Lesson Plan
LEVEL 3
Lexile
800 and above
Grades
4 and above
The Prince and
the Pauper
Level 3 • Lexile 1160 • Fiction/ Historical • Page Count: 224
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Author: Mark Twain
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Book Summary
For support teaching the vocabulary in this book,
visit vocabularya-z.com.
Tom Canty and Edward Tudor are born
on the same day, but Tom is a beggar and
Edward is a prince. They meet by chance and dress
in each other's clothes as a joke. Soon the pauper finds
himself on the throne of England, while the prince finds himself
living among the outcasts of society. Tom uses his new powers
to challenge evil laws, while Edward learns many harsh lessons
about how his poorest subjects live. Because of his experiences,
Edward VI's short reign is one of justice and mercy.
Reading Strategy: Retell
Comprehension Skill: Compare and Contrast
The Prince and the Pauper
Lesson Plan
How to Use the Lesson Plan
Vocabulary
• The text contains many words that were in common use during
the 1500s, such as alack, methinks, and perchance. Some
modern words are used in their older senses, such as meet
(meaning correct or appropriate) and diaper (meaning napkin.)
See the Guided Reading section for lists of specific words.
This lesson plan is designed to be used with The Prince and
the Pauper. Read the book and teach the lesson as a whole
class. Or, assign the book to a reading group and teach all
or part of the lesson in a small-group setting. Worksheets
support the learning objectives of the lesson. Use the
discussion cards to set up literature circles.
Before Reading
For the purpose of this lesson plan, the following edition of
the book was used: The Prince and the Pauper. New York:
New American Library (Signet Classics), 1981.
Build Background
• Tell students that the author of this story, Mark Twain, was one
of the greatest American writers. Ask them to volunteer the
names of other books written by Mark Twain. (Prompt students
to recall Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, or A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur's Court.)
About the Lesson
Targeted Reading Strategy
• Explain to students that like other writers of historical fiction,
Mark Twain tried to make his story authentic by using as many
details of actual history as possible. Twain set this tale in the
year 1547, the last year in the reign of Henry VIII of England.
• Retell
Objectives
• Use the reading strategy of retelling to read and follow text
• Ask students to volunteer facts they know about Henry VIII.
(Some students may recall that he had many wives).
• Compare and contrast characters, settings, and plot
developments
• Introduce some of the people from history that readers will
meet. Henry's first wife was Catharine of Aragon, a Spanish
princess. She had one daughter, Mary, who will appear as Lady
Mary in this story. Henry then divorced Catharine and married
Anne Boleyn, whose daughter is Lady Elizabeth in this story.
In order to get a divorce, Henry had to break away from the
Catholic Church. After that, he ordered the Catholic monasteries
in England to be broken up so that the Crown could have the
monasteries' lands and wealth. In this story, readers will meet
two characters, a priest and a hermit, who lost their positions
because of Henry's decrees against the Church. Henry had Anne
Boleyn beheaded. His third wife, Jane Seymour, was the mother
of Edward Tudor, the prince in this story. She died in 1537, just
12 days after Edward was born. Henry had three more wives,
but he continued to favor the Seymour family. Jane's brother
• Identify and punctuate declarative, exclamatory, and
interrogative sentences
• Define words from context and by using a dictionary
Materials
• Book—The Prince and the Pauper (copy for each student
or group)
• Chalkboard, flip chart, or dry erase board
• Student notebooks
• Compare-and-contrast graphic organizer; declarations,
exclamations, and questions, dictionary skills worksheets
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The Prince and the Pauper
Lesson Plan
Edward, earl of Hertford, became Lord Protector when the boy
Edward was crowned king. He is also a character in The Prince
and the Pauper.
• Ask students to volunteer details of how the lives of a prince
and a pauper might be alike and different.
• Encourage students to make comparisons as they read
each chapter.
• Warn students that many details from history that are included
in the story seem almost unbelievably harsh to us today. Mark
Twain included those details not only to make the story seem
real, but to show readers that the "good old days" were not
actually very good.
Introduce the Vocabulary
Introduce the Book
• Explain to students that in this book they will encounter some
longer words that they might have difficulty reading. Reassure
them that the meaning of most new words will be clear from
the context. Other words can be defined because they are
similar to words students already know. Still other words
will have to be looked up in a dictionary.
• Distribute copies of The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.
Define pauper, using a dictionary if necessary.
• Students should also be alert to the use of older and more
formal forms of you (thee, thou, and ye).
