Hi. Does anyone have lesson plans for the short stories, "Gift of the Magi" and "The Necklace" Also lesson ideas for Plot. Thank you in advance. I'm a brand new teacher!
For "The Gift of the Magi" I usually show the movie "The Gift of Love" it's based off of "The Gift of the Magi" but it's pretty different from it. THe kids enjoy it. After we have read the story and watched the movie I have them do a Venn Diagram comparing the two and then I have them write a comparison paragraph. I also go over the story map and irony. I hope that helps!
http://www.argo217.k12.il.us/departs/english/blettiere/short_stories2.htm this teacher's website is amazing. there are activities for both stories of his site.
I use the "Gift of the Magi" in context of my Senior short story unit to build schema in plot mapping and understanding irony. About all I really use it for.
I teach plot elements by reading a children's book to my class and we break down the plot together. (I recommmend "The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs" because it is told from the wolf's perspective.) I also use examples students can relate to such as sitcoms and movies because almost all of them use the same plot structure. It helps students understand why the beginning of books and movies can be hard to get into and the endings are so good. My short stories class spends a couple class periods watching sitcoms and identifying the plot elements in each one.
U_Teach_2, are there any particular sitcoms that you use? I like Disney's "That's So Raven Shows", but are there any you would find more helpful for students? I have a few student that still don't understand the climax of the story. I teach 7th and 8th grade. I've actually made pictograms of the elements of plot, and the kids know the sequence of the plot elements and what each one represents now; however, the climax is a bit hazzy for them. I am going to test them on the climax of a short story after reviewing the plot of "The Tell-Tale Heart" with them. I was thinking of choosing Dahl's "The Landlady" to use as their short story to read and ask a few plot questions based on their reading. Inlovewithwords, thanks for starting this thread; I've found it most helpful! --MSB
