Unit 1: Stories of Survival
How are people shaped by the challenges they face?
Witness how difficult situations affect and shape two different narrators.
In the short story "Tuesday of the Other June," author Norma Fox Mazer describes the ordeal of the young narrator, June, who is the target of a bully.
The speaker in Maya Angelou's poem "Life Doesn't Frighten Me" declares her inner strength in the face of terrors, both real and imaginary.
Performance Task: Write a short story in which a character from one of the Unit texts faces another challenging experience.
Text 1: "Tuesday of the Other June"
by Norma Fox Mazer
Academic Vocabulary
Recite (v.)
Rigid (adj.)
Torment (v.)
Adjust (v.)
Mocked (v.)
Devoted (adj.)
Academic Vocabulary
Frighten (v.)
Counterpane (n.)
Shoo (v.)
Charm (n.)
Text 2: "Life Doesn't Frighten Me"
by Maya Angelou
Extended Text: "Dirk the Protector" from My Life in Dog Years
by Gary Paulson
Skills Taught
Fictional Narrative: Point of View, Perspective, Simile, Character Development, Irony, Story Elements (Rising Action, Internal Conflict, Climax, Resolution), Text Structure, Inferencing, Context Clues, Suffixes, Pronouns
Common Core Standards Addressed
RL.6.1, RL.6.2, RL.6.3, RL.6.4, RL.6.5, L.6.2, L.6.4a, L.6.6, SL.6.1, W.6.4,
Bone: Out from Boneville by Jeff Smith
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman