearly, asking students to follow and read twice. For example, when explaining “turf”, the teacher says: “Turf is a layer of earth with grass and its roots on it, which can be used as fuel, just like what the poet’s grandfather dug in the poem.” Then the teacher shows some pictures of “gravelly ground” and “turf” to help students understand the meaning more intuitively. For difficult words like “squelch”, the teacher imitates the sound of stepping on wet soil to let students feel the meaning of the word through hearing. Next, the teacher briefly introduces the background of the poet Seamus Heaney and the poem. He tells students: “Seamus Heaney is a famous Irish poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Digging is the opening poem of his first major collection Death of a Naturalist published in 1966. The poem is based on his childhood memories of watching his father and grandfather dig, and it expresses his thoughts on heritage, labor and personal identity.” Finally, the teacher asks students to predict the content of the poem: “Based on the title Digging and the background we just learned, what do you think the poet will write about in the poem? Will he write about the process of digging, or his feelings towards digging?” Students are encouraged to discuss in pairs and share their predictions. Design Intention: Pre-reading focuses on solving the language barriers for students to read the poem. By explaining key vocabulary and phrases in detail with examples and pictures, it helps students master the basic language knowledge and lay a solid foundation for smooth reading. The introduction of the poet and the poem’s background enables students to understand the writing context of the poem, which is conducive to their in-depth understanding of the poem’s themes and emotions. Predicting the poem’s content can stimulate students’ reading motivation and make their reading more targeted, cultivating their ability of logical prediction and thinking. Step 3: While-reading This step is divided into three parts: skimming, scanning and intensive reading, guiding students to understand the poem step by step from shallow to deep. First, skimming. The teacher asks students to read the poem quickly and answer two questions: 1. Who are the main characters mentioned in the poem? 2. What is the main content of the poem? After students finish reading, the teacher invites several students to answer the questions and summarizes: The main characters are the poet himself, his father and his grandfather. The poem describes the poet watching his father dig potatoes and recalling his grandfather cutting turf, and finally expresses his determination to “dig” with his pen. Design Intention: Skimming is a basic reading strategy that helps students grasp the main idea of the poem quickly. By setting simple and direct questions, it guides students to focus on the key information in the poem, cultivates their ability to extract key information efficiently, and lays a foundation for in-depth reading. Second, scanning. The teacher asks students to read the poem again carefully and complete a table about the details of digging: the characters (the poet’s father, grandfather and the poet himself), the objects they dig, the descriptions of their digging actions and the poet’s feelings towards them. Students are asked to work in groups of four to complete the table, and then each group sends a representative to present their answers. The teacher corrects and supplements the answers, emphasizing the key descriptions in the poem, such as “straining rump”, “levered firmly”, “nicking and slicing neatly” for the father and grandfather’s digging actions, and the poet’s admiration for them. Design Intention: Scanning helps students find specific details in the poem, deepening their understanding of the poem’s content. Group cooperation enables students to exchange ideas with each other, learn from each other’s strengths, and improve their cooperative learning ability. Completing the table makes the details of the poem more systematic and clear, helping students sort out the logical context of the poem. Third, intensive reading. The teacher guides students to read the poem paragraph by paragraph, analyzing the imagery, rhetorical devices and emotional connotations in the poem. Analysis of the opening and closing stanzas: The teacher asks students to read the first and last stanzas carefully and think: “What image is repeated in these two stanzas? What does this image mean?” Students discuss and share their ideas, and the teacher summarizes: The repeated image is “between my finger and my thumb / the squat pen rests”. The pen is compared to a gun by the simile “snug as a gun”, which conveys the firmness of the poet’s grip on the pen and the weight of his responsibility as a writer. The repetition of the image creates a circular structure, reflecting the continuity between the poet’s present and past, and between his own creative labor and his father and grandfather’s manual labor. Analysis of the imagery of “digging”: The teacher asks students: “What does ‘digging’ mean in the poem? Is it just the physical action of digging potatoes or cutting turf?” Students are encouraged to think deeply and discuss. The teacher guides them to realize that “digging” has two layers of meaning: the literal meaning is the manual labor of the father and grandfather, which represents hard work, heritage and the connection with the land; the figurative meaning is the poet’s writing, which is a kind of “digging” in the spiritual sense—digging into memories, emotions and truths. Analysis of rhetorical devices: The teacher asks students to find the rhetorical devices used in the poem, such as simile, alliteration and onomatopoeia. For example, “snug as a gun” is a simile, “spade sinks into gravelly ground” uses alliteration, and “the squelch and slap of soggy peat” uses onomatopoeia. The teacher explains the functions of these rhetorical devices: the simile makes the image more vivid, the alliteration enhances the musicality of the poem, and the onomatopoeia recreates the sound of digging, making readers feel as if they are on the scene. Analysis of the poet’s emotions: The teacher asks students to feel the poet’s emotions when describing his father