English

10
English – Grade 10
Quarter 3 – Module 6: The Last Leaf by O.Henry (Reader-Response Approach
First Edition, 2020

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Published by the Department of Education Division of Pasig City

Development Team of the

Module
Writer: Ronel C. Legaspi
Editor: Belinda P. Blanco
Reviewers: Cathy S. Seron, Rowena D. Roxas
Illustrator: Edison P. Clet
Layout Artist: Elinette B. dela Cruz
Management Team: Ma. Evalou Concepcion A. Agustin
OIC-Schools Division Superintendent
Carolina T. Rivera, CESE
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10. Teresita P. Tagulao, Ed. D., Mathematics
Printed in the Philippines by Department of Education – Schools Division of
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 English 10

Quarter
The Last Leaf by3O.Henry
(Reader-Response
Lesson 6 Approach)
Introductory Message

For the facilitator:

Welcome to English 10 Module 6 on The Last Leaf by O. Henry (Reader-Response

Approach)!

This module was collaboratively designed, developed and reviewed by educators from
Schools Division Office of Pasig City headed by its Officer-In-Charge Schools
Division Superintendent, Ma. Evalou Concepcion A. Agustin in partnership with the
Local Government of Pasig through its mayor, Honorable Victor Ma. Regis N.
Sotto. The writers utilized the standards set by the K to 12 Curriculum using the
Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC) while overcoming their personal,
social, and economic constraints in schooling.

This learning material hopes to engage the learners into guided and independent
learning activities at their own pace and time. Further, this also aims to help
learners acquire the needed 21st century skills especially the 5 Cs namely:
Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Character while
taking into consideration their needs and circumstances.

In addition to the material in the main text, you will also see this box in the body of
the module:

Notes to the Teacher

This contains helpful tips or strategies that will help you in guiding the learners.

As a facilitator you are expected to orient the learners on how to use this module.
You also need to keep track of the learners' progress while allowing them to manage
their own learning. Moreover, you are expected to encourage and assist the learners
as they do the tasks included in the module.
For the learner:

Welcome to English 10 Module 6 on The Last Leaf by O. Henry (Reader-Response

Approach)!

The hand is one of the most symbolized part of the human body. It is often used to
depict skill, action and purpose. Through our hands we may learn, create and
accomplish. Hence, the hand in this learning resource signifies that you as a learner
is capable and empowered to successfully achieve the relevant competencies and
skills at your own pace and time. Your academic success lies in your own hands!

This module was designed to provide you with fun and meaningful opportunities for
guided and independent learning at your own pace and time. You will be enabled to
process the contents of the learning material while being an active learner.

This module has the following parts and corresponding icons:

Expectation - These are what you will be able to know after

completing the lessons in the module

Pre-test - This will measure your prior knowledge and the

concepts to be mastered throughout the lesson.

Recap - This section will measure what learnings and skills

that you understand from the previous lesson.

Lesson- This section will discuss the topic for this module.

Activities - This is a set of activities you will perform.

Wrap Up- This section summarizes the concepts and

applications of the lessons.
Valuing-this part will check the integration of values in the
learning competency.

Post-test - This will measure how much you have learned from
the entire module. Ito po ang parts ng module
 EXPECTATION

This is your self-instructional learner module in English 10. All the activities
provided in this lesson will help you learn and understand: The Last Leaf by O.
Henry (Reader-Response Approach).
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to;
a. Comprehend the story by answering the provided activities
b. Give emphasis to the values demonstrated by the characters
c. Relate the values of the story to the present situation

PRE–TEST

Direction: Write TRUE if the statement is correct and FALSE if the statement is
wrong. Write your answer on the space provided before the number.
1. The pen name of William Sydney Portal is Ohio Henry.

2. Mr. Behrman’s masterpiece enabled Miss Johnsy to realize the

significance of faith in life.

3. The analogy of the death of the vine happened in the life of Mr.
Behrman.

4. Mr. Behrman died after serving his purpose and his masterpiece,
whom he worked hard in his lifetime, has emerged right after his death.

5. The extreme coldness during the winter season in November had

caused Johnsy’s illness.

