Into the Storm

Essential questions: Why do people tease? How do we find our courage? What is a ghost?

Give students a few minutes to look over the story and the close-reading questions in the margins.

DIFFERENTIATION: Students who need more support should listen to the audio version of the story before class.

• Read the story once through as a class.
• Divide students into groups to read the story again, pausing to discuss the close-reading questions. Have students write their answers in the margins or on the Close-Reading Questions handout. 
  

Answers to Close-Reading Questions

1. Point of View (p. 19) The main character is Tucker Willis. You know because almost everything LaShana Mae says is about Tucker. Even when she talks about herself, the information relates to Tucker.
2. Text Structure (p. 19) This detail is important because it’s a hint that there is something unusual about Richard. Why would someone in the Coast Guard call it by the wrong name? Later, readers understand that this is a hint to Richard’s identity as the ghost of a man who lived more than 100 years ago.
3. Character (p. 19) That Tucker mentions being short as a reason he wouldn’t be qualified to join the Coast Guard suggests that he thinks being short could limit him. On the other hand, LaShana Mae has told us that Tucker can do pretty much anything any other kid his age can do, and that he is good at everything he does. His actions suggest that Tucker hasn’t let being short get in his way. What does bother him is being made fun of for being short. Although he is tough and able to laugh off the names he is called, the names do hurt him, as LaShana explains on page 18.
4. Text Structure (p. 19) Later, Tucker saves this man from drowning, which means that this comment states exactly the opposite of the truth. It is the man who should not be so far out at sea, not Tucker.
5. Word Choice (p. 21) This word choice creates a vivid image in the reader’s mind of the man clinging to the raft with everything he’s got. It helps the reader understand the man’s sense of panic and also suggests that the man provided no help in getting to shore; he just held on to his raft as though he were attached to it.
6. Mood (p. 21) Answers will vary. Students may say the moment Tucker realizes that Richard was a ghost is a bit spooky, but that overall, the story is not spooky. For one thing, by the time Tucker—and the reader—discover that Richard is a ghost, Richard is gone. Plus, Richard seems like a regular person and is nothing but friendly and encouraging. There’s never anything to be afraid of.
7. Inference (p. 21) Tucker likely stopped talking about Richard because he realized that Richard was a ghost—and Tucker didn’t want people to think he was crazy for telling a story about being helped by a ghost.
8. Inference (p. 21) LaShana Mae means that though Tucker was small for his age, he saved a man’s life—a mighty big thing. She is likely also referring to how Tucker ended up joining the Coast Guard.

• Preview the Vocabulary Words and Definitions.
• Read “Saved From Disaster” as a class.
• Discuss the questions below.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

• Do you think the ghost was real and that Richard really helped save Tucker and Mr. Nibbles? Students who think Richard was real and helped in the rescue may say there is no reason to believe events did not happen as LaShana Mae describes them. Tucker wouldn’t have recognized Richard in the book if he hadn’t met Richard’s ghost. Other students may think that Tucker did meet Richard’s ghost on the pier but only imagined Richard being there for the rescue—which could explain why Richard was dressed in modern clothes that day and why no one but Tucker saw him. Other students may say that Tucker imagined Richard completely—that perhaps Tucker had read about Richard previously but had forgotten he’d done so.
• How does Tucker’s experience with Richard change Tucker or affect his life? On a basic level, Richard helped save Tucker’s life. Richard also helped others see Tucker for the brave, strong, capable kid he was—which put an end to their teasing and confirmed for Tucker that he was capable of greatness. Perhaps Richard also inspired Tucker to join the Coast Guard.
• Compare “Into the Storm” with “Saved From Disaster” in terms of the information provided about Richard Etheridge and how that information is presented. The two texts provide similar information, though “Saved From Disaster” provides more biographical detail and addresses the discrimination that Richard faced, which “Into the Storm” does not. In “Into the Storm,” the information about Richard is secondary to the plot involving Tucker; “Saved From Disaster” is strictly about Richard. It too, however, contains a narrative: the rescue of the E.S. Newman.

Featured Skill: Character (15 minutes)

To prepare students for the prompt on page 22, have them complete the activity Comparing Characters. For alternate culminating tasks, see the boxes below.