Lesson Plan for Teaching a Story : Romance of a Busy Broker

There are many ways of teaching literature in the class. Bright & McGregor and H.L.B. Moody suggest following outline for teaching a poem or story in their books. The selected sample story is O. Henry's "Romance of a Busy Broker"

Before a literary piece (poem or story) is taught there is the stage of Preparation by the teacher. This is a pre-class activity by the teacher. There are two parts of it:

1. Preliminary assessment of the work. Here the teacher decides whether the story to be taught is easy or simple. What kind of difficulties are there? Difficulties can be related to language, theme or concepts occurring in the work. The teacher will also make sure about the genre/nature of the work. Whether it is comic story/tragic story/romantic story etc.

"Romance of a Busy Broker" is a story by American writer o. Henry. It is very short story of just three pages. It is also a simple romantic story about a busy man. The language of the story is also very simple and most words/phrases need no explanation. Perhaps the meaning of the word 'broker' may need to be made clear. All other words are quite easy and familiar to students. It's a story about how a busy broker forgets his own marriage. He is married to Leslie the previous evening. But he just forgets it and expresses his desire to marry her.

On the basis of this assessment the teacher comes to next stage i.e.

2. Practical decisions like whether he should begin with some authorial or background information. He will also decide whether the story can be taught in a single lecture or more lectures. He will decide about the best way of introducing the story in the class. He may begin with something similar taught in previous stages of learning. He may begin with an interesting anecdote or story or real life examples relevant to the lesson. He will also decide about the educational aids to be used in the teaching of that story.

In case of O. Henry's "Romance of a Busy Broker", no special background explanation Is necessary. This is a short story and it can be taught in one or two lectures in an undergraduate class. Perhaps I can talk of the forgetfulness of some people while introducing the poem.

In-class activities involving the learners begin next and they include Introduction, Presentation and Discussion.

3. Introduction -

At this stage the teacher introduces the story, gives basic information about the author's life etc. Explanations related to theme, concepts or language of the story can be given here.

The introduction part does not cover every thing about the story. It serves two purposes :

1. It arouses the curiosity of students and

2. It tries to remove the hurdles in understanding the text.

4. Presentation -

Presentation of a story means that the teacher reads the story and explains it line by line. He will talk about the three basi elements of a story like character, setting and plot. In this story only two characters are important, one is the busy broker mentioned in the title and his name is Harvey Maxwell. The second is Miss Leslie. She works in his office as a secretary. Harvey loves her and wants to marry her. (But they are actually married last evening). There is also the minor character of Pitcher. He is the clerk in the office. The setting refers to place and time. He place is a broker's office in New York. The time is half past nine in the morning. The plot refers to events in the story.

5. Discussion -

This is the most important stage in teaching a story. The discussion is in the form of question-answer session. The teacher should begin with simple text-based questions about the title/ the theme//the characters and events in the story. The answer to these questions are found in the text itself and they are intended to motivate students to look at the text carefully and make intelligent guess about the setting of the story (people, place, time etc) After these basic questions more detailed and critical questions can be asked by the teacher. The emphasis is on close reading, self-discovery and developing analytical thinking of the students. After the discussion the teacher links all the points in the discussion and concludes the class.

After careful reading of the story the teacher may ask following general questions :

Who is the man referred in the title of the story?
What is the name of the personal clerk in the office of Harvey Maxwell?
What is the beautiful secretary's question to Mr. Pitcher?
For which job a young girl came to the office?
"Will you be my wife?" Who said this? To whom?
"Don't you remember Harvey? We were married last evening ..... in the Little Church around the corner." Who said this? To whom?

After these general questions, the teacher asks following detailed, analytical and critical questions :

1. How does the second paragraph of the story describe the personality of Maxwell's secretary.

2. How did Maxwell rebuke Pitcher when he brought a young girl for secretary's job?

3. What kind of man is Harvey maxwell?

4. How did Miss Leslie react to the forgetfulness of Harvey?

5. Bring out the significance of the line "The man was working like some high-powered, delicate, strong machine - ………..”

In conclusion the teacher sums up the story by saying that Harvey Maxwell ia kind of workaholic. He is busy like a machine all the time and he has no time for his personal life. He has become so absent-minded that he has even forgotten his marriage with Leslie. He makes a marriage proposal to a woman who is already his wife. After this we come to the stage of Post-Class activity designed for reinforcing or consolidating the learning in the classroom.

6. Reinforcement-

In this stage the teacher gives homework or home assignment to the students. The questions for this should be relevant to the story and they should focus on the critical appreciation of the story. Mere summary or paraphrase of the story should not be asked. Suggestions for further reading, memorizing or re-reading the same story from a different perspective can also be a good re-inforcement activity.

The possible home assignment on "Romance of a Busy Broker" can be as under :

1. Attempt a critical appreciation of the story and explain the indirect message in it.

2. How does the author build up the atmosphere of an extremely busy office of a stock broker in New York?