1、Unit 7Unit 7Unit7第1页Watch the video and answer the following questions.1.What do you think of the boy that the teachers were talking about?What attitudes did the teachers have towards the boy?2.Do you have any study problem?Whats your teachers attitude?Pre-reading Activities-Audiovisual supplement 1
2、Audiovisual supplementCultural informationThe boy had some study problems.Most of the teachers did not believe that the boy could make any progress,but the young lady thought that he could.Open.第2页Pre-reading Activities-Audiovisual supplement 2Audiovisual supplementCultural information第3页Teacher 1:T
3、eacher 2:Teacher 3:Teacher 1:Teacher 3:Teacher 4:Teacher 2:Teacher 4:The big kids been here for,what,a month?Hes still not cutting it in my class.Why does Admissions do this?I mean,its not fair to us or the boy.Theyre just setting him up to fail.I dont think he has any idea of what Im teaching.And h
4、ow would you know if he did?He wont even talk.He writes.His name.Barely.He threw this in the trash can.“I look and I see white everywhere:white walls,white floors,and a lot of white people.The teachers do not know IVideo Script1Audiovisual supplementCultural information第4页Video Script2Audiovisual su
5、pplementCultural informationTeacher 1:have no idea of anything they are talking about.I do not wanna listen to anyone,especially the teachers.They are giving homework and expecting me to do the problems on my own.I have never done homework in my life.I go to the bathroom,look in the mirror and say:T
6、his is not Michael Oher.”He entitled it“White Walls.”Hows the spelling?第5页1.QuoteHistories make men wise;poems witty;the mathematics subtle;natural philosophy deep;moral grave;logic and rhetoric able to contend.Francis BaconCultural information 1Audiovisual supplementCultural information第6页improveme
7、nt),in percentages,or,as is common in some post-secondary institutions in some countries,as a Grade Point Average(GPA).The GPA can be used by potential employers or further post-secondary institutions to assessCultural information 2Audiovisual supplementCultural information2.Grades Grades are standa
8、rdized measurements of varying levels of comprehension within a subject area.Grades can be assigned in letters(for example,A,B,C,D,or F),as a range(for example 4.0 1.0),as descriptors (excellent,great,satisfactory,needs第7页Cultural information 7Audiovisual supplementCultural informationand compare ap
9、plicants.A Cumulative Grade Point Average is the mean GPA from all academic terms within a given academic year,whereas the GPA may only refer to one term.第8页Global Reading-Text analysisStructural analysisText analysis1.What issues does the writer of the letter intend to deal with?How should students
10、 regard grades,both good and bad?Are grades as important as they are assumed to be?Do good grades necessarily lead to achievements and bad grades result in failure in a students later life?第9页Structural analysisText analysis2.Whats the theme of this piece of writing?It is explicitly stated in the fi
11、rst sentence of the third paragraph:to put a B students disappointment in perspective by considering exactly what the grade B means and doesnt mean.Global Reading-Text analysis第10页Structural analysis 1ParagraphsMain idea12-56-8It introduces the topic of the letter.Grades do not mean everything.Getti
12、ng a B in class does not mean one will always be a B performer in life.1.Divide the text into parts by completing the table.Text analysisStructural analysis第11页ParagraphsMain idea9-10In a complex society like ours,labels are necessary but they should be kept in perspective.Structural analysis 2Struc
13、tural analysisText analysis第12页Structural analysis 32.Apart from the first paragraph,the rest of the text falls clearly into three parts,each of which is marked at the beginning by a key word or words.Try to find these key words.Paragraphs 25:DisappointmentParagraphs 6-8:The student as performer;the
14、 student as human being.Paragraphs 9-10:PerspectiveMain ideaStructural analysis第13页Your final grade for the course is B.A respectable grade.Far superior to the“Gentlemans C”that served as the norm a couple of generations ago.But in those days As were rare:only two out of twenty-five,as I recall.What
15、ever our norm is,it has shifted upward,with the result that you are probably disappointed at not doing better.Im certain that nothing I can say will remove that feeling of disappointment,particularly in a climate where grades determine eligibility for graduate school and special programs.Letter to a
16、 B StudentDetailed reading1Detailed readingRobert Oliphant1第14页Disappointment.Its the stuff bad dreams are made of:dreams of failure,inadequacy,loss of position and good repute.The essence of success is that theres never enough of it to go round in a zero-sum game where one persons winning must be o
17、ffset by anothers losing,one persons joy offset by anothers disappointment.Youve grown up in a society where winning is not the most important thing its the only thing.To lose,to fail,to go under,to go broke these are deadly sins in a world where prosperity in the present is seen as a sure sign of s
