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中小学教育资源及组卷应用平台
Unit 7 Happy Birthday!
Section 4 Section B 1a-2c
Content Analysis
The reading texts for this lesson are two posts from a birthday-themed forum, both centering on “birthday celebrations” by introducing the posters’ birth dates and celebration ways, and inviting readers to share meaningful celebration ideas at the end. The texts reflect traditional birthday customs of different cultural backgrounds: the first poster Yu Xiaoming eats long noodles and eggs (a Chinese tradition) and takes a family photo by the village tree every year, while planning to plant a tree this year to grow with it; the other poster Judy Clark has cake, sings the birthday song, makes a wish and blows out candles (a Western tradition), with her mother baking a chocolate cake and her father marking her height on the door frame on her birthday each year.
Through Yu Xiaoming and Judy Clark’s introductions to their birthdays, students can not only learn about the cultural customs of birthday celebrations, but also understand how people from different cultural backgrounds express their love for life and their emotional bonds with family and friends. By comparing Xiaoming and Judy’s celebration methods, students will recognize the distinct birthday traditions across cultures and foster greater understanding and respect for cultural diversity. The texts underscore the importance of family and friendship, as well as how shared activities like taking photos, planting trees and baking cakes can strengthen interpersonal connections—helping students develop positive emotional attitudes and values. Moreover, Xiaoming’s practices of eating birthday noodles with eggs and planting a tree reflect people’s aspirations for life’s continuity and growth, prompting students to reflect on the meaning and value of life; Judy’s wish to try new ways of celebration also encourages them to embrace innovation while honoring traditions, thus nurturing their creativity and open-mindedness.
In layout design, this text bears typical features of new media discourse, including collapsible interfaces, poster names and posting dates; written in simple, straightforward language, it suits the English proficiency of junior high school students. Both posts describe birthday activities in chronological order — starting with food, moving on to activities and ending with personal wishes — presenting a clear logical flow. Xiaoming opens with his birthday and celebration habits to set the theme, while Judy responds with her own experience and raises a question to introduce a new discussion point, which not only boosts the text’s interactivity and reader engagement but also frames an open-ended conclusion encouraging further thinking and participation. The text covers birthday-related vocabulary (birthday noodles, chocolate cake, Happy Birthday song, make a wish, blow out the candles, open gifts), emotion and action vocabulary (remember, fun times, enjoy, mark, grow, celebrate, party), culturally-loaded expressions (long noodles for long life, marking height on the door), as well as diverse sentence patterns like simple declarative sentences (I always eat birthday noodles with eggs), complex sentences (I like taking photos because they help me remember fun times with my family) and interrogative sentences (When is your birthday How do you celebrate it ).
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, students will be able to:
1. extract key information (characters, dates, activities, etc.) from the text and grasp the cultural significance behind it;
2. understand the meanings of birthday celebration activities via the posts, experience birthday cultures across regions, and learn to appreciate cultural differences while recognizing cultural commonalities;
3. share unique insights or innovative ideas about birthday celebration methods through writing.
Focal and Difficult Points
Focal Points
1. Grasp the key and detailed information in birthday-themed contexts.
2. Write a well-organized, coherent reply to the post using relevant birthday celebration methods.
3. Use the learned knowledge to compare and analyze birthday celebration ways, identify their similarities and differences, and express personal opinions.
Difficult Points
1. Understand the specific significance of birthday celebration activities.
2. Offer concise, targeted suggestions on the forum in response to others’ requests.
3. Distinguish meaningful birthday activities from ordinary ones.
Procedures
Teaching Activities Learning Activities Purposes
Step 1. Lead-in 1. Play a video about birthday celebrations and ask questions. 1) How do people celebrate their birthdays 2) What do you usually do on your birthday 2. Guide Ss to finish 1a and provide the sentence structures for them to tell their birthdays. 3. Ask some questions to lead Ss to have a free talk about celebrating birthdays. Watch the video and answer the questions. Sa: They have birthday cakes. Sb: They eat long noodles. Tick the activities they do on their birthdays in 1a and give a report. Sc: My birthday falls / is on ________(when). On that day, I ____________(what to do). Have a free talk about celebrating birthdays. To stimulate students’ learning interest and activate the link between their personal birthday experiences and the lesson content.
