1. All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
Feature Menu
Introducing the Story
Literary Skills Focus: Setting
Reading Skills Focus: Sequencing
Writing Skills Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer
TechFocus

2. All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury
What truths about ourselves can we learn in extreme, dangerous, or unusual situations?

3. All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story
Click on the title to start the video.

4. All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story
What if it never stopped raining?
What if it had been raining . . .
. . . for seven years?

5. All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story
How would you describe the sun to people who had never seen it?
a penny?
a fire?
a lemon?
What if they didn’t believe you?
[End of Section]

6. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting
Plot is the series of events that make up a story.
Cedric began trudging home.
Rescue lights blinked just in time.
His boots felt heavier and heavier.
Cedric grew too tired to move.
The basic situation, events, climax, and resolution in a story make up its plot.

7. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting
Setting is the time and place of a story.
As you read “All Summer in a Day,” think about the role of the story’s setting and how it influences the plot.

8. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting
A story’s setting can tell us about
weather
time of day
historical period or era (past, present, or future)

9. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting
In some stories, setting does not play a big role.
However, in other stories, setting can play such an important role that it shapes the action from beginning to end.

10. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting
Where does the paragraph below take place? What details tell you so?
Cedric Perez began trudging back “home” to the lunar capsule. Oxygen inside his helmet was thinning, and his boots felt heavier. His crew appeared on the blank horizon, but his head throbbed, and he realized his boots were sinking. Rescue lights blinked just in time.
Cedric Perez began trudging back “home” to the lunar capsule. Oxygen inside his helmet was thinning, and his boots felt heavier. His crew appeared on the blank horizon, but his head throbbed, and he realized his boots were sinking. Rescue lights blinked just in time.

11. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting
Cedric Perez is not in his neighborhood. He’s not even on the planet Earth!
The word lunar tells us that Cedric is on a moon.
He cannot breathe without a helmet to provide oxygen.
The “blank horizon” suggests a mood of emptiness and isolation.
This setting makes heading for home a hard and dangerous thing to do.

12. All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting
As you read “All Summer in a Day,” decide which actions could happen only on the planet Bradbury describes.
[End of Section]

13. All Summer in a Day Reading Skills Focus: Sequencing
Sequence is the order of events in a story.
By placing story events in correct order, you better understand key moments in the plot.
Cedric’s head started to ache not long after the oxygen hose loosened.
Cedric’s head started to ache not long after the oxygen hose loosened.
What happened first—aching or loosening?

14. All Summer in a Day Reading Skills Focus: Sequencing
Into Action Use a chart to keep track of the order of the main events in this story.
Into Action: Sequence Chart
Event
1. The children are waiting for the rain to stop.
2. Margot stands by herself remembering the sun.
[End of Section]

15. “the concussion of storms”
All Summer in a Day Writing Skills Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer
Find It in Your Reading
Pay attention to unusual words and phrases the writer uses to describe the setting, such as
“the concussion of storms”
“the sweet crystal fall of showers”
Note how Bradbury uses strong vocabulary and vivid description to make the setting come alive.
[End of Section]

16. All Summer in a Day TechFocus
Research the atmosphere of a planet in our solar system, other than Earth or Venus.
What harsh elements would people need protection from?
What equipment would be necessary for people to be able to live there?
[End of Section]

17. Vocabulary

18. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
frail adj. : not very strong; easily broken.
vital adj.: necessary for life; very important.
consequence n.: of value; importance.
surged v.: moved forward, as if in a wave.
savored v.: delighted in.

19. All Summer in a Day
Vocabulary
The word frail is often used to describe lack of strength due to illness or age.
Newborn animals are often frail and unable to move as adult animals do.
What suggests that this colt’s legs may be too frail for walking?

20. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
The plant grew frail while Uncle Ross was gone on vacation.
Uncle Ross most likely
asked a friend to water his plant
forgot to arrange for plant watering

21. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
The plant grew frail while Uncle Ross was gone on vacation.
Uncle Ross most likely
asked a friend to water his plant
forgot to arrange for plant watering 21

22. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
Vital is a word used to describe something that is absolutely necessary.
Which one of these is vital to survival?

23. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
You may joke sometimes that french fries are vital to your survival.
Think of some food items that truly are vital to your good health.
What are their qualities?

24. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
The word consequence can be used to mean “importance.”
Being the last diver to perform was of no consequence to the relaxed, well-trained athlete.

25. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
Is having good balance a matter of great consequence to a tightrope walker?
What would happen if the tightrope walker lost his balance?

26. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
The word surged suggests that a movement was sudden, powerful, and in one direction.
At the end of the day, traffic surged in the southbound lanes.

27. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
People see huge waves surging toward the shore.
Vacationers on the beach will probably
move cautiously inland
decide to picnic on the sand
settle down on their towels

28. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
People see huge waves surging toward the shore.
Vacationers on the beach will probably
move cautiously inland
decide to picnic on the sand
settle down on their towels 28

29. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
If you have savored an experience, you might have wished it would never end.
Which person is not savoring the moment?

30. All Summer in a Day Vocabulary
When you think of the word savored, what other words come to mind?
Word:
Definition:
savored
v.: delighted in.
Examples:
enjoyed
appreciated
Sentence:
Image:
really loved
Students savored each morning of vacation.
relished
treasured

31. The End