The Stranger
By Chris Van Allsburg
Essential Question: What is the identity
of the stranger and how is it related to
the seasonal change from summer to
fall?
I can…
• Draw inferences from a text and refer to
details and examples in the text when
explaining my inferences RL.4.1
• Determine the theme of a piece of literature
RL.4.2
• Use specific details from the story to describe
a character in depth RL.4.3
Day One: Launching the Text
The Stranger
• Summary: In late summer, a farmer hits a man in
the road with his truck. The speechless stranger
then spends several weeks on the farm. The weather
stays warm into autumn, and the leaves around the
farm remain green. The stranger realizes something
is wrong. he leaves the farm, and the weather
returns to normal.
• Genre: Fantasy: a story that could never really
happen, describes events that could not really
happen except in one’s imagination.
Day 1: Read and React
• Preview text. What do you notice about the
pictures and illustrations?
• Read and React: Take 20 minutes to read the text
closely with your pencil in your hand. Write
down everything you are thinking on post its
(questions, reactions, inferences, predictions,
new learning, new vocab….)
• Zoom in: As you read, notice how the pictures
play an important part in telling the story and
describing the character.
Day 1: Think, Pair, Share
1. Describe the setting in your own words (using
clues from the text).
2. What does it mean when the author writes that
Farmer Brown was “fearing the worst”? Use
evidence from the text.
3. What clues do the pictures give us that the
words do not? What do you think happened to
the leaf and the stranger after “he blew on the
leaf with all his might”?
Day Two: Gathering Evidence
• An effect is the result of an event or action.
• A cause explains why it happened.
• Clue words such as because, in order to, so,
and as a result to link causes and effects.
• If these words are missing, readers need to
infer the cause-and-effect relationships on
their own.
Day Two: Gathering Evidence
On your post it notes, jot down:
• Clues that could help solve the identity of the
stranger
• Clues that connect the story to the changing
of seasons
• One cause/effect relationship
• New vocabulary
Day Two: Text Based Trivia!
Winning pods: sweet treat at SSR
Each correct answer is worth five points. Answer on
notebook paper. You must include a page number to
cite your evidence!
1. How does the stranger communicate with the
Baileys without using words?
2. How is the change of season at the Bailey’s farm
different from the other farms?
3. Why does Farmer Bailey say that the weather has
been “peculiar”?
4. What does the stranger notice about the weather
and how does he feel?
Day Three: Making Meaning
Vocab Focus
• Locate these words in the text
– peculiar
– hermit
– hypnotized
– your choice
• Create four “vocab quadrants” in your reading
journal and define the words as you read with
your partner today
• Reread The Stranger with your partner.
Day Three: Vocab Focus
• What did you infer these words to mean?
• peculiar: strange
• hypnotized: put under a trance, deep sleep
• drab: not attractive, dull
• Copy down the vocab into your word study
journal
Day Four: Writing About Reading
• Let’s read the question together, unpack it,
and brainstorm some ideas for answers. Find
evidence in the text.
Develop a theory about the identity of the stranger and
use evidence from the story to support your thinking.
• Partner up and share your thinking.
• Write your response and then answer the
multiple choice questions.
Day Five: Closure
• Chris Van Allsburg uses concrete words,
phrases, and descriptive sensory details to
convey experiences and events precisely.
• Find an example of concrete words, phrases,
or descriptive details. Let’s add to our class
anchor chart.
• What from the chart will you use in your own
narrative today?