Description
Help students explore truth, empathy, responsibility, and moral complexity with this complete literary analysis lesson for “A Man Who Had No Eyes” by MacKinlay Canter.
This resource guides students from personal reflection to close reading, analysis, and structured writing, making it an ideal fit for secondary ELA classrooms. Students begin by examining their own beliefs about character, judgment, and responsibility before reading. As they move through the text, they analyze how the story’s powerful twist challenges assumptions about suffering, honesty, and integrity.
The lesson culminates in an engaging $100 Summary Challenge, which reinforces concise, objective summary writing while encouraging students to evaluate what details truly matter. This activity is consistently a student favorite and provides meaningful practice with synthesis and precision.
This resource includes before-reading reflection prompts, a vocabulary chart, reading comprehension questions, and after-reading analysis questions that require close reading and textual evidence. You’ll also receive the full text of the short story, a structured summarizing activity, answer keys, a suggested lesson procedure, and an editable copy of the student activities so you can easily adapt the lesson for your classroom.
This lesson works well for teaching theme, character development, integrity, and moral decision-making, and it sparks rich discussion about how people respond differently to shared trauma.