Birth-Order-and-Personality-详案.doc

Lesson Plan for Birth Order and Personality
Wang Dan, Hangzhou Foreign Language School
Lesson Plan for Birth Order and Personality
By Wang Dan, Hangzhou Foreign Language School
Key questions:
1. How will birth order affect parents’ treatment to the children? How will parents’ treatment affect children’s personalities?
2. What can you say to your parents to change their treatment?
Teaching objectives
Instruction objectives:
1. Language:
l The students will be exposed to the following vocabulary:
a) adj: responsible, independent, dependent, adventurous, fun-loving, jealous, creative, humorous, calm
b) n.: personality (personalities), attention, responsibility, freedom, pressure
c) v./phrases: tend to do, allow … to do, depend on, compete with, develop, treat
l Students will be practicing the usage of these words and expressions.
2. Reading strategy:
l Students will be able to suggest hypotheses according to the illustration of the article.
l Students will be able to scan for specific information.
3. Affection:
l Students will be able to make adjustment of their present personality and get the treatment they want at home.
l Students will communicate with the parents to improve their personality.
Learner’s outcomes (evidence):
1. The students will be able to draft a letter to their parents on how they would like to be treated by their parents.
2. The students will be able to describe their personalities with the target adjectives.
3. The students will be able to write about the treatment they get at home with the target expressions.

Procedures:
Teaching procedures
Learning procedures
Warming-up: The students get involved in the topic.
1. The teacher plays the original rap – Sheep and Wolves and encourages the students to sing.
T: How are the sheep in the chant? And how are the wolves?
We can use these adjectives to describe their personalities.
1. The students get familiar with the adjectives while chanting.

S: Sheep are good, fun-loving, humorous and responsible.
Wolves are bad, fight-loving and jealous.
Pre-reading: The students suggest hypotheses.
1. The teacher shows the students the illustration from the book and has the students suggest hypotheses of the children’s personalities based on their facial expressions.
T: Look at the children’s faces in the picture. What do you think their personalities are?
These are only our hypothesis. They are not wild guesses. We can get the result from the picture.

2. The teacher asks the reasons why the children have different personalities.
T: Why do you think children have different personalities?
1. The students suggest a hypothesis of the children’s personalities.

2. The students suggest a hypothesis of the reasons that form different personalities.
While-reading: The students understand the passage.
1st time reading: skim for general idea
1. The teacher has the students skim the passage and find out the reason why the children have different personalities.
T: Why do different children have different personalities?

T: Why do their parents treat them differently?

2. The teacher asks the students to give a title to the passage.
1. The students skim the passage for the reasons why children have different personalities.

S: They have different personalities because the ways their parents treat them are different.
S: They were born in different orders.

2. The students generalize the main idea.
S: Birth Order and Personality
2nd /3rd time reading: check the hypotheses
3. The teacher asks the students to read the passage for the second time, and match the personalities with the birth order.

4. The teacher asks the students to read the passage for the third time, and fill up the blanks in the chart.
5. The teacher asks the students to identify the relationship between the personality and the treatment.
T: Look at the first-borns. Which shows the reason and which shows the result? Why?
T: Is it the same as the second and the youngest children?
What is the relationship between these two columns?

3. The students read the passage for the second time, match the personalities with the birth order and check their first hypotheses.