Step 2. Reading Predicting T: Welcome to Birthday Celebrations Forum! How do they celebrate their birthdays Let Ss look through the posts and ask questions. 1) Where is the text from 2) Who posted the posts 3) When did they write the posts Fast reading Guide Ss to read the first or last sentence to find the main idea. T: What’s the topic of the text Careful reading Ask Ss to read the posts carefully and complete the chart in 1c. And then ask Ss to make sentences based on their answers. Offer the sentence structures. Let Ss find out the answers to the questions in 1d. 1) Why does Xiaoming eat birthday noodles on his birthday 2) Where do Xiaoming and his family take photos together every year 3) What does Judy like about Xiaoming’s 14th birthday 4) Why does Judy’s mother make a chocolate cake for her birthday Observe the forum posts and extract key information. Sa: It’s from an online forum. Sb: Yu Xiaoming and Judy Clark. Sc: Xiaoming posted his post at 5:07 p.m. on August 6th. Sd: Judy posted her post at 7:54 p.m. on September 6th. Read the posts and choose the main idea of the posts. Se: How to celebrate birthdays. Read the posts again and complete the table with birthdays and activities. Sa: Yu Xiaoming’s birthday is on 13th June. On that day, he eats birthday noodles, takes photos with his family together and plants a small tree. Read again and answer the questions. Report their answers. Sa: Long noodles are a symbol of long life. Sb: Under the big tree in his village. Sc: Judy likes the idea of planting a tree. Sd: Because the chocolate cake is her favourite. To trigger students’ thinking through prediction and cultivate their inference and prediction abilities using situational cues. To help students gain an overall grasp of the text content and identify its thematic thread. To cultivate students’ ability to accurately obtain, sort out and record key information, and help them internalize core sentence patterns and important language points.
Step 3. Post-reading Retelling Provide a birthday-themed mind map for students to complete and then retell the relevant content, and offer a checklist for them to comment on each other’s retelling performance. Group work Guide students to analyze the target language. T: Can you offer Judy some ideas for a meaningful birthday celebration Encourage students to discuss and brainstorm ideas for Judy in groups. After three minutes, invite several groups to present their ideas. Provide language tips and a report structure to support students, and share clear evaluation criteria for the activity. Complete the birthday-themed mind map and retell the birthday stories of Xiaoming and Judy. Work in groups to share and brainstorm advice for Judy. Then present the ideas in class, following the sample structure: Sa: Judy’s birthday is on July 28th. She wants to have a unique birthday celebration this year. We think she can ... because ... Finally, work together to sum up the significance of birthday celebrations. To guide students to internalize key language and structured knowledge, master birthday-themed effective expressions, and deeply understand how to introduce Xiaoming’s and Judy’s birthday activities based on the discourse structure.
Step 4. Writing 1. Ask Ss to complete the mind map in 2a. 2. Ask students to complete the reply in 2b with their own ideas.
While students are writing, walk around the classroom and offer assistance as needed. 3. Guide Ss to polish their drafts by providing writing tips, and share evaluation criteria and sample writing to help them revise their plete the mind map about how they celebrate their birthdays. Write a reply to the post in 1b to talk about their birthdays. Present the drafts in class and give comments on each other’s replies according to the provided evaluation criteria and sample writing. To guide students to sort out birthday celebration ideas via the mind map, apply learned language and cultural knowledge to write a personalized reply about meaningful birthday ways, and cultivate their ability to use acquired knowledge to solve real-life practical problems.
Step 5. Homework Must do: Retell how Xiaoming and Judy celebrate their birthdays to your classmates. Choose-to-do: Search for more ways to celebrate birthdays around the world and share in front of the class next time. To help students consolidate learned knowledge through retelling, and expand their horizons about global birthday cultures via optional exploration.
Blackboard Design
中小学教育资源及组卷应用平台
21世纪教育网(www.21cnjy.com)
21世纪教育网(www.21cnjy.com)

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