Organization
Trait Crate: Grade Org_Passage_1 7 © 2011 Scholastic
The Boy Who Dared Passage from pages 1–3
Death Row
Plötzensee Prison
Berlin, Germany
October 27, 1942
Day 264
It’s morning. Soft gray light slips over the tall redbrick wall. It stretches
across the exercise yard and reaches through the high, barred windows. In
a cell on the ground floor, the light shifts dark shapes into a small stool, a
scrawny table, and a bed made of wooden boards with no mattress or
blanket. On that bed, a thin, huddled figure, Helmuth, a boy of seventeen,
lies awake. Shivering. Trembling.
It’s a Tuesday.
The executioner works on Tuesdays.
Name: _______________________________________ Date: ____________________Hour: _____
Start Off Strong
Directions: Describing the setting of an event can be a powerful way to write a lead in both fiction and nonfiction. Choose
a topic for which setting would make an effective lead and brainstorm sensory details for your description. You may
choose from the topics below or you may create your own. On another sheet of paper, draft a lead that incorporates a
description of the setting and entices readers to read on.
Topics & Settings
Presidency—White House
Legislative Branch—Capitol
Battle of Gettysburg—battlefield on the last day of fighting
Hurricane Katrina—Superdome
Dangerous Jobs—Chilean mine
Extreme Sports—snowboarding down a glacier mountain
Sensory Details
(include sight and sound and try for one of taste, touch, or smell)
Organization
Trait Crate: Grade Org_Passage_2 7 © 2011 Scholastic
The Boy Who Dared Passage from pages 117–118
After a frugal supper of cabbage-and-carrot soup and Leberwurst, liver sausage,
Helmuth hurries Oma as they clear away the dishes. Finally, Oma and Opa retreat to
their bedroom and latch the door behind them.
Helmuth paces the living room floor and listens for footsteps. At last he hears feet
shuffle outside the flat. Before Karl has a chance to knock, Helmuth swings open the
door. He ushers him in, his finger to his lips, signaling for quiet.
“So what is it?” whispers Karl. “What sort of proof do you have?”
“You’ll see,” says Helmuth.
He eases open the closet, takes out the Rola shortwave radio, sets it on the
kitchen table, directly in front of Karl.
Karl swallows hard. “Are you crazy?” He gingerly touches the raised Rola
lettering, as if afraid it will shock him, but then his eyes shine with interest. “What can
you hear on it?”
Name: _________________________________________ Date: ____________________Hour: ________
Seeing Sequence
Directions: Read the two passages. Then answer the questions below on a separate sheet of paper.
Original Passage
After a frugal supper of cabbage-and-carrot soup and Leberwurst, liver sausage, Helmuth hurries Oma
as they clear away the dishes. Finally, Oma and Opa retreat to their bedroom and latch the door behind them.
Helmuth paces the living room floor and listens for footsteps. At last he hears feet shuffle outside the flat.
Before Karl has a chance to knock, Helmuth swings open the door. He ushers him in, his finger to his lips,
signaling for quiet.
“So what is it?” whispers Karl. “What sort of proof do you have?”
“You’ll see,” says Helmuth.
He eases open the closet, takes out the Rola shortwave radio, sets it on the kitchen table, directly in
front of Karl.
Karl swallows hard. “Are you crazy?” He gingerly touches the raised Rola lettering, as if afraid it will
shock him, but then his eyes shine with interest. “What can you hear on it?”
Simplified Passage
The family eats soup with liver sausage for supper. Helmuth helps Oma clear the table. Oma and Opa
go to their room and close the door. Helmuth walks around the living room. He hears footsteps in the hallway.
He opens the door for his friend Karl. He puts his finger on his lips so Karl will be quiet.
“So what is it?” asks Karl. “What sort of proof do you have?”
“You’ll see,” says Helmuth.
He opens the closet and takes out a radio. He sets it on the kitchen table.