18、alvation in the future.In a different society,your disappointment might be something you could shrug away.But not in ours.Detailed reading2Detailed reading2第15页Detailed reading3My purpose in writing you is to put your disappointment in perspective by considering exactly what your grade means and doe
19、snt mean.I do not propose to argue here that grades are unimportant.Rather,I hope to show you that your grade,taken at face value,is apt to be dangerously misleading,both to you and to others.Detailed reading3第16页As a symbol on your college transcript,your grade simply means that you have successful
20、ly completed a specific course of study,doing so at a certain level of proficiency.The level of your proficiency has been determined by your performance of rather conventional tasks:taking tests,writing papers and reports,and so forth.Your performance is generally assumed to correspond to the knowle
21、dge you have acquired and will retain.But this assumption,as we both know,is questionable;it may well be that youve actually gotten much more out of the course than your grade indicates or less.Detailed reading4Detailed reading4第17页Detailed reading5Lacking more precise measurement tools,we must inte
22、rpret your B as a rather fuzzy symbol at best,representing a questionable judgment of your mastery of the subject.Detailed readingYour grade does not represent a judgment of your basic ability or of your character.Courage,kindness,wisdom,good humor these are the important characteristics of our spec
23、ies.Unfortunately they are not part of our curriculum.But they are important:crucially so,because they are always in short supply.5第18页The student as performer;the student as human being.The distinction is one we should always keep in mind.I first learned it years ago when I got out of the service a
24、nd went back to college.There were a lot of us then:older than the norm,in a hurry to get our degrees and move on,impatient with the tests and rituals of academic life.Not an easy group to handle.Detailed reading6If you value these characteristics in yourself,you will be valued and far more so than
25、those whose identities are measured only by little marks on a piece of paper.Your B is a price tag on a garment that is quite separate from the living,breathing human being underneath.Detailed reading6第19页Detailed reading7One instructor handled us very wisely,it seems to me.On Sunday evenings in par
26、ticular,he would make a point of stopping in at a local bar frequented by many of the GI-Bill students.There he would sit and drink,joke,and swap stories with men in his class,men who had but recently put away their uniforms and identities:former platoon sergeants,bomber pilots,corporals,captains,li
27、eutenants,commanders,majors even a lieutenant colonel,as I recall.They enjoyed his company greatly,as he theirs.The next morning he would walk into class and give these same men a test.A hard test.A test on which he usually flunked about half of them.Detailed reading7第20页Oddly enough,the men whom he
28、 flunked did not resent it.Nor did they resent him for shifting suddenly from a friendly gear to a coercive one.Rather,they loved him,worked harder and harder at his course as the semester moved along,and ended up with a good grasp of his subject economics.The technique is still rather difficult for
29、 me to explain;but I believe it can be described as one in which a clear distinction was made between the student as classroom performer and the student as human being.A good distinction to make.A distinction that should put your B in perspective and your disappointment.Detailed reading8Detailed rea
30、ding8第21页Detailed reading9Perspective.It is important to recognize that human beings,despite differences in class and educational labeling,are fundamentally hewn from the same material and knit together by common bonds of fear and joy,suffering and achievement.Warfare,sickness,disasters public and p
31、rivate these are the larger coordinates of life.To recognize them is to recognize that social labels are basically irrelevant and misleading.It is true that these labels are necessary in the functioning of a complex society as a way of letting us know who should be trusted to do what,with the result
32、 that we need to make distinctions on the basis of grades,degrees,ranks,and responsibility.Detailed reading9第22页Detailed reading10But these distinctions should never be taken seriously in human terms,either in the way we look at others or in the way we look at ourselves.Detailed readingEven in achie
33、vement terms,your B label does not mean that you are permanently defined as a B achievement person.Im well aware that B students tend to get Bs in the courses they take later on,just as A students tend to get As.But academic work is a narrow,neatly defined highway compared to the unmapped rolling co
