Teaching goals 教学目标
1. Target language目标语言
a.重点词汇和短语
curious, wealthy, in exchange for, central position, ambassador, existence, accurate, exist, ripe, command, renew, expedition
b.重点句子
Trade and curiosity have often formed the foundation for mankind’s greatest endeavor. (p12)
Over the next few hundred years, the Swahili kingdoms and the islands off the African coast developed into the world’s trading centre for ivory, spices, rhinoceros horns, shells, animal skins and sugar. (p12)
The Arabic contacts to the African coast led to the next meeting between black people and a Chinese. (p12)
In the eleventh century, the Africans made several voyages to the court of the Song Dynasty. (p12)
2. Ability goals能力目标
a. Enable the students to know Chinese contribution to world exploration in the 15th century.
b. Develop students’ ability of basic reading strategies of bottom-up and top-down.
3. Learning ability goals学能目标
a. Students will understand the great contribution Zheng He had done to the world, thus they may take these national heroes as example and follow them.
b. By using the strategies of bottom-up and top-down, students will learn to generalize and collect information.
Teaching important points 教学重点
The explorers’ great contribution to world trade and economy.
Teaching difficult points 教学难点
Guide the students to pick out the main clue of the passage and the development method of the text.
Teaching methods 教学方法
Team work learning.
Task-based learning
Teaching aids 教具准备
A projector and some slides
Teaching procedures & ways 教学过程与方式

Step I Revision
Task one: Check words and expressions
T: Let’s do a mini cloze test and see how well you prepared for the lesson. (show a slide)
Cloze test:
1. Trade and ____(好奇) have often formed the foundation for mankind’s greatest endeavor.
2. Marco Polo’s stories inspired Christopher Columbus and other European explorers to search for sea route to the distant, ____(富有的) Asian lands.
3. Silk from China found its way over land along the Silk Road to India, the middle east and Rome, ____(来交换) spices and glass.
4. Ceylon, with its ____(中央位置), was the place where Chinese merchants met with Arab merchants and heard about the westernmost lands.
5. Gan Ying, a Chinese ____(大使) went to the east Roman Empire over land.
6. The contacts between China and Africa over the centuries had led to the awareness of each other’s ____(存在).
7. Still no ____(精确的) maps of the countries around Indian Ocean ____(存在) before Zheng He.
8. By the beginning of 15th century the time was ____(成熟).
9.Under the ____(统帅) of Zheng He, the fleets set sail from the south China Sea across the Indian Ocean to the mouth of the Red Sea.
10. Zheng He ____(重建) relations with the kingdoms of the East African coast.
11. The fleets made several ____(远征) before the ____ (探险) was stopped.
Keys: curiosity, wealthy, in exchange for, central position, ambassador, existence, accurate, existed, ripe, command, renewed, expeditions, exploration
Task two: Know about Silk Road
T: Let’s see how much you know about Silk Road. Next please fill the following blanks with suitable words. (show a slide)
Students try to fill the blanks by recalling from memory or referring to the handout.
Exercise:
1. The Silk Road, which is regarded as the greatest ____ (东西贸易通道), was first traveled by Zhang Qian when he was sent on a diplomatic mission to the____ (西方地区) in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). The Silk Road was not only for____ (货物) but also for the transmission of ____ (知识和观点) between east and west.
Keys: East-West trade route, Western Regions, goods, knowledge and ideas
Step Ⅱ Lead-in
Task one: Know about great explorers
T: Today we are going to learn a lot about the great explorers in the world. Now let’s have a quiz to check your knowledge about them. Please look at the quiz and tick true or false after your reading. (show a slide)
Students look at the quiz and make judgment.
Quiz:
1. Zheng He was a great explorer of the Ming Dynasty. His expedition to the Indian Ocean was 87 years later than Columbus’s exploration to the Atlantic Ocean. (false)
2. Zheng He’s purpose of expedition was to make trade and show friendship to other lands while Columbus was to seek treasure. (true)
3. Marco Polo’s traveled from Italy to China and they stayed in the Ming court for a long time. After that, they wrote stories about their travels in the Far East. Europeans were so inspired by Marco Polo's accounts that they began searching for sea routes to China, Japan, and the East Indies. (false)
Step Ⅲ Pre-Reading
Task one: Background information input
T: Now please turn to page 12 and look at question 2 and 3 of Pre-reading. Discuss the two questions with your partner, and then I will call three students to come to the front to make three presentations.