• Ask students to look at the cover art and read the copy on
the back of the book. Based on what they learn, have them
speculate on what might happen in the story. Encourage
students to jot down their ideas and check their notes as
they read.
• Explain to students that Mark Twain often uses words for their
humor and irony. For instance, the pauper, Tom Canty, lives in a
slum called Offal Court. Ask students to define the word offal
(waste) and to identify another word that sounds the same
(awful).
Introduce the Reading Strategy: Retell
• For additional tips on teaching word-attack strategies, go to
www.readinga-z.com/more/index.html.
Preview the Book
• Explain to students that retelling is a strategy they have
probably used. Most retelling takes place only inside their head,
but they also use retelling when they tell friends about books or
movies they especially liked.
Set the Purpose
• Explain to students that their purpose in reading the book will
be to compare the lives of a prince and a pauper and to discover
what happens when their lives get mixed up.
• Explain to students that retelling often calls for other skills, such
as comparing and contrasting, summarizing, finding the main
idea, identifying points of view, and evaluating the writing style.
Encourage them to use other reading strategies in addition to
retelling. For tips on additional reading strategies, go to www.
readinga-z.com/more/reading_strat.html.
• Remind students that to accomplish this purpose they will use
a reading strategy (retelling) as well as many comprehension
skills, such as comparing and contrasting, summarizing,
sequencing, and identifying the characters' and author's
points of view.
• Remind students that the general purpose of all fiction books
is enjoyment. Assure them that once they get caught up in this
story they will discover why The Prince and the Pauper is one of
the best books in American literature.
Introduce the Comprehension Skill:
Compare and contrast
• Point out to students that the title of the book is made up of
two contrasting words.
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The Prince and the Pauper
Lesson Plan
lay upon a table. Draw students' attention to this sentence and
ask them to stay alert for further clues about this mystery object.
During Reading
• Comprehension (Identify Story Elements): Ask
students to identify the characters, setting, and plot of the
chapters. Encourage them to look for similar story elements
in the chapters to come.
Student Reading
• Guide the reading: Read chapter 1 out loud, and use the
passage as a model to practice the reading strategy, retelling.
Ask volunteers to retell this short chapter in just a few words.
• Vocabulary: acquaintances, bastions, despondency,
mendicancy, meseemeth, notwithstanding, offal, pageants,
pauper, perplexities, prithee, revelers, sauntered, stringent
• Have students practice the comprehension skill, comparing
and contrasting. Who are the main characters? (Tom Canty and
Edward Tudor) How did the boys' families feel about them?
(Tom's parents didn't want him, while Edward's parents wanted
him, and all England wanted him, too.) How were they dressed?
(Edward in silks and satins; Tom in rags)
C H A P T E R S 4 TO 8
(The boys meet each other's fathers.)
• Summary: Dressed as a beggar but claiming to be a prince,
Edward Tudor suffers many abuses as he makes his way toward
Offal Court. The prince hopes Tom's father will help him, but
John Canty and Tom's two sisters thinks he is Tom, gone mad.
Only Tom's mother wonders if Edward is really her son. At
the palace, Tom meets the king but does not recognize him.
Horrified, the dying king also decides his son has gone mad.
He orders the entire court to act as if the "prince" is normal.
The king also insists that his enemy, the Duke of Norfolk, must
be executed before he himself dies. However, his ministers
cannot find the Great Seal with which to stamp the death
decree. They recall that the seal was last in the possession
of the Prince of Wales, but Tom has no idea where it is.
• Direct students to finish reading the book, retelling passages
and comparing and contrasting as they read.
• If time or students' reading experience are limited, you might
want to divide the class into small groups and have each group
read a chapter or section.
Check for Understanding, Section by Section
C H A P T E R S 1 TO 3
(The prince and the pauper trade places.)
• Summary: Two boys are born on the same day. Tom Canty
is the son of beggars. Edward Tudor is the Prince of Wales. Tom
grows up in poverty and violence. From an old priest, he learns
to read and write and hears stories that make him daydream
about being a prince. Determined to see a real prince, Tom
makes his way to Westminster Palace. Through the gates, he
sees Prince Edward at play. When the guards mistreat Tom,
Edward takes his part and invites him in for a meal. As a joke,
the two boys change clothes. The prince sees a bruise on Tom's
hand. The prince rushes out to punish the guard who gave
Tom the bruise. Instead, the guards throw the prince out
onto the streets.
