Overview

Lesson Procedure

70-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice15-20 minutes
4. Independent Practice20 minutes
5. Closure5 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of a film or story that made you wait for an answer. Where did it make you wait, and what did it show you while you waited?"

   Take three or four answers and list on the board the places where storytellers make audiences wait. Tell students that the passage describes a hanging during the Civil War; the violence is not shown, but the scene is tense. Read the end of Part I aloud, pausing after each paragraph, while students number the paragraphs 1-4. After the last sentence, ask students to write what they expect the next sentence to be.

   1The preparations being complete, the two private soldiers stepped aside and each drew away the plank upon which he had been standing. The sergeant turned to the captain, saluted and placed himself immediately behind that officer, who in turn moved apart one pace. These movements left the condemned man and the sergeant standing on the two ends of the same plank, which spanned three of the cross-ties of the bridge. The end upon which the civilian stood almost, but not quite, reached a fourth. This plank had been held in place by the weight of the captain; it was now held by that of the sergeant. At a signal from the former the latter would step aside, the plank would tilt and the condemned man go down between two ties. The arrangement commended itself to his judgment as simple and effective. His face had not been covered nor his eyes bandaged. He looked a moment at his "unsteadfast footing," then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet. A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes followed it down the current. How slowly it appeared to move! What a sluggish stream!

   2He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thoughts upon his wife and children. The water, touched to gold by the early sun, the brooding mists under the banks at some distance down the stream, the fort, the soldiers, the piece of drift--all had distracted him. And now he became conscious of a new disturbance. Striking through the thought of his dear ones was a sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality. He wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably distant or near by--it seemed both. Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He awaited each stroke with impatience and--he knew not why--apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch.

   3He unclosed his eyes and saw again the water below him. "If I could free my hands," he thought, "I might throw off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming vigorously, reach the bank, take to the woods and get away home. My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance."

   4As these thoughts, which have here to be set down in words, were flashed into the doomed man's brain rather than evolved from it the captain nodded to the sergeant. The sergeant stepped aside.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Read the opening of Part II and let students compare it with their predictions. Then name the three demands that grades 11-12 add or sharpen: the opening signals the significance of the experience, events are sequenced to build toward a particular tone and outcome, and multiple plot lines can run side by side and meet. Work through the five examples below, then introduce Diagram 2 as a toolkit for the four outcomes in the official example.

   Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter, of an old and highly respected Alabama family. Being a slave owner and like other slave owners a politician he was naturally an original secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern cause. Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him from taking service with the gallant army that had fought the disastrous campaigns ending with the fall of Corinth, and he chafed under the inglorious restraint, longing for the release of his energies, the larger life of the soldier, the opportunity for distinction. That opportunity, he felt, would come, as it comes to all in war time. Meanwhile he did what he could. No service was too humble for him to perform in aid of the South, no adventure too perilous for him to undertake if consistent with the character of a civilian who was at heart a soldier, and who in good faith and without too much qualification assented to at least a part of the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair in love and war.

   • Situation and significance

     Draft opening: I spent last summer working at my uncle's restaurant. It names a situation but gives the reader no reason to care.

     Result: Revision: The summer I washed dishes at my uncle's restaurant, I learned that he could not read, and that he had built his whole kitchen so that no one would find out.

   • Two points of view on one moment

     A cello recital told in the third person, moving between the performer and his mother.

     Result: From the stage, Jae saw only the lights. From the fourth row, his mother saw his left hand shaking on the neck of the cello, and she stopped breathing until the first note came out clean.

   • Starting in the middle, then flashing back

     Events in time order: a winter lesson in a parking lot, then a skid on an icy road two years later.

     Result: Telling order: The car was already sliding when I remembered my father's advice: steer into the skid. He had told me that in an empty parking lot two winters ago, laughing, one hand braced on the dashboard.

   • Reflection inside a scene

     Draft: My sister asked me to cover her shift, and I said yes.

