NYC-Feature Story

A Loved One in Danger (reading/
summarizing lesson)

Story: “Brother at War, Worry at Home,” by Annmarie Turton, p. 4

Objective: Students will strengthen skills in reading, summarizing, and answering questions about a text.

Before the lesson: Print out the question sheet below and have it ready to give to your students.

Activity: Hand out copies of the December/January issue of New Youth Connections magazine or a printed version of the story downloaded from the Youth Communication website (youthcomm.org). Tell your students they are going to read a story by a young woman about life at home during the time her brother was fighting in Iraq. They will then answer some questions about the story in writing.

First, read them this sentence from the story to get them interested in reading it: “My mom’s greatest fear was getting that dreaded knock on the door from a member of the military to tell her that her son Mark had been injured or killed.”

Depending on the vocabulary skills of your class, you may want to review the meaning of the following words before having students read the story:

Adjacent
Deployed
Pervaded
Dreaded
Notorious
Militants

Irreparable
Magnitude
Stoic
Vow
Abreast

NOTE: The last question asks your group to write letters to the author of this article. We are eager to publish student letters in New Youth Connections magazine. Feel free to send your students’ letters to us.

Worksheet: A Loved One in Danger Name__________________________

Directions: Answer the questions below in essay answer format. This means you should use parts of the question to start your answer. Write 3-6 complete sentences for each question. The answer for the first question has been started for you.

1. What is the full title of this story? Who wrote the story?
(Example: The full title of the story is…)

2. Many stories and books describe problems that someone tries to solve, or a challenge that a character has to face. What characters are involved in the situation in the story? What is the main struggle or challenge faced by the writer in this story? How does she try to face the situation? Does she succeed? (Remember, start your answer by using part of the question. For example, “The main characters in the story are…”)

3. How would you describe the author? Use adjectives and refer to specific events in the story to show what kind of person she is. (For example, you can write, “Annmarie is curious because she plans to ask her brother all about war when she can.”) Come up with three adjectives to describe the author and three references in the story that show what she’s like.

4. What are some of the bad things that can happen to her brother that Annmarie worries about?

5. On the back of this paper (or a separate sheet of paper), write a five-sentence letter to Annmarie telling her how you think she handled her situation. Here are some ideas on how to start the letter:
“I admire how you tried to…”
“I think you showed a lot of _______ when facing your situation.”
“If I was in your situation I would have…”