The Greatest Gift Reader's Theater Script -Questions -Philip Van Doren Stern

George Pratt

Give me just one good reason why I should be alive. I’m sick of everything! I’m stuck here in this mud hole for life, doing the same full work day after day. Other people are leading exciting lives, but I…well, I’m just a small-town bank clerk. I never did anything really useful or interesting, and it looks as if I never will. I might just as well be dead. Sometimes I wish I were. In fact, I wish I had never been born!

The Stranger

Why, that’s wonderful! You have solved everything. You haven’t been born. Just like that. No one here knows you. Why, you haven’t even got a mother. You couldn’t have, of course. All your troubles are over. Your wish, I am happy to say, has been granted… officially.

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Included in The Greatest Gift Reader's Theater Unit:

*18 pages of George Pratt's introspection on his life.

*8 Characters + The Narrator.

*3 Before-Reading questions.

*Making Predictions chart followed by 3 follow up questions. The students are asked to choose a character and analyze their chosen character.

*3 prediction questions before, during and after reading.

*11 multiple choice questions

*32 comprehension questions with answers.

*5 personal reflection questions such as: At the end of the story, George thinks perhaps it was all a dream. What do you think happened to George? Why?

*6 long answer writing tasks.

*Examples of themes, imagery and symbols found in The Greatest Gift.

*13 vocabulary words found in the story for the students to define.

The Greatest Gift Synopsis:

George Pratt, decides to commit suicide when he becomes dissatisfied with his life. As he stands on a bridge on Christmas Eve, he is approached by a strange, unpleasantly dressed but well-mannered man with a bag. The stranger strikes up a conversation, and George tells the man that he wishes he had never been born. The stranger grants George his wish, and then allows George to enter the town to see how much positive influence he had over the people in it.

The Greatest Gift History:

When author Phillip Van Doren Stern found himself unable to find a publisher for his story, Stern printed up copies of the “The Greatest Gift” and gave them out as Christmas cards in 1943. Eventually, the story came to the attention of director Frank Capra, who explained later, “It was the story I had been looking for all my life! A good man, ambitious. But so busy helping others, that life seems to pass him by…Through the eyes of a guardian angel he sees the world as it would have been had he not been born. Wow! What an idea.” Capra went on to turn Stern’s story into the cherished holiday classic It’s A Wonderful Life. Released in 1946 and starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore and Gloria Grahame, the film received several Academy Award nominations and has gone on to become one of the most iconic films in movie history, as well as a beloved feature of every holiday season.

I hope your class has a heart-warming time reading The Greatest Gift.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Heri za Kwanzaa!

Excelsior!

Mr. Marvel: The King of Reader's Theater.