Introducing the Story Literary Skills Focus: Setting Reading Skills Focus: Sequencing Writing Skills Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer TechFocus Feature Menu All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

What truths about ourselves can we learn in extreme, dangerous, or unusual situations?

Click on the title to start the video. All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story

What if it never stopped raining?... for seven years? What if it had been raining... All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story

[End of Section] How would you describe the sun to people who had never seen it? What if they didnt believe you? a penny? a fire? a lemon? All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story

Plot is the series of events that make up a story. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting The basic situation, events, climax, and resolution in a story make up its plot. Cedric began trudging home. His boots felt heavier and heavier. Cedric grew too tired to move. Rescue lights blinked just in time.

As you read All Summer in a Day, think about the role of the storys setting and how it influences the plot. Setting is the time and place of a story. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting

A storys setting can tell us about weather time of day historical period or era (past, present, or future) All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting

In some stories, setting does not play a big role. However, in other stories, setting can play such an important role that it shapes the action from beginning to end. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting

Where does the paragraph below take place? What details tell you so? Cedric Perez began trudging back home to the lunar capsule. Oxygen inside his helmet was thinning, and his boots felt heavier. His crew appeared on the blank horizon, but his head throbbed, and he realized his boots were sinking. Rescue lights blinked just in time.

Cedric Perez is not in his neighborhood. Hes not even on the planet Earth! All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting This setting makes heading for home a hard and dangerous thing to do. The word lunar tells us that Cedric is on a moon. He cannot breathe without a helmet to provide oxygen. The blank horizon suggests a mood of emptiness and isolation.

As you read All Summer in a Day, decide which actions could happen only on the planet Bradbury describes. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting [End of Section]

Sequence is the order of events in a story. All Summer in a Day Reading Skills Focus: Sequencing By placing story events in correct order, you better understand key moments in the plot. Cedrics head started to ache not long after the oxygen hose loosened. What happened firstaching or loosening? Cedrics head started to ache not long after the oxygen hose loosened.

Into Action Use a chart to keep track of the order of the main events in this story. All Summer in a Day Reading Skills Focus: Sequencing [End of Section] Into Action: Sequence Chart Event 1.The children are waiting for the rain to stop. 2.Margot stands by herself remembering the sun.

Find It in Your Reading All Summer in a Day Writing Skills Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer Pay attention to unusual words and phrases the writer uses to describe the setting, such as Note how Bradbury uses strong vocabulary and vivid description to make the setting come alive. the sweet crystal fall of showers the concussion of storms [End of Section]

Research the atmosphere of a planet in our solar system, other than Earth or Venus. TechFocus All Summer in a Day TechFocus What harsh elements would people need protection from? What equipment would be necessary for people to be able to live there? [End of Section]

Vocabulary

vital adj.: necessary for life; very important. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary savored v.: delighted in. surged v.: moved forward, as if in a wave. consequence n.: of value; importance. frail adj. : not very strong; easily broken.

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Newborn animals are often frail and unable to move as adult animals do. The word frail is often used to describe lack of strength due to illness or age. What suggests that this colts legs may be too frail for walking?

The plant grew frail while Uncle Ross was gone on vacation. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Uncle Ross most likely a.asked a friend to water his plant b.forgot to arrange for plant watering

The plant grew frail while Uncle Ross was gone on vacation. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Uncle Ross most likely a.asked a friend to water his plant b.forgot to arrange for plant watering

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Which one of these is vital to survival? Vital is a word used to describe something that is absolutely necessary.

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Think of some food items that truly are vital to your good health. What are their qualities? You may joke sometimes that french fries are vital to your survival.

The word consequence can be used to mean importance. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Being the last diver to perform was of no consequence to the relaxed, well-trained athlete.

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Is having good balance a matter of great consequence to a tightrope walker? What would happen if the tightrope walker lost his balance?

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary The word surged suggests that a movement was sudden, powerful, and in one direction. At the end of the day, traffic surged in the southbound lanes.

People see huge waves surging toward the shore. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Vacationers on the beach will probably a.move cautiously inland b.decide to picnic on the sand c.settle down on their towels

People see huge waves surging toward the shore. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary Vacationers on the beach will probably a.move cautiously inland b.decide to picnic on the sand c.settle down on their towels

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary If you have savored an experience, you might have wished it would never end. Which person is not savoring the moment?

When you think of the word savored, what other words come to mind? Word : Definition: Image:Sentence: All Summer in a Day Vocabulary enjoyed relished really loved appreciated Examples: Students savored each morning of vacation. savored v.: delighted in. treasured

The End

QuickWrite

All Summer in a Day QuickWrite What kinds of environments or situations lift your spirits? [End of Section] What kinds of environments or situations bring out the worst in you? Write an explanation of how you think the settings we find ourselves in affect our moods, thoughts, and actions.

Meet the Writer

Ray Bradbury has been called the worlds greatest science fiction writer. However, he once described himself simply as a storyteller. Although Bradburys stories are often set in outer space, his characters and their emotions are humanand down-to-earth. More about the writer [End of Section] All Summer in a Day Meet the Writer

Build Background

Bradburys description of Venuss wet weather is entirely fictional. As the second planet from the Sun in our solar system, Venus is actually hot and dry. Build Background All Summer in a Day All Summer in a Day takes place on the planet Venus, where people from Earth have set up a colony.

[End of Section] Build Background All Summer in a Day Bradbury wrote this story in 1959, during a period ( ) when the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was in full swing. The two countries were in competition to see who would reach the moon first and who would go the farthest to make space travel a reality. Nine years after this story was written, the United States made the first moon landing, and many people thought it would not be long before spaceships made it to Mars and Venus.

Preview the Selection

All Summer in a Day On the planet Venusas imagined by Bradbury the Sun appears for only two hours every seven years. A class of nine-year-olds eagerly await their first view of the Sun, especially one student named Margot. [End of Section]