The effects of summarization strategy on efl students reading comprehension of literary prose texts m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES DEPARTMENTS OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE THE EFFECTS OF SUMMARIZATION STRATEGY ON EFL STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION OF LITERARY PROSE TEXTS Submitted to the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS &LITERATURE In partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By LÊ THỊ HIẾU Supervised by LÊ THỊ THANH, PhD HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES DEPARTMENTS OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE THE EFFECTS OF SUMMARIZATION STRATEGY ON EFL STUDENTS’ READING COMPREHENSION OF LITERARY PROSE TEXTS Submitted to the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS &LITERATURE In partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL By LÊ THỊ HIẾU Supervised by LÊ THỊ THANH, PhD HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2014 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This is to certify that to the best of my knowledge, the content of this thesis is my own work The thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes I certify that the content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged Ho Chi Minh City, May 20th, 2014 Lê Thị Hiếu i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that, being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, I accept the requirements of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities relating to the retention and use of the thesis deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree the original version of the thesis to be copied in whole or in part without further reference to the author, by the Department’s Library or the English Resource Center (ERC), for study and research purposes only, subject to normal conditions of the acknowledgement Ho Chi Minh City, May 20th, 2014 Lê Thị Hiếu ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I gratefully acknowledge the contribution of many individuals whom I have been holding on to their valuable support I would like to express my sincere gratitude, first and foremost, to my thesis supervisor, Dr Le Thi Thanh for being such a close, warm-hearted and inspirational mentor Without her guidance and support, this thesis would have been impossible I am also grateful to Dr Nguyen Thu Huong for his valuable comments and suggestions Getting to know him and work under his wing at Hoa Sen University have been a special opportunity for me My thanks also go to many teachers in the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, who have made possible the expansion of my knowledge and academic development during the TESOL course I also wish to express my heartfelt thanks to my special class-mate, Trinh Hoang Yen, who supported me and made the implementation of my research possible I am also indebted to the 34 Literature students who joined in my experiment in my investigation I appreciate the friendship of many individuals for their warm friendship and support me through highs and lows of my work My heartfelt thanks also go to other class-mates who have accompanied me over the research years Finally I would like to dedicate this thesis to my beloved ones for their love and encouragement that have been indispensable for maintaining my morale when I met with health problems during my research Lê Thị Hiếu iii ABSTRACT This study investigated the effects of summarization strategy, applied to story summary writing, on Hoa Sen University EFL students’ reading comprehension of short stories It also examined the students’ attitudes towards the summary writing task and their problems in doing the task The participants for this study were 34 third-year English major students enrolled in an introductory course in Literature at Hoa Sen University The students were from an intact Literature class The data used for the study were the students’ scores on a reading comprehension test, written questionnaires with 34 respondents and entries of the student’s feedback (93 writings) The comparison of means scores between pretest and posttest revealed that the students benefitted more by reading short stories with summary writing More importantly, the findings showed that there was a statistically significantly difference on reading comprehension of short stories before and after the training Furthermore, half of the students reported they had positive attitudes towards the task while the rest showed their neutral or negative responses The findings also indicated most of the students had difficulties in summary and writing skills when doing the task This study suggests that reading short stories and writing summaries may improve students’ text comprehension The findings have implications for the direct and explicit instruction of story summary writing, and writing can be a tool for improving reading comprehension The thesis makes recommendations for future research on EFL students in an introductory literature class by considering the possibility of using more writing tasks and different text types Key words: summarization strategy, reading, reading comprehension, plot, summary writing, writing skills iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY i RETENTION OF USE ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT .iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v CHAPTER INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Background of the Study 1.2 Statement of the Problem 1.3 Purposes of the Study 1.4 Research Questions 1.5 Significance of the Study 1.6 Definitions of Terms 1.7 Scope and Limitation of the study 1.8 Outline of the Thesis 1.9 Summary CHAPTER REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 ESL/EFL Reading Comprehension 2.1.1 Nature of Reading 2.1.2 Purposes of Reading 2.1.3 Reading Processing… 10 2.1.4 Factors in Comprehension 11 2.1.4.1 Reader factors in comprehension 12 2.1.4.2 Text Factors in Comprehension 12 2.1.4.3 Instructional Factors in Comprehension 13 2.1.5 Bloom’s Taxonomy on Comprehension… 13 2.1.6 Reading Comprehension Strategies 15 2.2 Literary Prose Texts 17 2.2.1 Definition of literary prose text 17 2.2.2 Literary Prose Text structure and features 20 2.2.3 Reading comprehension of literary prose texts .23 v 2.3 Approaches to teaching literary texts 24 2.3.1 Maley’s Approach 24 2.3.2 Carter and Long’s Approach 25 2.3.3 Amer’s Approach 25 2.3.4 Van’s Approach 27 2.3.5 Timucin and Savvidou’s Integrated Approach 27 2.4 Summarization Strategy 28 2.4.1 Definition of Summarization 28 2.4.2 Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Retelling .29 2.4.3 Story Summary Writing 31 2.4.3.1 Story Elements in Summary Writing 31 2.4.3.2 Approaches to Summary Writing 33 2.4.3.2.1 Story Structure Approach 33 2.4.3.2.2 “Somebody-Wanted-But-So” Approach 34 2.4.3.3 Summary Writing Process 35 2.4.3.4 Evaluation of Summary Writing 36 2.4.3.4.1 Evaluation Criteria 36 2.4.3.4.2 Methods of summary evaluation 37 2.5 Previous Studies on Summarization and Summary Writing 38 2.6 Conceptual framework of the study 42 2.7 Summary .43 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 44 3.1 Research Design 44 3.2 Research Site 44 3.3 Participants 45 3.4 Research Instruments 45 3.4.1 The pilot study 45 3.4.1.1 Instruments 45 3.4.1.1.1 The RCT 45 3.4.1.1.2 The Questionnaire 46 3.4.1.2 Results of the pilot study 46 vi 3.4.1.3 Implications for the Main Study 48 3.4.2 The Main Study 48 3.4.2.1 Tests .48 3.4.2.1.1 Pretest 48 3.4.2.1.2 Posttest 52 3.4.2.2 Questionnaire 52 3.4.2.3 Students’ Written Feedback .53 3.5 Data Collection Procedures 53 3.5.1 Phase 54 3.5.2 Phase 55 3.5.3 Phase 55 3.6 Data Analysis Methods 56 3.7 Summary .56 CHAPTER4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 57 4.1 RESULTS 57 4.1.1 Findings from the Reading Comprehension Test (RCT) 57 4.1.1.1 Pretest Results 57 4.1.1.2 Posttest Results 59 4.1.1.3 Participants’ Performance in Terms of Test types 60 4.1.1.4Effects of the Summarization Instruction on Reading Comprehension 62 4.1.2 Findings from the Questionnaire 63 4.1.2.1 Basic information about participants’ pre-class assignments 64 4.1.2.2 Students’ Attitudes towards perceived story summary and reading ability 65 4.1.2.3 Students’ Attitudes towards Summary task 67 4.1.2.4 Students’ Problems towards Summary task .69 4.1.2.5 Students’ Suggestions towards Summary 70 4.1.3 Findings from the Students’ Written Feedback .72 4.1.3.1 The First Entry of Feedback 72 4.1.3.2 The Second Entry of Feedback 74 vii 4.1.3.3 The Third Entry of Feedback 75 4.2 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS 76 4.2.1 Answer to Research Question 77 4.2.2 Answer to Research Question 77 4.2.2 Answer to Research Question 79 4.2.4 Discussion 80 4.3 SUMMARY 82 CHAPTER SUMMARY OF FIDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 83 5.1 Summary 83 Implications 84 5.3 Strength and Limitation of the Study 86 5.4 Recommendations for Further Research 87 5.5 Conclusion 87 viii After students are given enough time to refresh themselves with the story, split them up into groups of five, respectively with five section of the story Once in their groups, the teacher will give assign each section to each team All the groups will listen to the audio reading, but each group will be responsible for each section Every student will also get Graphic Organizer for elements of plot They will work in groups to list down important events of their section while listening The teacher will go over to each group to see how they work If any group has difficulty in understanding, the teacher can also use short video adaptation on the section of the story to help clarify what happened in that section Or the teacher can interrupt each section, using think-alouds while reading After listening, I will then allow the students to complete the Graphic Organizer while I supervise their work and assist them when needed When the groups have finished the task, I will show on the overhead the elements of the plot A Rose for Emily, like this: i) Exposition ii) Conflict ii) Rising Actions iv) Climax v) Suspense vi) Falling Actions vii) Denouement Closing Assessment  Explain the relationship among characters and their role in plot (E3.1-4): By completing “Reporter’s Notes”, students will have to be able to comprehend the relationships among characters and how their roles mesh into one another As a class we will walk through each of the sections of the handout together Students will assist one another in