New Horizon College English

Don’t Worry

About Failure

Unit 7

Objectives

Students will be able to: understand the main idea of the text; grasp the key language points in the text; use the methods to write introductory

paragraphs.

Teaching Steps Lead-in

Presentation

Summary

Assignment

Background Information

Word Study

Writing Device

Text Analysis

How do you feel when you fail?

upset frustrated

Lead-in

Lead-in

Lead-in

Kobe’s response when his team lost:

“Losing is losing. The results are the same. You go to the game seven and you lose

the game seven.”

He felt much frustrated at the moment.

Lead-in

Background InformationRay Meyer:a well known American basketball coach

led DePaul to 724 basketball victories in 42 years

a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame

Ray Meyer led the DePaul University basketball team to 42 winning seasons. When his team lost its first game after 29 straight victories at home, his response was: "Great! Now we can focus on winning, rather than on not losing." Meyer showed a spirit of working towards positive goals, pouring one’s energy into the task, and not looking behind

and making excuses for past events.

Text AnalysisPara.1

Ray Meyer’s response when his team lost:

“Great! Now we can focus on winning, rather than on not losing.”

Text Analysis

fear of failure confidence

not losing winningvs.

• Main idea of the text ? a spirit of working towards positive goals

Text Analysis

• Devices for developing it?

The writer listed and discussed several examples to support his main idea.

Word Study

1. season

n. a. four main periods of the year b. a period during which a particular activity of entertainment, sport, etc. takes place

(e.g. NBA season)

“Ray Meyer led the DePaul University basketball team to 42 winning seasons.” (Para.1)

Word Study

2. Underline the words in the paragraph which are related to sport.

basketball, team, winning, season, game, straight victories, at home, losing, and goal

-Word Family

Word Study

Writing an introductory paragraph is like greeting someone. The paragraph should be short and to the point like saying, “Hello!”

catch your readers’ attention so that they will become interested in reading your essay.

present the thesis statement that announces the focus of your essay;

Writing DeviceHow to write an introductory paragraph

1. The main purposes of the introductory paragraph are to:

2. The common methods of writing an introductory paragraph are:

Using an incident or a brief story;

Asking one or more questions.

Writing Device

Writing Device

stories

Using an incident or a brief story

readers’ attention

readers’ curiosity

Look at the first paragraph in our text and think about how it presents the thesis statement and catches your attention.

Ray Meyer led the DePaul University basketball team to 42 winning seasons. When his team lost its first game after 29 straight victories at home, his response was: "Great! Now we can focus on winning, rather than on not losing." Meyer showed a spirit of working towards positive goals, pouring one's energy into the task, and not looking behind and makingexcuses for past events.

An anecdote can “hook” readers into wanting to read more.

thesis statement

Para. 1

Writing Device

Practice Topic: Divorce Has Negative Effects on

Children an example of a personal story from a divorced family

introductory paragraph

thesis statement on the effects of divorce on children

Writing Device

John’s parents divorced when he was in elementary school. After the divorce, his mother had to go to work to support him andhis three sisters. Without the supervision of his mother and due to the lack of a father for a role-model, John began skipping school and was eventually arrested for being a drug dealer and sent toprison. In many prisons today, over half of the prisoners come from divorced families.

thesis statement

Divorce can be the catalyst that unleashes emotionalproblems in children and can affect children psychologically and mentally.

a personal story in the third person

Example

Writing Device

Writing Device

questions

Asking one or more questions

to think about possible answers

readers’ attention

Here’s an example of how you can use questions to catch readers’ attention and present the thesis statement.

Example

What is love? How do we know that we are really in love? When we meet that special person, how can we tell that our feelings are genuine and not merely infatuation? Love, as we know, is difficult to define and it involves mutual respect, and the desire to give

questions about the subject

thesis statementrather than to take.

Writing Device

3. Final reminders !!!!

Be concise and related to the main idea.

Writing Device

“A good begun is half done.”

SummaryWord Study

Writing Device

Text Analysis

Assignment

Write two introductory paragraphs entitled Don’t Worry About Growing Up with the methods we have learned today.

I can accept failure, but can’t accept to give up.

------Michael Jordan

Thank you for your attention!