RECAP

In our previous lessons, we discussed different approaches to critique

and understand a certain literary selections such as Moralist, Marxist, Feminist
and Historical.
 LESSON

Reader-response suggests that the role of the reader is essential to the

meaning of a text, for only in the reading experience does the literary work
come alive. Its purpose is to examine, explain, and defend your personal
reaction to a text. There is no right or wrong answer to a reading response.
Nonetheless, it is important that you demonstrate an understanding of the
reading and clearly explain and support your reaction.

Just take a look with the illustration below:

https://www.slideshare.net/mraiyah/reader-response-and-reception-theory

Now, let’s have a story entitled “The Last Leaf” by O. Henry.

https://theirvodka.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/short-story-the-last-leaf-by-o-henry/

To Greenwich Village, which is a section of New York City, many people came
who were interested in art. They liked the bohemian life of the village, and they
enjoyed living among so many artists. The buildings and apartments were often
very old and dirty, but this only added to the interest of the place.
At the top of an old three-story brick house Sue and Johnsy had their studio.
One of them was from the state Maine, the other from California. They had met in
the restaurant of an English Street Hotel. Both were artists who had recently come
to New York to make their living.
That was in May. In November, a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors
called pneumonia, visited in the city, touching one here and one there with his icy
finger.
He touched Johnsy and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted iron bed,
looking through the small window at the blank wall of the opposite building.
One morning, the busy doctor invited Sue into the hall.
“She has about one chance in ten to live,” he said as he shook down the
mercury in his clinical thermometer. “And that one chance depends upon her
to get better. But your little friend has made up her mind that she is going to die. Is
she worrying about something?”
“She wanted to paint a picture of the Bay of Naples someday,” said Sue.
“No, something more important²a man perhaps?”
“No.”
“Well, perhaps it is a result of her fever and her general physical weakness.
But when a patient begins to feel sure that she is going to die, then I subtract 50
percent from the power of medicines. If you can succeed in making her interested in
something, in asking, for instance, about the latest styles in women’s clothes, then I
can promise you a one-to-five chance for her instead of one-to-ten.”
After the doctor had gone, Sue went into her own room and cried. Later, trying
not to show her sadness, she went into Johnsy’s room, whistling.
Johnsy lay under the bedclothes, with her face toward the window. Sue
stopped whistling, thinking Johnsy was asleep. But soon Sue heard a low sound,
several times repeated. Sue went quickly to the bedside.
Johnsy’s eyes were wide open. She was looking out of the window, and
counting backwards.
“Twelve,” she said, and a little later, “eleven,” and then, “ten” and “nine” and
then “eight” - “seven.”
Sue looked out the window. What was Johnsy counting? There was only a
gray backyard and the blank wall of the opposite house. An old vine, dead at the
roots, climbed halfway up the wall. The cold breath of autumn had blown almost all
the leaves from the vine until its branches were almost bare.
“What is it dear?” asked Sue.
“Six,” said Johnsy very quietly. “They are falling faster now. Three days ago
there were almost a hundred. It makes my head ache to count them. But now it’s
easy. There goes another one. There are five left now.”
“Five what, dear? Tell me!” said Sue.
“Leaves. The leaves of that vine. When the last leaf of that vine falls. I must go,
too. I’ve known that for three days. Didn’t the doctor tell you?”
“The doctor didn’t say such thing. That is pure foolishness,” said Sue. “What
connection have those old leaves with your getting well? And you used to love that
old vine so much. Please, don’t be silly! The doctor told me this morning that your
chances of getting well soon were excellent. Now try to take some of your soup and
let me get back to work so that I can make money to buy you some good port wine.”
“There’s no use buying any more wine,” said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed
on the blank wall of the house opposite.
“There goes another leaf. That leaves just four. I want to see the last one fall
before it gets dark. Then, I’ll go, too.”
“Johnsy, dear,” said Sue, bending over her, “will you promise me to keep your
eyes closed not to look out of the window until I have finished working? I must deliver
these drawings tomorrow. I need the light; otherwise I would pull down the curtain.”
“Can’t you draw in your room?” said Johnsy coldly.