developing the correct answers for each section  Infer the meaning of vocabulary through context clues (E3-3.1): There are many vocabulary words that are challenging in this text Context clues play an important role in figuring out what each term means By using a “think-aloud” students will discover the meaning of new words without 138 having to define it in a glossary or dictionary  Use appropriate vocabulary when discussing the text (E3-6.4): In order to complete the “Reporter’s Notes”, students must have adequate vocabulary about English to complete this activity For example, they must know the meaning of setting, characters, plot, etc If they not have this prior knowledge we will have a mini lesson on the meaning of these words so that they can complete their hand out References Norton, M 2010 Reading between the lines 139 APPENDIX D: LESSON PLAN Level Third-year students-English Majors Content Area Elements of short stories Lesson Title CHARACTERIZATION AND SYMBOLISM IN EVERYDAY USE Duration 180 minutes Context of - Students have worked with all the elements in the previous short stories: the Lesson character, setting, plot, conflict and point of view They have learned how to relate each of these elements in the story - Students will have read and been familiar with story elements in Everyday Use, they easily use story map to jot down important events and ideas from reading or listening the story Students will have assigned to read information about the author Alice Walker and her works and at least, the st reading of the story at home Objectives Students will be able to: Compare and contrast the characters in the story, Dee, Maggie and the Mama Students understand that people’s personal values and relationships are based upon their environment and everyday experiences Show their understanding of the story by completing story map and write story summary Materials -Copies of Everyday Use by Alice Walker (with margin notes) -Sticky notes -Photos of quilts, pen or pencil and Paper -Story map for Story Venn Diagram Instructional Opening (15 minutes) Procedures The teacher will show photos of quilts and ask students what they are, what they are made of, their uses and values Ask students if they have quilts at home Students will look at the photos, examine them and discuss the questions Engagement (120 minutes) A Reading and working on the story While reading the short story, students will use story map and small sticky notes to jot down story elements and the personality characteristics, physical descriptions and thinking of the two sisters, Dee (Wangero) and Maggie The teacher then asks students to work in group to compare their ideas on the 140 story map Check if they find out important elements of the story for their story comprehension Then the students will be instructed to use their notations and their own conclusions from sticky notes about both characters to complete a Venn Diagram, listing the similarities and differences of Dee and Maggie (Distribute sample copies of Venn Diagrams to class.) EXAMPLE - Similarities: -Both are proud of their Black heritage -Both get angry -Both are unconditionally loved by their mother -Both want the quilt - Differences: -Dee is adventuresome, clearly attractive and proud of it -Dee's hair glistens, and her skin is softer and lighter -Dee wants the heirloom quilt so that she can use it as a decoration for her home -Maggie has a strong sense of family background -Maggie is shy, submissive, and nervous -She is homely and scarred from burns that she received in a house fire -She wants the heirloom quilt because of its practical everyday use Students may be creative when making Venn Diagrams, using pictures and drawings to illustrate the characters The teacher will review the Venn Diagrams and informally assesses to see if the student listed both similarities and differences Then she will give feedback Students will discuss in groups the two different ways to write a comparison/contrast essay She reminds the class what they have learned about COMPARISON/CONTRAST ESSAY as follows: Point-by-point presents information about each essay according to the points of similarity or difference For example: I Introduction II Topic of Comparison A Dee B Maggie III Topic of Comparison 141 A Dee B Maggie IV Conclusions Whole-by-whole presents all the information about one essay before discussing the other This organization tends to be more difficult to handle For example: I Introduction II Dee A Topic of Comparison a B Topic of Comparison b III Maggie A Topic of Comparison a B Topic of Comparison b IV Conclusions The teachers will tell students to select one of the two methods of comparison to structure your paper Later they will use the information on the Venn Diagram to write an expository essay, comparing and contrasting the characters of the two sisters, Dee (Wangero) and Maggie Consider these guiding questions: Analyze Maggie’s personality and her feelings toward her sister Dee How does she deal with Dee’s demand for the quilts, and why? Are there any ways in which Maggie is “better off” than Dee? Think about some of the positive and negative aspects of Dee’s character, focusing in particular on her relationship with her family Is anything implied about Dee in the passage