Short story: The Open Window

Objective & content

Saki's famous short story The Open Window (1914), retold at A2+. The language is simplified, the story is not: every event and the twist are Saki's. Framton Nuttel, a nervous young man, visits a country house to rest his nerves. While he waits for Mrs Sappleton, her fifteen-year-old niece Vera tells him a tragic story about the open window. When three men walk across the garden towards it, Framton runs for his life. By the end, pupils can follow a story of about 950 words, find the clues to how Vera tricked Framton, and use three verb forms from the story.

Pedagogical guide

The story runs over three pages, set like a novel, with five drawings at the moments they show; the page turns on "Here they are at last!". Page 4 holds the tasks. Six choice and true or false questions check the story. "Find the clues" sends pupils back into the text: what Vera asked Framton before her story, which real things she used in it, why her eyes were "full of horror", and why she told a second story at the end. A box gives three verb forms from the story (the past simple, had + past participle, going to), then pupils complete four sentences from the story with them. In the last task, pupils work in pairs: a new visitor comes to the house, and they write the next story Vera tells. Page 5 is the answer key with the teacher notes.

Suggested procedure

1. (5 min) Ask "Have you ever believed a story that was not true?" and take a few answers.
2. (15 to 20 min) Read the story aloud, or pupils read in pairs. Stop after "I feel that they are going to walk in through that window..." and ask "What do you think happens next?"
3. (10 min) Pupils answer the choice questions, then the "Find the clues" questions; check together.
4. (10 min) Pupils read the box and complete the four sentences.
5. (10 min) In pairs, pupils write Vera's next story in five sentences and read it to the class. Does the class believe it?

Adaptations

[S] Read the story aloud while pupils follow, and go through the words they may need first (moor, bog, shiver, grave, cemetery). Pupils can answer the choice questions and two of the clues only.

[A] Pupils retell the story from Framton's point of view, or write the conversation in the house after he ran away.

Materials & prerequisites

One copy per pupil, in colour or black and white: pages 1 to 4 are for pupils, page 5 is the answer key. Pupils should know the past simple of common irregular verbs.