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Unit 4 American Dream Objectives Students will be able to: understand the main idea (Tony Trivision realized his American Dream through his own efforts) and structure of the text (one part telling the story of Tony’s life and the other giving the author’s comments on it); learn to describe by his/her characteristic features, together with supporting details which demonstrate the features; grasp the key language points and grammatical structures in the text; conduct a series of reading, listening, speaking and writing activities centred upon the theme of the unit. Time Allotment 1st period 2nd period 3rd period 4th period Pre-reading tasks Cultural notes Text organization Language study Language study Text analysis Post-reading tasks Pre-reading Tasks T asks several Ss the following questions to check if they have listened to the taped interview with Dr. Herts: ----What did American Dream mean to Dr. Hertz’s grandparents? (hint: It first meant getting out of poverty; later it meant the chance for their children to succeed.) ----Why does Hertz say that the American Dream is in one’s head and in one’s pocket ? (hint: It is in one’s head because one wants to live as well as or better than others; it is in one’s pocket because one has to keep on spending money so as to have things other people have.) Ss do Cloze B in after-class exercises to have a better understanding of the American Dream; when they finish, T and Ss will discuss what they have filled in those blanks. Based on the above two activities, T asks Ss’ opinions on the essence of the American Dream. T sums up and leads into the text by saying: We’ve often heard about the American Dream, and by now we know it means the belief that everyone can succeed as long as he/she works hard enough. Of course, we must realize that here success is narrowly defined as financial success. In this unit you will read how much a dream came true. (5 minutes) Text Organization and Analysis Parts Paragraphs Main