A Case Analysis Of Extracurricular Reading Heterogeneous Classes Of After Twenty Years

The case analysis is concerned with the heterogeneous classes of senior English,in which three cases of the extracurricular reading After Twenty Years,chosen from the complementary material for Advance with English Module 6,were described and analyzed.Its theoretical bases are input hypothesis,scaffolding theory,and schema theory.Its significance lies in three aspects:helping teachers perfect their teaching designs with various possibilities;promoting teachers' professional development;and enhancing the teaching effects of English classes.The procedures of the heterogeneous classes include choosing a lesson,making instructional designs,observing classes,analyzing and discussing the teaching procedures at length and summarizing what was needed to conduct a good class.The three teachers involved were labeled as TA,TB and TC.TA mainly employed the PWP teaching model.In the pre-reading part,she presented two pictures of the same person with a question "How will twenty years change you?" to get students to think about the topic which would serve as a natural transition to the story,followed by some information about the author,his masterpieces and his writing styles.In the while-reading part,she explained some new words and expressions in the story,and helped students with some reading skills to appreciate the story in detail.In the post-reading part,she asked her students to think critically about their behavior in a dilemma of friendship and justice.TB mainly employed the integrative approach.Firstly,she led in with a video,which was very much like After Twenty Years:two old friends became a judge and a criminal in the court.Secondly,she made students talk about whether friendship would last after twenty years and the scene where you and your friends meet after twenty years.Thirdly,she introduced the story and its author O Henry,as well as the reading skills of reading a short story.Fourthly,she used blank-filling to guide students to grasp the plot and theme of the story.Lastly,she gave the assignment to write a script and perform it out.TC mainly used the task-based reading approach.Before the task was assigned,the teacher divided the whole class into several groups of 4 or 5,and made them cooperate with each other in the task,which was meant to analyze the main plot and gist or theme of the story.As the task was proceeding,the teacher tried to lead the students to complete the exercises concerning the plot,theme,setting and so on,in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the plot and theme.After the task was finished,the teacher gave students the last task---discussing a question:if you were the author,how would you end the story?The whole teaching process was characterized by tasks,during which students could bring their talent in reading into full play.The study has yielded the following major findings.In terms of the common strengths,one was clear objectives of an extracurricular reading lesson:enlarging students' vocabulary,arousing their interest in reading,broadening their horizon and cultivating their habit of reading;the other was achievement of their objectives through different teaching methods,which indicates"more than one way to the square".In terms of their individual advantages,TA's case of teaching was full-fledged,with which students can not only know the history,but also assign writing task while appreciating the story.TA combined autonomous learning with interest arousal.On the one hand,she asked students to deal with some new words and expressions before reading,and set some exercises to make them read the text by themselves.On the other hand,she put forward some questions to spur students to think critically about the theme of the story,friendship vs.Justice.TB emphasized the training of students' skills with her hierarchical teaching plan.What's more,she created a situation which allowed students to bring their performance into full play.TC used Task-based teaching method which can help the students deal with their difficulties in reading more directly and practically because students can deal with the problems in understanding the text step by step.Repeated exercises and consolidation of the understanding the content deepen the understanding of the details.The class atmosphere was elevated and relaxed under her control.In terms of weaknesses,TA lacked very natural transition,and each procedure was not consistent with the next.The whole process was seen as a little separated and not that logical.When giving the task of writing a piece,she did not give enough guidance,which would make students confused,not knowing how to write.Though TB gave enough guidance before each step,her teaching procedure was a little complex,making students feel it difficult to accept the whole contents at once.The assignments she gave were challenging for some students,who would feel at a loss if they were fully prepared for the lesson.TC's activities were made up of the teacher's questions and students' answers,which was likely to lead to tiredness and dullness of the students.Besides,it will limit their imagination.There are three limitations in the research.Firstly,the number of the cases was not large enough to be generalized to other classes.Secondly,the researcher lacked intuitive feeling,because she was only a bystander,but not a participant,so the description was not 100%exact and objective.Some details might be overlooked.Thirdly,the teachers and students long prepared the contest,so the reality might not be fully reflected.