short stories – Tim's Free English Lesson Plans

Proficiency Book Club: The Waterfall by H E Bates

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Tim Warre

This is a series of lesson plans for proficiency level students based around stories from “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” edited by A. S. Byatt. Set the story as homework the week before, encourage students to bring any vocabulary questions to class.

The Waterfall tells the story of a repressed reverend’s daughter trying to cope with the emotions and sentiments of life and love. These feelings are symbolised by the waterfall in her garden which is being renovated. The breaking of the damn and the water surging down the waterfall could symbolise the release of all her bottled up affections and feelings towards her husband and the jovial Mr. Phillips who has been staying with the family.

Download this lesson plan here:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!383&authkey=!AJRdYjvoRf1OhyM

Vocabulary

First copy to the board or project the vocabulary table in the attachment above, students must try to match the new vocab to the definition.

Key: 1 – g, 2 – d, 3 – a, 4 – b, 5 – j, 6 – e, 7 – f, 8 – I, 9 – h, 10 – c.

Once they have matched the vocab give them 5 minutes to find the vocabulary in the text, make it a race, the first team to find all 10 wins.

Then discuss the following discussion questions:

Discussion Questions:

What happens in the story?
How would you describe the characters? Straight-laced. Prim and proper, repressed, damaged,
What does the waterfall represent?
How do you feel about Rose? Do you sympathise with her?
How do you think she feels about her new husband?
How do you think she feels about Phillips?
Do you think people are more or less emotionally repressed these days?
Do you think this is a good or bad thing?

Conversation Classes, Reading Classes

Proficiency Book Club: A Widow’s Quilt by Sylvia Townsend Warner

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Tim Warre

Vocabulary

Here is some vocab that your students might have trouble with:

page 243

the box – the television
parlour – a room in a kitchen where food is stored and prepared
applique quilts – patchwork quilts

page 244

rook – black bird and chess piece
blacking out curtains – heavy curtains used during world war two to block light from the windows of the houses
taffeta – material made from silk

245

to snatch – to take something from another person aggressively
jolt – a sudden violent movement

248

drudgery – a boring, difficult job
fidgeting / to fidget – to move comfortably and nervously
to thwart – to prevent the completion of something
a harlot – a whore / prostitute
to grimace – to make an angry / annoyed face

Discussion

Have your students discuss these questions in small groups or as a class:

What happens in the story?
Can you describe the characters?
What do you think of Charlotte?
How do you think she feels in her marriage? Trapped?
What do her actions say about the position of women in the time the story was written?
What do you think of Everard?
How do you feel for him at the end?
How do you feel for Charlotte?
How can you explain the ending?
Charlotte takes on the challenge of making the quilt, how important is it to have challenges and things to focus your attention on in life? Different stages of life. Things to look forward to etc.

Conversation Classes, Reading Classes

Proficiency Book Club: The Troll by T. H. White

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Tim Warre

Vocabulary

Here is a matching exercise for some of the more difficult vocabulary in the story. Have the students complete the exercise in pairs.

a. Ungainly	1. the back of a boat
b. Blurry	2. A mental institute
c. Beside the point	3. clumsy / moving without grace
d. A bog	4. to squeeze material to extract water
e. To ford	5. to begin to deal with a problem in a sensible way
f. Bow	6. dry and wrinkled
g. To wring out	7. irrelevant
h. Stern	8. the front of a boat
i. To come / get to grips with something	9. To designate for a specific purpose
j. Wizened	10. To cross a river
k. To earmark st	11. unfocused
l. Loony-bin	12. a wet, muddy area of ground

Here you can download the table to print:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!358&authkey=!AOgTwYv1J95mH4E

Here are the answers:

a – 3
b – 11
c – 7
d – 12
e – 10
f – 8
g – 4
h – 1
i – 5
j – 6
k – 9
l – 2

Here are the locations of the words in the text and some sentence examples:

ungainly – bottom of pg 346
blurry – actual reference is blurring at the bottom of pg 347
beside the point – middle of pg 348, other sentences example: “He is a nice man, but that’s beside the point; he’s rubbish at his job.”
bog – bottom of 348
to ford – bottom of 348
bow – bottom of 348 in relation to a “bow wave”
stern – isn’t in the text but is a counterpoint to “bow”
to wring out – top of 349, wring is irregular – wring wrung wrung.
come to grips with something – middle of 351, other sentence examples: “We must all get to grips with this tragedy” “If you are going to be an executive you need to get to grips with your fear of public speaking.”
wizened – middle of 351
to earmark st – bottom of 351, other sentence example: “this money is earmarked for the Christmas party”

Ask students for any other vocab issues they have.

