Lesson One Half a DayI. Teaching ObjectivesIn this unit, you willa)learn some information about the author and the textb)catch the plot, setting and the theme after reading the story quicklyc)analyze the main characters of the textd)know the intention of the author to write the storye)paraphrase some difficult sentences from the storyf)pick out the good use of languageII. Main Contents1. Warm-up activities2. About the writer and the text3. Plot, setting and theme of the story4. Text appreciation5. Detail information of the text6. Reading of the text B7. Elliptical question & rhetorical question and Inverted sentences8. Finish off all the exercisesIII. Main Focus and PointsOral practice, analysis of the characters, language focus on actionsIV. Teaching Methodsa) Student-centered and task-based teaching methodsb) Reflective study and autonomous learningV. ReferenceWebsites about the writer and the storyTeacher’s bookVI. Exercises and PracticeFinish the exercises in the textbookRecite some parts of the text.VII. Further thinking"Who, through works rich in nuance - now clear-sightedly realistic, now evocatively ambiguous - has formed an Arabian narrative art that applies to all mankind”After reading “Half a Day”, how do you understand the comment on Naguib Mahfouz?Great works never fail to reveal the common human experience.After reading the story, do you feel emotionally or spiritually touched? Why or why not?IX. Teaching ProcedurePicture Talking for Warming-upToday, we will study Half a day by Naguib Mahfouz. Let’s first appreciate The Persistence of Memory, 1931by Salvador Dali (萨尔瓦多-达利的油画《记忆的永恒》). Can you find any clue about life and time from the picture? Do you know any sayings or quotes wise enough to express your feelings? I will write down a couple on the blackboard as hints.Let’s categorize the sayings and quotes according to the i mplications they carry. Hopefully, some expressions may help you better understand the story Half a Day, and meanwhile, you will find it excellent to have lots to express yourself in both writing and speaking.More quotes and sayings of time and life:If you want to make good use of your time, you've got to know what's most important and then give it all you've got.--Lee IacoccaNothing is worth more than this day.--Johann Wolfgang von GoetheEvery second is of infinite value.--Johann Wolfgang von GoetheHalf our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.--Will RogersDon't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.--H. Jackson Brown, Jr.Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.--William Penn课前口头描述图画练习由口头描述相关图画入手，以了解学生预习课文内容的深度，提高学生描述场景的口语表达能力，帮助学生把扩充词汇量和在具体情景中使用词汇有机结合起来。

课前有趣的话题、竞争的气氛和合作的态度也有助于加快学生进入最佳的学习状态。

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.--Henry David ThoreauBut what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and eachmoment is a day.--Benjamin Disraeli Men talk of killing time, while time quietly kills them.--Dion Boucicault The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.--Carl Sandburg“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”--Annie DillardMake today the first day of the rest of your life.The only thing constant is change.“Time lost is time when we have not lived a full human life, time unenriched by experience, creative endeavor, enjoyment, andsuffering.” --Dietrich Bonhoeffer"Be mindful of how you approach time. Watching the clock is not the same aswatching the sun rise."-- Sophia Bedford-PierceTo live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.--Emily Dickinson:Background InformationI. Naguib Mahfouz——Education & Background 教育与背景Naguib Mahfouz was born on the 11th Dec. 1911 in an old quarter of Cairo, the youngest son of a merchant. He studied philosophy at King Faud I (now Cairo) University, graduating in 1934. He worked in university administration and then in 1939 he worked for the Mini-stry of Islamic Affairs. He was later Head of the State Cinema Organisation at the Ministry of Culture. He also worked as a journalist. Although widely translated, his works are not available in most Middle Eastern countries because of his support of Sadat's Camp David initiative. In 1994 he survived an assassination attempt by Islamic extremists.背景知识通过问答和讲解的方式，帮助学生了解:纳吉布•马福兹所受教育和一般背景;He is married, has two daughters and lives in Cairo.II. Naguib Mahfouz —— important works （主要著作）纳吉布•马福兹的主要著作:阿拉伯世界的第一位诺贝尔文学奖获得者;Naguib Mahfouz was the first Arab to win the Nobel prize for literature, in 1988. He has been described as "a Dickens of the Cairo cafés" and "the Balzac of Egypt".He is now the author of no fewer than 30 novels, more than 100 short stories, andmore than 200 articles. Half of his novels have been made into films which have circulated throughout the Arabic-speaking world.Mahfouz began writing when he was 17. His first novel was published in 1939 and ten more were written before the Egyptian Revolution of July 1952, when he stopped writing for several years. One novel was republished in 1953, however, and the appearance of The Cairo Trilogy in 1957 made him famous