English Language ArtsEnglishMiddle schoolKey Stage 3
A Gift of the Magi lesson where each student finds the text Della would never send
One middle schooler picks the wrong text on Della's phone, gets sent back to the line where Della cries on the couch, finds the real one, and then explains the drop in her own graph of Della's hope.
Jemel Fanfan | Founding Member at Flint
"Students can have conversations that prod their thinking and push their comprehension. They receive instant feedback on their work which is both encouraging and constructive, enabling them to make targeted improvements. And - they love it!"
Sherry Pielsticker, 6th grade humanities teacher at The York SchoolWhy this matters
A student can retell every event in "The Gift of the Magi" and still not know Della. Asked what she would or wouldn't do, that student guesses from the plot instead of from what Della wants. A plot summary looks the same either way, and the teacher has to wait for quiz day to find out.
Maya's chat: which text would Della never send?
Maya is a middle schooler saving up for K-pop concert tickets. She read the story in class and follows the plot. She reads Della as someone who wouldn't make a fuss.
The whole class gets the same activity: the same greeting, the same eight texts on Della's phone, and the same five scenes to rate. Each student picks their own text and gives their own ratings, and Sparky's next message depends on what that student picked and wrote.
Maya
Sparky
Maya
im saving up for concert tickets to see my favorite kpop group. yeah i read it in classSparky
Maya
the one where she cried on the couch for ten minutes. della wouldnt cry about money shes not that dramaticSparky
Maya
oh ok. then its the one where she says shes skipping jims present this year. she would never do that, she tells jim i couldnt have lived through christmas without giving you a presentSparky
Maya
A 2, B 6, C 9, D 3, E 7Sparky
Maya
jim came home and just stared at her short hair and she got scared he didnt think she was pretty anymore. right before he came in she prayed please god make him think i am still prettyUnderstanding check
Maya
because the gifts were really expensive and nice?Sparky
Maya
oh. they each gave up the thing they loved most for the other person. so even if the gifts are useless it shows they love each other more than their stuff. thats wise not foolishSparky
Found the text Della would never send, backed it with Della's own words, and explained why the narrator calls Della and Jim wise
Maya picked the crying text because she thought Della wasn't the kind of person to cry about money. Sparky didn't tell her which text was right. It quoted the line where Della cries on the couch, and Maya found the real one herself and backed it with Della's own words to Jim. Her graph of Della's hope was built from her own numbers, so the question about the drop was about her reading, not a model answer.
Maya and her chat are an example we wrote for this page. The phone, the graph and Sparky's replies are from a test run of the activity, in which a student sent these same messages. Sparky's replies are shortened. Lou and the texts are invented for the activity, and every text but one matches something Della does in the story.
What Flint did for Maya
- Sparky built a phone screen with Della's eight texts in Maya's chat, so she judged Della's character by what Della would and wouldn't say.
- When Maya picked the crying text, Sparky quoted the line where Della cries on the couch instead of telling her which text was right.
- Sparky drew a graph from Maya's own five ratings and asked about the biggest drop in it.
- When Maya said the gifts were wise because they were expensive, Sparky used her concert tickets to ask what each person gave up.
A teacher can't do this by hand for 30 students, and Sparky does it in every student's chat.
Who still reads Della from the plot alone
When a student gives three wrong answers, Sparky flags them for the teacher under Needs attention while the class is still working. When students finish, Sparky grades each chat against the activity's rubric and sums up the class on the activity page: what most students understood, which mistake came up most, and what to practice next.
Example activity page
After an English class finishes Della's phone
The school and students are made up for this page. In this example, 11 students first picked the text where Della cries, so the follow-up asks them to predict what Jim would text after he sells his watch.
Set up the activity for free
The Della's phone activity is in Flint's public library, with Sparky's guidelines (the full story and the eight texts), the greeting and a rubric already set up. Open it, select Try this activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and move it to a class. Sparky builds the phone in each student's chat after the student says they've read the story. In the activity settings, select Try session myself to test it as a student before you assign it.
For more English activities, see Flint for English language arts.
Other use cases
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