The Evil Swirling Darkness

• Give students a few minutes to preview the text features. Then have a volunteer read aloud the As You Read box on page 4.
• Have students read the article independently. (Differentiation tip: If your students need more support, play the audio recording of the article at Scope Online as they follow along in their magazines.)
  
• Break students into groups to read the article a second time and then discuss the close-reading questions below.
  

Close-Reading Questions

• Reread the first four sentences of the article. How does the fourth sentence differ from the first three? Why might author Lauren Tarshis have started her story this way? (author’s craft) The first three sentences describe death and ruin. They create a terrifying and foreboding mood. With the fourth sentence, the mood abruptly changes. That sentence introduces two brothers who are excited about a party. Tarshis may have started her story this way because the juxtaposition of the first three sentences and the fourth sentence reflects the suddenness with which disaster can strike on an otherwise normal day. Also, by letting the reader know that things will go terribly wrong later in the story, Tarshis creates a feeling of anticipation and suspense.
• In the section “Tornado Mysteries,” why does the author describe tornadoes as “stubbornly mysterious”? (interpreting text, figurative language) Although meteorologists can predict most types of weather with remarkable accuracy, tornadoes remain extremely hard to predict. It’s impossible to tell which supercells will produce them. Even the most powerful radar cannot detect tornadoes.
  
• When the author describes tornadoes as “stubbornly mysterious,” she is personifying tornadoes—assigning a human characteristic to them—by suggesting that they intentionally remain unpredictable. Where else in the article does the author personify tornadoes? What effect does this use of personification create? (figurative language, author’s craft) The headline describes the Joplin tornado as “evil.” The section “Tornado Mysteries” compares tornadoes to “secretive monsters” and says that they “devour everything in their paths.” And the subheading “Vicious Attack” suggests that the tornado struck Joplin intentionally. All of this language highlights how monstrous and terrifying tornadoes must feel for those who experience them.
  
• Rain-wrapped tornadoes are especially hard to recognize, yet Jeff Piotrowski knew one when he saw it. Which details in the article help explain why Piotrowski was able to identify the tornado? (inference, text evidence) You can infer that Piotrowski is a tornado expert. The article states that he had studied supercell thunderstorms for more than 35 years, that he had been tracking this particular storm system for days, and that he has witnessed more than 850 tornado strikes.
  
• What mood does Tarshis create in the final paragraph of “Vicious Attack”? How does she create this mood, and why do you think she creates it? (mood, author’s craft) The author creates a grim, tense atmosphere by leaving a vital question unanswered: Readers are left to wonder about the fate of family members in a dangerous situation. Tarshis may have chosen to leave the reader in suspense to convey the feelings that the Satterlees experienced as they waited to hear from their relatives.
  
• In the section “Healing a City,” what do the stories of the Piotrowskis and the Satterlees have in common? (compare and contrast) Both the Piotrowskis and the Satterlees helped others in need.

Bring the class back together to answer the following critical-thinking questions.

Critical-Thinking Questions

• The life of a storm chaser seems quite dangerous. Why might someone choose to study extreme weather up close? It’s probably exciting. Piotrowski probably finds chasing storms fascinating and rewarding. The more we understand about tornadoes, the better we may be able to keep people safe.
• Why do you think the author included the stories of both the Satterlees and the Piotrowskis? By including both, the author gives readers a broader understanding of people’s experiences during the tornado than she would have had she written about only one family. By including the information about the Piotrowskis, she is able to include scientific details about tornadoes and weather prediction.
  

Play the audio

• Have students turn to the poem “Joey, 4th grade, 1992” on page 10.
• Play our audio recording at Scope Online while students follow along in their magazines.
  

Annotate the poem

• Break students into groups to read the poem a second time. As they read, they should mark the poem with these symbols:

? = I have a question about the line.

Y= I find this line emotional.

I = I find this line interesting.

F = This is figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, etc.).

• Call on students to share how they annotated the poem. Encourage them to respond to each other’s ideas and discuss any questions or insights.

Bring the class back together to answer the following critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions

• What object is the poem about? How can you tell? (inference) The poem is about a photograph that the speaker found in the wreckage of the tornado. A number of clues in the text make this clear. The speaker says that “he” (the boy in the photo) is on the fridge under a magnet; that’s a place where photos are commonly displayed. The speaker also says, “Somewhere a childhood photo album is not quite complete, or a grandmother’s mantelpiece; an uncle’s wallet.”
• Why is the poem’s title set inside quotation marks? (text feature) The phrasing of the title sounds like the way someone might label a school photograph. You can infer that the words “Joey, 4th grade, 1992” are written on the photograph.
  
• What does the line “a small reminder of the whirling aftermath” tell you about how the tornado affected Joplin? (interpreting text) This line implies that things seemed to be whirling even after the tornado had passed—that the atmosphere in Joplin remained chaotic and disorienting.
  

Critical-Thinking Question

• What are the similarities and differences between the content of the article and the poem? Students may say that similarities include: Both texts are about the same event and explore how the tornado affected the people of Joplin. Differences include: the article focuses mainly on events during the tornado itself, while the poem focuses on the aftermath.
  

Distribute the Author’s Craft activity, which will prepare students to respond to the writing prompt on page 10.