Basic Intermediate Advanced

Lesson Plan
Business/Materials
Computer; LCD; board; paper;
charts; pins; markers; template to
fill by teacher and students on
board (partial analysis of major
settings and characters, etc.);
reading material (Hills Like White
Elephants)
Lesson Objectives
Improving students ability to understand and analyze
contextual clues and key words/phrases to identify the
main ideas/themes
Improving students ability to reflect on the major
themes presented in the story and link them to real life
context

Warm-up and Objective Discussion

Warm-up (7 minutes)
Teacher will present the first paragraph of the story using PowerPoint and LCD to class;
teacher will ask students to think of feelings and ideas the paragraph implies, students will
have to make suggestions using one word (for example, sadness, depression, separation);
teacher will write students guessing on board and categorize them; teacher and students will
have a discussion about their guessing and then introduce the lesson objectives.

Objective Discussion (3 minutes)

Teacher will hang the lessons objectives, already written on charts, on the walls of the class;
teacher and students will discuss the objectives; teacher will ask students to keep objectives in
mind while reading and discussing the story.

Instruct and Model R W L S

Activity (1) (10 minutes)
Teacher will present the title and first paragraph to students using a power point; teacher will
ask students to look for elements of nature in the paragraph; teacher will write on board the
words that students find; teacher will have a discussion with students on the implications of
those elements in the context of the story and how they reflect the mood and feeling of the
major characters. Teacher will have a discussion with students based on a series of questions.
For example:
- Why do you think the author uses white elephants? why white? And why elephants?
- Why do you think the writer uses long and white hills across the valley while using
on this side there was no share and no trees?

Activity (2): (5 minutes)

Using a template, teacher and students will fill in the results of the discussion in terms of a
partial analysis of settings, characters and some interesting ideas on boards for students to
keep an eye on during the rest of the activities.

Guided Practice R W L S
(10 minutes)
Teacher will ask students to locate 3 more paragraphs (narrations) in the text, one in first
section, the second one in the middle and the third one towards the end and read it out loud;
teacher and students will identify words that indicate weather and color (e.g. dry, brown, trees,
etc.); teacher will write the words the students locate on board and classify them in categories;
teacher and students will have a discussion based on a set of questions.
For example:
- Why do you think the writer says beyond the river were mountains?
- What does the dry side indicate?

less- guided practice: (15 minutes)

teacher will divide the class into groups; teacher will give each group a piece of paper; teacher
will ask each group to find out words that are repeated in the story more than once and discuss
their implications within the context of the story; each group have to find at least 10 words;
group members will then be mixed with other group members so each new group will have
members of different groups; the new groups will discuss the results hey found so they will
have all/the majority of repeated words (emphasized words) in the text; once finished, teacher
and students will have a discussion about the words they found and their importance in the
context of the story. While doing the activity, teacher will walk among the working groups
and check their progress and provide guidance.

Independent Practice R W L S
(10 minutes)
Teacher will hang two charts on board, one having the title the American and the other one
with the title the girl; teacher will divide class into two categories, the first category
represents the American while the other category represents the girl (the major two characters
in the story); teacher will ask each student under each category to find 1 negative phrase in the
text said by the character they are studying (e.g.: I dont care about me, said the girl); each
student will write down one paragraph representing their idea of the implications of using the
negative phrase they found and its relation to the major theme highlighted in the story; teacher
and students will have a discussion on their ideas about that in class afterwards.

Assessment R W L S
Note: This activity will be done as a homework; students will hand in their reports to teacher
and results will be discussed at the beginning of the next class and through office hours.

Reflecting on the major themes highlighted in the story and the discussion in the class, teacher
will ask each student to write a story report that covers the sections (A and B) below. Students
are encouraged to work on this activity in the reading zone and exchange ideas about the
activity.
A
- Brief Analysis of the settings of the story (100- 150 words)
- Brief analysis of the major characters (100- 150 words)
- The major themes discussed in the story (70- 100 words)
B
- The students own point of view of the whole story (do you like it? why or why not?
Which character do you think you can relate to? Why and why not? Do you feel any
sympathy towards any character? Why and why not? If you were in the girls shoes,
would you do the operation? If you were in the mans shoes, would you ask her to do
the operation? What do you think of their relationship? Is it healthy? Are they happy?
What do you think of their tones?) (200- 300 words)