1. Through the Tunnel
Doris Lessing

2. Close Reading Skill Set
Ready Slowly
Read AT LEAST twice
Look for key words
Read the first and last sentences and try to find links
Try to identify unfamiliar words

3. Look at your close reading sheet for the story and read the passage
Look at your close reading sheet for the story and read the passage. CONCENTRATE!!!!!

4. Close Reading Questions
Reread the passage independently. As you are reading underline the key words the author uses to describe the boy.
Circle any unfamiliar words or words you don’t understand.
Individually annotate the text by making notes to indicate anything you find particularly important, details we can use to characterize Jerry, and the setting of the story.
(Small Group) What have we learned about him?

5. Close Reading Questions Continued
Next, individually, write a one-sentence conclusion about Jerry (his personality, his mother, where he is, what he’s doing, anything important, etc.), that you can support using the evidence you have discovered in the text.

6. Close Reading Cont. Small Groups:
As a small group, read the sentences from each person, and vote on your favorite. Make changes if necessary and prepare to share this sentence with the class.

7. Sharing Time!
Remember your sentence must have TEXTUAL SUPPORT!

8. Example:
Example Sentence: The curious, young boy yearned to explore, yet felt an conscious commitment to please his mother.
Support: “looked down at the wild and rocky bay,” he’s looking from the bay to his mother, “would you rather not come with me,” “amusements he might secretly be longing for,” “he looked back over his shoulder at the wild bay… thinking of it.”

9. On your own sheet of paper
Write your name and class period in the top right corner.
Write “Section 1- Vocabulary” and then number 1-6 underneath.
Write “Section 2- Author” and skip about 3-5 lines depending on your handwriting.
Write “Section 3- Pre-Reading Question”

10. Write “Section 5- Post- Reading Questions” and then flip to the back.
Write “Section 4- Literary Terms” on the back of your paper.
Lightly Hot dog and double hamburger your paper (or notdog and veggieburger it)
Trace the 8 boxes that your paper created with your pen/ pencil. And number the boxes 1-4 on the left side.

11. Part 1- Vocabulary
Copy down each word. Mrs. Bjornson will read you part of the paragraph it comes from in the story. Guess at the definition based on the word’s context.
contrition
promontories
luminous
supplication
frond
convulsive

12. Part 2: Author
Write down the authors name and 2 important details about Doris’s life.
Doris Lessing p. 218
Define the following terms in your own words.
internal conflict
external conflict

13. Section 3- Pre-reading Question
Being rebellious. Think of a time you did something you were told NOT to do. Why did you do it? Was it worth it? Did you lose your parents’ trust, did they not care after all, or did they never find out?
Elaborate in a response of five or more descriptive sentences. Prepare to discuss your findings.

14. Section 4- Literary Terms
1. Symbol
2. Internal Conflict
3. External Conflict
4. Foreshadowing

15. Section 4: Literary Terms
Define the following terms in your own words on the left. Do not look at your handbook unless it is absolutely necessary!
On the right side you will be listing examples and page numbers for each term.

16. During Reading
Fill in the chart you just created in extreme detail! If you have any questions be sure to ask. Be prepared for post-reading questions.

17. Section 5- Post Reading Questions
1. In this story, setting and symbolism are closely related. What might the “safe beach” and the “wild bay” represent?
2. Why does the mother let Jerry go to the rocks if she is worried about him?
3. What word in this last paragraph suggests that the rocks might be symbols?

18. 4. Why is it so important to Jerry to interact with the boys on the beach? What do they represent to him?
5. Re-read the descriptions in the last paragraph. What details help you visualize this setting?
6. Jerry’s desperate need to find the entrance to the rock suggests that the tunnel has symbolic meaning to Jerry. What might the tunnel represent? How will the tunnel help Jerry get what he wants?

19. 7. Why is the beach “not his beach”
7. Why is the beach “not his beach”? How does this detail hint at the symbolic meaning of the two beaches?
8. In what literal and symbolic ways is Jerry entering an underworld?
9. What do the lapses in consciousness, the feeling of dying, the pain, the explosion of light, and the entry into the open sea suggest about Jerry’s journey?

20. 10. Why does Jerry feel he has to risk his life and go through the dangerous tunnel? What breakthrough does he achieve by the story’s end?