1. Activity 1.5: Analyzing incident, response, and reflection
Springboard: 7th Grade
Activity 1.5: Analyzing incident, response, and reflection

2. Before Reading
1. Quick write: Recall an early memory from your childhood that stands out to you. Think about stories that your family has shared about you growing up. For example, what were some milestones (your first toy, bike, or game) or a significant celebration or family event? Write freely to explore your memory while thinking about any choices you made.

3. During Reading
2. Use metacognitive markers to make mental notes as you read. Pay particular attention to any words or phrases that stand out to you as confusing, powerful, or interesting.
Metacognitive Markers Strategy
Using metacognitive markers involves marking the text with symbols to reflect the thinking you are doing as you read. After reading, you can scan the text and use your metacognitive markers to quickly find evidence when you are talking or writing about a text. Here are the markers.
?= Use a question mark for questions you have about the text.
!= Use an exclamation point for a reaction to what you are reading.
*= Use an asterisk for a comment about the text.
_= Use an underline to identify a key idea or detail in the text.
Please number the paragraphs before you being reading.

4. About the Author
About the Author: Born in 1891, Zora Neale Hurston was an American anthropologists and writer. Hurston grew up in the small town of Eatonville, Florida, the first incorporated black township. Hurston’s idyllic childhood was interrupted by the death of her mother when Hurston was only 13. She struggled to finish high school, which she still had not accomplished by the age of 26. Despite her early struggles, Hurston went on to graduate from Barnard College in She wrote several short stories and novels. Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered her master work. She died in 1960.

5. During Reading
2. Use metacognitive markers to make mental notes as you read. Pay particular attention to any words or phrases that stand out to you as confusing, powerful, or interesting.
Metacognitive Markers Strategy
Using metacognitive markers involves marking the text with symbols to reflect the thinking you are doing as you read. After reading, you can scan the text and use your metacognitive markers to quickly find evidence when you are talking or writing about a text. Here are the markers.
?= Use a question mark for questions you have about the text.
!= Use an exclamation point for a reaction to what you are reading.
*= Use an asterisk for a comment about the text.
_= Use an underline to identify a key idea or detail in the text.
Please number the paragraphs before you being reading.

6. Key Idea and Details– Write on the back of the packet
What is Hurston’s attitude toward the event she describes; that is what is her tone?
The tone is light-hearted, humorous, casual and informal.
Identify specific diction that supports the tone you identify.
Specific diction includes “sprinkled ‘travel dust’” to explain her tendency to wander. The story of the sow, “misunderstood lady,” is light-hearted, not serious. The whole premise of the narrative– learning to walk because a sow chased her– is humorous.

7. After Reading
Work in a collaborative group to analyze the narrative’s organizational structure and mark the text.
Underline the passages that show what happened, who was involved, and when and where the incident took place.
Highlight the parts that show the narrator’s response to the incident.
Bracket [ ] the passages where the narrator reflects on why this is a memorable incident for the speaker.
Explain below (on the back) how this event deals with the concept of choice.

8. After Reading
Work in a collaborative group to analyze the narrative’s organizational structure and mark the text.
Underline the passages that show what happened, who was involved, and when and where the incident took place.
“Everything was going along all right, until the sow with her litter of pigs convoy came abreast of the door. She must have smelled the cornbread I was messing with and scattering crumbs about on the floor. So she came right on it, and began messing around.”
Highlight the parts that show the narrator’s response to the incident.
“My mother heard my screams and came running.”
“I had been placed by a chair, and when my mother got inside the door, I had pulled myself up by that chair and was getting around it right smart.”

9. After Reading
Bracket [ ] the passages where the narrator reflects on why this is a memorable incident for the speaker.
[“The strangest thing about it was that once I found the use of my feet, they took to wandering. I always wanted to go. I would wander off in the woods all alone, following some inside urge to go places.”]
[I don’t know why it never occurred to her to connect my tendency with my father, who didn’t have a thing on his mind but this town and the next one.”]
Explain below how this event deals with the concept of choice.
This event deals with the concept of choice because the young girl wouldn’t have made the choice to walk unless the sow had threatened her. She would have walked eventually, but it could have been months or years down the road. She had to choose in that moment to use the chair to help her stand up. Once she did, she never stopped.

10. After Reading
4. Return to your quickwrite. Compare your childhood memory to Hurston’s. Have you thought of any new ideas about significant incidents and choices in your life?

11. After Reading
5. Check your understanding: How do authors use narrative elements to create a story?
Author’s use narrative elements such as dialog, incident, response, and reflection to create an interesting and engaging plot that incorporates all the elements (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution).