Cherish every moment

1. Step one: Lead-in activities

  (1) Ask students to read the learning objectives together.

     a. To learn the basic elements (基本元素) of a story.

     b. To understand the story "Cherish every moment".

     c. To make comments on the story according to the basic elements of a story.

  (2) Ask students to share their story within a group and find out the best story in your group. 

  (3) Encourage students to share their stories with the whole class.

  (4) Ask students some questions related to the basic elements of a story.

     a. How many people are there in his/her story? Who are they?        characters

     b. When did it happen?            time

     c. Where did it happen?            place

     d. What did it happen exactly?          plot + ending

     e. What can we learn from the story?           lesson

  (5) Remind students to play more attention to these basic elements when reading a story.

     In addition to the basic elements of a story, we also need to notice the language used.

  (6) Encourage another student to share his/her story. Remind other students to pay attention to the basic elements of a story while listening.

  (7) Ask students some questions to further the understanding of the basic elements of a story.

     Who are the main characters in his/her story?

     What time did the story take place?

     How about the place?

     What exactly is the plot of this story?

     What kind of lesson can we learn from his/her story?

2. Step two: Read the passage “Cherish every moment”.

  (1) Invite students to enjoy a story “Cherish every moment” also about these pictures. When reading the passage, try to underline the basic elements of this story.

  (2) Encourage them to discuss within a group about the basic elements of this story and fill in the blanks.

  (3) Ask students to exchange answers within a group and then check the answers together.

  (4) After figuring out the lesson of the story, ask students some questions related to the passage.

     a. What’s the “brick” in our life?

     b. What would you feel if you were the executive in the story? Can you get such a lesson?

3. Step three: Make comments on the author’s story according to the basic elements and the language of a story.

  (1) Give some examples about making comments on a story such as the characters, time and place with supporting details from the passage.

  (2) Ask students to focus on making comments on the plot, lesson and language of the story and find more details from the passage to support their ideas.

  (3) Share my comments on “Cherish every moment” with students.

4. Step four: Conclusion

   Ask students to read the following words together to consolidate what they have learned during this lesson.

   A story usually consists of these basic elements, namely, characters, time, place, plot and lesson. When writing a story, we should make it more attractive, imaginative, persuasive, reasonable, and meaningful.

5. Assignments

  (1) Polish up your story according to the basic elements of a story to make it more attractive.

  (2) Write your comments on the story "Cherish every moment" with the format as follows:

     Para. 1  Give a short summary of the story.

     Para. 2  As to the characters (time, place), I think ... ... From the perspective of the plot, ... ... In my opinion,  the lesson ... ...

     Para. 3  In conclusion, the story is ... ....