     Result: Revision: "Just this once," my sister said, and I said yes. Later I would understand that I said it for my own sake, not hers: I wanted her to owe me.

   • Language chosen for a tone

     Draft: The hallway was quiet and dark. Goal: a sense of unease.

     Result: Revision: The hallway hummed with the refrigerator's single note, and under my sister's door a thin blade of blue light came and went. Precise verb: hummed. Telling detail: the light under the door at night. Sensory language: sound and sight.

   Hand out "Closing Time" and have students number its paragraphs 1-7. On the first reading, students mark each paragraph now or earlier. On the second, they underline the sentence in which the two plot lines meet and circle the sentence in the conclusion that echoes the opening.

   1The first night I closed Alvarez Hardware alone, a man in a soaked sweatshirt knocked on the glass at 9:04, four minutes after the sign said we had stopped being a store. I was seventeen, and until three weeks earlier my grandfather had closed every night for forty-one years. That night I learned what a key is for.

   2Abuelo had a closing routine he never wrote down. He counted the drawer twice, once in English and once in Spanish, "so the numbers can't hide." He swept from the back of the store to the front, and he never turned off the porch light until the last car had left the lot. When I asked him why, he said, "Somebody always needs one more thing."

   3The man at the door was holding a length of copper pipe with a split in it the size of a fingernail. "My kitchen is flooding," he said through the glass. "I shut the water off at the main, but I've got a baby at home and no water." The drawer was already counted. Mom had told me, in the voice she used for rules, not to open the door after nine for anyone.

   4Three weeks earlier, Abuelo had been restocking the plumbing aisle when his left hand stopped closing around a box of fittings. I was the one who found him, sitting on the floor with brass fittings scattered around him like dropped coins, telling me calmly, in the wrong language, that he was fine.

   5I unlocked the door. The man's name was Terrence, and his hands were shaking harder than mine. I found a push-fit coupling in the bin where Abuelo kept them, under a label in his square capital letters, and I lent Terrence the tubing cutter from behind the counter so he could cut out the split section and join the ends. The sale came to $11.86. I rang it up, counted the drawer a third time, and wrote the extra sale on the back of the closing slip so Mom would see it in the morning.

   6After he left, I swept from the back to the front. When I reached the door, my hand was on the switch for the porch light before I remembered that no one else was coming. I left it on anyway, for the length of one more sweep.

   7Abuelo came home from the rehabilitation center in October. His left hand still will not close all the way, so now he counts the drawer out loud while I handle the bills. He has never asked about the night of the pipe, and I have never told him, although Mom showed him the slip. I think he knows what I learned anyway. A key is not for locking people out. It is for deciding, every night, who still gets in.

3. Guided Practice15-20 minutes

   Pairs complete the structure map below for "Closing Time," then compare it with Diagram 1, which shows the same kind of braid for the Activity 2 cards. Ask each pair: If paragraph 4 came first, what would the reader lose?

   Structure map of "Closing Time"

   Question	Paragraph (students fill in)	Evidence and effect (students fill in)
   Where does the writer signal why the night matters?
   Which paragraphs belong to the earlier plot line?
   Where do the two plot lines meet?
   Which line of dialogue carries a rule the narrator must weigh?
   Where does the pace slow down most?
   What tone and outcome does the ending reach?

   Next, pairs read the draft below and list what it needs, using the five lettered parts of the standard as a checklist. Keep the lists for the quiz and homework.

   Our marching band went to the state competition in November. We got there at 8:00 and warmed up in the parking lot. Our first run-through went well. Then during the real performance the strap on Owen's bass drum broke. Everyone was upset. Our director fixed it with duct tape during the break. We finished the show. We came in fourth place overall, which is our best score ever. On the bus home everyone was talking and laughing. It was a long day, but it was worth it. I think this experience taught me a lot about teamwork and never giving up.

