5-4 The Invisible Poor.docVIP

Unit Four Text I: The Invisible Poor Teaching aims Learn the cause-and-effect pattern in expository writing. Develop some basic skills in text analysis -- coherence and cohesion Have some idea about the poverty problem in the US and take note of the similar problem in China: Learn to be observant and critical of social phenomena Main and difficult teaching points: relevant information; understanding the thesis; text organization; text comprehension; language points; the use of cause-and-effect pattern in expository writing Time allotment: 9 periods Teaching Procedures: I. Warm-up questions When was the present text written? (the 60s) How much do you know about the USA in the 60s? (Vietnam War, revolt of the youth, general disillusionment, etc.) What do you think is the author’s major concern in writing this article? Are you surprised to know that there are considerable number of poor people in the USA? What’s people’s general impression of America? (“A land of plenty” , “the American Dream”) To what extent is the issue discussed in the text relevant to us? (What China is undergoing now bears some resemblance to the situation of the US in the 60s, in economic development and social transform. The gap between the poor and the rich is widening in China. The causes analyzed by the author for the invisibility of the poor are largely true to the Chinese context.) What’s your general impression of the text in terms of its writing style? Do you see the pattern the author follows in developing his ideas? Relevant Information The Author Michael Harrington is a U.S. Professor of political science at Queen’s College, New York, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party. His books of social criticism include: The Vast Majority: A Journey to the Worlds’ Poor (1977) and The Next America: The Decline and Rise of the United States (1981). The middle class in the United States Broadly speaking, the middle class is the social group between the upper or t