throughout the Arab world as a depictor of traditional urban life.Works of his second writing period:The Children of Gebelawi (1959)The Thief and the Dogs (1961)Autumn Quail (1962)Small Talk on the Nile (1966)Miramar (1967)several collections of short stories.III. Naguib Mahfouz —— How he pictures the world (创作观)纳吉布•马福兹笔下的世界: 无尽的拼搏与悲剧的人生The picture of the world as it emerges from the bulk of Mahfouz's work is very gloomy indeed, though not completely despondent. It shows that the author's social utopia is far from being realized.Mahfouz seems to conceive of time as a metaphysical force of oppression. His novels have consistently shown time as the bringer of change, and change as a very painful process, and very often time is not content until it has dealt his heroes the final blow of death.To sum up, in Mahfouz's dark tapestry of the world there are only two bright spots.These consists of man's continuing struggle for equality on the one hand and the promise of scientific progress on the other; meanwhile, life is a tragedy.Text Appreciation （作品赏析）I. Structure of the text (10 minutes) （结构分析）The text can be conveniently divided into three parts. In the first part (para.1-7), we learn about the boy’s misgivings about school. He found it hard to be away from home and mom, and thought school was punishment. The second part (para.8-16) describes how the boy felt about school. He found that life at school was rich and colorful in many ways, although it also required discipline and hard work. In the last part of the text, the boy walked out of the school to find that the outside world had changed beyond measure and that he had grown into an old man.II．How to appreciate literature (15 minutes) （如何赏析文学作品）Plot of the story:Setting of the story:Protagonist v.s. Antagonists:Drama of the story lies in:Writing technique: (Have you ever read a story using the similar technique?)Theme of the story:Language UnderstandingI. Sentence Paraphrase (20 minutes)1. I walked along side ny father, clutching his right hand.Clutching his right hand: this is a present participle used to modify the main verb “walked”, showing manner in which the narrator walked. E.g.My mother stood at the window watching our progress…I turned towards her from time to time, hoping she would help.“I’m not punishing you,” he said, laughing.The bell rang, announcing the passing of the day and the end of work.2. They did not make me happy, : I wasn’t happy as I usually was when I had new clothes to wear.What does “they” refer to? Here “they” refers to the narrator’s new clothes3…as this was the day I was to be thrown into school for the first time…. Because it was the day I started school.What does the narrator imply by using “to be thrown into school”?The writer uses “ to be thrown into school” to show that the little boy in the story didn’t want to go to school. He was forced by his father to do so. This is not a common collocation. A common collocation with “to be thrown into ( an unpleasant place)” is “ to be thrown into prison/jail”Cf. to throw sb. out (of a place): to force sb. to leave a place, e.g.They’ll throw me out (of school) if I fail three exams.4. My mother stood at the window watching our progress, and I turned towards her from time to time, hoping she would help.What does “progress” mean here?Our progress: our slow and difficult movement towards the school. (My mother was anxious to know how my father would get me to go.)From time to time: sometimes, but not very often, e.g.He goes to see his grandparents from time to time, about five or six times a year. Hoping she would help: hoping she would stop my father taking me to school, or talk to my father so that he would change his mind about sending me to school. Question: What does the sentence tell us about the boy’s relationships with his parents?It seems that the boy was closer to his mother. Probably his mother was gentle while his father was strict.5. a street lived with gardens…a street where there are gardens … along both sideslined with …: past participle phrase used here to modify “a street”. It can beregarded as a relative clause cut short, eg.a novel (that was) written by Charles Dickenspersonal computers (that are) made in China6.Why school: Why do I have to go to school? Why are you going to throw me into school?This is an elliptical question. Such questions are common in conversation. E.g.a. Headmaster: We want you to go and tell the boy’s parents the news.T: What me?b. Father: We’ll go to Tianjin this weekend.Daughter: What for? (Why the weekend?/ Why Tianjin?)7. What have I done?I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong to be punished like this.( Little children often think that taking them away from Mom is the worst punishment.)This is a rhetorical question --- one that expresses strong feeling or opinion and doesn’t require an answer. It is used to say something more positively that in a statement.8. It’s a place that makes useful men out of boys.to make…(out) of sb. /sth.: to make sb./sth. become…, e.g.The army made a man of him. 军队把他培养成了个男子汉。