1. Do Now Hand in vocabulary comic (MAKE SURE YOUR NAME IS ON IT)
Take a current event article, read, and answer thoroughly in your reading section (DO NOT WRITE ON THESE)

2. Setting Isolate your characters
Out in the country, farm, middle of the woods
Middle of the night
Car breaks down
Home alone
No cell phones (set in the past?)
“Let’s split up”
Analyze the setting of “Have You Checked the Children?”

3. Mood
Setting (along with word choice, images created, character descriptions, etc.) create the mood of the text
Mood: the overall feeling/atmosphere/vibe of a text
Scary story moods: ominous, foreboding, creepy, spooky, empty, threatening, cautionary

4. Suspense Anxious uncertainty about what will happen next
How do horror movies build suspense?
How did the author build suspense in “Have You Checked the Children?”

5. Plot Twist & Foreshadowing
Unexpected change in direction of story line, keeps the reader interested
Sometimes these twists are foreshadowed: future events are hinted at before they actually happen
What is the plot twist in “Have You Checked the Children?” Was this twist foreshadowed at all?

6. Theme/Morality What is the point of entertainment? Catharsis
Characters make bad decisions and get punished, so audiences learn not to make the same bad decisions
What is the theme of “Have You Checked the Children?” What bad decisions did Linda make?

7. Symbolism Concrete/physical object stands in for abstract idea
What does the phone ringing symbolize in “Have You Checked the Children?”

8. Figurative Language
Metaphor/simile: “Her face was pale and sunken, as if she hadn’t seen sunlight in many years.”
Hyperbole: “My heart was beating out of my chest. I fumbled with the lock for hours before I finally broke free.” / “He was ten feet tall and as strong as fifty normal men.”