4. The students read the passage for the third time, and fill up the chart.

5. The students analyze the reason-result relationship between the personality and the treatment.

S: Reason and result.
Post-reading: The students apply the reading in their real life.
1. The teacher asks the students to write about their personalities and the way their parents treat them using the target language.
T: What’s your personality? How do your parents treat you? Tell your group members what your personality is and how your parents treat you. Work in groups and write a report about it.
You must use at least three adjectives in Box A and at least three expressions in Box B.
2. The teacher asks the students to make supposition about which child they would be if they could choose.
T: We can’t change our birth order, but if you could choose, which child would you like to be? Why?
3. The teacher asks the students to write a few sentences to their parents on the possible changes which will affect the development of their personalities.
T: Since parents’ treatment can influence children’s personalities, do you want to say something to your parents?
Sum-up: we can’t change our birth order, but we can change the way our parents treat us by communicating with them. I’m sure then you will improve your personality and have a happier life.
1. The students in groups write a report about their personalities and the treatment they get from their parents using the target language.
S: We have 4/3 members in our group. A (Student’s name) is …, and …. His parents …, and they …. B’s parents … and they …. As a result, B is … and …. C … D…
Our parents treat us in different ways, but we know they love us and we love them too.
2. The students make supposition on which child they would be if they could choose.
S: I would like to be …, because ….

3. The students write a few sentences to their parents on the possible changes which will affect the development of their personalities.
Homework: 1. read the passage. 2. The students write a letter to their parents.
Write a letter to your parents. The letter should include the following parts:
1. What is your present personality? How do your parents treat you at present? How do they affect each other?
2. What possible changes do you think you and your parents can make to improve your personality?
3. What else would you like to say to your parents?

【附录1】阅读文章
Birth Order and Personality
If you have a brother or sister, you already know you are different from each other. You live together in the same house and have the same parents, but you have different personalities. Why is this? One possible reason is the way your parents treat you.

First-born children receive all the attention from their parents. Most families have twice as many photos of a first-born than any other child. Parents tend to give first-borns more responsibility and depend on them to take care of younger brothers and sisters. As a result, first-borns are often responsible, hard-working, and serious. They often want to do well at school and work. There are more first-born American Presidents -- for example George W. Bush, George Washington, and Lyndon Baines Johnson -- than second or last-born children.

When a second child arrives, parents are more relaxed. The second child is allowed to be more independent, but also has to compete with the first-born for the parents’ attention and love. These children often choose different sports and hobbies to show independence and they develop different personality traits. They are often adventurous, fun-loving, and outgoing, but can be jealous and get angry easily.

The youngest child tends to be the happiest, and has fewer responsibilities and more freedom. These children do not feel pressure to do well at school and work, but have to be creative to get their family’s attention. They are often friendly, humorous, and calm. Many famous talk-show hosts and comedians were born last.

【附录2】课前预习用文章
Snow White had a step mother. She always asked her magic mirror who the most beautiful woman in the world was,, because she tended to receive attention from everyone. The magic mirror normally answered it was her. However, one day the mirror answered that Snow White was the most beautiful woman. The step mother felt jealous and wanted to kill her. As a result, she asked a hunter to take Snow White to the forest and kill her. She believed in the responsible hunter because he always finished the work he was asked to do. However, the hunter was a kind-hearted man and he let Snow White go. At first, Snow White didn’t know what to do in such a dark forest. Then she told herself to be calm and independent. She believed she could find her way out. It was an adventurous journey, but she finally reached a little house. She was so tired that she fell asleep in one of the seven little beds in the house. When she woke up, she saw seven dwarfs. After spending several days with the dwarfs, she found it interesting to live with them. One of them was out-going, because he was the first to be her friend. One of them was very humorous and fun-loving, because he liked to tell jokes. One of them was a little jealous, because he liked to compete with others and always wanted to be Number One. Another one is the oldest of the seven dwarfs. He seldom smiled and was serious, but he was responsible, because he never forgot to ask everyone to start working on time.

【附录3】课前热身小诗
Sheep are good,
Wolves are bad.
With sheep I am glad,
With wolves I am sad.

Sheep are humorous,
Wolves are jealous.
With sheep I’m fabulous,
With wolves I’m nervous.

Sheep are fun-loving,
Wolves are fight-loving.
With sheep I’m laughing,
With wolves I’m crying.

Sheep are responsible,
Happiness will double.
Wolves are trouble,
Sadness will triple.

Sheep are my friends,
Who are always nice.
Wolves are enemies,
Who think I am delicious.

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