(1) The analysis of the teaching material and the learners: based on the given teaching material, the text is not so long and the vocabulary is quite easy, so the class should be a reading class and the target students should be grade 6 students in primary school.
(2) Learning objectives: students are able to know and use new words to describe weather; are able to have a general understanding of the text and obtain some knowledge of America; are able to improve their open-minded attitude toward different cultures.
(3) Language focuses: words and expressions about weather and about describing weather; words about months.
(4) Anticipated difficulties: there may be some names of people and places the students don’t know and can’t say; the students may lack some background information and knowledge of the US.
(5) Teaching procedures and justification with time allocations.
① Pre-reading: warm-up and lead-in (10 minutes)
Greet with the students and ask the student on duty to give presentations. Then show them two pictures and ask them to describe these two pictures, during which presenting new words and expressions that might be used in the text.
(Justification: during this stage, the main purpose is to arouse students’ interest and equip them with new words and expressions.)
② While-reading (25 minutes)
a. General reading (10 minutes)
Let students look at the title of the text and guess what the text is about.
Let students read the text for the first time quickly and see if their prediction were right.
Ask several students to summarize the main idea of the text.
Let them finish the T or F exercises behind the passage.
(Justification: the purpose of general reading is to grasp the main idea of the text and have a whole understanding of the structure of the text.)
b. Detailed reading (20 minutes)
Let students read the text for the second and third time and find out what are the best places to go in different seasons in US in the passage. They can work in groups and discuss with each other. After their discussion, they should make a list of their answers and then ask some groups to present their ideas in front of the whole class.
Ask them to write a short article like the text in the topic of “When is the best time to visit China”.
(Justification: during this stage, students need to read the text in detail and to take part in some tasks to get the answer for some questions.)
③ Summary and homework (5 minutes)
Ask two students to summarize what they have learned so far in this class and the teacher makes some complement.
Let students finish their writing which will be presented in next class.
(Justification: let students summarize what they have learned can help them more involved in the class. Homework is an important part of the class to get feedback from students.)
④ Reflections on the class
(Justification: reflection on the class is useful for the teachers to find the teaching problems and help them improve their teaching level in the future.)
⑤ Blackboard design