Teaching goals

1.       Enable the students to talk about things about the USA.

2.       Help the students learn the huge diversity of races and cultures in America, especially in California.

Teaching important and difficult points

Learn the huge diversity of races and cultures in California.

Teaching methods

Fast and careful reading; asking and answering activity; individual, pair or group work.

Teaching aids

A map, a blackboard and a computer

Teaching procedures

Step 1 Warming up.

1.       Ask the students to describe what they learn about the USA.

2.       Group work: look at the map of the USA with your group. Write on the map the names of as many of the following as you can. Compare your names with other groups.

Answer key:

Ocean on the east coast: Atlantic Ocean

Ocean on the west coast: Pacific Ocean

Country to the north of USA: Canada

Country to the south of USA: Mexico

Mountain range in the west: Rocky Mountains

Great Lakes: Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario

Longest river in the USA: Mississippi River

Some important cities: New York, Washington D C, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans

Step 2 Pre-reading

1.       Ask the students to tell things about California including its location, size, population, economy, history etc. What do you learn about California?

2.       Show the students some pictures and encourage students not only to say what each picture is about but how each one relates to California.

Picture 1 : Life of Native Californian Indians

Picture 2: A Californian gold miner around 1849

Picture 3: A traditional Chinese building in San Francisco’s Chinatown