Literature teacher’s notes
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
  Before reading
1 Write the phrase folk tales on the board. Elicit some
examples of popular folk tales that the students know and
write them on the board.
Explain to the students that One Thousand and One
Nights is a collection of folk tales and refer them to the
About the collection box on page 1 of their worksheet.
Refer the students to the different elements and
features of folk tales. Ask them to read it and check
they understand exaggerated (extreme), conflicts
(disagreements), resolved (to solve a disagreement) and
greedy (wanting more things than you need, e.g. money).
Students work in pairs to think of an example of a folk tale
that fits each description. Refer them to the list of tales on
the board to help.
2 Now ask each pair to work with another pair and to
compare their answers. Encourage them to say why the
tale they chose fits that description. Refer them to the
example dialogue to help. At the end, briefly discuss their
answers as a class.
3 Check that students understand what a thief is (someone
who steals). As a class, elicit what they think the main
theme or themes of the story might be based on the title.
Don’t confirm ideas yet.
  CULTURAL INFORMATION
The tales contained within One Thousand and One
Nights are based on ancient Arabic, Persian, Indian and
Egyptian literature, although some of the tales were
actually added by European authors over the years. The
earliest known manuscript of the collection is thought
to date from the 9th century. The tales include historical
tales, love tales, tragedies, poems and comedies. One
Thousand and One Nights has had a big influence on
world literature, and many characters from the collection,
such as Sinbad, Aladdin and Ali Baba, have become
extremely well known around the world, too.
  While reading
1 Ask the students to read the first part of the story (up to line
32). Refer them to the Vocabulary focus box to help them
with words they may not know. Students put the events a–h
in the correct order 1–8. Check answers as a class.
Answers
1 d  ​2 a  ​3 h  ​4 g  ​5 c  ​6 e  ​7 b  ​8 f
2 Students read the second part of the story (line 33 to the
end). Ask them to decide if the questions are true or false,
and correct the false sentences.
Answers
1 T  ​2 T  ​3 F He saw the silver but didn’t take it.  ​
4 F He took as much gold as his donkeys could carry.  ​
5 F They were waiting outside the cave.  ​6 T
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A2 Units
3 Students read the complete story extract this time and
answer the questions. They can discuss their answers with
a partner before you elicit responses in open class.
Suggested answers
1 Ali Baba is described as a poor woodcutter who works
in the forest to support his family, whereas Cassim
is described as having more money than he needs
because he married a rich wife. They probably have
very different lives and are not very close as brothers.
Perhaps Ali Baba feels resentful towards his brother
for having more money than him.
2 When Ali Baba sees the men and the horses he is
frightened because he thinks they are robbers and so
he climbs a tree to hide from them and to watch them.
3 He wanted to keep the treasure for himself. Perhaps
he was worried that people would call him a thief.
EXTRA ACTIVITY
Students write true/false questions based on the first
part of the story for another student to answer.
  After reading
1 As a class, discuss what students think the main themes of
the story are and elicit whether they have changed their
mind after reading the extract.
Suggested answer
The story deals with the main themes of good versus
bad (in this case being greedy).
2 Read the three questions aloud. Put the students into small
groups and ask them to discuss each question in turn.
If your class needs extra support, write these further
questions on the board to help:
1 a Ali Baba is a woodcutter. Does he need the money?
b Is it OK to steal from a thief or is it still a crime?
2 Ali Baba chose to take the gold, not the silver. Does
this show he is a greedy person?
3 Ali Baba is either a hero because he took the gold
away from the thieves (he didn’t originally steal the
money), or he is also a bad and greedy person. Which
do you agree with?
3 Students work with someone who gave the same answer
to question 3 in exercise 2 above. Explain they are going
to write a newspaper report about Ali Baba and to show
him as either a bad or a good person. Refer them to the
mind map and ask them to make notes in the different
sections. Check they understand outcomes (what
happened in the end).
4 Students work in fours to write the report using the ideas
in the mind map to help them.
5 When students have finished, ask them to work with
someone who wrote about Ali Baba from the opposite
angle. They should take turns reading their report aloud to
each other.
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