describing the loss of their previous home? B Symbolism and Theme: The teacher will write these categories on the board: Items No value Sentimental value Functional value Have available a set of note-cards with various items written on each one Randomly pass one out to each student, telling them that this is something that they have inherited from a family member On a clean sheet of notebook paper, have students record the item description on the item they received and write a few extra details about it Let them be as silly or absurd as they want Ask students to tape their item to the board under the category under which they think it belongs according to a character or a person they know 142 On their notebook paper, have them record under what category they placed their item and write about what they think this means about their character What attributes to the value of the item? What attributes they not value the item? What they think of the character or the person who owns that item?  From the activity, what the students think of the theme of the story? Closing (40 minutes) Have students use their story map to write the story summary Ask the students to choose one of the following questions to response: Who they think changed in the story and why? Do you think that Mama made the right decision? How does Dee’s sense of heritage differ from her mother and Maggie’s? Is there anything ironic about Dee’s accusations that her mother and sister not understand their heritage? Analyze the narrator’s personality and her feelings about her daughter Dee In what sense is this “her” story? In the end, with which characters does Alice Walker seem to side on the issue of heritage? Homework assignment Explain to students that they will write a comparison/contrast essay about two sisters in the short story and hand it on the next meeting Assessment Completed graphic organizer for character analysis Participation in role playing activity Evaluate essays (See attached file 2.) References Cynthia Youngblood (2002) Everyday Use Santa Rosa District School Alice Walker (2010) Web English Teacher Everyday Use www.webenglishteacher.com/walker.html Attachments Character Analysis Worksheet for "Everyday Use" Find textual examples for each of the following ways an author creates a character A sample is provided for each method Try to find at least five and hopefully more examples for each method Mama's Physical Description: Example: " a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands " Mama's Actions: Example: "I will wait for her in the yard anyone can come and sit and look up into the elm tree and wait for the breezes 143 Mama's Words and Thoughts: Example: "On TV mother and child embrace and smile into each other's faces the child tell[s] how she would not have made it without their help." What Other Character's Say or Think about Mama: (Because this story is told in first person, you will find little direct dialogue and no examples of what other characters are thinking Instead, intuit what you believe Maggie, Dee, and Asalamalakim think about Mama Base your opinions on textual evidence.) Example: Dee is aware, perhaps painfully, that Mama is larger than probably most of the women Dee spends time with –"'Don't get up,' says Dee Since I am stout " What the narrator (or author) says about Mama: 144 APPENDIX D: LESSON PLAN Level Third year students- English majors Content Area Short stories (British-American Lit.) Lesson Title POINT OF VIEW AND HOW THE SUBJECTIVENESS OF THE NARRATOR CHANGES IN ‘MR KNOW ALL’ Duration 180 minutes Context of -Students have studied setting, character, plot and conflict of the short stories the lesson Today they move on another important element-point of view -Students have learned how the previous stories are told (who tells the story) - Students will have assigned to read information about the author Somerset Maugham and his works and at least, done the 1st reading of the story at home Objectives Students will be able to: Understand the effect narrative tools have on the story-point of view (ex: first person point of view, subjectiveness of the narrator, anonymity of narrator) To recognize the cultural differences between the characters (ex: use of understatement, social distance, etc., introduction to idioms particular to British English) Understand and summarize the plot and create a new plot from another point of view Materials copies of Mr Know All text with margin notes paper boxed segments for Activity copies of ‘Self assessment’ story map for point of view Instructional Opening: (20 minutes) Procedures Mr Know All is a story that requires quite a bit of background knowledge, in addition to having difficult vocabulary Before the students begin the story itself, the teacher will ask them some of information as follows: when World War ended and where was Yokohama find pictures related to ships for vocabulary items in the story, such as “portholes,” “trunk” and “cabin” (want to ensure they don’t think it was a cabin in the woods!) ask them about British Colonialism and made sure they know that India was 145 once under British Rule (critical for understanding the story!) The teacher will talk briefly about prohibition too explain little things such as “some countries have names for their