4. Independent Practice20 minutes

   Students read both versions of "The House Next Door" on their own. In the margin of each version they write the outcome it builds toward and mark three choices that build it. Then they plan their own narrative: the problem and its significance in two sentences, the point of view, the outcome they will build toward (mystery, suspense, growth or resolution), and a telling order of five or six events with one flashback or second plot line. Collect the plans; students write the narrative for homework. The quiz uses all five passages.

   Version A. The house next door had been empty since June, so at 12:40 a.m., when a light came on in its upstairs window, I stopped breathing. The light went off. Then it came on again, lower, in the kitchen. Something scraped across the floor, slow and heavy, and stopped. I counted to sixty. At fifty-eight, the back door opened, and a figure stepped onto the porch holding something long and pale in both arms.

   Version B. The house next door had been empty since June, so at 12:40 a.m., when a light came on in its upstairs window, I went to my own window to look. A woman in hospital scrubs was dragging a box across her kitchen floor, stopping every few feet to rest. At the back door she lifted a rolled-up rug, long and pale, and carried it out to the porch. In the morning I knocked with a plate of my father's banana bread. She had worked a double shift, she told me, and was moving in between two nights on call. All summer I had imagined who might move in; I had never imagined someone that tired.

5. Closure5 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Write the sentence in your plan that signals the significance of your experience. (2) Name the outcome you are building toward and one technique from Diagram 2 you will use. (3) Name the point in your narrative where you would cut away or flash back, and say why.

   Teacher note: the opening of Part II describes Farquhar as "a slave owner" who supports the Confederacy and accepts "the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair in love and war." Bierce, a Union veteran, presents these facts with irony. Keep the words as printed, name the history plainly, and give students time to talk about the passage before they write.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 1 of the Part I excerpt, the stream is "racing madly beneath his feet," yet the condemned man thinks, "How slowly it appeared to move! What a sluggish stream!" What is the effect of this contradiction?

   AIt shows that Bierce's narrator is careless about details of the setting. BIt shows time slowing in the man's mind, which stretches the moment and the suspense. CIt proves that the stream is too slow for the man to escape by swimming. DIt tells the reader that the hanging has been called off.

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 2 of the Part I excerpt, the man hears "a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer." Why does Bierce wait until the last sentence of the paragraph to reveal that the sound is "the ticking of his watch"?

   ATo make the reader share his confusion and feel how heightened his senses are BTo prove that the man is a blacksmith who knows the ring of a hammer on an anvil CTo introduce a second plot line that follows the watch DTo end the suspense early, before the hanging itself begins

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   What does paragraph 3 of the Part I excerpt, which begins "If I could free my hands," add to the narrative?

   AA flashback to the man's childhood on his family's plantation in northern Alabama BDialogue in which the man pleads with the captain for his life CThe man's thoughts in his own words: an escape plan that gives the reader hope DA description of the fort on the far bank

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The last sentence of Part I is "The sergeant stepped aside." Part II then begins, "Peyton Farquhar was a well-to-do planter." How does this break in the sequence build toward the story's tone and outcome?

   AIt resolves the suspense at once by telling the reader that the man survived. BIt shows the same moment again from the sergeant's point of view. CIt proves that the events of Part II happen after those of Part I. DIt cuts away at the height of suspense and jumps back in time, delaying the outcome.

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In the opening of Part II, the narrator says, "Circumstances of an imperious nature, which it is unnecessary to relate here, had prevented him" from joining the army. What does this sentence show about the narrator?

   AThe narrator is Farquhar himself, speaking in the first person. BThe narrator is an outside voice who controls what the reader learns about Farquhar. CThe narrator knows nothing about Farquhar's life or family. DThe narrator is the gray-clad soldier who later rides up and asks Farquhar for water.

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In paragraph 4 of the Part I excerpt, Bierce writes that the man's thoughts "were flashed into the doomed man's brain rather than evolved from it." Why is "flashed" a precise word choice here?

   AIt shows that the thoughts took hours to form, one slow step after another. BIt suggests a camera flash, so the man is being photographed. CIt tells the reader that a whole paragraph of thought took only an instant. DIt is a vague word that leaves the reader unsure how long the thoughts took.

