A Lead-in Activity for Unit 1 "Dying to Look Beautiful"

I started Unit 1 in Class 314 today. The title is "Dying to Look Beautiful." Because their class starts right after the nap time, I played a slow song first, "Yesterday Once More," to help them wake up. I asked them who the singers were. They replied, "The Carpenters." Then I mentioned Karen Carpenter and asked the students if they knew how she died. They knew it! She died from anorexia nervosa. Of course, they gave me the answer in Chinese. So I wrote the English term on the blackboard. Then I asked them how she got the illness. With these questions, I gradually led them into the topic, "Dying to Look Beautiful."

Then I asked the students if they were satisfied with how they looked. Not many of them said yes. Next came another question from me, "Since you are not really satisfied with your appearance, how would you like to improve it?" After their response, we went to the textbook and had a discussion about the ways it offered in Warm-up.

What I did was link what was in the textbook with the students' life. I like to teach this way. The students and I are talking about a topic. Of course, since this lesson is for intensive reading, I still have to direct their attention to some important grammatical points and analyze some complex sentences. However, even when I do these, I still like to ask questions to make the students think. To think is what I like students to do in class.