1. “The Cruelest Journey 600 Miles to Timbuktu” by Kira Salak pg 421

2. ANSWER EACH QUESTION USING R.A.C.E.
Why this Text?
You may find travel narratives especially fascinating. These accounts of explorers and adventurers expose them to different cultures, places, and ways of thinking about the world.
ANSWER EACH QUESTION USING R.A.C.E.

3. Analyze Ideas & Events (Lines 1-11)
TRAVEL NARRATIVES are nonfiction, but they can include many elements that can also make fiction compelling. One of these is the use of IMAGERY: the use of language that appeals to the senses of sight, hearing, taste, touch, & smell.
1. Reread lines 1-11 and identify the imagery Salak uses to communicate the tension she feels at the beginning of her trip.

4. Analyze Ideas & Events (Lines 17-25)
Travel narratives include a variety of characters. An author can convey information about the characters in the narrative – including herself – by using the narrative technique of DIALOGUE.
2. What does the dialogue between Salak & Modibo reveal about each person?

5. Determine Central Idea & Cite Evidence (Lines 36-39)
Authors of travel narratives, like those of other nonfiction works, want to communicate a CENTRAL IDEA. To determine central idea, a reader can look for details such as descriptions or the author’s thoughts about the experience. In an analysis of the central idea, one way that supporting EVIDENCE can be cited is by quoting the text.
3. Identify the text that shows how Salak Feels at the beginning of her journey.
4. How does she react to begin called “crazy”?

6. Determine Central Idea & Cite Evidence (Lines 68-71
Tell students that another way to cite evidence to PARAPHRASE the text. Paraphrasing a text meaning restating it in your own words.
5. What idea is Salak trying to support in lines 68-71?
6. Have them paraphrase the passage to explain the evidence that Salak provides for her central idea.

7. Analyze Ideas & Events (Line 100-114)
In a travel narrative, every detail contributes to the story. Details about conflicts and obstacles help readers get involved in the adventure.
7. Cite the details in lines that describe the obstacles Salak faces in the first moments of her journey.

8. Determine Author’s Point of View (Lines 111-115)
Reread to identify how Salak uses rhetoric or language to support her point of view.
8. Cite the details in lines that describe the obstacles Salak faces in the first moments of her journey.

9. Determine Central Idea and Cite Evidence (Lines 119-125)
To learn more about an author’s thoughts and motivations in writing a text, it is important to think about the evidence the author provides in the form of details about life and people.
9. Why do you think people take journeys?
10. How does Salak show that she dismisses the idea that people take journeys only to see a place and lean about people?
11. Paraphrase the passage as part of question #10.

10. Analyze Ideas and Events (Lines 128-138)
MOOD or the emotional response a work creates in readers, is created by details. An author uses words to bring readers closer to the most important ideas in a text.
12. What mood does Salak creates in lines with the words that she uses to describe the river. Cite specific words and phrases that help create the mood.

11. Analyze Ideas and Events (Lines 152-175)
The author of a travel narrative frequently adjusts the PACING, speeding up or slowing down events, by varying sentence length.
13. Describe the pace of the narrative in lines
14. How does the pace in lines change?
15. Why is it significant that Salak varies the pacing at this point in the narrative?

12. Determine Central Idea & Cite Evidence (Lines 176-177)
Quoting or paraphrasing evidence in the text is a way to support an analysis of the selection’s central idea.
16. Cite the part of the text that tells how Salak feels about the last obstacle she encounters as she nears the shore.

13. Determine Central Idea & Cite Evidence (Lines 176-177)
Quoting or paraphrasing evidence in the text is a way to support an analysis of the selection’s central idea.
16. Cite the part of the text that tells how Salak feels about the last obstacle she encounters as she nears the shore.

14. Analyze Idea & Events (Lines 197-212)
Authors use dialogue to help show what people are thinking and to advance the action and message of the text.
17. How are the dialogue in lines 197 and 201 similar to the thinking of Modibo in likes 17-25?
18. How does this dialogue also support Salak’s own thinking in lines ?