and grandfather, and when talking about his own “digging” with the pen. Students discuss and conclude that the poet expresses deep admiration and respect for his father and grandfather, a sense of nostalgia for the rural life, and a firm determination to inherit the family’s spirit of hard work through his own writing. Design Intention: Intensive reading is the key link to help students understand the deep connotation of the poem. By analyzing the imagery, rhetorical devices and emotions paragraph by paragraph, it guides students to think deeply, cultivate their critical thinking and literary appreciation ability. The teacher’s guidance and students’ discussion enable students to fully understand the artistic charm of the poem and the poet’s inner feelings, realizing the integration of language learning and literary appreciation. Step 4: Post-reading This step includes three activities to help students consolidate what they have learned, apply their knowledge and expand their thinking. Activity 1: Group discussion. The teacher puts forward the topic: “In the poem, the poet chooses to ‘dig’ with his pen instead of a spade. Do you think he has inherited his family’s heritage? Why?” Students are asked to discuss in groups of four, and each group is required to put forward their own views and find evidence from the poem to support them. After the discussion, each group sends a representative to speak, and the teacher makes comments and summaries. The teacher emphasizes that although the poet does not engage in manual labor like his father and grandfather, he inherits their spirit of hard work, perseverance and dedication through his writing, which is a more profound inheritance of the family’s heritage. Design Intention: Group discussion encourages students to express their own views and opinions, cultivating their critical thinking and oral expression ability. By discussing this topic, students can have a deeper understanding of the theme of heritage in the poem, and realize that heritage can be inherited in different ways, which enriches their understanding of the poem. Activity 2: Language application. The teacher asks students to use the key vocabulary and phrases learned in the class to describe a kind of labor they are familiar with (such as farming, cleaning, studying) and express their feelings towards it. Students are given some time to write a short paragraph (about 50-80 words), and then several students are invited to share their works. The teacher makes comments on their works, focusing on the correct use of vocabulary and phrases and the expression of emotions. Design Intention: Language application is an important link to consolidate students’ language competence. By asking students to write a short paragraph, it helps them apply the key vocabulary and phrases they have learned to practical writing, improving their writing ability. At the same time, it connects the poem’s theme of labor with students’ own life experiences, making the language learning more practical and meaningful. Activity 3: Theme expansion. The teacher introduces some other works about heritage and labor, such as short passages or poems, and asks students to read them quickly. Then the teacher asks: “What do these works have in common with Digging? What new understanding do you have about heritage and labor?” Students discuss and share their ideas. The teacher summarizes: These works all express the importance of heritage and the value of labor. Heritage is not only the material wealth left by ancestors, but also the spiritual wealth such as spirit and quality; labor is not only a way to make a living, but also a way to realize personal value and inherit heritage. Design Intention: Theme expansion helps students expand their horizons, connect the knowledge they have learned with more extensive content, and deepen their understanding of the theme of the poem. It also cultivates students’ ability to compare and summarize, and improves their comprehensive literary literacy. Step 5: Summary and Homework First, summary. The teacher invites students to summarize what they have learned in this class, including the main content of the poem, the meaning of “digging”, the key vocabulary and phrases, and the themes of the poem. Then the teacher makes a final summary: In this class, we have learned the classic poem Digging by Seamus Heaney. We have mastered the key vocabulary and phrases, understood the poem’s content and structure, and analyzed the deep meaning of “digging” and the themes of heritage, labor and personal identity. We have also improved our reading, speaking and writing abilities through various activities. Design Intention: Letting students summarize what they have learned can help them sort out the knowledge system of the class, strengthen their memory of the knowledge, and improve their ability of induction and summary. The teacher’s final summary can help students clarify the key points of the class and deepen their understanding of the whole class. Then, homework. The teacher assigns three types of homework: Basic homework: Recite the key vocabulary and phrases of the poem, and write a short summary of the poem (about 100 words) in English. Improving homework: Read more poems by Seamus Heaney and write a short comment (about 150 words) on one of them, focusing on its imagery and themes. Expanding homework: Interview your parents or grandparents about a kind of labor they are good at, record their experiences and feelings, and write a short article (about 200 words) in English to express your understanding of labor and heritage. Design Intention: The homework is designed hierarchically, which can meet the needs of different students. Basic homework helps students consolidate the knowledge they have learned in class; improving homework helps students expand their literary vision and improve their literary appreciation ability; expanding homework connects the classroom with real life, enables students to feel the value of labor and heritage in real life, and cultivates their ability of observation and practice. At the same time, it also promotes the integration of language learning and life, realizing the goal of cultivating students’ core literacy. 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 $