10/31 DIRECT TEACH

​Friday October 31st, 2025

By Mrs. LaPaquette

LEARNING OBJECTIVE:
I will learn how to use text evidence to support my response.

Who’s in my bed?

A father went to say good night to his seven year old son, very well knowing that if he didn’t his son would have trouble sleeping. It was a nightly routine between them. He entered the dimly lit room where his son waited under his blanket. With the first glance the father could tell there was something unusual about his son tonight, but couldn’t put his finger on it. He looked the same but had a grin that drew from ear to ear.

“You okay, buddy?” the father asked.

The son nodded, still with the grin, before saying, “Daddy, check for monsters under my bed.”

The father chuckled a bit before getting on his knees to check only to satisfy his son.

There, under the bed, pale and afraid, was his son. His real son. He whispered, “Daddy, there is someone on my bed”.

Multiple Choice

What is the most likely explanation for what is happening in this story?

• The son is playing a prank on his father

•  The son has an identical twin

• The father is experiencing a hallucination

• Something supernatural has taken the son's place

Open Ended

Describe the mood at the end of the passage.

​The Cabin

A hiker decided to go on a hike by himself. Something he was not very used to. The whole day was normal. Trees and bushes engulfed his surroundings. He enjoyed being outdoors in the mountains. Nothing seemed strange to him, that was until he was making his way back to his car. He figured an eight hour hike was good enough. The sky was already getting dark and he needed to get back, fast. What was odd was how much he didn’t recognize the trail back. He began to panic. Night had already taken over and all he had was a flashlight and no clue on how to get back. He knew it was already too late and too dangerous to keep going through the perilous forest. He began to worry that he would have no shelter for the night when almost luckily enough, he stumbled across a broken-down cabin. It was dark, and seemed like no one had visited it in years, but he knew it was the only place where he could rest until daylight, especially since his flashlight was running out of battery. He knocked on the door a few times but no one answered, so he let himself in where strangely enough, a perfect bed fitted for one person awaited him in the center. He knew that if the owner came back he could explain himself, he was sure that the owner wouldn’t mind, or was even probably dead. So he went ahead and got himself comfortable in bed. As he tried to sleep, he couldn’t ignore the collection of paintings around the room; portraits of strange looking people all peering at him, each wearing a smile that sent chills up his spine. Not too long after his exhaustion from the hike got the best of him and he was able to ignore the faces. The next morning he got up early and was shocked to see that there were no paintings around the room, but windows…

Multiple Choice

What emotion did the hiker most likely feel when he realized the "paintings" were actually windows?

• Relief that he could now see outside

• Confusion about his surroundings

•  Fear about what might have been watching him

• Anger at being tricked

Multiple Choice

What can you infer about the cabin based on the passage?

•  It was a popular tourist destination

•  It was regularly maintained by forest rangers

• It was abandoned and had been empty for years

•  It was the hiker's vacation home

Open Ended

Explain why the hiker decided to stop hiking and find shelter.

​The Red Wristband
A doctor was working at a hospital, a hospital where the patients were tagged with coloured bands. Green: alive. Red: deceased. One night, the doctor was instructed to get a few supplies from the basement of the hospital, and so he headed to the lift. The lift doors opened and there was a patient inside, minding her own business. Patients were allowed to roam around the hospital to stretch, especially those who have stayed long. The rule was to be back in their rooms before ten. The doctor smiled at the patient before pressing the number for the basement. He found it unusual that the woman didn’t have a button already pressed. He wondered if she was heading to the basement too. The lift finally reached the floor where the doors opened. In the distance a man was limping towards the elevator, and in a panic the doctor slammed the elevator button to close. It finally did and the lift began to ascend back up, the doctor’s heart pounding. “Why did you do that? He was trying to use the lift.” The woman stated, annoyed. “Did you see his wrist?” The doctor asked, “It was red. He died last night. I would know because I did his surgery.” The woman lifted her wrist. He saw red. She smiled. “Like this one?

Multiple Choice

Based on the passage, why did the doctor panic when he saw the man limping toward the elevator?

• The doctor believed the man was supposed to be dead

•  The man was breaking hospital rules

• The doctor recognized the man as a dangerous patient

•  The elevator was malfunctioning

Multiple Choice

What is the most likely reason the woman showed her red wristband at the end of the story?

• She wanted to help the doctor identify patients

• She was trying to scare the doctor

• She was confused about what the colors meant

•  She needed the doctor to change her wristband color

​The Clown Statue
A young teen is babysitting for a family that is very, very wealthy, in a large mansion filled with a huge number of rooms and a vast number of interesting antiques and artifacts. Strangely, though, the father mentions to the girl that once the children are put to sleep for the night, the girl should only go to the basement and not spend her time in any other rooms of the house. She could watch television down there and was free to do anything else in the basement, but the rest of the house was off limits. She goes to the basement once the children are in bed, but quickly notices a large clown statue in the corner of the room. It appears to be staring at her. She continues to watch her show, but can’t shake the feeling that the statue is following her around the room with its eyes. She puts a blanket over the statue eventually in an effort to make herself feel more comfortable, and then telephones the father of the children to ask if she can go and move to another room of the house, because she’s so freaked out by the clown. “You need to leave NOW. We don’t own a clown statue. The children have been telling us they’ve been seeing a clown in their room in the night, and we thought they were having nightmares. Take the children and get out!” The young girl hangs up the phone, terrified. She turns around, but the statue is gone, leaving behind only the blanket on the floor.

