Day 3: Quick Man Tan & Storyboards
- Jenny Brown
- Mar 15, 2017
- 3 min read

Quick Man Tan is a short story about an elderly man in Hong Kong whose obsession with his youth fighting days ultimately saves his family's cafe. It explores several interesting themes of dreams, responsibility, and redemption.
At the end of this two hour lesson, students will be able to:
1. Identify and discuss the plot, characters, setting and themes of Quick Man Tan.
2. Identify and discuss elements of plot, including exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
3. Create a storyboard of Quick Man Tan that reflects the key elements of the plot.
4. Identify and use new vocabulary introduced in the Quick Man Tan text.
Materials:
[Source: Circle Games By Frank Brennan]
[Note: the correct order is QWERTYU]
Also, pass out the Presentation Checklist
Class Plan
(10 min) Greetings and Review their Anansi summaries
Make sure to review key fiction terms [characters, plot, setting] as well as the who, what, where, when, why and how elements of their summaries. Remind student to send you their powerpoints for the story they will be presenting in the fourth class.
(10min) Introduction to Quick Man Tan Story
Ask if any students are familiar with the Lion dance. (In previous semesters I have students that have danced the Lion Dance in the past, so it may be possible for your students to demonstrate the kinds of movements involved with the dance).
Lion Dance Video: Video is 3 min long, but first minute shows enough footage of the lion dance for students to get the gist.
[Source: Youtube, GoPro, Published Feb 8, 2016]
Ask students if anyone (is from) or traveled to Hong Kong. (Images of Hong Kong and map in slides.
Group Discussion Questions:
Do you know a martial art? (e.g. Kung fu, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Capoeira). Or, do you practice another kind of sport?
If yes, do you think you will continue to practice your sport/martial art as you get older?
(6-7 min) Preview and Predict
Have the students get into groups of 3 or 4.
Pass out the Quick Man Tan story slips
Ask the group to put the slips in the order of what they think will happen.
(25min) First reading of the Quick Man Tan Story with guided reading handout
Ask students to read the first 3 pages (of 6) and complete the first 4 questions of the handout.
After that, they can continue to finish the story and answer the remaining 6 questions.
Once they are finished, they can compare their answers to the Main Ideas & Details questions with a partner.
(10 min) Storyboards and Dramatic Structure
Introduce how to use storyboards to create summaries for fiction.
Review the key elements of fiction (characters, plot, setting) and then discuss the 5 sub-parts of a plot
Exposition (background)
Rising Action
Climax
Falling Action
Resolution
Elicit from students what they think which part of Quick Man Tan falls into.
Introduce example storyboard that shows the 5 elements of dramatic structure
(20min) Small Group StoryBoard Creation
Give each group blank storyboard templates for each member. Each group member will help with the writing process, but only one completed storyboard needs to be turned in to me.
HW: Quick Man Tan Summary Writing Cloze handout
Also, pass out the Presentation Checklist for students to make sure their folk story presentation includes all of the elements they will be assessed on.
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