“I’d rather stay here with you,” said Sue. “Besides, I don’t want you to keep
looking at those silly leaves.”
“Tell me soon as you have finished,” said Johnsy, closing her eyes and lying
white and still. “Because I want to see the last leaf fall. I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired
of thinking.”
Old Mr. Behrman was a painter who lived on the first floor beneath them. He
was more than 60 years old. Behrman was a failure in art. He had always wanted to
paint a masterpiece, but he had never yet begun to paint it. For many years he had
painted nothing, except now and then something in the line of commercial or
advertising work. He earned a little money by serving as a model for those
artists who could not pay the price for a regular model. He drank much whisky and
when he was drunk always talked about the great masterpiece he was going to paint.
He was a fierce, intense little man who considered himself as a watchdog and
protector for the two young artists living above him, of whom he was very fond.
Sue found Behrman in his poorly lighted studio. In one corner of the room
stood a blank canvas which had been waiting for 25 years to receive the first line of
the promised masterpiece. Sue told him of the strange idea which Johnsy had
concerning the last leaf, and Sue said that she feared that Johnsy would really die
when the last leaf fell.
Old Behrman shouted, “Are there people in the world who are foolish enough
to die simply because leaves fall from an old vine? I have never heard such a thing.
Why do you permit such silly ideas to come into her mind? Oh, that poor little Miss
Johnsy!”
“She is very ill, very weak,” explained Sue, “and the fever has left her mind
full of strange ideas.”
Johnsy was sleeping when they both went upstairs. She pulled down the
curtain and motioned to Behrman to go into the other room. There they looked at
each other for a moment without speaking. A cold rain was falling, mixed with
snow. Behrman took a seat prepared himself to pose for Sue as a model.
When Sue woke up the next morning, she found Johnsy with dull, wide open
eyes, looking at the window.
“Put up the curtain. I want to see,” Johnsy said quietly.
Sue obeyed.
But, oh, after the heavy rain and the strong wind, one leaf was still hanging
on the vine. The last leaf. Still dark green, it hung from a branch some twenty feet
above the ground.
“It is the last one,” said Johnsy. “I thought it would surely fall during the night.
I heard the wind and the rain. It will fall today and I shall die at the same time.”
“Dear Johnsy,” said Sue, placing her face close to Johnsy’s on the pillow.
“Think of me if you won’t think of yourself. What shall I do?”
The day passed slowly, and even through the growing darkness of the
evening they could see the lone leaf still hanging from the branch against the wall.
And then, with the coming of the night, the wind began to blow again, and the rain
began to fall heavily.
But the next morning when Johnsy commanded that the curtain be raised
again, the leaf was still there.
Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it. And then she called to Sue.
“I’ve been a bad girl, Sue,” said Johnsy. “Something has made the last leaf stay
there just to show me how bad I was. It was a sin to want to die. You may bring me
a little soup now²and then put some pillows behind me I will sit up and watch you
cook.”
An hour later Johnsy said, “Sue, someday I want to paint a picture of the Bay
of Naples.”
The doctor came in the afternoon. “You are doing ¿ne,” he said, taking
Johnsy’s thin hand in his. “In another week or so, you will be perfectly well. And now
I must go to see another patient downstairs. His name is Behrman. He is some kind
of artist, I believe. Pneumonia, too. He is an old, weak man, and the attack is very
severe. There is no hope for him, but I am sending him to hospital in order to make
him more comfortable.”
The next day, Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay. “The doctor tells me that
soon you will be perfectly well again,” Sue said, putting her arms around Johnsy.
Johnsy smiled at her happily.
 “Isn’t it wonderful?” Sue continued. “But now I have something important to
tell you. Old Mr. Behrman died in the hospital this morning of pneumonia. He was
sick only two days. They found him in his room the morning the first day, helpless
with pain and fever. His shoes and clothing were completely wet and icy cold. They
couldn’t figure out where he had been on such a terrible night. And then they found
a lantern, still lighted, a ladder, and some other things which showed that, during
the wind and rain, he climbed up and painted a green leaf on the wall of the house
opposite. Didn’t you think it was strange that the leaf never moved when the wind
blew? Ah, darling, it was Behrman’s real masterpiece²he painted it there the night
that the last leaf fell.”

Guided Practice

MULTIPLE CHOICE. Encircle the letter of the correct answer.

