"Reflections on Bull Riding" Teaching Reflections

The text "Reflections on Bull Riding" is about the inspiration given to people by a highly skilled rider's wonderful performance in a bull riding competition: superb skills are obtained through long-term and hard training. In this article, the author uses concise language to vividly express the wonderful scene of the bull riding competition: "Several riders rode on the back of the wild bull and fell off in just two or three seconds. Only one rider had the skills Superb, he stayed firmly on the bull's back even though it was jumping up and down crazily." It was difficult for first graders to understand this sentence, so I let them watch a little ride during class. Video of cattle racing. Then teach children how to find answers from the text, explore ideas from the text, and gain feelings from the text.

I asked the students how long these riders were on the back of the bull. "Two or three seconds." The students replied in unison. Then I asked the students to experience how long two or three seconds are, and count together: "1, 2, 3." "Is it long?" I asked again. "Not long." "Could no one be able to subdue these wild buffaloes?" The students naturally found the sentence "Only one rider is highly skilled, even though..." "This rider is amazing!" I asked the students to talk about where they saw it. The students quickly found the word "firmly" and asked, "Is this cow obedient?" I asked again. The students experienced the wildness of the cow from "jumping up and down" and "crazy". I asked the students to imagine what other actions the cow would do. The children thought that "the cow would also spin in circles very fast, trying to throw off the rider." Then I guided the students Observe the rider's movements: one hand is raised high, and only one hand is grasping the bare back of the cow. Through observation, the students can more deeply understand the rider's superb skills. Such a simple sentence, through the contrast between the madness of the bull and the superb skill of the rider, shows us a skilled rider. The children couldn't help but be in awe of this rider.

The last part of the text is the rider’s reply to the old lady: “Little girl, you don’t know, I have fallen off the back of the bull thousands of times.” What did I ask the students to explain? The student's answer was simple: He fell a lot. I asked the students to imagine: What did the rider think and do when he fell down for the first time? The second time, the third time... A child immediately said: "The first time he fell off the bull's back, the rider thought it didn't matter, so he got up and jumped on the bull's back. Unexpectedly, he fell off the bull's back the second time. He fell off the back of the cow. This time he was bruised and swollen, and his hands were bleeding. But he endured the pain, got up again, and jumped on the back of the cow... He fell off again and again, and got up again and again. Jumping on the back of an ox for the first time..." The child's speech was so wonderful that the students immediately responded with warm applause.