Introducing the Story

Literary Skills Focus: Setting

Reading Skills Focus: Sequencing

Writing Skills Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer

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All Summer in a Dayby Ray Bradbury

All Summer in a Dayby Ray Bradbury

What truths about ourselves can we learn in extreme, dangerous, or unusual situations?

Click on the title to start the video.

All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story

What if it never stopped raining?

. . . for seven years?

What if it had been raining . . .

All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story

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How would you describe the sun to people who had never seen it?

What if they didn’t believe you?

a penny?

a fire?

a lemon?

All Summer in a Day Introducing the Story

Plot is the series of events that make up a story.

All Summer in a DayLiterary Skills Focus: Setting

The basic situation, events, climax, and resolution in a story make up its plot.

Cedric began trudging home.

His boots felt heavier and heavier.

Cedric grew too tired to move.

Rescue lights blinked just in time.

As you read “All Summer in a Day,” think about the role of the story’s setting and how it influences the plot.

Setting is the time and place of a story.

All Summer in a Day Literary Skills Focus: Setting

A story’s setting can tell us about

weather

time of day

historical period or era (past, present, or future)

All Summer in a DayLiterary Skills Focus: Setting

In some stories, setting does not play a big role.

However, in other stories, setting can play such an important role that it shapes the action from beginning to end.

All Summer in a DayLiterary Skills Focus: Setting

All Summer in a DayLiterary Skills Focus: Setting

Where does the paragraph below take place? What details tell you so?

Cedric Perez began trudging back “home” to the lunar capsule. Oxygen inside his helmet was thinning, and his boots felt heavier. His crew appeared on the blank horizon, but his head throbbed, and he realized his boots were sinking. Rescue lights blinked just in time.

Cedric Perez began trudging back “home” to the lunar capsule. Oxygen inside his helmet was thinning, and his boots felt heavier. His crew appeared on the blank horizon, but his head throbbed, and he realized his boots were sinking. Rescue lights blinked just in time.

Cedric Perez is not in his neighborhood. He’s not even on the planet Earth!

All Summer in a DayLiterary Skills Focus: Setting

This setting makes heading for home a hard and dangerous thing to do.

• The word lunar tells us that Cedric is on a moon.

• He cannot breathe without a helmet to provide oxygen.

• The “blank horizon” suggests a mood of emptiness and isolation.

As you read “All Summer in a Day,” decide which actions could happen only on the planet Bradbury describes.

All Summer in a DayLiterary Skills Focus: Setting

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Sequence is the order of events in a story.

All Summer in a DayReading Skills Focus: Sequencing

By placing story events in correct order, you better understand key moments in the plot.

Cedric’s head started to ache not long after the oxygen hose loosened.

What happened first—aching or loosening?

Cedric’s head started to ache not long after the oxygen hose loosened.

Into Action Use a chart to keep track of the order of the main events in this story.

All Summer in a DayReading Skills Focus: Sequencing

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Into Action: Sequence Chart

Event

1. The children are waiting for the rain to stop.

2. Margot stands by herself remembering the sun.

Find It in Your Reading

All Summer in a DayWriting Skills Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer

Pay attention to unusual words and phrases the writer uses to describe the setting, such as

Note how Bradbury uses strong vocabulary and vivid description to make the setting come alive.

“the sweet

crystal fall of

showers”“the

concussion of

storm

s”

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Research the atmosphere of a planet in our solar system, other than Earth or Venus.

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All Summer in a DayTechFocus

• What harsh elements would people need protection from?

• What equipment would be necessary for people to be able to live there?

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Vocabulary

vital adj.: necessary for life; very important.

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary

savored v.: delighted in.

surged v.: moved forward, as if in a wave.

consequence n.: of value; importance.

frail adj. : not very strong; easily broken.

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

Newborn animals are often frail and unable to move as adult animals do.

The word frail is often used to describe lack of strength due to illness or age.

What suggests that this colt’s legs may be too frail for walking?

The plant grew frail while Uncle Ross was gone on

vacation.

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

Uncle Ross most likely

a. asked a friend to water his plant

b. forgot to arrange for plant watering

The plant grew frail while Uncle Ross was gone on

vacation.

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

Uncle Ross most likely

a. asked a friend to water his plant

b. forgot to arrange for plant watering

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

Which one of these is vital to survival?

Vital is a word used to describe something that is absolutely necessary.

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

Think of some food items that truly are vital to your good health.

What are their qualities?

You may joke sometimes that french fries are vital to your survival.

The word consequence can be used to mean

“importance.”

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

Being the last diver to perform was of no consequence to the relaxed, well-trained athlete.

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary

Is having good balance a matter of great consequence to a tightrope walker?

What would happen if the tightrope walker lost his balance?

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

The word surged suggests that a movement was sudden, powerful, and in one direction.

At the end of the day, traffic surged in the southbound lanes.

People see huge waves surging toward the shore.

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

Vacationers on the beach will probably

a. move cautiously inland

b. decide to picnic on the sand

c. settle down on their towels

People see huge waves surging toward the shore.

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

Vacationers on the beach will probably

a. move cautiously inland

b. decide to picnic on the sand

c. settle down on their towels

All Summer in a DayVocabulary

If you have savored an experience, you might have wished it would never end.

Which person is not savoring the moment?

When you think of the word savored, what other words come to mind?

Word: Definition:

Image:Sentence:

All Summer in a Day Vocabulary

enjoyed

relished

really loved

appreciated

Examples:

Students savored each

morning of vacation.

savored v.: delighted in.

treasured

The End