Passive Voice Detective Challenge

By Ziwen SUN from Taicang Experimental Middle School  

Grade Level: 9  

Duration: 40 minutes  

Topic: Passive Voice Review

Teaching Objectives

By the end of this lesson, ss are expected to

1. accurately convert active-passive voice across 7 tenses;

2. produce passive sentences in a police report;

3. recognize passive voice as a linguistic feature for objectivity;

4. develop deductive reasoning through passive error-correction tasks.

5. Teaching key and difficult point: to guide ss to use active-passive voice and produce passive sentences in a police report.

   Teaching procedures

   Step1 lead-in: Crime Scene Analysis  

   T shows a picture of school mystery.

   Ss complete the clues using passive structures:  

   1. The windows ______ (break)  

   2. A laptop ______ (steal)  

   3. Footprints ______ (find)  

   Q: Why can't we say “Someone broke the windows” in this report?

   Step2 Grammar Review

6. Passive Voice Formula:  

   [RECEIVER] + [BE + Vpp] + (by AGENT)

7. Passive Voice in 7 tenses

   Step3 Practice

8. Basic Conversion

9. Passive Voice Detective - Error Hunt!

10. Consolidation

11. The Case of the Stolen Diamond

    Step4 Case Report

    Group-work: Ss finish the Case Report according to requirements

     

    FINDINGS:  

    1. Jewelry ______ (take)  

    2. The thief ______ (catch) on camera  

    3. Drones ______ (use) now  

    4. Rewrite: “They found evidence” → ______  

    ...

    Step5 Summary

    Homework: 1. write a news report about today’s case using passive voice

    2. finish passive voice exercise

教学反思

孙子雯 太仓实验中学  

一．课堂简介

这节40分钟的复习课以“破案”为主线，案件导入，用学校失窃现场图（被砸窗户/丢失电脑），让学生用被动语态填空描述（如“窗户被砸破”）；通过公式讲解被动结构，复习其在7种时态中的使用；通过Basic Conversion, Error Hunt, Consolidation, The Case of the Stolen Diamond练习巩固；最后小组合作完成警方案件报告，用被动语态写调查结果。在这堂课中，学生掌握7种时态被动转换，小组警方报告完成度高，大部分正确写出“珠宝被拿走”(was taken)等句子，学生抢答纠错积极，通过纠错训练逻辑思维。

二．优点

1. 破案情境真实有效  

   学生看到“教室被破坏“图片立刻代入角色，抢着喊“窗户是were broken！不是broke！”

   写警方报告时，有组争论：“摄像头拍到小偷”该用was caught还是has been caught？说明在思考时态。  

2. 重难点突破扎实  

   纠错环节聚焦典型错误：用红笔圈出学生作业中的“The jewelry taken”（漏was），全班齐声补“be动词”

3. 任务驱动输出  

   为完成“结案报告”，学生主动问：“无人机正在搜查怎么说？”——自然带出难点“are being used”

一学生打趣：“当警察必须用被动语态，不然报告不合格！”体现语用意识。

三．不足

1. 文化目标停留表面  

   问题：只提到“报告不说by谁”，未对比中英文差异（如中文说“小偷被抓住”，英文倾向省略by police）  

   改进：加1组新闻标题对比 → 英文“Mona Lisa Stolen!”（被动） vs 中文“卢浮宫名画失窃”（主动）  

2. 报告任务时间紧张  

   问题：最后5分钟仓促，部分组没写完“证据被发现“（evidence was found）  

改进：提前发报告模板；减少语法练习2分钟，留足产出时间。  

四．总结  

这节课用“侦探破案“让被动语态复习变得有趣又扎实，学生从填空到写报告步步提升。但文化深度还需加强。下次课将引入“新闻编辑部“活动，让学生改编真实案件报道，体会被动语态如何让信息更专业客观。