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Middle School-Social Studies |
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Middle School-Social Studies |
Model Passage One
Her name was Ann, and we met in the Port Authority Bus Terminal several Januarys ago. I was doing a story on homeless people. She said I was wasting my time talking to her; she was just passing through, although she'd been passing through for more than two weeks. To prove to me that this was true, she rummaged through a tote bag and a manila envelope and finally unfolded a sheet of typing paper and brought out her photographs.
| Clarifying: | Why is Januarys spelled this way? What does this mean: "She'd been passing through for more than two weeks"? What does it look like when someone "rummages?" Is there another word in that paragraph that helps you figure it out? What are manila envelopes? What is a tote bag? |
| Visual Imaging: | Underline all the words that can help you see a picture in your mind. Close your eyes as I read this paragraph again. What is the picure that you see as I read this part of the essay? |
| Teacher-Like Questions: | Who is this story about? What do we know about her? Where do the two people in the story meet? |
| Summarizing: | What is the main idea of this paragraph? What is it mostly about? This paragraph is about a homeless person who meets a writer. |
| Predicting: | What do you think the photographs will show? |
They were not pictures of family, or friends, or even a dog or cat, its eyes brown-red in the flashbulb's light. They were pictures of a house. It was like a thousand houses in a hundred towns, not suburb, not city, but somewhere in between, with aluminum siding and a chain-link fence, a narrow driveway running up to a one-car garage, and a patch of backyard. The house was yellow. I looked on the back for a date or a name, but neither was there. There was no need for discussion. I knew what she was trying to tell me, for it was something I had often felt. She was not adrift, alone, anonymous, although her bags and her raincoat with the grime shadowing its creases had made me believe she was. She had a house, or at least once upon a time had had one. Inside were curtains, a couch, a stove, potholders. You are where you live. She was somebody.
| Clarifying: | Why are the dog's eyes described as "brown-red in the flashbulb's light"? What is a suburb? Is there another word in the sentence that helps you figure out the meaning? What does "adrift" mean? How did you figure it out? What picture do you see in your mind when you read "grime shadowing its creases"? What other clarifying questions might you ask? |
| Picture in Your Mind: | What picture did you see in your mind as I read this part of the essay? What words helped you form that picture? |
| Teacher-Like Questions: | Why does Ann carry this picture? What might have happened to make Ann homeless? How long has she been homeless? Why do you think that? What other questions might you ask? |
| Summarizing: | What is the main idea of this paragraph? This paragraph is about Ann's description of her home. |
| Predicting: | What do you think the author may tell us in the next paragraph? |
After the Model Passages
