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Unit 2 Little House in the Big Woods
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Objectives and Focal Points
Objectives:
1. Understand the background information of the passage：Westward
Movement.
2. Know well the life of pioneers.
3. Grasp the main idea of the text and the reading skill: Previewing a
reading material.
Key points and difficult points:
1. Westward Movement
2. Life of pioneers
3. Word-building: conversion
Contents
Lead in
Main Idea
Text Comprehension
Structure Analysis
Further Discussion
Language and Style
Assignment
I. Lead in: Talk about American people
Where did Americans come from? Were they born
and raised in America? What are the typical
qualities of the Americans?
Map of the US
Westward Movement
Westward Movement (1600s-1890)
Pioneers and caravans
Question
•
What kind of life did the pioneers live? Can you find anything
in common between them?
•
Hard-working, inventive,self-reliant, optimistic/self-confident,
concerned with material wealth.
the author: Laura Ingalls Wilder
About the author: Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867-1957)
an American author best known for her Little House on
the Prairie book series, which focused on her childhood
growing up in a pioneer family. Wilder was 65 when her first
book, Little House in the Big Woods was published.
Laura's daughter Rose grew up listening to her mother's stories of those
pioneer days. She urged her mother to write them down. The Little House
books includes:
Little House in the Big Woods (1932)
Farmer Boy (1933)
Little House on the Prairie (1935)
On the Banks of Plum Creek (1937)
By the Shores of Silver Lake (1939)
The Long Winter (1940)
Little Town on the Prairie (1941)
Those Happy Golden Years (1943)
Little House in the Big Woods
Setting and characters:
When and Where did the story take place?
Who were in the story?
II. Main Idea
A mother and her daughters living in the big
woods encountered a big bear but got home
safely.
III. Text Comprehension
Q1: Where did the family live? What did the father the father do one
morning? (Para. 1-3)
Q2: Did he come back at night? (Para. 8)
Q3: What did Ma do then? (Para. 9)
Q4: Who was Sukey? What did Mother and Daughter see in the barnyard?
Was it Sukey? Why or Why not? Find sentences to describe them (Para.
13-17)
Q5: Were they safe in the end?
Q6: When did Pa come back? What did he bring back for the whole family?
Q7: What did the final paragraph imply?
IV. Structure Analysis /Plot
One early morning Pa went to town to trade furns of animals and didn’t
return.
ÆMa and daughter encountered a big bear at night .
ÆThey were safe in the end.
ÆPa came back the next morning with presents for the whole family.
V. Further Discussion
1. What kind of people were Laura’s parents?
2. What kind of life did the family live in the big woods? Try to
describe the life of pioneers.
Tips: their surroundings, entertainment,
The role of the father and mother in the family, way of life
Summary
Setting,
Characters,
Plot,
Themes: Pioneering spirit
VII. Language and style
Rhetorical Devices:
Figures of speech: metaphor, simile,
personification, repetition, climax,
onomatopoeia…;
conversion, …
Language:
Colloquial and humorous
Style:
Colloquial style
Expressions
1. In the Big Woods the snow was beginning to thaw. (to melt)
2. At noon all the big icicles along the eaves of the little house
quivered and sparkled in the sunshine. (trembled)
3. Pa said he must go to town to trade the furs of the wild animals he
had been trapping all winter.
The word trade is often used as a noun. But here trade is a verb,
means to buy and sell goods.
There are many such conversions in the passage. eg. milk , button...
4. Ma was worried, but Pa said that by starting before sun-up and
walking very fast all day he could get home again before dark.
Sun-up: (American English) sunrise
8. She hung on to Ma and sobbed.
(leant against Ma )
VIII. Assignment
Read the passage carefully after class and be
prepared to give an oral report about it before
your classmates.
THANK YOU