Background:

Intermediate ESL class. The students are mostly Hispanic, but there are some Portuguese, Japanese, and Asian. 9-10 grade students.

Objective:

The students will learn about an American writer, and will also learn how to write a response to literature.

Materials:

A copy of the story for each student, a picture of Twain, and make sure that there is a projector in the classroom.

Lesson:

Ask the students to name a famous writer whom they know, and then tell the students that we are going to be learning about Mark Twain a famous American Literature writer. Then I will continue to talk about the life of Mark Twain. After talking Twain's life I will tell them that we are going to read "The War Prayer." Since the story is about war I would ask the students to tell me how they fill about war, and it's consequences. We would make a list on the board about the things that they say. At this point we would read the story and I would ask questions as we read to check for comprehension. When finish reading the story I will ask the students to retell the story by asking questions. The next step will be to ask the students to skim the story and circle words that they don't know. After analyzing the new words and finding a definition we will read the story again.

Post-reading activities:

1. Ask the students to write a response to the story on their journal.

OPTIONS:

• Do you think the man was crazy, and why did he say all those things?
• Describe the men on the story, how is he like, and where does he came from.
• Were the people who were going to war happy or sad?

2. Make groups of 3-4 students to talk about the story:

• Do you like? Why? Or Why not?
• Compare the list on the board about war to the story
• Talk about anything that you like or hate about the story

3. Ask the students to answer the following questions:

When you pray for something to happen what is it that you are really praying for?

4. Ask the students to read either their response on the journal or the response to above question.