Students discuss the two questions in pairs.
Ask three students to make presentations in the front.
Sa: In the Ming Dynasty, the passage to the west, where now the central Asia stands, was controlled by Mongols. When the Mongols’ court was overrun by the Ming government, the two powers were unfriendly to each other. As a result, it was almost impossible for the merchants or ambassadors to cross the passage to the west.
Sb: Gan Ying, a great explorer and ambassador of the Han Dynasty, took the route of the Silk Road over land to accomplish a mission given by the Han emperor. He reached many countries along the Silk Road, though he was not able to arrive at his estimated destination—Da Qin (the west Roman empire).
Sc: Zheng He, a national hero, was famous for his seven voyages across the Indian Ocean, which established China’s rule of the sea in 15th century.
Step Ⅳ While-Reading
Task one: Predicting according to the title (Top-down)
T: Please look at the title of the reading material (Reaching Out Across the Ocean) and guess who reached out across the ocean.
S: Maybe they were China and countries along the Indian Ocean.
T: Why did China reach out across the ocean?
S: They wanted to trade with western lands and show friendship to them.
Task two: Predicting according to the thesis sentence
T: Read the first paragraph carefully and answer the following questions.
Students read quickly and try to find information to answer the questions.
Questions:
1. What formed the foundation of mankind’s interest in exploration?
2. What was Columbus’s purpose of searching for the wealthy Asian lands?
3. Which ocean does the world “western ocean” refer to?
4. Guess who explored the Western Ocean before Columbus.
T: Now I will ask some students to answer these questions.
Sa: Trade and curiosity formed the foundation of mankind’s interest in exploration.
Sb: His purpose of searching was to seek treasure.
Sc: It referred to part of the Pacific Ocean west of Brunei and part of the Indian Ocean along the coast.
Sd: Many people explored the Western Ocean, among whom Zheng He was the most famous.
Task three: Predicting the main idea of the whole passage
T: Work in pairs and predict the main idea of the whole passage according to the title and the first paragraph.
S: My prediction is: The passage is mainly about the explorers from China and other lands who explored the Indian Ocean before Columbus.
Task four: Survey
T: Read paragraph 2 to paragraph 5 and answer the following questions.
Students read carefully and find the information to the questions.
1. In the Han Dynasty, who traveled over land to the East Roman Empire?
2. Between the Han and early the Tang Dynasty, Which part of Africa developed into the world trade centre?
3. During the Tang Dynasty which traveler wrote Record of My Travels?
4. Before the Song Dynasty which means of transport did Chinese travelers mainly use?
5. In the eleventh century, who made several voyages to the court of the Song Dynasty?
Keys:
1. In the Han Dynasty, Gang Ying traveled over land to the East Roman Empire.
2. Between the Han and the early Tang Dynasty, Swahili kingdoms and the islands off the African coast developed into the world trade centre.
3. During the Tang Dynasty Du Huan wrote Record of My Travels.
4. Before the Song Dynasty Chinese travelers mainly traveled over land.
5. In the eleventh century, the Africans made several voyages to the court of the Song Dynasty.
Task five: Generalize the main idea of each paragraph
T: Read paragraph 6 to paragraph 9 and generalize the main idea of each paragraph.
Students read paragraph 6 to paragraph 9 and try to get the main idea of each paragraph.
T: Since you have finished the task, I will call some students to tell which sentence showing the main idea of each paragraph.
S: In paragraph 6, the second sentence shows the main idea of this paragraph. From paragraph 7 to paragraph 9, the first sentences show the main idea of each paragraph.
Task six: Read and build the schema chart of the passage.
T: Read the whole passage again and build the schema chart as below.
Students read the whole passage and build the schema chart.
Schema chart
Title Reaching Out Across the Ocean
Thesis sentence Many great explorers made expeditions across the Indian Ocean long before Columbus, among whom Zheng He was the most prominent.
Main idea(before Zheng He) P2 China had contacts with countries along the Indian Ocean from the early time, and during ancient time explorers had begun to contact with each other.
P3 Between the Han and the early Tang Dynasty, Swahili kingdoms and the islands off the African coast developed into the world trade centre and attracted merchants from the world.
P4 During the Tang Dynasty, Du Huan, who traveled to many lands, wrote the book Record of My Travels.