Discussion Questions

Discuss these questions in groups or as a class:

What happens in the story?
What does the troll represent?
Why does the story have a framing device? (a story within a story) What does it add to the story?
Some analysts say the story is religious, the character’s latent Christianity defeating the Troll, do you agree?
What do you think of the gory imagery of the troll?
How do you explain the ending?
What other mythical creatures can you think of? (vampires, werewolves, zombies etc.)
Why do you think these monsters are so popular? Why do people keep writing stories about them?
Which ones frightened you most as a child? Which ones still scare you now?
What do you think are the origins of these creatures?

Conversation Classes, Reading Classes

Proficiency Book Club: An Englishman’s Home by Evelyn Waugh

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Tim Warre

This is the latest in a series of lesson plans for proficiency level students based around short stories from “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories edited by A. S. Byatt. This one is based on “An Englishman’s Home” by Evelyn Waugh, you can read the story for free here:

http://novel.tingroom.com/html/29/149.html

As with the other plans in this series, students read the story for homework and then bring any vocabulary queries or new words they discover to class. Start by asking for these queries. Here are some pieces of vocabulary that might come up in class:

I opened the class by teaching the following 2 expressions: “An Englishman’s home is his castle” and “NIMBY” (Not In My Back Yard) two expressions which neatly sum up the various themes in the story.

aphorisms (page 295) = sayings / idioms

to wreak stark havoc (296) = to cause chaos

ha-ha (296) = a type of fence built at the bottom of a ditch so that it’s not visible from the house’s windows

Crown Derby (297) = A type of expensive ceramic, plates etc.

impecunious (297) = poor, no money

to pull your weight (298) = to do your share of communal work

to eschew (298) = to avoid

The Peace Ballot (298) = a national survey carried out in 1934-35

jerry builders (302) = cheap unskilled builders

to put / pull a fast one over on somebody (309) = to trick / cheat somebody

to mope (309) = to complain and be worried about something

to fret (309) = to be worried and nervous

Discussion Questions:

What happens in the story?
What do you think of the characters?
What does the story say about people?
Does anybody come out of it looking good?
The story talks a lot about manners and maintaining appearances, do you think these things are as important in your country?
We see Mr. Metcalf trying to follow the instructions on how to live as a country gentleman should. Do you think lots of people act like this in real life? Do they try to act as society expects them to act? Can you think of any examples?
The story reflects English village life very accurately, can you see parallels with villages in your country?
What does the expression NIMBY mean? Do you see examples of NIMBY attitudes in your country? Can you think of any examples?
In the book we see the residents of the village cheated out of their money, what other similar confidence scams and tricks can you think of?

Students may be interested to read about the life of the writer Evelyn Waugh, here is his wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Waugh

His most famous book “Brideshead Revisited” has been adapted for the screen twice, the 1981 small screen mini series garnered an excellent response from critics.

Conversation Classes, Reading Classes

Proficiency Book Club: Nuns at Luncheon by Aldous Huxley

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Tim Warre

This a series of posts for proficiency level students based around short stories taken from “The Oxford Book of Short Stories” edited by A.S Byatt.

This lesson plan is based on “Nuns at Luncheon” by Aldous Huxley. Start by addressing any vocabulary issues the students might have.There is a lot of new vocabulary in this story so try to keep this section as brief as possible to leave time for the discussion. Here is a brief run down of some things that might need explaining.

a hare – a kind of large rabbit

a mixed grill – a plate of assorted types of grilled meat

gaudy / gaudily – tasteless, lots of bright colours

to wriggle out of st – to escape from a responsibility – my students try to wriggle out of doing their homework

to talk shop – to talk about your job / studies during free time

gallows – the place where people are hanged (see also gallows humour)

the plot thickens – expression meaning that something becomes more complicated or interesting

to harness – to capture and use the power of something – windmills harness the power of the wind

folly – stupidity

the coast is clear – expression meaning nobody is watching

to rule with an iron rod – to be very strict

chaste – pure / innocent

to shuffle off this mortal coil – expression from Shakespeare’s Hamlet meaning to die.

