READING INTERVENTION

Grade Level: Grade 8

Date: February 16, 2024

Pre-Reading Activities:
1. Hidden Pictures. Guess the hidden pictures behind the tile and try to
predict what the reading text is about.

2. Word Puzzle. Scan the reading text and get the meaning of the vocabulary
words through answering the word puzzle.

https://puzzel.org/en/crossword/update?p=-Np1gHn5zk_T97dwXSPm

Discussion of the vocabulary words and sample sentences

1. merchant- a person whose job is to buy and sell products in large amounts,
especially by trading with other countries
The greedy merchant raised the price of bread and milk during the blizzard.
2. inheritance- money or objects that someone gives you when they die
She began her own business with the inheritance she got from her
grandfather.
3. mounds- large piles of something
The bulldozers piled up huge mounds of dirt.
4. thieves- people who steal another person's property
Police were able to catch the thieves in their getaway vehicle and recover
some of the cash they stole.
5. sneaky- behaving in a secret and usually dishonest manner
6. prodding- poke (someone) with a finger, foot, or pointed object.
7. coaxing- the act of persuading someone gently to do something, by being
kind and patient
During Reading Activities:
 Independent Reading: Let the learners read the text silently and
independently.
 Reading Aloud: Let the learners read the text aloud together in unison.

Reading Text:
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
An Arabian Nights Story
Written by Harshita Makvana
Characters:
1. Alibaba- poor woodcutter who discovers the secret of a thieves’ den
2. Morgiana- a clever slave girl who helped Alibaba
3. Cassim- Alibaba’s brother who got killed by the thieves
4. Cassim’s wife- the one who smeared grease on the bottom of the pans that
Alibaba borrowed
5. Forty Thieves- the main antagonist of the story

