Journal 8-22-2011 Has anyone ever acted courageously to help you? Maybe you yourself have acted bravely to help someone else. Why do you think people take risks to do what they think is the right thing? What is the reward?

The Leap By Louise Edrich Let’s meet her! Page 39 Short Stories Unit

Literary Focuses Flashback & foreshadowing

What purpose does a flashback serve? Page 31- let’s read While reading, write where the author uses flashback

Foreshadowing Let’s read pg 31 Using the graphic organizer provided please keep track of any foreshadowing instances.

Reading Skills Making predictions

Prediction How does predicting while reading a story help the reader understand the story better? What predictions can you make by the title of the story? Where there are prediction questions, please answer them on your sheet!

Extending and Evaluating Read and then compare the disaster in the story with the true-life disaster described in “The Day the Clowns Cried” on page 40. Do you think the real-life event would make a good topic for a story? Why or why not?

In a small group of 3 (with 2 of 4)… Go over the story using your handouts as a discussion guide. On the back of your handout, under the clowns… Next, determine the theme. When thinking about the theme, consider in particular the character of the mother, the daughter-mother relationship, and the meaning of the title. Finally, look on pg 36 and analyze the metaphor the narrator uses to compare the trapeze act and the acts of reading and flying. Remember: the story title is “The Leap” so how does the metaphor connect to the title and suggest a theme?