Foreshadowing {in Tuck Everlasting}

Foreshadowing is a technique that authors use all the time, yet I find myself rarely discussing it in class.  Well, I thought I would do a little close reading of the prologue in Tuck Everlasting and have the students annotate the text to show evidence of foreshadowing.

We started by making an anchor chart for the literary technique.  The students took notes in their reading journals.  While we did this, the students naturally came up with examples from other books we had read aloud in class where the new-to-them device was used.  That was a promising sign ;)

Then, I passed out a photocopy of the Prologue to each student (as I didn't want them writing in my brand new books!)  On it, I had them write the main purpose of our annotation at the top of the page.  We wrote:

Purpose:  Underline evidence of foreshadowing in the text and write any thoughts about what it may be a foreshadow of.

For five minutes, the students worked independently.  I wanted to see what they would do alone before I led them through any example or they had partners to bounce ideas off of.  Then, once the five minutes were over, I had the students work with their seat partners.  They continued to annotate while I walked around asking them to explain to me what was being underlined and why, as well as asking them what their notes were in reference to.

After five more minutes (because there wasn't *that* much foreshadowing in the prologue), I called them together.  We discussed the foreshadowing and, more importantly, how they thought it was going to impact the rest of the story. 

The students really understood this topic by the end of this 20 minute lesson.  I really foresee great things coming from this lesson in our literary future!  (you see what I did there???  ;))