The Parable of The Chinese Farmer (Intermediate Lesson)

ESL/EFL Level: Intermediate (B1/B2)
Lesson Topics: Taoism (Daoism), philosophy
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Reading
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: taoist-parables-intermediate-lesson-072026.docx
Lesson Overview:

  • Students first warm up with questions on luck, Taoism, and Stoicism.
  • The lesson's input is the Taoist parable of the Chinese farmer. (Note that it also contains Stoic themes.) The text, at 176 words, cautions against passing hasty judgment on life's events. It could also be understood as promoting a detachment from life's outcomes.
  • The parable is followed by comprehension and follow-up questions.
  • Students then match 10 vocabulary items from the passage to definitions. This is followed by an exercise which requires students to ask questions to each other using some of the new words.
  • The lesson has a debate topic on the value of spiritual systems.
  • The main speaking activity has students speculate about fortunate and unfortunate outcomes related to events that happen to two fictional characters. The list of events reinforces some of the key vocabulary from the passage. Afterward, they speculate in a similar manner about events in their own lives. (Note: This could also be used to practice conditionals if framed a little differently, i.e., these are events that could happen; then students speculate on possible outcomes.)
  • Afterwards, students are given some time to research and present a parable from their culture.
  • As an additional philosophical activity, students are asked to come up with a list of five principles for life in groups.
  • Returning to the focus on Taoism, students then match the phrases in several Taoist sayings. Afterward, they discuss their meanings.
  • After famous quotations, students review the lesson's vocabulary.
  • Finally, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.

A penciled drawing (AI-Generated) of the useless tree.

INTERMEDIATE (B1/B2) Lesson on The Chinese Farmer

Warm-up

  1. In your life, have you been lucky or unlucky? Why do you think so?
  2. Have you ever studied Taoism (Daoism) or Stoicism? If so, what do you know about them?

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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. Claude was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.

Comprehension Question Answer Key:

  1. (Open-ended: assess for coverage of key plot points: the horse runs away, returns with wild horses, the son breaks his leg trying to ride one, the son is saved from the army because of his injury. The farmer responds "Maybe" to each event.)
  2. He was thrown to the ground while trying to ride one of the wild horses.
  3. (Open-ended: core lesson is that events cannot be simply judged as good or bad luck, since every outcome may lead to unforeseen consequences.)
  4. (Open-ended: personal response. No fixed answer.)
  5. (Open-ended: personal response. No fixed answer. Encourage students to identify the moment they assumed the outcome was clear and what happened next.)
  6. (Open-ended: students might argue that caring less about outcomes would reduce worry and stress, or that it is unrealistic since most people naturally hope for good results. On the second part, most will agree it is difficult in practice.)

Vocabulary answer key: 1-d, 2-f, 3-h, 4-c, 5-g, 6-i, 7-a, 8-e, 9-j, 10-b

Taoist sayings: 1-c, 2-b, 3-e, 4-d, 5-a

Collocations: 1-a, 2-h, 3-b, 4-d, 5-g, 6-f, 7-e, 8-c

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