Predicting Using Story Clues!

1. Predicting Using Story Clues! Using O Henry’s The Last Leaf Communication Arts Grades 7-8 Click here to go directly to Student Pages Predicting

2. Instructor’s Page • This lesson addresses the MAP objective of using story clues to make predictions. • It is designed for use in Communication Arts in Grades 7-8 by Yvonne Bradley Martin City Middle School Grandview School District Predicting

3. Instructor’s Page • Pre reading Stage: • Students should look at the pictures and title of the story and make predictions. What information does the picture give? What part does the title play in the story? Predicting

4. Instructor’s Page • Reading Stage: Students, as they read, should ask themselves the following questions: • Why are the characters acting the way they do? • What decisions/choices could the characters make? • What is going to happen next? • Which characters are likeable or unlikable? Why? • What would they do differently from the character? Why? Predicting

5. Steps to Predicting • Look at the title and pictures and get information from these. • Read the passage carefully and answer the question: what is the current problem/situation in the story? • Determine the story’s options (what can logically happen next). • Based on what you know about the characters, which option do you think they will choose? This can include what the character has chosen before as well as patterns of behavior. • Always back up your prediction with textual evidence for that choice.

6. Let's do it! Look at the title and pictures and get information! Before reading “The Last Leaf” look at the title and pictures. What information does each of these give? Now read pages 135-139 (from Treasury of Literature: Beyond the Window) to add to your information. Predicting

7. Read the passage carefully and answer the question: What is the current problem/situation in the story? Next: The problem facing the characters is that a girl is ill and has given up on getting well. She thinks that she will die when the last leaf falls from a vine during the winter time. Predicting

8. Now: Determine the story’s options. What can logically happen next? • The girl can give up and die, as it looks like she’s in the process of doing, when the last leaf falls. • The girl can be miraculously cured by the doctor finding a new cure. • The girl can will herself to live because the last leaf is still there. Predicting

9. Next: • Based on what you know about the characters, which option do you think they will choose? This can include what the character has chosen before as well as patterns of behavior. The girl will live because she really believes that she won’t die until that leaf falls. For some reason it looks like the leaf is miraculously not falling. Predicting

10. Finally: Always back up your prediction with textual evidence for that choice. There are two possible predictions. The first is: The girl will die when that last leaf falls. Right before the night the text says “The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is ready to go on its mysterious, far journey.” Also Johnsy had said that the leaf would fall and she would die at that time. Predicting

11. Or: Which one did you say? Did you site your textual evidence? The second one is: The leaf, for some reason, never falls and Johnsy does not die. In the text it says that night came and the wind blew through the night, but still, when it was morning, the leaf was still there. Johnsy is convinced she’ll die when the leaf falls, so if the leaf doesn’t fall, she may convince herself to live. Predicting

12. Extension Activity Tell why you think the leaf didn’t fall. Make predictions based on textual evidence. Read and determine if you were on target in your predictions. After you’ve read the end of the story look back and see. Did the author give you any clues that might have helped you come to the intended ending? Predicting