Printable Version for your convenience!

It Happened on a Friday is a high-interest, highly accessible short story for building reading comprehension. You can download it for free at: http://www.wegottaread.com/MOTOnlineSample.pdf. The actual story starts on page 22 of this document.

Jacob Caldon is a fun-loving, popular jock who discovers that one inappropriate touch in the hallway may cost him everything.

1. Preview Vocabulary - some of the difficult words in the text are in bold print. (The words are also on pages 18-22 of the downloaded document.)
   
   
2. Tea Party (adapted from When Kids Can't Read by Kylene Beers) - print and cut the sentence strips (below), making sure that each student has a strip. (It is fine for a sentence strip to be repeated.)
   
   Tell students that they are about to have a "tea party" - the object of which is to go around sharing what you know (information on the sentence strip) and learning that everyone else knows. The sentence strips are actually parts of story they are about to read. During the "tea party" they are to mingle with each other with these goals in mind:
   
   
   • Share their strip with as many classmates as possible.
     
   • Listen to others as they read their strips.
     
   • Discuss how the information on the strips might be related.
     
   • Speculate on what these strips, collectively, might mean.
   
   
   Give the students about three minutes for their "tea party." Monitor students as they discuss their strips. Then, pair or group students. The pair or group must come up with written prediction (no more than a paragraph) about the selection they are about to read.
   
   Be sure to ask groups how they came up with those statements as they share them aloud.
   
   
3. Preview Story Trailer to help students get the mental movie going in their heads (available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwOlFNduKmU
   

He had only seen bodies like this dancing next to Lil' Wayne on stage.

As Jacob snapped his seatbelt, the tears flowed from his eyes.

"We're not saying another word without a lawyer."

Friday night's game was a bust.

According to Mrs. Richards, number 76 denied touching Stephanie's behind.

It was a great place to girl-watch.

"What's on your shirt?" Johnna asked.

The jeans fit so tightly that Stephanie could hardly breathe.

He was responsible for the trash, the yard, the dog, and often cooking the food.

Stephanie rummaged through the pile of laundry on the couch to no avail.

He was six feet, 250 pounds of pure defense.

"If it was me, I'd flaunt it 'til the day I die," Ashley had said more than once.

Once again, Stephanie had no clean clothes to wear to school.

"I could have just painted these things on my body."

The boys were running away, so she didn't see their faces.

"Could you please send Jacob Caldon to the office?"

They didn't have any proof.

"Can't you pull the videotape or something?"

Somebody was going down, and it wasn't going to be her.

"She's fourteen?" Jacob asked in disbelief.

She, too, wanted to leave the past in the past.

Either read the story aloud or have students take turns reading aloud. This story is high-interest for high school readers, but it is also high-access (reading level 6.1). Since the paragraphs are numbered, you may wish to highlight paragraphs on the copies ahead of time and give the students an opportunity to pre-read their marked paragraphs before actually reading aloud. This will only take a few minutes, but it will give students a chance to practice fluency and it will build even more anticipation for reading.

After paragraph 19:


How are Jacob and Stephanie similar/different?

How would you characterize Jacob/Stephanie? Why?

Would you want to be friends with Jacob/Stephanie? Why or why not?

After paragraph 63:


Give five words to describe how Stephanie is feeling.

Have you ever done something you regretted?

What does "the straw that broke the camel's back" mean?

After paragraph 92:


How did Jacob's lie make the situation worse?

Do you think Jacob should be charged with sexual assault?

Should Jacob's mom stick by him?

1. Ask students open-ended questions and require them to use text evidence in their responses. Examples: How did Jacob/Stephanie change from the beginning to the end of this story? What is one conflict Jacob/Stephanie faced in this story? What lesson did Jacob/Stephanie learn in this story?
   
   
2. Have a Talk Show! Assign roles and have students participate in a talk show featuring main characters and "experts" who can shed light on the issues addressed in the short story. One student (or the teacher) can be the talk show host. Audience members should formulate questions they would like to ask during the show.
   
   
3. Writing: Consider creating writing prompts based on literary themes present in the stories. Also, consider having students create diary entries for different characters.
   
   
4. Compare and Contrast this story with the real-life case of Genarlow Wilson, a 17-year-old Atlanta student who spent almost three years in an adult prison following a consensual act with a 15-year-old girl. Article available at: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=Wilson
   
   
5. Complete the multiple-choice questions on pages 33-35 of downloaded document.

E-Mail Michelle Stimpson!

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