Focus/Context

Part of learning how to understand stories involves the realization that a story is not just about characters and setting, it is about reaching some sort of understanding about life. By reading The Bargain, students will be exposed to the literary elements of foreshadowing, irony, and cause and effect.

Specific Curriculum Outcomes

1. Students will be expected to ask questions to probe for accuracy, relevancy, and validity, and respond thoughtfully and appropriately to questions.
   
2. Students will explore personal points of view about texts, citing appropriate evidence.
   
3. Students will identify values inherent in a text.
   
4. Students will recognize how and when personal background influences both the creation of texts and the readers'/viewers' interpretation and response.

Activities

• Students will revisit/review the literary terms: foreshadowing; irony.
  
• Students will be introduced to the concept of cause and effect.
  
• Students will listen and read along as the short story The Bargain by Jennifer Currie is read aloud.
  
• Students will complete a Story Map in their notebooks about The Bargain:
  
  i.e. Character + Conflict + Resolution = New Understanding = Theme
  
  
• Students will answer the following questions in their notebooks:
  (i)Find an example of foreshadowing in the story.
  (ii)What, if anything, is ironic about the story?
  (iii)Jaimee traded one set of events for another. Think about an event in your own life that you wish you could change and write a short description of what might have happened if you could go back and change things. Keep in mind the theme of this story.

Resources

• The Bargain by Jennifer Currie (What A Story!: Anthology, 51)