Predicting Using Story Clues

1
Predicting Using Story Clues!
Using O Henrys
The Last Leaf
Communication Arts Grades 7-8
2
Instructors Page

• This lesson addresses the MAP objective of using
  story clues to make predictions.
• It is designed for use in Communication Arts in
  Grades 7-8

by Yvonne Bradley Martin City Middle
School Grandview School District
3
Instructors Page

• Pre reading Stage
• Students should look at the pictures and title of
  the story and make predictions. What information
  does the picture give? What part does the title
  play in the story?

4
Instructors Page

• Reading Stage
• Students, as they read, should ask themselves the
  following questions
• Why are the characters acting the way they do?
• What decisions/choices could the characters make?
  
• What is going to happen next?
• Which characters are likeable or unlikable? Why?
  
• What would they do differently from the
  character? Why?

5
Steps to Predicting

• Look at the title and pictures and get
  information from these.
• Read the passage carefully and answer the
  question what is the current problem/situation
  in the story?
• Determine the storys options (what can logically
  happen next).
• Based on what you know about the characters,
  which option do you think they will choose? This
  can include what the character has chosen before
  as well as patterns of behavior.
• Always back up your prediction with textual
  evidence for that choice.

6
Let's do it!
Look at the title and pictures and get
information!
Before reading The Last Leaf look at the title
and pictures. What information does each of
these give? Now read pages 135-139 (from
Treasury of Literature Beyond the Window) to
add to your information.
7
Read the passage carefully and answer the
question What is the current problem/situation
in the story?
Next
The problem facing the characters is that a girl
is ill and has given up on getting well. She
thinks that she will die when the last leaf falls
from a vine during the winter time.
8
Now
Determine the storys options. What can
logically happen next?

• The girl can give up and die, as it looks like
  shes in the process of doing, when the last leaf
  falls.
• The girl can be miraculously cured by the doctor
  finding a new cure.
• The girl can will herself to live because the
  last leaf is still there.

9
Next

• Based on what you know about the characters,
  which option do you think they will choose? This
  can include what the character has chosen before
  as well as patterns of behavior.

The girl will live because she really believes
that she wont die until that leaf falls. For
some reason it looks like the leaf is
miraculously not falling.
10
Finally
Always back up your prediction with textual
evidence for that choice.
There are two possible predictions. The first
is The girl will die when that last leaf falls.
Right before the night the text says The
lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when
it is ready to go on its mysterious, far
journey. Also Johnsy had said that the leaf
would fall and she would die at that time.
11
Or
Which one did you say? Did you site your textual
evidence?

• The second one is
• The leaf, for some reason, never falls and Johnsy
  does not die. In the text it says that night
  came and the wind blew through the night, but
  still, when it was morning, the leaf was still
  there. Johnsy is convinced shell die when the
  leaf falls, so if the leaf doesnt fall, she may
  convince herself to live.

12
Extension Activity

• Tell why you think the leaf didnt fall. Make
  predictions based on textual evidence.
• Read and determine if you were on target in your
  predictions.
• After youve read the end of the story look back
  and see. Did the author give you any clues that
  might have helped you come to the intended
  ending?