1. Collection 1: Finding Common Ground

2. Why this Text?
The tension between being safe and being open to new experiences is one students have probably encountered, particularly as they have grown older and more independent. This lesson explores that tension in the context of a deeply divided society in a time of historical upheaval.

3. Academic Vocabulary Distend Intention Audacious Intrusion Serrate
Due Friday
Distend
Intention
Audacious
Intrusion
Serrate
Part of speech
Definition
Exemplar sentence

4. READING NOTES SHOULD BE KEPT IN YOUR BINDER
As you read
List details that describe the characters
Write questions that come up during reading.
Pay attention to visual aids and graphics included with the text.
Summarize chunks of the text that cover similar ideas.
Use the following TEXT FOCUS slides to guide you through the text.
READING NOTES SHOULD BE KEPT IN YOUR BINDER

5. Support Inferences About Themes (Lines 11-17)
The initial paragraphs of a text often give clues to the THEME, or underlying message, of the story that follows.
Identify the reason the narrator is afraid and the ways in which she is similar to and different from other people in her community.

6. Support Inferences About Themes (Lines 30-45)
Why does Gordimer mention her house’s location above a mine here?
How is Gordimer’s inclusion of the description of the miners also an explanation of why people are afraid in South African society?

7. Analyze Author’s Choices (Lines 57-65)
The story contains elements of a fairy tale, such as “happily ever after” and “wise old witch,” to convey the narrator’s idea in the story. These elements help Gordimer express ideas in a way readers will understand.
Cite the warning the “wise old witch” gives to her son and his wife.
Explain the role witches usually play in fairy tales.
Infer, or make an educated guess about, the witch’s purpose in the story.

8. Support Inferences About Theme (Lines 66-78)
This passage contains key information about the story’s theme. It suggests how segregation and the resulting racial tensions might have fueled the wife’s fear of a break-in and also tells how the husband tries to dispel her.
What is the wife worried about?
What specific details explain how the husband is trying to reassure her that she need not be fearful?

9. Analyze Language (Lines 99-110)
Authors sometimes use sensory language, words that appeal to readers’ senses, to help express ideas.
Look for words in lines that appeal to certain senses.
What does the writer express about the neighborhood alarms in her use of sensory language? How does this description help you understand the time and place, or the society of South Africa?

10. Support Inferences About Theme (Lines 114-130)
Authors sometimes use characters’ actions, thoughts and feelings to help express a theme about a society.
What does Gordimer express about South African society by giving details in lines about the attitudes of the housemaid and the wife towards the unemployed people?

11. Support Inferences About Theme (Lines 152-164)
This passage describes how the once-visible, manicured gardens of neighborhood homes are hidden by fences and iron grilles. Think about how the description relates to the theme.
What do the changes to the neighborhood, including Gordimer’s description of the “prison architecture,” suggest about residents’ feelings? Have students support their inferences with specific details.

12. Support Inferences About Theme (Lines 165-167)
A symbol- an object, a character, or a place that suggests a meaning beyond itself- can help illustrate a story’s theme.
What is different about the boy’s approach to life versus his parents? What does the boy symbolize? Cite specific details to support your answer.

13. Analyze Author’s Choice (Lines 193-203)
The final scene introduces irony, or a contrast between what is expected and what occurs, to the story. Consider the roles of the witch, the boy’s grandmother, and the gardener.
Who would you expect to care about the boy more, his grandmother or the gardener? Whose actions hurt the boy and whose helped him?
Is this outcome what a reader might expect?

14. Support Inferences About Theme
Make inferences about the theme y analyzing the characters’ actions and motivations.
Identify repeated actions & their causes.

15. Individual Practice Analyze the Text: Questions 1-6 on page 18.
Critical Vocabulary: Questions 1-5 on page 19.
Performance Task: Fairy Tale Speaking Activity, presentation, & constructed response.