Monday, August 22, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
• Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)
• Group Discussion
• Before Reading
– Literary Analysis
– Reading Strategy
– Author’s Background
• Searching for Summer by Joan Aiken
• After Reading
– Reading Check
Unit 4: Searching for Summer
Short Story by Joan Aiken
What do you take for GRANTED?
Searching for Summer
Objectives
• Literary Analysis
– Explore the key idea of
appreciation
– Analyze setting and mood
– Read a short story
• Reading
– Monitor
State Standards
• Reading Standards
– E2-1.4 Analyze Plot
– E2-1.5 Analyze the effect of
the author’s craft
Searching for Summer
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Key Idea: What do you take for GRANTED?
Literary Analysis: Setting and Mood
Reading Skill: Monitor
Author Background: Joan Aiken
Background Information:
– Nuclear Anxiety
– Nuclear Winter
Searching for Summer
• What do you take for GRANTED?
There are many things in life that we assume will
always be there. Air and water too. But what if
they disappeared? You may have heard the
saying “You never miss the water until the well
runs dry.” That means that we don’t have
appreciation for certain tings until they’re
gone or scarce.
What are some everyday things we take for
granted? What would you do if this thing were
suddenly gone or in short supply?
Searching for Summer
• Literary Analysis: Setting and Mood
A story may have more than one setting, and each
setting may convey a different mood, or atmosphere.
What might be the atmosphere in a stadium packed
with students watching an important game? What
then would be the mood? Imagine how the mood
would change if a character walked out of the
stadium into a dimly lit, deserted corridor. To
understand the relationship between setting and the
mood in a story, think about
- The descriptive details that tell what a place is like
- The feelings conveyed by those descriptive details
As we read, notice the descriptions of each setting and
think about the mood those details convey.
Searching for Summer
• Reading Skill: Monitor
When you monitor, you check to make sure you
understand what you are reading. If you don’t
understand a story, you may have to read
more slowly, reread passages, or read aloud.
As you read today, you will stop and answer the
“MONITOR” and “SETTING AND MOOD”
questions in the margin of the text.
Searching for Summer
• Background: Nuclear Winter
The setting described in “Searching for Summer” is not
merely the result of one writer’s imagination. The
setting mirrors a situation that scientists now call
Nuclear Winter. In the 1980s, scientists began
predicting that Nuclear Winter would be a likely
outcome of a nuclear war. Scientists estimated that
nuclear bombs would generate huge quantities of dust
and soot, which would be carried into Earth’s
atmosphere. There, the dust and soot would absorb
sunlight. As a result, less sunlight would reach the
ground, and days would become dark and overcast.
Plants would not receive enough light for
photosynthesis, and temperatures would plummet.
These details are almost identical to those imagined by
Aiken in this story which was written in the 1950s.
Searching for Summer
• Key Idea: APPRECIATION
Looking at lines 13 – 27
What details show that the people in this story
have an appreciation of sunlight?
Searching for Summer
• Key Idea: APPRECIATION
Looking at lines 90 – 102
How does Mr. Noakes give you an appreciation
for ordinary courtesy and decency?
Searching for Summer
• Key Idea: APPRECIATION
Looking at lines 154 – 156
Why will William show an appreciation for
hearing company?
Searching for Summer
• After-Reading: Discussion
– Think about the characters in the story. Discuss if
each character got what they deserved. Give
reasons for your answer.
– Would another ending have been better?
Searching for Summer
• After-Reading: Reading Check
Using complete sentences, answer the following
questions on page 71 of your Literature Book:
Comprehension: 1 – 4
Literary Analysis: 5, 6, 8, 10, & 11
Literary Criticism: 12
Searching for Summer Wrap-Up
(In groups of 2 – 4)
- Imagine that Mr. Noakes found the Hastings cottage and
has turned the woods into a vacation spot.
- Create a brochure for his new resort. You must think of
a name for the resort, describe the resort in one or two
paragraphs, and include a picture of the resort.
- A successful brochure will….
- Use vivid, colorful language to describe the setting
- Convey a mood that makes people want to visit