P5 In the eleventh century, the Africans made several voyages to the court of the Song Dynasty.
Main idea(after Zheng He) P6 By the beginning of the fifteenth century the time was ripe for a grand meeting.
P7 In the years between 1405 and 1433, under the command of Zheng He, seven large treasure fleets sailed westwards on voyages of trade and exploration.
P8 Zheng He renewed relations with the kingdoms of the East African coast.
P9 The fleet made several expeditions before the exploration was stopped.
Step Ⅴ Post Reading
Task one: Questions and Answers
T: Look at Post-Reading part and answer questions of exercise one and two.
Sa: Traveling stories and trade made people know about far-away civilizations. Marco Polo’s stories inspired Christopher Columbus and other European explorers to search for sea routes to the distant and wealthy Asian lands. People of Han Dynasty knew about Africa through the mouth of merchants.
Sb: They are east, west, westernmost, eastern and so on. Theses words are used to suggest that the topic of the passage is the communication between the west and the east.
Task two: Fill in the chart
T: Read the requirement of exercise 3 and 4 carefully and fill in the two charts.
Key to exercise 3:
Period Name Way of travel Goods
Han Dynasty Gang Ying Over land Rhinoceros horns
From Han Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty Ivory, Rhinoceros horns, spices, shells, animal skins, sugar
Tang Dynasty Du Huan Over land and by boat
Song Dynasty By sea A bronze statue of a lion
Ming Dynasty Zheng He By sea Zebras, giraffes, Ivory, Rhinoceros horns, shells
Key to exercise 4:
Goods Africa Africa and Asia
Zebras √
giraffes √
Ivory √
Rhinoceros horns √
shells √
Task three: Paraphrasing (Exercise 5)
T: Paraphrase the phrases and sentences from the text in English using your own words.
Sa: The Africans left the African land and came for a visit to China by sea.
Sb: In the Ming Dynasty both China and the eastern coast countries became very prosperous, and there came the great need for state-to-state contact.
Sc: The part of ocean where the Red Sea meets the Indian Ocean.
Sd: For a short period of time, China held the power of sea for she had large navy, experienced sailors and an excellent admiral—Zheng He.
Task four: discussion
T: Read the requirement of exercise 6 of Post reading, and discuss it with your partner. After that I will call some students to show your opinions.
Students discuss with their partner and come to a conclusion.
Sa: The symbolic meaning is that by trading they built friendly relations. The peaceful communication led to the mutual understanding of each other beyond the basic knowing of each other’s existence.
Sb: Before the USA and China renewed their diplomatic relationship in the late 1970s, China invited the American table tennis delegation to visit China for a friendship match. After the event, the USA expressed her willingness to establish diplomatic relationship with China. Later the event was called Ping-Pang diplomacy.
Step Ⅵ Discussion
Task one: Read and discuss
T: Turn to page 154 and look at Talking. Read the short passage and find out the topic to be talked about.
S: The passage is about the development and influence of Zheng He’s achievement.
T: History develops in two ways, and different choices may result in different outcomes. Discuss with your partner and find out what are the two different outcomes. Then please raise some questions following the examples below.
Students discuss and think out different outcomes.
1. What if China was the first to discover Australia?
2. What if Chinese first settled in Australia and America before the westerners?
3. What if Chinese continued trade with the western world in a large scale after Zheng
He’s expedition?
4. What if Chinese began to run restaurants in Europe in 1800s?
5. What if in most part of the world people can speak Chinese?
6. What if Chinese set up Chinese clinics in Europe after Zheng He’s exploration?
Task two: Discuss and explore
T: Look at the second topic and find out more possibilities.
Students read the requirement and find more possibilities following the sample.
Possible answers:
1. If China had continued to sail further down the African coast, China might have discovered the way to the west Europe. Through continuous contact with the west, China could have established embassy relationship with the westerner.
2. If China had continued to explore to the south and across the Pacific Ocean, she might be the first to discover Australia and America. This way, Chinese might be the dominant language around the world.
3. If China had opened her door earlier as in 1400s, she might have suffered greater loss and have been invaded by the westerners earlier.
Step Ⅶ Homework
Do a project: Before the Song Dynasty, most of Chinese explorers went to other lands over land. But since the Song Dynasty, people began to seek routes to other lands by sea. Make use of the Internet or other resources to find out the reasons.

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