to wallow – to immerse yourself in something, usually in something bad – pigs and hippos wallow in mud, people sometimes wallow in self-pity.

to savour something – to enjoy something and try and make it last longer

the Norns – Nordic goddesses of destiny

sullen – moody, sad

to gloat – to show a lot of self-satisfaction about something, usually at someone else’s expense.

to trudge / to tramp – to walk with heavy feet as if you are tired

dingy – badly lit, dirty

Discussion Questions

What’s the story about?
How did it make you feel?
The story uses a framing device (a story within a story), what effect does this have?
What happens in the story of the nun?
Why does the nun run away with the man? For love? Or to save his soul?
What does the story say about our fascination with tragedy?
In English we have the expression “car crash TV /cinema” what do you think it means? (shows or films that deliberately show disturbing material to get a reaction or higher viewing figures.)
Do you think the media exploits other people’s tragedies for higher viewing figures? Can you think of any examples? (Oscar Pistorius trial)
Based on the events in the story and the repeated scandals involving priests do you think that celibacy is realistic in today’s society?

Recommended Websites, Writing Classes

Zombie Apocalypse Training 101, with Steven Seagal

Posted on March 6, 2013March 12, 2013 by Tim Warre

Need help getting teenage students to produce compositions? Why not try this great warm up game from my friend Magistra Monson. The idea is you take clippings from real news stories and use them as a jumping off point for creative or argumentative writing. The class works as a team adding a paragraph each to the story with hilarious consequences. Definitely an idea I’m gonna use in my next teen class, or even with adults. You can download different introductory paragraphs from Magistra’s blog.

This has actually helped inspire a pipe dream I have for a new blog based around crowd sourced short stories. The working title at the moment is “Crowd Shorts” watch this space………………………. and pay attention to big Steve, that guys knows his onions.

freeenglishlessonplans.com

Conversation Classes, Reading Classes

Proficiency book club, lesson 3: The Toys of Peace by Saki

Posted on March 4, 2013March 12, 2013 by Tim Warre

This lesson is a short discussion based around “The Toys of Peace” by Saki, a short satirical story about two parents attempts to influence their young boy’s playing habits. For this series of classes I am using short stories from “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” edited by A. S. Byatt. If you don’t have a copy of the book most of the short stories are available for free online. This particular short story is available here:

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/ToysPeac.shtml

As with the other lessons in this series the story is set of homework the previous week. The first 5-10 minutes of the class are spent going over any vocabulary issues. This is then followed by a discussion based on the themes and issues which arise in the story.

The author Hector Hugh Munro is considered to be one of the masters of the short story. Many of his works were published posthumously following his death in World War 1. His wikipedia page may prove useful for the class discussion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saki

After going through any vocabulary problems (there shouldn’t be many as the story only runs to 5 pages) have the students discuss the following questions, either in small groups or as a whole class:

Discussion: Toys of Peace

What happens in the story?
What was your initial reaction to it?
Describe the characters.
What do you think of the parents attempt to influence their children?
Do you think they are well-meaning? Or deluded?
What toys did you play with as a child?
Did your parents ban anything they thought would have a bad influence on you? Toys? TV shows? Etc.
Do you agree with the expression “boys will be boys”?
Do you think children should play with toy weapons?
Should girls be given typically girly toys? Dolls, makeup etc.
Are there any toys / games / other things that you think are a bad influence on children or young people
Should these things be banned?
The story is an example of satire. What do you think it is satirising?
What satirical programs / writers / magazines etc. do you have in your country?

Next week: Nuns at Luncheon by Aldous Huxley

freeenglishlessonplans.com

Conversation Classes, Reading Classes

Proficiency book club, lesson 2: Solid Objects by Virginia Woolf

Posted on February 18, 2013March 12, 2013 by Tim Warre

This is the second part of a series of posts based around stories from “The Oxford Book of English Short Stories” edited by A.S Byatt. This particular class is based on “Solid Objects” by Virginia Woolf, pages 205-209.