• Comprehension (Point of View): Explain that the story
goes back and forth between what is happening to Tom and
what is happening to Edward. Ask students to find passages
in which the false prince behaves like a beggar and in which
the false beggar behaves like a prince. Discuss how each boy's
background has formed his attitudes toward others.
• Vocabulary: appendage, appertain, attainted, beshrew,
besmirched, countenance, diaper (napkin), doff, dost,
inarticulate, liege, lineaments, meet (right or appropriate),
menial, obeisance, ordainment, panoply, peradventure,
persistent, plebeian, prodigious, solemnities, squalid,
stripling, thou, 'tis, vagaries, vermin, wainscoting
• Explanation: Twain buried an important clue at the end of
chapter 3. As the prince rushed out to punish the guard, he
snatched up and put away an article of national importance that
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The Prince and the Pauper
Lesson Plan
C H A P T E R S 9 TO 13
("The king is dead. Long live the king!")
Tom has a stroke of luck when he meets Humphrey Marlow, his
whipping boy, whose job it is to take any punishment intended
for the young king. Tom gets Humphrey to coach him about
court etiquette, and soon there is great relief around the palace
because the "king" is losing his madness. (He still cannot,
however, remember anything at all about the Great Seal.) Tom
begins to assert his royal authority by challenging the harsh
laws, and the new king's reputation for mercy begins to spread.
• Summary: Tom Canty, the "mad prince," begins his painful
adjustment to the elaborate rituals of life at court. Edward,
the "mad pauper," makes a far more painful adjustment to a
beggar's life. Edward hears that the Prince of Wales will appear
at a banquet at the Guildhall, so he makes his way there. A
mob attacks him for claiming to be the prince, but a bedraggled
soldier, Miles Hendon, rescues him. Inside the Guildhall, Tom
is presiding over the banquet when a messenger brings the
news that the king is dead. Everyone kneels before Tom. In a
daze, Tom issues his first order as "king" and spares the life of
the Duke of Norfolk. Outside in the street, Edward mourns his
father's death. Feeling pity for this mad beggar boy, Miles takes
him to his own poor lodgings and waits on him as if he were
really a king. In gratitude, Edward grants Miles the right to sit
in the royal presence. The next morning, Miles goes out to buy
Edward some clothing to replace his rags. After he returns, he
discovers Edward is gone.
• Comprehension (Author's Point of View): Call
students' attention to chapter 14, which recounts the process
of dressing the king, and ask them to describe the author's
attitude toward the royal court. (Twain ridicules royal rituals in
this very funny passage.) Suggest that students go back through
chapter 15 to discover Twain's attitude toward the laws. (Twain
uses humor and bitter irony to condemn the harshness and
unfairness of the justice system.)
• Explanation: Students should be aware that the laws
described in chapter 15 were actual laws in England during
the 1500s.
• Comprehension (Sequence): Encourage students to draw
parallel diagrams to show where the two boys are at any given
time, using context clues to sequence the events.
• Vocabulary: aggrandizements, annulled, boon, cataclysm,
coffers, doltish, fleurs-de-lis, harebrained, indecorum, mantle
(cloak), requited, scoundrelism, yesternight, veneration, wonted,
yeoman
• Explanation: Chapter 11 refers to Gog and Magog, the
ancient guardians of the city. Gog and Magog (places from the
Bible) are the traditional names of two huge wooden figures
that stand outside the Guildhall in London. They represent
giants who, according to legend, were destroyed by the
founder of the city.
C H A P T E R S 17 TO 23
(Edward becomes the king of the tramps.)
• Summary: Edward has been lured away by the false
information that Miles is wounded and needs his help. He
follows the messenger out of London. At a deserted farm, John
Canty seizes his "son" again and forces him to join a troop
of thieves. In a mocking ceremony, the drunken tramps crown
Edward as "Foo-Foo the First, King of the Mooncalves." They
take Edward on the road with them, but he refuses to take
part in their begging, stealing, or trickery. After managing to
escape, he spends a night in a warm barn and gets fed by a
kindly peasant family. He hears the tramps coming and escapes
again, this time into the forest, where he reaches the hut of a
hermit. The hermit ties Edward to the bed and prepares to kill
him. Miles Hendon, who has been searching diligently, almost
• Vocabulary: ablutions, accolade, accouterments, athwart,
bandying, blazon, chafe, commiseration, cudgel, disappareled,
eftsoons (soon), frowzy, habiliments, halberdiers, joviality,
mace, methinks, mummeries, myriads, purfled, rapier, scimitars,
scrivener, scurvy, soliloquizing
C H A P T E R S 14 TO 16
(Tom learns how to act like a king.)