Once upon a time, there lived two brothers named Cassim (or Kasim) and
Alibaba, who were sons of a merchant and had an equal amount of inheritance.
While Cassim married a rich lady and became a wealthy merchant, Alibaba married
a poor, humble woman and lived the life of a woodcutter.
The Discovery of The Cave
One day, Alibaba goes deep into the forest for some good quality wood.
There, he chances upon a cave owned by a gang of 40 thieves. He watches from
behind a tree and learns that the cave is magically protected. He hears the leader of
the thieves say a magical word to open and close the cave.
Alibaba waits until the thieves leave the cave and then goes to it. He says, “Open
Sesame”, the magic words that the leader says and the cave opens. Inside, Alibaba
finds mounds of gold jewels, coins, and other precious artifacts. He is awed by the
treasure but is careful enough not to leave a trace of his visit. He picks up a small
bag of coins and leaves the cave. Once outside, he utters the magical words “Close
Sesame” to close the cave.
Greedy Brother
Alibaba tells his wife about the cave and the thieves. They borrow weighing
scales from Cassim to measure the wealth they have. Being sneaky, Cassim’s wife
applies some wax under one of the scales to know what grain her brother-in-law
has acquired. When the weighing scales are returned, she is shocked to see a gold
coin stuck to the bottom.
After a lot of prodding by his wife, Cassim asks Alibaba about the money.
He forces his brother into revealing the mystery behind the gold coins. Alibaba tells
him everything, but after convincing Cassim not to reveal the secret to anyone,
including his wife. Cassim agrees to it and goes to the cave, taking a donkey along,
hoping to bring back as much wealth as possible.
He opens the door and gets excited at the sight of all the gold. He quickly fills his
bags with as many gold coins and jewelry as possible. But in his excitement, he
forgets the magical password to open and closes the cave door. The cunning thieves
return and find Cassim in the cave. They kill him and hang him outside the cave
door, as a warning to anyone who might try to steal from them again.
Keeping A Secret
When Cassim does not return from the cave, his worried wife senses danger
and approaches Alibaba who goes to the cave and finds his brother’s body that is
cut into four pieces and hung outside the cave. Heartbroken, Alibaba takes his
brother’s body down and returns home. He seeks the help of Morgiana, a clever
slave girl from Cassim’s house, to make Cassim’s death look natural. First,
Morgiana goes to the pharmacist in the town and gets medicine, claiming that
Cassim is gravely ill. She then finds an old tailor, blindfolds him, and takes him to
Alibaba’s house where he works on Cassim’s body. He skillfully stitches the four
pieces of the body overnight.
Alibaba and his family give Cassim a proper burial, without arousing suspicion.
The Thieves Come to Town
On returning, the thieves find that Cassim’s body is gone. The leader,
worried that someone else knows the cave’s secret, sends one of his men to the
town to inquire. The thief talks to different people in the village and comes across
Baba Mustafa, who boasts that he is the best tailor in the area as he just came
back from sewing a man’s body together. On further inquiry and coaxing, the tailor
agrees to lead the thief to Alibaba’s house.
He gets blindfolded again and retraces his steps to the house. The thief
marks the door with a symbol and goes back to get the rest of his gang. Morgiana
sees this and marks all the other houses with the same symbol. The next day, the
leader and the thieves return to the town only to find all the houses marked the
same. The leader kills the thief and assigns the job to another.
The second thief manages to find Alibaba’s house and chips the wall of the
house, as a mark. Morgiana foils the thief’s plan again, by cracking the walls of all
the other houses in the neighborhood. Unable to find the house yet again, the
leader kills the second thief as well and decides to complete the task himself.
A New Oil Merchant
The leader of the gang memorizes the exteriors of Alibaba’s house and
returns next day, posing as an oil merchant. The leader comes to town with 38
donkeys carrying a barrel each, with one barrel containing oil and the remaining
hiding the 37 thieves. He requests Alibaba’s hospitality and tells him that he has
38 barrels of oil for trade.
Morgiana once again learns about the plan of the thieves and kills the 37
thieves by pouring hot oil into the 37 barrels. At midnight, the leader comes to
wake the others and finds them all dead. Though afraid, he makes an escape.
On learning about how Morgiana killed the thieves, Alibaba sets the slave-girl free
as a reward. Alibaba and Morgiana bury the dead bodies, and Morgiana continues
living with Alibaba and his family.
A Happy Ending
A few months later, the leader of the forty thieves comes back to town as a
merchant and befriends Alibaba’s son to get his revenge. Alibaba’s son invites the
merchant home for dinner, where the leader plans to kill Alibaba and his family.
Morgiana, who is the only one to realize that the leader of the thieves is among
them, performs a dagger dance at the dinner.
While dancing, she plunges the knife into the chief’s heart and kills him.
Alibaba is furious at Morgiana for killing the guest. But on learning why Morgiana
killed him, he is impressed by her intelligence and quick thinking. Grateful that
she saved his son’s life , Alibaba makes her a part of his family, by getting her
married to his son.
One year later, Alibaba decides to visit the cave again as there were no
robbers left from the gang of forty. As he reaches the cave, he spells the magic word
“Open Sesame” to open the cave door. He feels relieved that the cave had remained
untouched since the captain of the thieves left the place and there was no robbery.
Alibaba gathers as much gold as he can and leaves for his town. Later, he shares
the story of the secret cave with his son and its inheritance is handed down to his
children and grandchildren.
In the end, everyone is happy except the thieves and the greedy brother.
https://www.momjunction.com/articles/the-story-of-ali-baba-and-the-forty-thieves_00348607/
Comprehension Check
Answer the comprehension questions below:
1. Where did the story happen?
A.garden B. Baghdad C. cave
2. What is the means of living of Ali Baba?
A. hunter b. wood cutter c. farmer
3. When Ali Baba was in the forest, what did he discover?
A. Soldier B. Lovely girl C. Troop of thieves on horseback
4. What is their secret code in opening the cave?
A. Open barley B. Open sesame C. Open treasure
5. What is found inside the cave?
A. Treasure B. Money C. People
6. When the forty thieves left the cave, what did Ali Baba do?
A. He ignored what happen.
B. He attempted to open the cave.
C. He continued his work.
7. What happened to Ali Baba’s brother when he entered the cave?
A. He became rich B. He became famous C. He died
8. What did Ali Baba do to the corpse of his brother?
A. He rented a sewer to stitch the corpse back to its original form.
B. He left it alone inside the cave.
C. He gave it to the animals in order to eat.
9. How did Morgiana trick the forty thieves in order to find the house of his master
Ali Baba?
A. She talk to them.
B. She erased the cross mark written on the door.
C. She tell it to the authority.
10. How did Morgiana know that the oil merchant is the leader of the thieves?
A. She memorized the leader's face of the thieves.
B. She smell the leader of the thieves.
C. She remembered the ring on the leader's finger.
11. How did Morgiana kill the other thieves inside the jar?
A. She poured boiling oil on each and every jar.
B. She stabbed the thieves inside the jar.
C. She burned the jar.
12. How did Ali Baba give thanks to Morgiana for saving his life?
A. He punished Morgiana.
B. He freed Morgiana from slavery.
C. He adopted Morgiana to become his daughter.

Post-Reading Activities:
Reflective Question
What do you think is the moral lesson of the story? Explain.
Crafting Artworks
Using your imagination, draw any two characters of the story and write a sentence
describing their character traits.