Multiple Choice

How did the children likely feel about the clown before the events in this passage?

• They enjoyed playing with it as a toy

• They were frightened by its presence

• They were unaware of its existence

• They had invited it into the house

Multiple Choice

What can you infer about what happens after the passage ends?

•  The babysitter will ignore the warning and continue watching TV

•  The clown will reveal itself to be a friendly ghost

• The babysitter will likely try to rescue the children and escape

• The father will arrive home and explain the misunderstanding

Multiple Choice

What can you infer about the "clown statue" based on the passage?

• It was a harmless decoration that the family had forgotten about

• It was likely a supernatural entity or intruder disguised as a statue

• it was a prank set up by the children to scare the babysitter

• It was a misunderstanding caused by shadows in the basement

​Mr. Sullivan
On a cold, winter day, Mr. Sullivan “came to” whilst walking alongside the edge of a road. He walked over to a woman and asked her for some help, only for her to scream loudly at the mere sight of him and run away in fear. Astonished at her response, Mr. Sullivan continued on his way and tried to flag down several passing cars, only for them all to speed up as soon as they saw him. He eventually called a taxi company and when they arrived, they looked at him and they too sped away. The man went back to the same phone booth and called his wife, wanting to know what on Earth was going on and why people seemed to be so afraid of him. A man answered the phone, in a voice he didn’t recognise. “Unfortunately, Mrs. Sullivan isn’t available at the moment. She’s at her husband’s funeral. He died in a car accident last night.” Finally, Mr. Sullivan found his way to a public bathroom. He looked in the mirror and found his face bloodied and bruised, his skin a mess, and his bones broken. His skin was pale and his eyes bloodied. He realised why everyone was so reluctant to stop for him. He was dead. He was a ghost.

Multiple Choice

What can you infer about Mr. Sullivan's emotional state when he finally saw his reflection?

• Relieved to understand what was happening

•  Angry about his death

• In denial about being dead

•  Confused about how he died

Multiple Choice

Why did Mr. Sullivan call his wife?

• To tell her he was still alive

•  To find out why people were avoiding him

•  To ask her to pick him up

•  To apologize for being late

Multiple Choice

Why did the woman scream when she saw Mr. Sullivan?

• She recognized him as a missing person

• She was afraid of his ghostly appearance

• She knew about his accident

• She was startled by his sudden appearance

​The Doll
One day, the little girl goes to the market to look for new dolls. She finds a shop, she likes and starts browsing the dolls they had on display. The girl looks and looks, finally coming to one of the dolls. This doll was an extremely beautiful doll. It was like no other doll the girl had seen. Immediately, the girl knew she wanted it, “This doll will make my doll collection look even more beautiful. I really want to buy this!” She ran to an employee of the store and told her about the doll she wanted to buy. “Sorry miss,” the employee tells her, “that doll is not for sale.” The girl becomes confused, and asks, “But why not?” The employee doesn’t speak for a while at first, nervously looking here and there. Then finally says, “You see, that doll is cursed. Only bad things happen to whoever buys it.” The little girl tells the employee that she really likes the doll and wants to buy it. “It will look good with my doll collection, and I will never find a doll of this kind!” At last, the defeated employee lets the girl have the doll free of cost, but gives a fair warning to the little girl, “You must know that the doll is really cursed and only bad things befall those who have the doll. Don’t blame me if something does go wrong.” But, the little girl was way too happy with the free doll to pay any mind to the warning she just received. The girl ran and skipped all the way back to her apartment thinking about the doll and her collection. Finally, when she reaches the elevator in the lobby, she finds the lobby eerily quiet. The usually lively lobby was dead silent. “This is unusual,” the little girl whispers and waits for the elevator to arrive. Once inside the elevator, she presses the button for her floor, but the elevator does not move an inch. The elevator begins to grow darker and begins to tremble. “What is happening?” she asks in a shaky voice. That very moment, the doll in the girl’s arms starts to shake as well. The little girl looks at the doll, only to find the once closed eyes staring back at her with an intense stare and an evil smile. Suddenly evil laughter fills the elevator and the doll says, “Now press the button to go up.” “What?” is the last word the girl utters.

Multiple Choice

Based on the passage, what can you infer about the girl's personality?

•  She is cautious and careful about her decisions

•  She is impulsive and ignores warnings

• She is easily frightened by strange occurrences

•  She is primarily concerned with saving money

Multiple Choice

Why did the employee initially refuse to sell the doll?

• The doll was reserved for another customer

• The doll was only for display purposes

• The employee was concerned about the girl's safety

• The doll was too expensive for the girl to afford

Multiple Choice

What is the most likely reason the lobby was "eerily quiet"?

•  It was very late at night

•  The cursed doll was already affecting the environment

•  There was a power outage in the building

•  Everyone was attending an event elsewhere

Multiple Choice

What does the doll's command "Now press the button to go up" most likely suggest?

•  The doll wants to see the girl's apartment

• The doll is helping the girl reach her floor

• The doll is taking control and has sinister intentions

• The doll is testing if the elevator is working properly

Open Ended

Describe how the author creates a sense of suspense and impending danger before the doll becomes animated. Cite at least three specific details from the text that contribute to the building tension.