Little women 案例展示

江阴市峭岐中学 胡娟

文本分析：

What: 《Little Women》是一部以女性角色为主，强调女权意识的半自传体小说。文中注重表现女性意识，宣扬女性美好品质。作者路易莎·梅·奥尔科特(Louisa May Alcott) (1832-1888)是一位美国女作家，更是一个主张大胆改革的尝试者，一位为妇女争取更好的工作条件和选举权的卫士。本文以美国南北战争为背景，以19世纪美国新英格兰地区一个普通家庭四个姐妹之间的生活琐事为蓝本的带有自传色彩的家庭伦理小说。本文描写了马奇先生远赴战场做了随军牧师，四个女儿和母亲在家里过着清苦却坚强乐观的生活。她们虽贫穷却乐意帮助比她们更需要帮助的邻居赫梅尔一家。女人都有着虚荣心，她们希望得到漂亮的衣服，吃到可口的食物，过着如公主一样的生活。尽管充满幻想，但在现实生活中，她们一直在凭借自己的努力来解决生活中的种种艰难困苦。大女儿梅格生性爱美，对恋爱充满憧憬；二女儿乔独立自主，立志成为作家；三女儿贝丝则是传统乖乖女，柔弱而惹人怜爱；小女儿艾米则钟爱绘画。故事追随这四位女性由女孩成长为小女人的岁月，讲述了她们不羁的爱情经历及她们各自追寻不同理想与归宿的过程。

How: 原著共47章，黑布林英语阅读《小妇人》节选并改编了其中的13章。我把文章分成5个主题来处理。第1-2章主题poverty；第3-5章主题Friendship；第6章主题dreams；第7-9章主题departure；第10-13章主题marriage。

Why: 本文通过描写一个普通家庭四姐妹的生活日常，展现出女主人公们的自我成长和自我救赎，唤醒当时社会的女性意识。

教学设计：

Teaching objectives:

By the end of this lesson, the students are expected to be able to:

1. analyze the characteristics of the 4 sisters

2. arouse the awareness of being a kind, helpful, independent, strong-willed, hard-working woman

3. develop the reading ability of getting information by skimming and scanning

Teaching procedure:

Step 1: Pre-reading: Lead-in

Watch a video about Louisa May Alcott and the book “Little women”.

[设计意图] 通过观看视频，使学生对奥尔科特的写作背景、写作手法、写作目的有所了解，从而能够更好地解读文本，同时也引入本课小说的学习。

Step 2: While reading:

1. Read the title:

What do you want to learn in the story from the title?

[设计意图] 通过读小说名字，发散思维，预设想了解哪些与该故事有关的内容，使学生带着问题进行有目的的有效阅读，激发阅读兴趣。

2. Read Chapter 1&2: Poverty

1) Find out the 4 sisters’ characteristics and finish the networks.

2) Analyze what kind of life they lived, use adj to describe your ideas and find out the supporting points from the text.

3) Discover their attitudes towards poor people and poverty and find out the supporting points from the text

4) Present more information about the history of American Civil War

5) As to the readers, do you have the same situation of being poor or have you ever helped poor people? Can you share your experience?  

3. Read Chapter 3 4&5: Friendship

1) Analyze what Laurie, Jo, Mr Laurence, Beth were like and find out the supporting points from the text

2) Find out the ways their friendship developed

4. Read Chapter 6: Dreams

1) Find out the four sisters’ dreams

2) Express your opinions on their dreams

3) Talk about your dreams with your partner and share your dreams with all the students.

5. Read Chapter 7-9: Departure

1) Analyze the changes of feelings of the 4 sisters and their mother after receiving the telegram and find out the supporting details

2) What do you think of the 4 sisters and their mother?

3) Find out Mother’s instructions to 4 sisters.

4) Did they follow the instructions during the first week?

5) Find out what happened next?

6) What do you think of Beth?

6. Read Chapter 10-13: Marriage

1) Find out who fell in love with each other.

2) Find out the characteristics of Mr Brook

3) Figure out Mr and Mrs March’s attitude toward their marriage.

4) Figure out Meg’s attitude.

5) What do you think of Mr and Mrs March’s attitude?

6) What do you think of Meg’s attitude?

[设计意图] 引导学生逐步了解故事情节的发展，细致分析小说主人公的性格品质，引导学生形成正确的三观。

Step 3: Post-reading:

1. Discussion: find out the most touching sentence that you think

2. Further discussion：Why does the author create such a story?

[设计意图] 引导学生深入思考小说的主旨和作者的写作意图，呼吁学生努力成为真诚、善良、美好的社会人，为创造和谐社会做贡献，从而达到思想教育。

Homework：

Read the original version “Little Women” to find out the endings of the 4 little women