Being a teacher, we are often asked to do teaching retrospection. I think it is a good idea despite the fact that I seldom write articles on it. However, I do think a lot after giving a successful or unexpectedly “bad” lesson. Teaching is an art, which means you will never master it overnight. It takes a long time and requires lots of patience. You not only have to know your subject very well, but also the teaching targets: students. On top of that, we begin preparing our teaching plans. The trick is: no matter how well you prepared, you can never be sure if it would be a success.

Last Thursday I gave a lesson on cultural relics. We first discussed what a cultural relic is. They basically knew what a cultural relic is. As I expected, however, they seemed to believe cultural relics must be something that is rare or valuable. So I gave them some examples to show that cultural relics may or may not be rare or valuable. Through talking about the four pictures of the Ming Dynasty vase, Taj Mahal, Mogao Caves and an ivory dragon boat, we finally come to the conclusion that cultural relics can be objects, buildings or even personal items. Then I asked them, “Is it anything old that can be regarded as a cultural relic?” They seemed a bit surprised. Yes there should be some kind of criterion. Further discussion made them realize that a cultural relic must have survived a long time, and more importantly, it should be one that contains some cultural information. That is, it tells us something about the way people lived in the past.

Before they began to read the passage, I asked them to do some reasonable thinking and guessing by looking at the title “In Search of the Amber Room”. Amber is fossilized sap from pine tree and usually made into jewelry because it is hard and clear with yellowish-brown color. Do you think it easy to get amber? You can imagine how much amber would be used to build a room. I told them. And what kind of person would have possibly owned such a rare splendid thing? I led them to know that it must be someone who was extremely wealthy or powerful. In search of something means looking for something. What does this tell us? One student blurted out: “It is missing.”

With that done, I still didn’t let them read the passage. I said, “I’m sort of curious when I looked at the title. What about you? If the answer is a big yes, then what do you guys want to know from reading the article?” Brief pair work followed. Someone said: “I want to know when and where it was made.” Another one said he wanted to find out who had it or had it made and why he/she had it made. A girl student stood up and said she wanted to dig out how it got lost… Just then the bell rang. So I concluded the lesson by telling them to read the passage after class as their homework.

I think I basically achieved my teaching goals: First, preparing them for the reading of the passage. For this purpose, I not only introduced some vocabulary, but also help them understand some important concepts like cultural relics and amber. Second, arousing their interest in reading the passage. I believe by reasonable predicting what the text is mainly about, they would read more efficiently. We all have a natural curiosity. Once you’re curious about something, the learning process would be enjoyable, never boring. You learn without even realizing that you’re learning. I just want to obtain that effect. I’m looking forward to the next lesson.