1. The Great Escape Introducing the Selection
Feature Menu
Introducing the Selection
Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
Writing Skills Focus: Preparing for Timed Writing

2. The Great Escape Introducing the Selection
Is the will to escape one of instinct or intellect?

3. The Great Escape Introducing the Selection
An enemy attack cripples your plane.
You drift to the ground, dangling beneath your parachute.
Below you, the enemy is waiting.

4. The Great Escape Introducing the Selection
Wrongfully imprisoned, underfed, threatened with death, and far from home, how will you plan your escape?
Will you even try?

5. The Great Escape Introducing the Selection
The Nazi prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft III was far from any neutral territory and was built on ground that was mostly shifting sand.
Still, some captives were determined to make it out alive.
Will they?
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6. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
When you research a subject, you read many different sources.
Source 1
Source 3
Source 4
Then, you need to synthesize the information, or put all the pieces together, to see the big picture.

7. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
First, you must analyze the main idea, or central message, of each text.
Take notes about each writer’s most important point, opinion, or message.

8. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
To find the main idea, ask the following questions as you read:
What is the writer trying to say?
Why is the author making that point?

9. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
Use these tips for finding the main idea:
1. Read the article’s title to see if it provides a clue.
What clues does this title provide?
The Great Escape from Boys Life by Thomas Fleming
The seven hundred fliers in the prisoner of war camp called Stalag Luft III came from many countries—the United States, England, Canada, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Australia, South Africa. They had two things in common.
From "The Great Escape" by Thomas Fleming from Boys' Life, March Copyright © 1997 by Thomas Fleming. Reproduced by permission of the author.
The article is about an escape.
The escape was large or amazing.
The main idea may be about why this large escape was impressive.

10. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
Use these tips for finding the main idea:
2. Scan the headings of the article.
One point will be about a prisoner who leads the escape.
The Escape Genius The Germans seemed to have thought of
Another point will be about items that the prisoners created.
The Escape Factory The tunnels were only the beginning. “I
A third point will be about deceiving the Germans.
Pretending Defeat Then disaster struck. The Germans dis-
What will the article’s important points be about?
From "The Great Escape" by Thomas Fleming from Boys' Life, March Copyright © 1997 by Thomas Fleming. Reproduced by permission of the author.

11. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
Use these tips for finding the main idea:
3. Read the article’s introduction.
Does it conclude with a main idea?

12. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
Use these tips for finding the main idea:
4. Look for the repetition of key phrases or ideas within in the article.

13. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
Use these tips for finding the main idea:
5. Re-read the article’s conclusion. Has the author restated the main idea?

14. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
Listen to this passage from “The Great Escape.”
What is the main idea of the passage?
Main Idea: Features of the prison camp—including towers, guards, and punishments—made escape difficult, if not impossible.
From "The Great Escape" by Thomas Fleming from Boys' Life, March Copyright © 1997 by Thomas Fleming. Reproduced by permission of the author.

15. The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas
Into Action: Use a chart to record information that may help you identity the article’s main idea.
Main Idea Chart
Text Feature My Comments
Title of Article The Great Escape
Headings
Repetition of Key Ideas
Conclusion
[End of Section]

16. The Great Escape Writing Skills Focus
Preparing for Timed Writing
As you read “The Great Escape,” record notes about the ideas presented. Then, paraphrase, or restate the main idea in your own words. What is the writer trying to tell us about people’s desire for escape?
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17. Vocabulary

18. The Great Escape Vocabulary
prowled v.: hunted; stalked.
pursued v.: followed; or chased.

19. The Great Escape Vocabulary
The sentence below may help you understand how the word prowled is used in “The Great Escape.”
Guards prowled the camp, always on the lookout for escaping prisoners.
What types of activities might a wolf that prowled the forest perform? Describe that wolf’s actions as it hunted.

20. The Great Escape Vocabulary
Although thousands of policemen and troops prowled the country . . .
some prisoners escaped: They avoided the hunters who stalked them.

21. The Great Escape Vocabulary
With its eyes glued on a young gazelle, a cheetah prowled through the tall grass.
What’s likely to happen to the gazelle?

22. The Great Escape Vocabulary
The sentence below may help you understand how the word pursued is used in “The Great Escape.”
Once the prisoners had escaped, they found themselves being pursued by thousands of people.
Why might the German government have been so desperate to have a few escaped prisoners pursued?

23. The Great Escape Vocabulary
Guards knew the escape routes that prisoners were likely to take, so it would be difficult to avoid being chased.
Once the prisoners emerged from the tunnel, they would certainly be pursued. They might be free of the camp, but they would still need to escape—from Germany itself.

24. The Great Escape Vocabulary
Sometimes the sidewalks were so crowded that Paul felt as if he were being pursued by crowds of shoppers and park visitors.
Is Paul comfortable in crowded situations? How do you know?

25. The End

26. QuickWrite

27. The Great Escape QuickWrite
Think of a movie or television show in which the main character devises an escape plan.
Briefly describe the situation.
Is this desire for escape propelled by a physical need, an intellectual need, or both?
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28. Build Background

29. Prisoners Attempt Bold Escape from Nazi Prison Camp!
The Great Escape
Build Background
The article recounts one of the most famous escapes of the past century: the Great Escape of World War II.
Prisoners Attempt Bold Escape from Nazi Prison Camp!
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30. Read with a Purpose

31. The Great Escape Read with a Purpose
Read this article to discover why this particular escape is still considered “great” today.
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