The Gift of the Magi Short Story Unit: 5 Differentiated Versions + Slide Deck (O. Henry, Grades 6–8)

Curriculum unit · Grades 6–8 · ZIP: PDF (92 pages) + editable PowerPoint · $12

Teach O. Henry's 1905 Christmas classic with a unit built for middle schoolers, where every student reads the same story and joins the same discussion. The complete public-domain text comes in five versions with matching paragraph numbers (¶1 to ¶45): the original, a modified version in clear modern language, an annotated version with meanings beside the text, a note-taking version, and a side-by-side version.

Students go back into the text again and again: unwrapping vocabulary on ornament organizers, labeling figurative language in Wrapped in Words, building characterization charts with STEAL, climbing a plot staircase, analyzing the famous twist through situational irony, decoding allusions to the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon and the Magi, and writing theme statements on gift tags.

Wrap up with a Socratic seminar, a quiz, a 20-question STAAR-style unit test with short constructed responses, an ECR planner, and The Gift Swap: a creative writing task where students write their own O. Henry-style story with a twist. Every activity runs as a worksheet, a craftivity or a learning center, and a 30-slide PowerPoint deck guides the whole unit.

What's included

• Pacing guide (7 days + writing extension), daily lesson plans, version guide
• CCSS and TEKS (2017 ELAR, grades 6–8) alignment
• Background reading, money then vs. now, anticipation guide
• The complete story in 5 versions: original, modified, annotated, note-taking, side-by-side
• 3 reading checkpoints
• Vocabulary list (16 words), vocabulary ornaments, context clue practice
• Wrapped in Words: figurative language notes + 12 excerpts
• Character Close-Up (STEAL), Setting & Mood, The Narrator Talks to You
• Plot card sort + plot staircase
• Twist! Analyzing Irony and Allusion Unwrapped
• Theme gift tags, theme samples and non-examples
• Socratic seminar prep, quiz, 20-item unit test, 2 SCRs, ECR planner
• The Gift Swap creative writing: pair cards, planner, rubric
• 5 learning-center kits: station signs, word cards, excerpt and type cards, tags
• 6 exit tickets and full answer keys
• Editable PowerPoint slide deck (30 slides) with teacher notes

How teachers use it

• Grades 6–8 ELA short story unit in December (also works for grade 9)
• Differentiated whole-class reading for ELLs, SPED and advanced readers
• Teaching irony, theme, characterization and figurative language with a classic text
• STAAR reading practice with SCR and ECR

Topics: staar, test, prep, review, scr, short, constructed, response, text, evidence, ecr, essay, writing, math, literature, reading, ela, winter, christmas, holiday, december, centers, stations, slides, powerpoint