• Summary: A prisoner in the palace, Tom Canty must adjust
to the bewildering and tedious rituals of the court. Getting
dressed is a lengthy, often silly ordeal, as is dining in public.
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The Prince and the Pauper
Lesson Plan
finds and rescues him, but John Canty and the tramps get there
first. On the road again, Edward is falsely accused of stealing
a cooked pig. Miles appears in time to help Edward as he goes
before the judge. Through the judge's mercy, Edward is not
hanged but sentenced to jail. Miles helps him escape.
two women being burned at the stake. Miles is sentenced to
sit in the stocks. When Edward protests at this indignity to his
"servant," Sir Hugh orders that he be whipped. Heroically,
Miles takes Edward's punishment for him. After they have been
punished and released, Miles and Edward make their way to
London, where crowds are gathering to celebrate the coronation
of the new king. Edward and Miles get separated in the crowd.
• Explanation: To trick the ignorant jailer into letting Edward
go, Miles quotes a supposed law in Latin. His words are actually
a string of Latin phrases that are still in fairly common use
today. These include non compos mentis (not in his right mind),
lex talionis (the arm of the law), and sic transit gloria mundi
(thus passes the world's glory, or fame).
• Comprehension (Make, Revise, and Confirm
Predictions): Now that the new king is about to be crowned,
ask students to predict what will happen next and how the
story will end. Encourage them to keep making, revising, and
confirming predictions as they read the succeeding chapters.
• Comprehension (Cause and Effect): Have students look
through these chapters for examples of events that happen
as a direct result of other events. Asking the question "Why?"
can help with this exercise. Why did the outlaws have so little
respect for the law? (The punishments decreed by law were
fierce and unfair.) Why had John Canty left London to join the
thieves? (He had killed a man in London.)
• Vocabulary: carl, evanescent, pallor, manikin (little man),
miscreant, prodigal, scourge, taciturn, undulations, weal
C H A P T E R S 30 TO 33
(The rightful king gets his crown.)
• Summary: At the palace, Tom is starting to enjoy being king.
On the day of his coronation, he parades through the streets,
smiling graciously at the cheering crowds. Then he sees his
mother. She recognizes him and rushes forward, but Tom
denies he knows her. From that moment, Tom stops enjoying
his new position. The procession moves on to Westminster
Abbey, where Tom suffers through the long ceremony of the
coronation. Just as the archbishop is lowering the crown onto
Tom's head, Edward appears in the aisle and commands that
the proceedings be stopped. When the guards move to throw
Edward out, Tom reinforces the order. The Lord Protector asks
Edward many questions to test whether he is the true king,
and Edward answers them all. As a final test, Edward is asked
the location of the Great Seal. As this article is described, Tom
realizes that he's known its location all along. He prompts
Edward to remember hiding the seal inside a suit of armor. After
the throng acclaims and crowns the rightful king, Tom admits he
has been using the Great Seal to crack nuts. Once be becomes
the rightful king, Edward rewards Tom, Miles, and others who
have helped him. King Edward VI reigns for only a few years, but
his reign was a singularly merciful one for those harsh times.
• Vocabulary: archangel, bastings, beldame, blasphemy,
constable, deign, disencumbered, enow (enough), epithets,
hermit, larder, melancholy, motliest, palter, patriarchs, ruffian,
slatternly, traversed, trenchers, truculent
C H A P T E R S 25 TO 29
(Miles and Edward go to Hendon Hall.)
• Summary: After Edward escapes from prison, Miles and
Edward make their way to Hendon Hall, Miles's ancestral home.
Miles finds that his father and older brother are dead, while
his evil younger brother, Hugh, has taken over the estate and
married Edith, the young woman who had been promised to
Miles. Hugh refuses to recognize Miles. The servants and even
Edith pretend not to know him. Edith warns Miles to flee for
his life, but not in time to keep Hugh from having Miles and
Edward arrested and thrown into prison. They share the jail
with two women accused of being Baptists, a lawyer who has
had his ears cut off for writing against the Lord Chancellor, and
others who have suffered similar injustices. From his fellow
prisoners, Edward learns of the new young king and his growing
reputation for mercy. He endures the horror of watching the
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The Prince and the Pauper
Lesson Plan
• Comprehension (Identify the Author's Purpose): Ask
students to volunteer their ideas about why Mark Twain wrote
the story. Prompt them by asking how they felt about different
aspects of the story, especially the comparisons and contrasts
between Tom and Edward and between rich and poor.
