Literature in English Language Teaching

(The Synopsis of “Thank You, Ma’am”)

Name : Melita Sari Purba (1907583)
Class : Reguler B 2019 (SPs UPI)

A boy tried to snatch a woman’s purse when she was walking at home. Yet he failed
and fell because the purse were too heavy for him. The woman picked the boy up and took
him to her house since his face was very dirty. The woman asked him to wash up himself
while she was cooking for supper. The woman thought that the boy snatched her purse
because he was hungry. Yet, the boy did it because he wanted to buy some suede shoes.
When the boy told the truth, she said that he could have asked her. It made him dazing. It’s
unpredictable words coming to him. While having supper together, the woman didn’t ask
about his home since he said that nobody was at home. The woman just told about her job in
a hotel beauty shop. Before leaving, the woman gave some money for Roger to buy some
blue suede shoes for himself and asked him not to do the same as he did to Mrs.Luella Bates
Washington Jones neither to the others. The boy wanted to express his gratitude before she
closed her door but he couldn’t for it seemed hard for the boy to find out the worthier words
than “Thank You”. She deverve to get more. And it was the first and last time for the boy to
see someone who made him full of gratitude.

There are some reasons why the story above is recommended for the middle students :

1. The title makes students curious about what something specifically which made
someone say “ Thank You”. It must about a help that we get, but why the tittle should
be that.
2. The words and sentences are simple and easy to understand which lead students
interested at reading
3. There are only two characters which make students enjoy the story and feel optimist
to understand it quickly.
4. Since the story can be read in one sitting, the students can do it effortless.
5. The story has implisit moral value (a little thing which we do can be a great thing to
someone and perhaps it can be unforgetful thing in their lives) and explisit moral
value (Kill the badness with kindness and be grateful for others’ help) which make
students thinking deeply about the good things in life.