Crime & Punishment: Bobby Bostic’s Story (Advanced Lesson)

ESL/EFL Level: Advanced (C1/C2)
Lesson Topics: justice, prison systems, African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)
Skill Focus: Speaking, Reading, Vocabulary
Approximate Class Time: 1.5 hours
Lesson Plan Download: punishment-bobby-bostic-advanced-032023.docx
Lesson Overview:

  • After warm-up questions, students read the story of Bobby Bostic, a man who served 27 years of a prison sentence for crimes he committed as a youth. The themes of the story include forgiveness and the value of long sentences for young offenders.
  • Post-reading activities include comprehension questions and a pair-work activity in which students use vocabulary from the reading to ask each other questions.
  • The lesson is followed by a debate on the role of prisons, and activity about penal reform, and a debate about the value of AAVE in school systems. These activities are followed by some famous quotations related to crime and punishment.
  • All lessons come with warm-up questions, vocabulary questions, and discussion questions.

An image of prison cells

ADVANCED (C1/C2) EFL Lesson Plan on Bobby Bostic

Warm-up Questions

  1. When you were young and foolish, what was something that you did that you regret?
  2. At what age do you think the human brain stops developing?
  3. What is the purpose of prisons?

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-- Lesson plan on Bobby Bostic written 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. For questions, contact the author.

Possible answers to comprehension questions:

  1. …
  2. He is referring to the friendly way in which people treat each other and more generally, living happily.
  3. She told him he would die in prison.
  4. He was given parole because a law changed concerning the sentences for young offenders.
  5. Bostic had learned more about how the brain of teenagers is not fully developed. Also, she says she had “gotten close” with Bostic and his sister, so she probably learned that he had grown and was now a “caring adult.”
  6. It means that he will appreciate things in the present, such as a bath, (because he knows that these simple pleasures can disappear).

Vocabulary Answers: 1-j, 2-d, 3-c, 4-h, 5-e, 6-a, 7-k, 8-i, 9-f, 10-b, 11-L, 12-g

Endnotes:

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