How can we use short stories in our ESL classroom? How can we adapt them so that our English learners at different proficiency levels can access them? If you enjoyed the adaptation of The Gift of the Magi for your ESL class, here is another short story – The Last Leaf by O’Henry.
Save time – teach a short story
In my blog post about the short story The Gift of the Magi, I shared why short stories are an excellent choice for ESL students to practice all language domains.
To recap, they are manageable in length, and they allow you to focus your lesson no matter how many or what levels you teach. In addition, short stories like The Last Leaf (about which we will be talking in a minute), provide excellent context for so much language practice. I am talking about teaching your English learners vocabulary, grammar, writing, and speaking – all in one.
What is The Last Leaf about?
The story is about friendship, kindness and sacrifice. Two young women – Sue and Johnsy – live in a simple apartment in New York. They have a neighbor Mr.Behrman, who is an artist who has a blank canvas in his apartment and has been planning to create a masterpiece for years (never getting around to it).
Johnsy is very sick with pneumonia, and believes she is going to die. Her friend Sue takes care of her as best she can. However, in Johnsy’s mind, she is going to die as soon as the last leaf on the vine she sees outside her window falls.
Desperate, Sue tells Mr.Behrman of their situation and confesses that she doesn’t know what else to do – Johnsy is not only terribly sick but is also pretty depressed about it.
One night there is a terrible storm with high winds. When the morning comes, Johnsy is almost positive that there are no leaves left on the vine. However, when Sue opens the curtains they both see the last leaf, holding on strongly to the vine.
Johnsy’s spirits improve, and she begins to recover. Even the doctor shakes his head at this miracle. However, soon after they learn that Mr.Behrman had died. It turns out that the leaf on the vine was not the real leaf but painted on. Mr.Behrman had gone out during the raging storm, and created his one and only masterpiece that saved Johnsy’s life.
Teaching The Last Leaf to ESL students
In my classes, English learners are at mixed proficiency levels. Therefore, I created this short story ESL lesson that allows for teaching and reaching them at their level.
While there are versions of the story that are more intricate in language, you can find a version of The Short Leaf that is easier to understand, especially for beginner ESL students.
This short story can be taught over a period of 2-3 days, depending on how much time you have and how much in-depth you want o go with the vocabulary and background building.
- Vocabulary and background (reading, writing, speaking)
- Reading/watching (reading and speaking)
- Discussion and analysis (speaking and writing)
The overview of the lesson
Always begin with background building/review and vocabulary. Inside The Last Leaf ESL lesson, I have provided the teaching steps and vocabulary for both the higher level and lower proficiency level English learners.
Decide whether you are going to be reading the story as a class, in groups, or in pairs. Or if you are going to be watching a movie together and then practice more speaking and writing about it. This part is completely up to what your students need the most at the moment.
The Last Leaf is an excellent medium for teaching descriptive adjectives and character traits. I have included a slide with the character traits for students to warm-up, and you can encourage them to brainstorm more complex adjectives that will allow them to express their opinions about the characters better.
Finally, the application and analysis time. There are two tasks for this part:
- Students answer the questions about the characters using descriptive adjectives. Beginner level ESL students can write one word answers, higher proficiency English learners can use complete sentences
- The last part is to answer the question: what do you think the characters learned in this story?
- Again, scaffolds are included inside the lesson. Beginner level students either write or drag the words/phrases to the appropriate column. Assign the same slide to higher proficiency levels with just simple sentence frames so they can demonstrate their knowledge by finishing those sentences with appropriate information.
And there you have it. I have created this lesson in Google Slides, so you can assign it easily in the platform that your school utilizes.
There are tons of suggestions on how to teach inside the lesson as well as links to both the reading and the movie.
Next steps!
To grab your lesson, click HERE.
I would love to hear your thoughts about teaching The Last Leaf – what worked, what didn’t, how did your students like it?
Share in the comments below!
P.S. And if you are a teacher who has ESL newcomers/beginners in middle and high school, no scripted curriculum, and is tired of trying to piece materials together, take a look and join our membership community The ESL Teaching Roadmap, which was created specifically for teachers like you! You will receive monthly worksheets, become a part of The ESL Teaching Roadmap, and get personalized coaching that will help guide you and answer your questions. Click HERE for more information and to join.
