Michael woke up with a start. Someone was banging at the front door. Heavy footsteps clomped over the bare boards of the hallway. A shouting of voices. Jacko's familiar growl, then the front door slammed shut. Michael shivered and pulled the thin blanket closer around his shoulders. Through the cracked glass of the curtainless window, the sky looked gray and dirty. A groan from the other mattress told him that Toby was awake as well.

What can you infer about Jacko's mood?

Michael woke up with a start. Someone was banging at the front door. Heavy footsteps clomped over the bare boards of the hallway. A shouting of voices. Jacko's familiar growl, then the front door slammed shut. Michael shivered and pulled the thin blanket closer around his shoulders. Through the cracked glass of the curtainless window, the sky looked gray and dirty. A groan from the other mattress told him that Toby was awake as well.

Which of the following would be considered explicit textual evidence?

Michael woke up with a start. Someone was banging at the front door. Heavy footsteps clomped over the bare boards of the hallway. A shouting of voices. Jacko's familiar growl, then the front door slammed shut. Michael shivered and pulled the thin blanket closer around his shoulders. Through the cracked glass of the curtainless window, the sky looked gray and dirty. A groan from the other mattress told him that Toby was awake as well.

What can you infer about the place they are living?

Michael woke up with a start. Someone was banging at the front door. Heavy footsteps clomped over the bare boards of the hallway. A shouting of voices. Jacko's familiar growl, then the front door slammed shut. Michael shivered and pulled the thin blanket closer around his shoulders. Through the cracked glass of the curtainless window, the sky looked gray and dirty. A groan from the other mattress told him that Toby was awake as well.

Which words help describe the setting?

It was the sea eagle that called Emily down to the beach. It hovered above the waves, it's broad wings dusty where the land had left its mark, its small eyes that could follow the horizon bright and keen.

She hadn't meant to come down onto the beach. She'd meant to sit at the top of the ramp till the other kids had left the street, till she could walk home from school in peace without strangers staring at her, but somehow the bird seemed to urge her to come down.

Which textual evidence best describes Emily's thoughts and feelings?

She sobbed for hours trying to think of a way out of having to tell her father she wrecked her new car. After stewing over it for quite some time, she called her father on his cell phone. "Thank you," he said. What is the theme?

The Tanner put some animal hides in the bottom of a stream to soak. Several hungry dogs noticed the hides but realized that the water was so deep that they couldn't reach the hides from the bank. So they came up with a plan. They decided to drink the water from the river until it uncovered the hides.

All of the dogs began drinking the water as quickly as they could. Regardless of their effort, the water remained as high as ever. They drank and they drank and they drank until they burst.

Which statement best describes the theme of the story?

The theme of the story is the

What is a main idea or topic?

Which of the following could be a theme of a story?

Which of the following could be a theme of a story?

Unlike the topic of literature, a theme ...

Mrs. Travers was worried that her students were not understanding what she was teaching in class. She decided she would work late after school every single night trying to create the best lessons for her students. She even started coming in early in the mornings as well. Because of this, she started to see a huge increase in her student's grades, and eventually this led to her earning a "Teacher of the Year" award!

What experience did Mrs. Travers have that helped her develop throughout the story?

Mr. MacKinnon wanted to find a way to seem more "hip" and "cool" so that his friends would like him more. He went and got a fresh new haircut, some cool new clothes, a drone, and a PS4.

He then invited all of his friends over to his house to hang out and try out his new stuff. Everyone came and they had a good time, but they were curious to know why he bought all of the new stuff, and changed his style. He admitted that he wanted them to think he was cool. His friends told him he didn't need to buy new things to be their friend. They liked him for who he was. Mr. MacKinnon was pleased to hear this.

What experience did Mr. MacKinnon have that helped him develop throughout the story?

One day Mrs. Bergeson was walking down the 3-5 hallway on her way to lunch. When she walked into teacher's lounge, she found no one else was there yet. She was the first one! This never happened, and this was a big deal because the school had bought all the teachers lunch today and it was pizza! Mrs. Bergeson found herself overcome with hunger and greed and realized what she wanted to do. She wanted ALL of the pizza. She grabbed every pizza box and sneaked out the back door. She ran outside and around the school and made it back to her room and locked the door without anyone noticing. She ate all of the pizza and was so full that she couldn't move. When the other teachers came to the teacher's lounge looking for the pizza, they noticed she was the only one that wasn't there. They made their way to her room and found her sitting sadly (with a stomach ache) surrounded by empty pizza boxes. Mrs. Bergeson was arrested for the theft of the other teacher's happiness and hope and was sentenced to buy each teacher their favorite kind of pizza forever.

What experience did Mrs. Bergeson go through that led to her character development?

In this story, who or what is Sue in conflict with?

A boy in a green shirt yelled, "I can't find my sister. She went underwater right there, and she never came up!"

As a lifeguard, Sue knew exactly what to do. Racing into the ocean, she leaped and crashed through the waves. Sue swam to the spot where the boy had pointed. Taking a deep breath, she dove to the bottom, opened her eyes, and began searching everywhere. As she surfaced, a wave buried her and shoved her under again.

When Sue finally resurfaced, she saw a crowd of people on shore. "Here she is!" they called.

Sue saw a girl standing in the sand, calmly eating a sandwich. Her little brother had gone back to his sand castle.

In an internal conflict, a person would be most likely to struggle against—

Which of the following is an example of an internal conflict?

It's Little Larry's first day at a new school. He is anxious that he will not make any new friends.

Jason is an excellent accountant who works full time for his best friend's company. A larger accounting firm contacts Jason and offers to pay him twice what he makes if he will work for them. Jason thanks them for their offer, but declines. He doesn't even tell his friend that he received the offer. What character trait does Jason BEST demonstrate?

Which part of the story is represented by this blue blob?

The stars were burning brightly in the night sky. The evening breeze felt cool on my skin. It was the last night of summer break and I was calm, oddly calm. It's not that I was excited to go back to school. I wasn't. School is a lot of work for me. But I was excited to see my friends again, and I knew that she would be there.

Anthony was making a snowman in his front yard. He wanted to make the tallest snowman ever. "Making the tallest snowman ever is hard," he thought to himself. As Anthony rolled the snow around to form huge spheres, Justin was watching him from the bushes. Justin had plans too, only his plans involved karate kicking Anthony's very tall snowman. Justin figured that no snowman deserved to be as tall as Anthony's. Justin stretched in preparation for his attack.