“Are you crazy?” asks Karl. He touches the radio. “What can you hear on it?”
Questions: Be sure to write in complete sentences with correct grammar and punctuation.
1. What is the effect of deleting after from the first sentence?
A.__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Why does the simplified version use two sentences to replace the first one in the original?
B.__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
2. How does deleting at last and before in the second paragraph affect it?
A.__________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
Do you get the same feeling from the simplified version as you do from the original?
B._________________________________________________________________________
Why or why not?
C.__________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
How does reworking the last paragraph to delete but then affect the meaning of the paragraph?
D._________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
3. Overall, which version do you prefer?
A._________________________________________________________________________
Why? Be as specific as possible.
B.__________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Name: _________________________________________ Date: ____________________
Helping Helmuth
Directions: Write a letter to Mutti, Helmuth’s mother, following the prompt below. As you describe Helmuth’s activities, be
sure to incorporate sequence words to show how events occur; see the box at the bottom of this page for a list of
sequence words. In the space below, brainstorm your ideas for events to include in the letter; then draft the letter in your
notebook or on a sheet of paper.
RAFTS Prompt:
You are Oma or Opa. (role) You have noticed that Helmuth is having friends over to listen to illegal
radio broadcasts. He has also been staying up late at night typing on his typewriter, but you never see
what he is working on. You are afraid he is involved in some dangerous activities that might endanger
him and the whole family. Write a letter to (format) Mutti, Helmuth’s mother, (audience) convincing her to get
Helmuth to stop these terrible activities. (topic, with strong verb)
Brainstorming: What events will you describe to Mutti?
A sampling of sequence words . . . by no means complete!
after, as, at first, before, during, earlier, later, meanwhile, next, now, then, simultaneously, soon, while
Letter:
Organization
Trait Crate: Grade Org_Passage_3 7 © 2011 Scholastic
The Boy Who Dared Passage from page 3
Day 264
It’s morning. Soft gray light slips over the tall redbrick wall. It stretches across the
exercise yard and reaches through the high, barred windows. In a cell on the ground
floor, the light shifts dark shapes into a small stool, a scrawny table, and a bed made of
wooden boards with no mattress or blanket. On that bed, a thin, huddled figure,
Helmuth, a boy of seventeen, lies awake. Shivering. Trembling.
It’s a Tuesday.
The executioner works on Tuesdays.

Memories drift through Helmuth’s mind like clouds. Clouds that obscure his
intense fear of what is to come. Slowly they shift into shapes. Helmuth. Holding Mutti’s
hand.
It’s 1928, and Helmuth and his mother stroll up Luisenweg, the Hammerbrook
street in Hamburg, where they live in a small flat next door to Helmuth’s grandparents.
Name: _________________________________________ Date: ____________________
Flashback
Directions: Choose one of the scenarios below. On a separate piece of paper, write a flashback that explains why the
character acted that way.
1. Mallery and Jane were walking home from middle school one spring afternoon, chatting about the
highlights of the day. They arrived at the intersection, where the usual crossing guard greeted them
and told them to cross. In the middle of the busy street, Mallery threw down her backpack and ran
screaming back to the school. Write a flashback that explains her actions.
2. It happened again. Dusty opened his mouth and frogs jumped out. He couldn’t believe this was
happening to him. Write the flashback scene that explains how Dusty got into this position.
3. Fourth graders Max and Allen were building a Lego fortress during indoor recess one snowy day.
As they put the finishing touches on the last tower, their classmate Jacob danced a jig around the
fortress. Write a flashback giving his classmates insights to his unusual behavior.
4. The seventh graders were excited that their spring musical was almost ready. Everyone had
learned their lines, and the dress rehearsal had gone well. Costumes were fitted, and props were
lined up and labeled. As the lead actor came backstage to get dressed for the evening performance,
the other actors looked at him in horror. He was green. Write a flashback giving the backstory for how
this might have happened.
5. Create your own scenario and write a flashback that explains an unusual event.