34、untry your will encounter after you leave school.10第23页Detailed reading10What you have learned may help you find your way about at first;later on you will have to shift to yourself,locating goals and opportunities in the same fog that hampers us all as we move toward the future.Detailed reading第24页2
35、.What,according to the author,has caused the feeling of disappointment?It has to do with the general social climate where grades determine eligibility for graduate school and special programs.This is why the author says there is nothing he can do to remove the feeling of disappointment.1.What change
36、 about grades has the author mentioned briefly?Detailed reading1-Quesion 1.1The author has mentioned briefly the change in the way grades are regarded,i.e.the norm has shifted upward.Detailed reading第25页Detailed reading1-Quesion 1.3Detailed reading3.Has the author stated his purpose of writing in th
37、is paragraph?If yes,what is it?If not,where is it stated in the text?The purpose of writing the letter is not stated in this paragraph.It is not specifically mentioned until the third paragraph.第26页1.How does the author explain the notion of disappointment?Detailed reading1-Quesion 2.1Refer to Parag
38、raph 2.Disappointment is a negative feeling.It is the stuff bad dreams are made of.What deserves our attention here is that the author explains disappointment in relation to success.Detailed reading第27页There does not exist the situation in which all those who are involved will turn out successful an
39、d no one feels disappointed.Wherever there are winners,there are losers.When someone feels happy about his success,someone else may feel disappointed at his failure.In a highly competitive society where the importance of winning is emphasized so much,it is inevitable that those who fail in the compe
40、tition will feel disappointed.Detailed reading1-Quesion 2.22.How do you interpret the second sentence in Paragraph 2“The essence of success is that”?Detailed reading第28页What does the phrase“put sth.in perspective”mean?Detailed reading1-Quesion 3It means“judge the importance of sth.correctly.”So what
41、 the author wants to do is to show the students how they should regard/view their disappointment correctly.Detailed reading第29页Try to find out what a grade means and what it does not mean.Detailed reading1-Quesion 5It means the successful completion of a specific course at a certain level of profici
42、ency.It is an indication of the students performance of some conventional tasks.However,it may not be a truthful indication of the students knowledge.It does not represent a judgment of the students basic ability or of his character.Detailed reading第30页1.What is the authors view concerning social la
43、bels?Detailed reading1-Quesion 9Social labels are on the one hand irrelevant and misleading and on the other hand necessary in a complex society.Detailed reading第31页2.How do you interpret the sentence“To recognize them is to recognize that social labels are basically irrelevant and misleading”?Detai
44、led reading1-Quesion 9If we are aware that human beings,despite their apparent differences,are basically identical physically and emotionally,we would think definitely that the social labels used to distinguish them are irrelevant,i.e.meaningless,and misleading,i.e.distorting the fact.Detailed readi
45、ng第32页How does the author relate a students academic performance with his future life?Detailed reading1-Quesion 10While a students performance at school may be quite consistent throughout his school years and what he has learned at school may help him after he leaves school,in the long run he will d
46、epend much more on himself,i.e.he will have to learn to find his way when traveling in his life path.A grade B student may turn out to be a grade A life achiever.Detailed reading第33页norm n.1)an accepted standard or a way of behaving or doing things that most people agree withDetailed reading1 norme.
47、g.You must adapt to the norms of the society you live in.Derivation:normal a.normally ad.normalize v.normalization n.Detailed reading2)the norm=a situation or type of behavior that is expected and considered to be typicale.g.One child per family is fast becoming the norm in some countries.第34页shift
48、vt.&vi.1)to(cause something or someone to)move or change from one position or direction to another,especially slightlyDetailed reading1 shift 1e.g.She shifted(her weight)uneasily from one foot to the other.The wind is expected to shift(to the east)tomorrow.Detailed reading2)transfer sth.e.g.This sim
49、ply shifts the cost of medical insurance from the employer to the employee.第35页Detailed reading1 shift 2Detailed readingCollocation:shift sth.(from A to/onto B)转移或转换某事物转移或转换某事物shift(your)ground(辩论中)改变立场或方法辩论中)改变立场或方法e.g.Hes annoying to argue with because he keeps shifting his ground.Derivation:shift
50、 n.shiftless a.第36页Detailed reading1 shift 31.教师让学生们挪动了教室里椅子,方便小组组员坐在一教师让学生们挪动了教室里椅子,方便小组组员坐在一起开展讨论。起开展讨论。2.最近,媒体注意力转移到了环境方面问题。最近,媒体注意力转移到了环境方面问题。Translation:The teacher asked the students to shift the chairs around in the classroom so that the group members could sit together for the discussion._Me