1. There were a few leaves on the vine outside the window

because ?
A. people were picking the leaves
B. their neighbour was using the leaves in the painting
C. the wind was blowing the leaves away
D. vines only have a few leaves
2. Sue said,”Never mind the leaves, think about yourself.” Never mind
means ?
A. think about C. ask about
B. don’t think about D. don’t ask about

3. What was surprising after the storm?

A. The sound of the rain tapping at the window.
B. The wind was howling.
C. Joanna wanted to die.
D. The last leaf was still on the vine.

4. A hermit is a person who ?

A. lives in Greenwich Village
B. lives with a prolonged illness
C. works as a fisherman
D. lives alone in a secluded spot

5. The conflict in “The Last Leaf” is ?

A. Johnsy loses the will to live.
B. Mr. Behrman will not pose for a portrait.
C. Sue’s lack of concern for Johnsy.
D. The last leaf will not fall.
 ACTIVITIES

Activity 1
Describe the following characters from the story:

1. Johnsy 2. Mr. Behrman

3. Sue 4. The Doctor

Activity 2

Matching Type: Match the cause in column A to its effect on column B.

CAUSE EFFECT

1. Sue will work. She will paint A. He had no success as a painter.

a picture to sell. B. Old Behrman lets Sue paint a
picture of him. They realize
2. He had never painted the last
a good picture. leaf must not fall
C. Sue will earn money and buy
3. Sue tells Old Behrman food
about Johnsy and the leaves on to make Johnsy strong again.
the tree D. Johnsy decides to eat. She
decides to get better
4. Johnsy thinks the leaf will E. Johnsy says that when that
fall. happens
she will die
5. Johnsy sees the leaf. It
is still there

.
Activity 3

Write an acrostic poem about PNEUMONIA.

P -

N -
E -
U -

M -
O -
N -

I -
A -
RUBRICS:

Content 50%
Proper Choice of Words 20%

Relevance to the Topic 20%

Over-all Impact 10%

WRAP–UP

To wrap everything up that we have talked about in this lesson, answer this:

Directions: Choose the letter of the correct answer

1. What disease does Johnsy have?
A. Autism
B. Cancer
C. Pneumonia
D. Antisocial
2. They live in
A. Greenwich Village
B. Ideal Village
C. Village of Miami
D. The NEW YORK village
3. What is the difference between Johnsy and Sue?
A. Johnsy is a dreamer while Sue is a workaholic
B. Johnsy is a workaholic while Sue is a dreamer
C. Johnsy is ugly while Sue is pretty
 D. Johnsy is a boy while Sue is a girl
4. What did Johnsy wish to paint?
A. The Bay of Naples
B. The Last Leaf
C. A romantic sunset
D. The Mediterranean
5. After the doctor visits with Johnsy, what course of treatment
does he suggest?
A. He recommends strict bed-rest.
B. He recommends sitting outside next to the trees.
C. He recommends that she take an interest in a man or in the
new winter fashions.
D. He recommends that she enter hospice care.

VALUING

Draw something which you can

associate to your interpretation with
this quotation.

http://www.google.com/search?q=value+the+people
+who+sacrifice+their+something+for+you

POST-TEST

Direction: Write TRUE if the statement is correct and FALSE if the statement is
wrong. Write your answer on the space provided before the number
1. Sue drew pictures for children’s books to pay the rent.

2. Congenial means that the two people don’t get along well.

3. Johnsy spent her hours on her bed counting leaves on a vine.

 4. Mr. Behrman’s masterpiece was the Bay of Naples.

5. “The Last Leaf” by O.Henry is a third person narrative.

KEY TO CORRECTION

PRE-TEST GUIDED ACTIVITY 2 WRAP-UP ACTIVITY

1. FALSE 1. C 1. C 1.C 1.TRUE
2. TRUE 2. B 2. A 2.A 2.FALSE
3. TRUE 3. D 4. B 3.A 3.TRUE
4. TRUE 4. D 4. E 4.A 4.FALSE
5. TRUE 5. A 5. D 5.A 5.TRUE

R E F E R E N CE S

Celebrating Diversity through World Literature 10 pp. 377-380

https://www.slideshare.net/mraiyah/reader-response-and-reception-
theory

https://theirvodka.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/short-story-the-last-
leaf-by-o-henry/