说课 COMPUTERS

PRE-READING

This can be a continuation of the Warming Up．Let the students discuss the questions set out in the Student's Book．

READING

This is a short history of the development of computers over the last 100 years．It introduces a lot of new and technical words, which are only used for computers （such as "artificial intelligence" or "network"）.

1　Teaching new words and structures

2　Understanding ideas

This is the purpose of the reading and so it is important that the students learn to use all the clues in the text to help them understand the gist of what they are reading．So encourage them to look at the pictures and the heading and guess what the text might be about．Then ask the class to read the passage silently．Make sure the students have the chronology of the development of computers in their minds．Ask them:

1　Who was the first person to devise the earliest computer?

2　What did he make and what did it do?

3　Who was the next important person to design computers?

COMPREHENDING

1　Three reasonable answers are acceptable, each of which needs a reason with it．The three possible answers are given below:

It is a computer because it describes:

●itself as the analytical machine designed by Charles Babbage （which was the first design of a computer）．"Then in 1822 I was built as an Analytical Machine by Charles Babbage．"

●Alan Turing as its real father （and he designed the first real computer）．"My real father was Alan Turing ...."

●having artificial intelligence （which only computers have）．People have natural intelligence．"However, people thought I was simple-minded until they discovered I had 'artificial intelligence'."

2　Answer key:

1642: The computer began as a calculating machine．

1822: The Analytical Machine was made by Charles Babbage．

1936: Alan Turing wrote a book to describe how computers could be made to work．

1960s: Computers had new transistors and became smaller．

1960s: The first family of computers connected to each other．

1970s: Computers were brought into people's homes．

Now: Computers connect people all over the world together

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