Directions: Today you will be taking a short test using what you have learned about reading fiction texts.

Transcription

1 Name: Date: Teacher: Reading Fiction Lesson Quick Codes for this set: LZ925, LZ926, LZ927, LZ928, LZ929, LZ930, LZ931 Common Core State Standards addressed: RL.6.1, RL.6.10, RL.6.2, RL.6.5 Lesson Text: The Reformation of Jimmy Valentine Safe Cracker, based on the story by O. Henry, adapted by Shellie Braeuer Assessment Text: The Dream Opportunity for Redheads, by Luann Sessions based on the story The Red-Headed League by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Directions: Today you will be taking a short test using what you have learned about reading fiction texts. 1) (RL.6.10) Preview the short story, The Dream Opportunity for Redheads. What do you predict this story will be about? Why? LearnZillion, Inc., 2012

2 2) (RL.6.5) Now read the story, The Dream Opportunity for Redheads. As you read, use the chart below to keep track of your thinking about the character Holmes. What Holmes does, says, and thinks What does this tell me about Holmes? 3) (RL.6.5) After reading The Dream Opportunity for Redheads analyze the character Holmes. Did he undergo a change throughout the story? If so, what kind of change? If not, how do you know he did not change? Make sure you use specific evidence from the text to support your answer. LearnZillion, Inc., 2012

3 4) (RL.6.1) Why does the narrator feel a chill when he sees Holmes smile and greet George in a friendly way? What does this tell you about the narrator? About Holmes? Make sure you use evidence from the story to support your answer. 5) (RL.6.2) What is a theme of A Dream Opportunity for Redheads? Use specific evidence from the text to support your thinking. LearnZillion, Inc., 2012

4 6) (RL.6.2) How do you think this theme applies to the real world? LearnZillion, Inc., 2012

5 The Dream Opportunity for Redheads By Luann Sessions, based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle story, The Red- Headed League I found Sherlock Holmes in his usual spot, in the back room of his apartment. He was eating grapes and casually flipping through the channels on his television. In those dim quarters you somehow felt the cares of the world on your shoulders. There were certain things that were a constant when you visited Holmes. he had hanging from a lanyard around his neck Then hem- ing and ha- chuckle. He was a likable guy. More different kinds of people showed up in the back room of his apartment than you could find in a New York subway. Holmes went out of his way to make friends with all sorts, the stranger they were, the better he liked them. Helping people solve their mysteries was his main source of entertainment. I liked to drop by and visit him on my way home after my Thursday morning classes. I teach medical students at the local university. As people go, I of his less colorful friends. Holmes already had a guest on this particular occasion, a middle- aged man with a crimson face and fiery red hair. In spite of the fact that he appeared to be busy channel surfing, Holmes had enough attention to keep up the conversation with Mr. Red. He preferred things that way, chugging along with all cylinders turning., education was no trophy, but at least it made me a more distinguished man. I could see by the lo His eyes narrowed a little. 1 P age

6 - to- meet- Watson n and not the slickly packaged, Hollywood kind either. You got the raw kind, the kind that over and study out in your mind until some little truth in it hits you and you can relax and let the whole thing go. Mysteries. F g He handed the scrap to me. at our lab. Job requirements: must be male, a genuine redhead, and over 21. Call for details: RED- Admittedly, it seemed like a strange ad. Frank continued when I handed the wished he could take advantage of the oppor kept after me about it saying I was passing up the easiest four hundred bucks whole house since Lorna died. Anyway, h s a great tenant. He and a friend of his have been living there since September. Well, for awhile at 2 P age

