Description
“The Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton challenges students to think deeply about human nature, choice, justice, and consequences. Famous for its unresolved ending, this short story naturally sparks debate and requires students to defend their interpretations with clear textual evidence, making it an excellent choice for discussion-based and analytical ELA lessons.
In this lesson, students explore how Stockton builds suspense and moral ambiguity, analyzing how character motivations and societal values influence the story’s outcome. The open-ended conclusion encourages higher-level thinking as students evaluate multiple interpretations and justify their claims using details from the text.
This resource includes a teacher guide, the full text of the short story, academic vocabulary instruction with a PowerPoint and graphic organizer, a before-reading activity to activate thinking, reading comprehension questions, and after-reading literary analysis questions focused on theme, characterization, and author’s purpose. Answer keys are provided for all activities, along with an editable copy of the student materials so teachers can easily adapt the lesson for their classroom.
This lesson works especially well for units on short stories, theme, argumentation, and text-based discussion, and it pairs perfectly with writing assignments that require students to take a position and support it with evidence.