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Lesson Title:
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Alex Chertok, Calla Mapel, and Meredith Ott
10th Grade
English
The Wisdom of the Magi
120 minutes
Purpose:
Students will read and evaluate “The Gift of the Magi” to better understand what wisdom is, and
how wisdom depends on generosity.
Curriculum Framing Questions:
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Essential Question: What is wisdom?
Unit Question that applies to this lesson: How is the definition of wisdom dependent on
context?
Lesson or Content Question(s): How does context affect the reader’s understanding of
wisdom in O Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi?”
Goal:
Students will understand the effect of context in O Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” as it pertains
to character and wisdom.
Learning Objective(s):
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Contrast the concepts of money and value
Analyze the link between generosity and wisdom
Brainstorm important contextual factors in “The Gift of the Magi”
Use contextual analysis to evaluate character wisdom in “the Gift of the Magi”
Curriculum Standard(s):
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9-10.RL.10: By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories,
dramas, and poems, in the grades 9–10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding
as needed at the high end of the range.
9-10.RI.5: Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by
particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).
Materials Needed:
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Student copies of “The Gift of the Magi”
3x5 index cards
Agree / Disagree signs hung in classroom
Student dictionaries
Background knowledge or skills students need prior to lesson:
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General understanding of literary elements (plot, character, setting…etc.).
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Basic understanding of literary devices (irony).
DAY 1
Hook: Agree or Disagree (7 minutes)
1. Students will stand against the back wall of the classroom, between the signs “Agree”
and “Disagree” (which are in the two back corners).
2. Teacher will instruct the students to listen to the following statements, and then to place
themselves wherever they fall on the belief spectrum (Complete agreement being on the
side of the classroom below the “Agree” sign, complete disagreement being below the
“Disagree” sign, and the area between the two signs being the remainder of the spectrum).
Teacher will give students a few moments to decide and instruct them to be prepared to
explain/justify their position. Statements:
 Wisdom is the same thing as intelligence.
 Wisdom has nothing to do with generosity.
 Bill Gates is wise.
 Ashton Kutcher is wise.
 Steven Hawking is wise.
 Marge Simpson is wise.
 You can learn to be wise in school.
 Spiritual leaders are wise.
 Wisdom is the same in every culture.
3. Teacher will call on several students and demand justification for their placement.
4. Teacher will instruct the students to return to their seats.
5. Teacher will explain that the class is going to be reading a short story that deals with
several important concepts, one of which is wisdom, and so everyone should keep in
mind the thoughts they had during this exercise as the lesson moves on.
Lesson:
1. Teacher will pass out index cards to the entire class. Each student should have one index
card. On the card, the students will write down what they consider their most prized
possession. The teacher should give students time to think about what their prized
possession might be and why it is important to them. (5 minutes)
2. After the students have had a few minutes to think of their answers, the teacher will come
around the room and collect the cards. The teacher will then shuffle the cards and
redistribute them to the students so that each student has a new card with one of their
peers’ prized possessions written on it. (5 minutes)
3. The teacher will then ask the students to think about the object written on their card.
After they have reflected on the object for a few moments, they should try to assign a
monetary value to it. “How much do they think the object is worth? How many dollars?”
(2 minutes)
4. After students have decided upon a monetary value for the object, the teacher will ask the
students to stand up once again and go to the side of the room (Agree or Disagree) based
on how they feel about the following statement:
 “The possession written on my index card is highly valuable.” (3 minutes)
5. Teacher will ask several students to justify their ranking, and ask about the difference
between money and value. Teacher may allow students to discuss the monetary value
they decided upon with the original owner of the card/possession. Teacher will then ask
students to think for a moment about the item they originally wrote on their card. “Would
the student be willing to part with their item for a certain sum of money? Under what
circumstances would they be willing to get rid of their item?” (3 minutes)
6. Teacher will distribute student copies of “The Gift of the Magi,” and explain that this text
is going to consider both value and wisdom and their relation to each other. Teacher will
acknowledge the difficult vocabulary of the text, and inform students that dictionaries are
available. (5 minutes)
7. Students will spend the remainder of the period reading the story, which must be finished
before the next class begins. (25 minutes)
8. Teacher will ask the students to write a brief (2-3 sentences) reflection on the
circumstances under which they would be willing to give up their own most valuable
possession. Teacher will collect the reflections as an exit slip. (5 minutes)
DAY 2
Hook: Discuss personal connections (10 minutes)
1. Teacher will instruct students to briefly summarize “The Gift of the Magi” on a piece of
paper, and will collect the summaries to assess homework completion.
2. Students will pair-share: “Tell about someone you know who has given selflessly. Do
you consider that person wise?”
Lesson:
1. Class discussion: “Is generosity a part of wisdom? Who are some wise/generous people
we all know of (probe for examples: Gandhi, Jesus, etc.)? How is generosity affected by
context (probe for whether or not knowing the receiver is important…biblical connection
to the actual Magi, who did not know Jesus, and lead back to the story, whose characters
loved each other)? (10 minutes)
2. Students will brainstorm, with a small group, about the context. Teacher will probe for
information on all aspects of setting and character identity. Once students have sufficient
ideas to facilitate a discussion, “whip-around.” (10 minutes)
3. Teacher will ask the whole class, “Why did these characters give up their prized
possessions? Does the context make their gifts especially generous? Considering the
context, do you think the story is ironic?” (5 minutes)
4. Students will write an informal essay to the following prompt:
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“Are the characters in this story wise? How does their context (both literary and
historical) affect your answer?” (25 minutes)
5. Teacher will collect responses. The teacher will ask students to think about if their
positions on the agree/disagree activity the first day might be different. If there is time,
have a few students share out to the class what questions they would now have a different
answer to and explain why.