7 . If he was on to something, his face didn t show it. called the number and get this it turns out that some scientists at the local university are doing a sleep and dream study on red heads to determine if we dream any differently than blonds or brunettes. Apparently, that we do, and they wanted to find out if what color your hair is has to do with how your brain works. Can you believe it? Anyway, they gave me a place and a time and all I had to do was show up and prove that my hair is red. So I did, and they pulled my hair to see if it was really researcher, William Cowley. It was just a little upstairs office in that strip mall on 20 th place little pads all over my head and wired me up to some equipment in a little side room. It was a really simple operation, just a bed and a lamp and the machine. But he always talked about the other scientists, and the front office was set up for a receptionist so I assumed they were busy somewhere else. I always came in after- hours. to midnight. I knew that was going to be a difficult. You see, I work the night shift out at the computer plant. All I really do is watch the camera monitors to make sure no one breaks in. years and nothing ever happens on my shift, so I thought I could get away being gone for four hours once a week. No one would ever know, and, the plant is only half as busy as it He paused and looked down. He glanced at me, then at Holmes, as if considering if he wanted to share the rest with a stranger. continued for your help. That plant was robbed last Tuesday night while I was at the sleep study and I lost my job. Not only that, but when I showed up for my sleep appointment on Thursday night after that, the whole office was dark and 3 P age

8 That was it. No William. No machines. No bed. No nothing, just an empty office in pocket Holmes shook his head and chuckled grimly like you do when the situation is really bad. He glanced at his hands and then back at Frank. I took a second look at old Frank and noted that Holmes had seen something in him that I had missed. Holmes saw Frank to the door. There was the familiar tinkling of bells as the door opened and closed people just walking into his apartment unannounced. Holmes and I consulted with one another for a while in that dark apartment. unfortunate, Holmes was in his element. For him, i this. Personally, I was dr d. you whole thing. that Frank thinks he is. The only tting the pieces together got a big truck parked somewhere stuffed full of hot, top of the line, When Holmes bet his fortune, you knew two things. One, he was serious; and two, he was talking about maybe twenty dollars and some change. 4 P age

9 locked up his apartment and we drove to Longmont where Frank lives. We cops were working on the case. rang the bell. I stayed close behind Holmes, but I was going to let him take the lead on this one. I recognize as not unlike a cat smirking at a mouse. I felt a chill. The more charming Holmes became, the closer the danger. His friendliness always confused people. George looked puzzled, but remained pleasant. He met Holmes with some charm of his own. steady eye. with a bright smile The game was over and the fight had begun. He took a step backwards and looked around him. Showing his anxiety was a mistake. Holmes stepped into the room and I followed. Though a large man, Holmes was unusually quick. He grabbed George in a bear hug. ncern and forced George into his own chair. George was like a cornered dog. His eyes were moist and fierce and he was breathing heavily, but 5 P age

10 There would be no fight. Holmes had gained the upper hand. The whole thing was over in one masterful moment. Later, when the police were booking George and Holmes and I were back in the car, I asked Holmes how he had known to be so direct with George. ore he has time to make a plan. I counted on the element of surprise. It was the right call. I knew it the moment he met us at the door. He was overconfident, which is what y There it was, Holmes the genius consulting detective good with mysteries, better with people. George grew gradually meeker until, like a guilty young boy, he finally allowed Holmes to call the police. When they took him away he looked at Holmes with the most magnificent mixture of fear and, hard to believe, trust. Holmes George had planned to drive his truckload of pilfered computers across the country to sell them where they might not be recognized as stolen goods. Months before, George had followed Frank home from the computer plant and done some research on him. He set up the bogus dream study and placed a. Each Tuesday night, while George and his sidekick broke into the computer plant and stole the computers, transferring them just one machine at a time. They d done this for months until their final job, when they took the last twenty. also grabbed the camera feeds on every visit. As Holmes predicted, truck was found parked in a back lot not far from the plant, all of the computers neatly packed inside. The computer plant s owner, grateful to Frank for bringing Holmes in to crack the case, took pity on him and hired him back as a day janitor. And George? He went to jail, 6 P age

11 where he was occasionally visited by a large, graying man with a cell phone hanging from a lanyard around his neck. 7 P age