This document outlines an activity to analyze the short story "The Ugly Tree" through discussion and exercises. It involves showing flashcards to activate students' schema, watching a video of the story, and having students discuss the plot, characters, and settings in pairs or groups. Students will then complete a true/false exercise about the story and its events. Finally, students will work in groups to develop an interview with one of the characters by answering provided questions and discussing judgments about people based on appearances. The goal is for students to practice their English skills while interpreting and communicating information about the story.

1. Understanding Plot and Character Analysis
Activity 2 Topic: The Ugly Tree (Short story)
Level B1
Interaction of Language
Technique Literature Discussion
Objective Interpret and communicate information about a video story
Values Do not judge a book just by its cover
Segment Time Instructor’s Task
Participants
Learning Tasks
Rationale
Schema
activation
5 min - T is to going to show
some flashcards and post
them on the board.
Flashcards about a tree,
woodcutter, birds, nests,
and axes)
T- is going to ask questions
such as: What do you see?
– what are these for? What
can you do with them?
T is going to ask students
their answers and
exchange information in
groups.
T- is going around the class
checking the use of
English. Elicit answers
- Ss are going to
work on key elements
posted on the board
and create their own
meanings.
-Ss are going to look
carefully the key
words and comment
the events of the
story.
Ss are going to come
up with a resolution,
conclusion or turn of
events depending on
their attitude.
- This section of
the class will focus
on Ss to create
their own set of
judgments based
on what they see
on the video and
promote team
work.
Controlled
Reading
Practice
(analyses the
story –
Characters
and plot)
10 min -T is going to present a
video (The ugly tree).
T- is going to ask students
to sit in pairs or in groups
and discuss the elements of
a story (plot, characters,
settings and symbols). Elicit
answers.
T- is going to write some
key words in the story so
students can follow the
sequence of events.
T- is going to explain the
Simple Past tense. The use
of regular and irregular
-Ss are going to
describe the events
using Simple past
tense structures.
- In pairs, or in
groups, students are
going to review
Simple paste tenses
by telling the events
and use their senses
and critical thinking.
-Ss are going to
complete a written
- This section of
the class will
enable Ss to test
their speaking
abilities.

2. verbs.
T is going to ask students
to complete a written
exercise (true and false)
based on the story.
exercise (true and
false) and provide
ideas to support their
statements.
Expansion
activity
(Interview
with a
character)
15 min -T is going to give a of card
with three questions in
order to interview a specific
character and to be
discussed in each group.
T- is going to give 5 to 10
minutes to discuss and
answer the questions.
T- is going to check the
grammar structures orally
on each group on each
sentence.
T- elicit questions, answers,
grammar structure,
-Ss in groups of three
are going to choose a
character and
develop an interview.
-Ss have to choose
which character they
are going to be.
-Ss are going to use
either simple present
or simple past tense
to respond the
questions.
-Ss are going to
provide a feedback
about judging others
just by their cover.
This section of
the class will focus
Ss to create
critical thinking
and make some
reflections about
people’s
behaviors.

3. ANNEXES
TRUE OR FALSE
Read the story “The ugly tree” and mark with an X weather if the statement is true or false
according to the story.
STATEMENTS TRUE FALSE
1. They were thousands of beautiful trees in the dense forest
2. The ugly tree had a lot of twisted branches
3. The ugly tree felt happy when they told him “hunchback”
4. The ugly wanted to be beautiful as the others trees
5. The woodcutter said that the trees were lovely so he was not going to cut
them.
6. The woodcutter said that the ugly tree was very useful for him
7. The ugly tree was cut down by the woodcutter
8. At the end the ugly tree was happy with his crooked branches

4. Expansion Activity
1. Why doyou thinkthe beautiful treeswere happy?
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2. Why the uglytree couldnot provide sheltertothe travelers?
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3. Why doyou thinkthe woodcutterwantedtocut the beautiful treesonly?
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1. Why doyou thinkthe beautiful treeswere frightenedwhenthe woodcutterpickupisaxe?
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2. Do youthinkthe uglytree was frightenedwhensaw the woodcuttercomingwithhisaxe?
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3. Why doyou thinkGod wasgood withthe uglytree?Why?
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