Unit 3 The world of colours and light

Teaching aims:

1. understand the given email introducing five famous masters of art in Europe;

2. learn about the strategy of " reading a travelogue";

Step 1 Lead-in (PPT4-9)

1) Begin the class by asking students what different types of art they have learnt, and what they are. From their answers, make a summary by saying like: "Thanks to the masters of these paintings, we can live in a world full of colours and light". "Suppose you have a chance to go on a trip to visit them, which one /ones would you prefer to go to?" Help students to collect information about some famous painters such as: Xu beihong, Fu baoshi, Chen danqing, Qi baishi, Chen yifei, Rodin, Picasso, da Vinci, Van Gogh, Monet, Rembrandt, etc. After that, ask the students questions like:

(1) Whose paintings do you like best? Why?

(2) Which school (流派) does/did he belong to?

2) Play a clip of video show about the introduction to the film The Da Vinci's Code (PPT) and ask two questions:

* Do you know the name of the film?

* Which famous artist and his masterpiece are mentioned in the film?

Step 2 Skimming and scanning for general idea

Allow the students two or three minutes to go through the text quickly to find the answers to the questions in Part A. And help the students to find out how the text is organized and how to grasp the main information quickly (PPT10-13).

Step 3 Careful reading for detailed information (PPT14-20)

* Allow the students about five minutes to read through the text and complete Exercise C1. It is suggested that the students work in pairs to compare notes with each other about their answers to the questions.

Ask the students to work in groups and introduce each artist mentioned in the passage to other group members with the help of the table on the screen. Or ask the students to complete the following cards about each master mentioned in the text.