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which sentence in paragraph 1 of "Closing Time" signals the significance of the night the narrator is about to describe?

   A"a man in a soaked sweatshirt knocked on the glass at 9:04" B"I was seventeen" C"four minutes after the sign said we had stopped being a store" D"That night I learned what a key is for."

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "Closing Time" moves between the night of the pipe and events from earlier. What do these two plot lines add to the narrative?

   AThey explain Abuelo's habit and his stroke, so unlocking the door becomes a real choice. BThey let the narrator avoid describing the closing night in detail. CThey show the story from Terrence's point of view. DThey tell two unrelated stories that the reader must connect after the ending.

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Paragraph 4 of "Closing Time," about Abuelo's stroke, comes right after the mother's rule "not to open the door after nine for anyone." Why place it there?

   AIt is the first event that happened, so it must come first. BIt raises the pressure at the moment of decision by showing why the narrator is alone. CIt changes the subject so that the reader forgets about Terrence and the flooded kitchen. DIt introduces a mystery that the narrative never explains.

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which detail from "Closing Time" is a telling detail that reveals Abuelo's character?

    A"a length of copper pipe with a split in it the size of a fingernail" B"The sale came to $11.86." C"telling me calmly, in the wrong language, that he was fine" D"I was seventeen"

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    How does the conclusion of "Closing Time" reflect on what was experienced?

    AIt answers the question from paragraph 1, what a key is for, and shows what the night changed. BIt summarizes each event of the night in the order it happened. CIt introduces a new customer, which starts a sequel. DIt states a general rule about hardware stores that has no link to the events.

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Both versions of "The House Next Door" begin with the same sentence. Which choices make Version A build toward suspense and mystery?

    AIt explains early that the neighbor is a nurse, then shows her moving in. BIt uses long, calm sentences of reflection and ends with the lesson that the narrator learns. CIt adds dialogue between the narrator and the narrator's father. DIt never names the figure or what it carries, stretches the wait, and stops unexplained.

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Version B of "The House Next Door" ends, "All summer I had imagined who might move in; I had never imagined someone that tired." What outcome does this ending build toward?

    ASuspense, because the neighbor's identity is still unknown at the end BResolution and growth: the light is explained, and the narrator sees the neighbor anew CMystery, because the rug is never explained DHumor, because the narrator turns out to be wrong about everything

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The draft "State Competition" begins, "Our marching band went to the state competition in November." Measured against W.11-12.3a, what is the opening missing?

    AAny mention of where the story takes place BA narrator: the draft never uses "I" or "we" anywhere CA reason to care: it gives the situation without its significance and delays the problem DA specific date and time of day, which every narrative must include in its first sentence

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Rewrite the first two sentences of "State Competition" so that the opening sets out the problem, signals its significance, and introduces the narrator and Owen. Name the point of view you chose.

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16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose one outcome from the official example for W.11-12.3c (a sense of mystery, suspense, growth or resolution). Rewrite the moment in "State Competition" when the strap breaks, in four to six sentences, so that it builds toward that outcome. Then name two techniques you used.

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17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Explain how Bierce uses sensory language in paragraph 2 of the Part I excerpt ("He closed his eyes...") to build the tone. Quote two phrases.

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Add a second plot line to "State Competition." In two or three sentences, describe the second line, say where you would place its first scene, and explain where the two lines meet.

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    "State Competition" ends, "I think this experience taught me a lot about teamwork and never giving up." Write a new conclusion of two to four sentences that follows from the events and reflects on what the narrator experienced, observed or resolved.

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20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    A student is writing a narrative with these events, listed in the order they happened: (a) Lena's grandmother teaches her to make tamales. (b) Her grandmother moves to a care home. (c) Lena tries the recipe alone and it fails. (d) Lena calls her grandmother, who talks her through it by phone. (e) Lena brings a plate of tamales to the care home. Propose an order for telling these events that starts in the middle of the action, and explain how your order builds toward the outcome.

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These standards connect to W.11-12.3: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.