• Extend the discussion: Invite students to reflect on big
themes that were carried through the whole story, such as
poverty, royalty, justice, and nobility.
• List the themes suggested by the students on the chalkboard.
Ask students to volunteer key words, phrases, and events that fit
into each theme.
• Vocabulary: apparition, appendages, celerity, chronicler,
derided, despicable, eulogistic, fealty, mien, penury, repudiated,
salaaming, steed, tableaux, transept, vassals, venerable
• Enduring understanding: Their experiences in each
other's shoes drastically changed Tom's and Edward's values
and behavior. Think of someone whose life is very different
from yours. How might you change if you lived as that person
for a few days or weeks?
After Reading
Reflect on the Reading Strategy
Build Skills
• Have students volunteer to retell their favorite scenes from
the story.
Grammar and Mechanics: Declarations,
exclamations, and questions
• Ask students to share any diagrams and notes they used to keep
track of what was happening in the story.
• Ask students to leaf through the book and find four different
punctuation marks that are used to end sentences (periods,
exclamation points, question marks, and quotation marks).
Reflect on the Comprehension Skill
• Discussion: Ask students to volunteer examples of contrasts
in the book not including the contrast between the two main
characters. (Students might note the contrasts between rich
and poor; Offal Court and the royal court; Henry VIII and John
Canty; the Lord Protector, who cares for the "prince," and Miles
Hendon, who cares for the "pauper.")
• Point out to students that quotation marks appear after all the
other marks. Ask them to identify the rule for using quotation
marks with all three forms of end punctuation. (Quotation
marks always go to the right of the end punctuation.)
• Ask students to compare sentences that end in periods with
those that end in exclamation points and question marks.
How does each type of sentence sound when read out loud?
(Students should notice that periods indicate sentences that
end in an even tone. Exclamation points indicate more dramatic
sentences, while sentences with question marks tend to end on
higher notes.)
• Ask students also to volunteer examples of people or events
that are similar or parallel to each other. (For example, there are
several pairs of females in the book. Both Tom and Edward have
two sisters. Two peasant girls help care for Edward when he is
on the run, as do two Baptist women who share Edward's jail
cell. The supposed madness of both Tom and Edward is another
similarity. The story hinges on the greatest similarity: the boys
look exactly alike.)
• Ask students to identify the purposes of declarative,
exclamatory, and interrogative sentences.
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
students complete the compare-and-contrast graphic organizer.
If time allows, discuss their answers.
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• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
students complete the declarations, exclamations, and questions
worksheet. If time allows, discuss their answers.
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The Prince and the Pauper
Lesson Plan
Word Work: Dictionary skills
other artists. Books about historical costumes, architecture, and
weaponry are also good sources. Have students share what they
learn in written or oral reports.
• Invite students to volunteer examples of words they found
difficult to read, pronounce, or understand.
• List the words suggested by the students on the chalkboard. Ask
individuals or teams to use dictionaries to find the definitions.
Assessment
• Independent practice: Introduce, explain, and have
students complete the dictionary skills worksheet. If time
allows, discuss their answers.
Monitor students to determine if they can:
• accurately retell the events of the story
• consistently compare and contrast characters, settings, and plot
developments during discussion and on a graphic organizer
Build Fluency
• correctly identify and punctuate declarative, exclamatory, and
interrogative sentences during discussion and on a worksheet
Independent Reading
• correctly define words from context and by using a dictionary
during discussion and on a worksheet
• Allow students to read their book independently. Additionally,
allow partners to read parts of the book to each other.
Encourage students to read out loud passages that they found
particularly amusing or interesting and explain their choices.
Comprehension Check
• Use the Retelling Rubric found in the assessment section of
www.readinga-z.com.
Home Connection
• Give students their book to take home to read with parents,
caregivers, siblings, or friends. Encourage them to stop and retell
parts of the story as they read.
Extend the Reading
Writing and Art Connection
Encourage students to imagine stories in which two people from
contrasting backgrounds trade places and are mistaken for each
other. Invite them to write short passages of fiction based on their
ideas. Students can create their stories in comic book form.
History Connection
Provide resources for students to research the reigns of Henry VIII
and Edward VI and/or other people and places mentioned in the
story. Encourage them to consult a variety of sources in order to
get the most complete picture possible. Suggest that they look
for portraits of Henry VIII and Edward VI by Hans Holbein and
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