Lesson flow
Tape the Well
Mark a circle on the floor with tape and tell pupils it is a deep well. Ask three pupils to stand where they would lie down for a sleep if they were very tired. The class says which spots are safe, and why.
Read to the Edge
Read the story aloud in Grades 2 and 3. In Grade 4, partners take turns reading. Stop at "the black water waited." Pupils hold up one finger if they think he will wake up by himself, two if someone will wake him and three if he will fall in. Count the room, then read to the end and see which guess was right.
Story Strip
Pupils fold a sheet into four boxes and draw four moments in order: the traveler lying down at the edge of the well, rolling with one arm over the edge, Dame Fortune shaking him, and her telling him to sleep somewhere else. Under each box they write what the traveler did or what Fortune did, in a few words. They put a star on the box where the traveler could have chosen differently.
Luck or Choice?
Read six cards aloud, one at a time: three from the story (did not look very hard for a place, dropped onto the grass at the edge of the well, fell asleep with one arm over the edge) and three new ones (a sudden storm soaks the whole picnic, my lunch got squashed because I sat on my bag, I got wet because I left my coat at home on a cloudy day). After each card pupils show a thumb up for Bad Luck or a flat hand for Choice, then tell a partner why. Ask what they notice about the three story cards.
Complaint Desk
Set a table with a sign, Dame Fortune: Complaints. One pupil sits there as Dame Fortune. Other pupils come up one at a time, take one of the three new cards and say, "That was just bad luck!" Fortune answers, "Do not blame me! You..." and names the choice, or says, "That one really was bad luck." Change Fortune three times.
STORY OVERVIEW
- Title and Moral: The Traveler and Fortune - "Do not blame bad luck for your own silly choices."
- Plot Summary: A worn-out traveler falls asleep at the very edge of a deep well and rolls toward it. Dame Fortune shakes him awake, because she knows that if he falls in, she will get the blame.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Retell the events from the traveler lying down to Dame Fortune sending him away.
- Identify which events in the story came from the traveler's own choices.
- Explain why Dame Fortune says people have given her a bad name.
WORDS TO TEACH FIRST
- dawn: the time when the sun first comes up.
- Dame: a polite title for a lady.
- scrambled: moved in a hurry, using your hands and feet.
- blame: to say that something bad is someone's fault.
- foolish: silly, not sensible.
TEXT QUESTIONS
- Why did the traveler lie down so close to the well? Sample answer: His feet "would not take one step more," and he looked for a place but "did not look very hard."
- Why does Dame Fortune wake him? Sample answer: She knows that if he falls in she will get the blame. She says, "who do you think will get the blame? I will!"
- What does she mean by "They have given me a bad name"? Sample answer: People do foolish things and then say it was bad luck, so everyone thinks badly of her when it was not her doing.
EXIT TICKET
Pupils finish this sentence: "If the traveler had fallen in, it would not have been bad luck because ____."
SUPPORT AND STRETCH
- Support: Give pupils the Easier version and let them join in on "Snore, snore, snore." They draw three pictures and number them in order: the man lying down by the well, the man rolling toward it, and Fortune shaking him.
- On level: Pupils complete the Story Strip and take a turn at the Complaint Desk.
- Stretch: Pupils write a second visit in which Dame Fortune meets another person who blames her, using her line "People do the most foolish things."
ENGLISH LEARNERS
Crawl backward from the tape to act out scrambled, saying, "He scrambled back." Pupils use the frame "It was not bad luck. He chose to ____" when they talk about each card.
Answer key
Comprehension
- He had walked since dawn and his feet would not take one step more.
- He fell asleep at the very edge of a deep well.
- He could have rolled over the edge and fallen into the well.
- She says that she would get the blame.
- She tells him to get up and sleep somewhere else.
Vocabulary
- D
- E
- A
- C
- B
Writing Task
A good answer names a silly choice a person made and has Dame Fortune point out that the choice, not bad luck, caused the trouble.
Original text available on the story page.