Lesson Plan: Stuffed!

Essential Questions

• What is a tradition?
• How can we balance pleasing others with looking out for ourselves?

Literature Connection

• Illustrated short story: The Last Leaf by O. Henry

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the play. Then help them preview the text features using the following prompts:

• Read the play’s title and the text next to it. Look at the illustration. What do you notice about the two men? How are their appearances different? The man who’s sitting is large, and he’s grabbing his belly like he’s had a big meal. His clothes are old and torn. Also, he has a button that’s popping off, which supports the idea that he is “stuffed.” The other man looks thin. He is dressed in nicer clothes. He also looks older.
• The play is based on the short story “Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen” by O. Henry. Look at the photo of O. Henry included with the play and read its caption. What was he known for? O. Henry was known for short stories with surprising endings or crazy plot twists.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (relatively, ritual, frayed, generous, elegant, benefactor) aloud and discuss their definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Set a purpose for reading by telling students they’ll make inferences while reading “Stuffed!” Explain that making an inference means using clues from the text to figure out something that isn’t stated.
• Point out the activity at the end of the play. Tell students they will complete it after reading.

• Assign roles to students and read the play aloud as a class. Stop after each scene and ask students to summarize what happened.
• After reading, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• How does Scene 1 end? How does Scene 2 begin? What can you infer about what happened between Scene 1 and Scene 2? (inference) Scene 1 ends with Pete accepting the invitation to have a meal at the rich women’s house. Scene 2 begins with Pete sitting on his bench, “so full of food that he can barely move.” We can infer that between this moment and the last, he had a large meal at the rich women’s house.
• What secret does Pete keep from Mr. Cross? What secret does Mr. Cross keep from Pete? Why aren’t they honest with each other? (character motivation) Pete isn’t honest about how full he is. He doesn’t have the heart to tell Mr. Cross that he’s already had a big meal. He thinks taking away the opportunity for Mr. Cross to feed him would make the old man sad. Mr. Cross isn’t honest about how hungry he is. We learn at the end of the play that he was starving, but in order to stick to the tradition, he doesn’t eat any of the food.
• When Pete is about to begin eating the meal Mr. Cross buys him, he “raises his fork and knife, like a soldier getting ready for battle.” What does this phrase tell you about how Pete is feeling? (figurative language) This phrase shows that Pete understands what a challenge it will be to eat the food before him. He’s not looking forward to it. He knows it will require effort and determination on his part. 

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• Why do you think Pete accepts the invitation from the servant, knowing that he will be meeting Mr. Cross and having a big meal later? (inference) Pete tries at first to refuse the invitation, but he changes his mind when he sees the meal on the table inside the house. At that moment, he is hungry and fails to think about what might happen later.
• What could Pete and Mr. Cross have done differently to avoid ending up in the hospital? (critical thinking) Pete could have been honest with Mr. Cross about the meal he had eaten. Then, instead of agreeing to a full meal, he could have suggested having a small bite or just a cup of tea. That way, he would have given Mr. Cross the pleasure of doing something nice for him without having to overeat. Mr. Cross could have paid more attention to Pete’s body language to understand that he didn’t want to eat so much and accepted his offer to share the food.

• Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill Workout: Inference activity at the end of the play.
• Assign students to work independently on our Plot Skill Builder. (Click here to see all your Skill Builders for this feature.)
• Writing prompt: The play tells us that Mr. Cross and Pete have been meeting on Thanksgiving for nine years. How do you think the tradition started? Write the scene in which the two men meet for the first time. Include details about the characters’ backstories (such as how Pete became homeless) and how they decide to meet again the following year.