flags” (Union Jack is mentioned in the story), “King George has many strange subjects” or why gentlemen use to need several brushes (not just for their hair!) Engagement (120 minutes) Activity 1: (see Attachment 1) Students are going to work on this story by inventing their own, based on the boxed segments They cover all of the boxed segments with a piece of paper, then read each segment (the segments are extracts from a short story), one at a time At each stage of the reading, they will ask themselves the following questions as a guide to making links between the separate paragraphs: Who/ Where and When/ What/ Why/ How? Students will begin by moving their sheet of paper to the end of the first box, and reading the first paragraph They ask themselves the questions, using imagination to answer them Then move their sheet of paper down to the next paragraph, and ask the same questions They this until reading all of the segments and complete the activity After that, they will take turns with their other group members answering the questions Each member of the group should be responsible for at least one segment After the students finish connecting all of the segments, they will write an ending to the story Activity 2: Event Chains-What happened next? The teacher will have students work in groups Using the flow chart, fill in what happens from the point when Mr Kelada sees Mrs Ramsay's chain of pearls, to the point when he says he is mistaken Mr Kelada sees Mrs Ramsay's chain of pearls Mr Kelada says that he is mistaken 146 Then the teacher will have the students answer these questions: Why does Mrs Ramsay "retire with a headache"? In the last paragraph the narrator says, "At that moment I did not entirely dislike Mr Kelada" Has the narrator changed at all during the story? What are your feelings towards Mrs Ramsay, Mr Kelada and the narrator by the end of the story? What is Mrs Ramsay's reaction at the end of the story? Why is the name on the envelope written in "block letters"? How does this make you react to Mrs Ramsay? Activity 3: Point of view-Narrator’s Perspective The teacher will have students examine the whole story and discuss in groups these questions, using story map for point of view: In 1st episode, how subjective is the narrator to Mr Kelada? What is his role? What does the opening paragraph tell us about the speaker and his attitude? In 2nd episode, how subjective is the narrator to Mr Kelada? What is his role? How the necklace examination affects the narrator’s attitude towards Mr Kelada? In last episode, how subjective is the narrator to Mr Kelada? Does he undergo any change? How?  Why is the story told in the first person? What effect does it have on us, the readers?  What is the narrator’s prejudice based on? Culture? Race? Closing (30 minutes) Students will summarize the plot of the story Choose ONE of the following questions, and show that you have understood the story i) Pretend that you are Mr Kelada, and tell the story to your friend in Japan (from your - Mr Kelada's - point of view) ii) Answer the following questions orally: One Why is the story told in the first person, and why aren't we told the narrator's name? Two Why did the narrator decide that he disliked Mr Kelada even before he met him? What does this tell you about him? Do you think the writer was trying to say something about the British, in general? iii) Describe the different stereotypes that the writer shows in this story iv) Mr Kelada / Mrs Ramsay Why did Mr Kelada decide to protect Mrs 147 Ramsay? What does this tell about him? What does Mrs Ramsay in return? What you think about her reaction? Assessment Criteria for grading show familiarity with the characters and the story discuss the questions fluently write a good summary (grading based on summary rubrics Self assessment Students will assess their work by answering: I read the entire story _ I understood new vocabulary - it wasn't a problem for me. _ I was an active participant in the group work _ I found that the group work helped me understand the story. The 1st activity helped me understand the story more easily later _ I helped my other group members I was helped by my group members I feel that my group worked well together from the beginning. My group could have worked better 10 I summarized the story and created a new one with a different point of view References -Literature 2005 Mr Know All-Useful Articles -Mr Know All - www.etni.org.il/mrknowall.htm 148 APPENDIX D: LESSON PLAN 10 Level Third year students- British and American Literature Content Area Elements of short stories Lesson Title THEME IN THE GIFT OF THE MAGI Duration 180 minutes Context of - Students have worked with all the elements in the previous short stories: the lesson character, setting, plot, conflict, point of view and symbol They have learned how to relate each of these elements in the story - Students will have assigned to read information about the author O’ Henry and his works and at least, done the 1st reading of the story at home - Students will have been familiar with story elements in The Gift of the Magi, they easily use story map to jot down important events and ideas from reading or listening the story Objectives - Students will be able to define theme and describe examples - Students will practice the literacy strategy to identify the story elements the text -Students will be able to write a good story summary Materials Copies of The gift of the Magi text-with numbered paragraphs Audio reading Clip from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBT7GhiceWI Paper cards with information filled (marked A,B,C,D) for Jigsaw Reading Internet access, projector Exit slip Instructional Opening (20 minutes) Procedures The teacher will show pictures of Christmas time: culture, tradition, custom… then ask students: What people on Christmas time? What kinds of gift they often exchange? What you give your beloved ones on Christmas Day? Students will answer the questions Engagement (120 minutes) Activity 1: Listening to the story reading: A The teacher will ask students to listen to paragraphs to 3, and answer the following questions: What season was it in the year? 149 Ss answer: What festival was coming? Ss answer: How would describe Jim and Della after listening to the first three paragraphs of the story? Ss answer: Della wanted to buy Jim a present, but she felt very sad Why? Ss answer: How much money did Della have? Ss answer: B The class will continue listening to paragraphs four to eight, and answer the following questions: What were the two treasures in Jim and Della’s house? Ss answer: What did Della decide to after looking at herself in the mirror? Ss answer: Where did Della go? Ss answer: The teacher will interrupt the story at the moment Della leaves her house Then she asks the students to move on Activity Activity 2: Jigsaw Reading The teacher will ask the students work in groups of four Each group receives cards marked A, B, C, D respectively for each of student Students read their cards, summarize the information (excerpt) of cards, discuss and rearrange them to form the sequence of events for the ending of the story Activity 3: The Round Character, The Flat Character and The Foil Students will identify the round character, the flat character and the foil in the story What characteristics of Della the writer is trying to show through the following characters? Read the conversation carefully and see if you can find out the answer Activity 4: Wise or unwise? Rich or poor? The teacher will read the last paragraph of the story She asks students to put their names in the slot(s) that best describes the characters and discuss with your group mates to see if they agree with you or not Come up with a group answer Put down “Della” and “Jim” in the appropriate box(es) 150 Rich Poor Wise Unwise Activity 5: What is the theme? “A story usually has one main theme and several minor themes Eight of these themes can be found in The Gift of the Magi Now explain how O’ Henry uses each theme you identify” The teacher will show the following themes (in power point) on the overhead Students look at the themes and answer the question • Art • Beauty • Bravery • Death • Fear • Freedom • The Future • Giving • Honesty • Hope • Family • Greed • Growing Up • Heroism • Identity • Independence • Justice • Knowledge • Law • Loss • Love • Nature • Peace • Pride • Sacrifice • Religion Truth • Poverty • War • Money • Sacrifice • • Wisdom • Faith After getting answers from students, the teacher shows the key and asks them to check to see if students have found all the themes in the story In order to help the students express these themes in full sentences, the teacher will have them look at some English sayings, then asks: ‘Are there similar sayings in your language? If not, can you translate them easily into your language?’ • Love is the greatest gift of all • Money can't buy you love • A gift must come from the heart • Beauty comes from within Which of the four sayings best describes the main theme of The Gift of the Magi? Activity 6: Tableau Drama This is also known as “Still Drama” Students will work in pair They will have to select two characters (one from the story, e.g Della and Mrs Smith; and another one from or related to the story, e.g Jim’s boss or Della’s mother) Design a gesture and two to three sentences that one character would say to the other Then they will act out the drama in front of the class 151 Example: Della (jovial and excited): Thank you very much indeed, Mrs Smith Now I can buy a present for my husband Mrs Smith (sly and cool): Heh… In fact, your hair is worth $100 Stupid, you! You didn’t even bargain with me I’m making good money this time Character What he or she says Gesture (Ss can draw) Mrs Smith (& Della) Della (& her friend) Jim (& his boss) Closing (30 minutes) Students will the two writing tasks: It is interesting to see that Jim is not described much in the story Re-write the story (in form of a summary) from Jim’s point of view Assignment (homework): Plot a new ending for the story (Imagine that Della tries to buy back Jim's watch, How will she raise the money?, What will Jim's reaction be?) Assessment -The teacher will ask students to share their work with the class Also, students will be asked to judge their classmates’ work (10 min.) -Teacher will ask students to complete an exit slip addressing any questions, comments or concerns (4 min.) References Tony Chan, 2009, The gift of the Magi Teaching Guide www.vrml.k12.la.us/holidays/Christmas/magi/magi_main.htm 152