As before set the story as reading homework for the week before.

If you don’t have a copy of the book someone has helpfully uploaded it in pdf here:

Click to access SOLID%20OBJECTS,%20Virginia%20Woolf.pdf

This analytical essay by Sam Mitchell about the works of Virginia Woolf may prove useful. It’s a little heavy as it’s an honours thesis but has some useful insights into the story.

https://dspace.lasrworks.org/bitstream/handle/10349/958/2011ENG-MitchellSam.pdf?sequence=1

Lesson Plan:

Start by asking the students for vocabulary problems. Woolf’s style can be confusing so some sections could require a little explanation. Some vocabulary that might cause problems is listed below:

lunging – to lunge, to move towards in a swift movement

tweed – woven material used to make clothes

to fling – to throw without care

to be to hand – to be within reach

to slash – to cut or mark something

to skim – to touch the surface of something lightly

slate – material used to make rooves

to hitch up a sleeve – to roll up or move higher to protect

moat – water around a castle

mantelpiece – surface above a fireplace where objects are kept

on the brink – on the edge

trifling – unimportant

to be cast down – to be depressed

matted – tangled into a lump

Lots of the vocabulary in the story can be used in various contexts, be sure to explore these fully. For example: fling – to have a fling (short sexual relationship)

Once you have cleared up any vocab issues hand out the following discussion questions:

1. Can you describe the characters?

2. What happens in the story?

3. What was your initial reaction to the story?

4. Did you feel sorry for John? Or bemused?

5. What strikes you about the introduction?

6. How can you explain John’s behaviour?

7. What do the objects represent?

8. Do you have any lucky charms? Did you have any when you were a child?

9. Do you collect anything?

10. Did you collect things when you were a child?

Either put the students into small groups to discuss the questionsand then feedback or have an open class discussion.

Here are some ideas and themes that could help fuel discussion:

Story written in 1918 towards the end of World War one. The idea of objects lasting longer than men, so many people died in the war and all that came back were objects: letters, belongings, clothes etc.

The idea of the permanance of objects and the transcience of people. The desire for permanance, ever lasting life.

The simplicity of the objects as pure pieces of different materials and also the mystery surrounding what they used to be.

freeenglishlessonplans.com

Writing Classes

Follow up: Homework composition about travelling

Posted on February 13, 2013March 12, 2013 by Tim Warre

This is a homework activity written to follow my previous lesson plan about holidays and traveling here is the link to the original lesson plan:

http://freeenglishlessonplans.com/2013/01/30/holidays-and-travelling-conversation-class/

Here is a link to download the handout for homework:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!300&authkey=!AMJLj8z2NbQgFFI

A travel magazine is running a competition for travel articles about different types of holidays / ways to travel for young people.

Choose 1 type of holiday / way to travel from the class handout and write an article about why it’s good for young people. Include:

An interesting introduction to catch the reader’s attention. Include direct questions.
Pros and cons of your chosen subject.
Reasons why you recommend it to other young people.
You can include (invented) anecdotes.

freeenglishlessonplans.com

Writing Classes

Composition: Short story, Nighthawks by Edward Hopper

Posted on February 6, 2013February 13, 2013 by Tim Warre

This is a homework exercise to practice past narrative tenses for intermediate to advanced students (B1-C1) based on the picture above. Nighthawks by Edward Hopper.

Download the handout here:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=79CFF252BEEA0A7D!294&authkey=!AJdNI7pP–88YxQ

Composition short story

Write a short story (120-150 words) based on this picture.

Who are these people?
Where is the story set? When is it set?
What are they doing?
What has happened before this moment?
What happens next? (think of an exciting ending)

Generally stories are written in the past so use a selection of past tenses:

Past continuous to describe the scene, “The couple were sat at the bar talking and drinking.”
Past simple to describe actions in sequence: “The man paid his bill, put on his jacket and left the bar.”
Past perfect to describe actions that happened before this moment: “The man had been drinking in another bar before”
Mixture of past tenses to describe different actions: “As the man was putting on his jacket, the phone rang…..”

Competition!!!

Open to teachers or students. If you are a teacher send your best student’s story, or if you are a student your story to me at: tim_rd_warre@hotmail.com and I’ll post it to my page for all to see!