en
EnglishEspañolFrançaisDeutschItalianoPortuguêsTagalogРусскийУкраїнськаहिन्दीతెలుగుالعربيةفارسی中文
Join free as a teacher
Lesson plansWorksheetsLibraryPrint packsBedtimeSign in

Library / The Man and His Wife

Lesson plan

The Man and His Wife

Grades
3–5
Time
45 min
Reading level
1
PDFPrint the worksheetRead the story

Lesson flow

5 min

Three Small Signs

Say, "Someone comes down the stairs. The cook hides. The maids go quiet. Even the dog gets up and leaves the room." Write the three signs on the board. Ask, "What do you know about this person, and how do you know?"

5 min

People of the House

Draw a house and a field on the board. Put "servants" in the house and "herdsmen," "shepherds" and "flocks" in the field. Wrap a cardigan or scarf around your shoulders for "shawl," and frown and turn away for "disliked."

10 min

Read to the Door

Read the story aloud for Grade 3. Partners in Grades 4 and 5 take turns reading. Everyone stops at "How did your father's servants treat you?" Pupils write one line predicting her answer. Then read on to the end.

15 min

Clue Sort

Pairs get six strips: "The cook hid," "The maids went quiet," "the dog got up and left the room," "such nasty looks," "at first light" and "until dark." They sort them into "At home" and "At her father's house," then say what each one tells the Man. Keep the talk on the Wife. No pupil should be asked to name anyone they dislike.

10 min

Act the Doorway

Pairs act the last scene. The Wife pulls off her shawl with a sniff, the Man hangs it on its peg, and each says the lines from the story. Each pair then tells the class the Man's thinking in their own words. Close by asking, "What could the Wife do so that the cook stops hiding?"

STORY OVERVIEW

  • Title and Moral: The Man and His Wife - "Small signs can show you the whole truth."
  • Plot Summary: Everyone in a man's house dislikes his wife, so he sends her to her father's house to see if it is the same there. She comes back complaining of nasty looks from the herdsmen and shepherds, and he asks what that says about the people who are with her all day long.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

  • Identify the small signs in the story that show how people feel about the Wife.
  • Explain the Man's thinking in his last speech, using words from the story.
  • Support the moral with two details from the story.

WORDS TO TEACH FIRST

  • disliked: did not like.
  • servants: people paid to work in someone's home.
  • herdsmen: men who look after herds of animals.
  • shepherds: people who look after sheep.
  • flocks: groups of sheep or goats.
  • shawl: a soft cloth worn around the shoulders.

TEXT QUESTIONS

  1. What makes the Man begin to wonder? Sample answer: "Everyone in the house disliked her." The cook hides, the maids go quiet and even the dog leaves the room.
  2. What does the Wife say about her visit? Sample answer: She says, "The herdsmen and the shepherds gave me such nasty looks."
  3. Why does the Man talk about when the men go out? Sample answer: They leave "at first light" and stay out "until dark," so they hardly see her. If they do not like her, what about the people who are with her "all day long"?

EXIT TICKET

Pupils write, "One small sign in the story is ____. It shows ____."

SUPPORT AND STRETCH

  • Support: Read the Easier version with a small group. It says "The men who mind the sheep" where the story says "herdsmen" and "shepherds," so show pupils that these are the same people. Pupils match the cook, the maid and the men who mind the sheep to a frowning face, then finish, "Nobody liked her because ____."
  • On level: Pupils sort the clues, act the doorway scene and finish the exit ticket.
  • Stretch: The story ends on a question with no answer. Pupils write what the Wife says next, and what she could do so that the cook no longer hides.

ENGLISH LEARNERS

Act out "hid," "went quiet" and "left the room" and have pupils copy. Draw a rising sun for "first light" and a dark sky for "dark." Give this frame: "The ____ did not like her. I know because ____." Pupils use a clue strip for the second gap.

Answer key

Comprehension

  1. The cook hid, the maids went quiet, and the dog got up and left the room.
  2. He wanted to find out whether it was the same at her father's house.
  3. The herdsmen and the shepherds did.
  4. They went out at first light and did not come back until dark.
  5. He asked, "If the people who hardly see you do not like you, what about the people who were with you all day long?"

Vocabulary

  1. B
  2. C
  3. E
  4. A
  5. F
  6. D

Writing Task

A good answer names one sign from the story, such as the cook hiding or the nasty looks, and explains what it shows about how people feel about the Wife.

Original text available on the story page.