Setting: Practice Together

Now read a different version of this story aloud with your class. As you read, listen for details about the setting. After you read, complete the activities next to the passage.

It was almost midnight when Kit Fox left her den in the alley behind the trash bin. Hunting had not been good the night before because of the storm and flooding, and she was hungry. She needed to find food, so she crept along the alley hunting for food. Soon, Kit Fox saw Roadrunner with a rain-soaked meal in his beak. Roadrunner looked up nervously. It was dangerous for a bird to be out this late, especially around strangers.

  • 1. Describe the time and place and what the characters think.

  • 2. Compare the different settings in these two versions of “A Foxy Challenge.”

  • 3. With a partner, predict how the plot of the second version would be different from the first plot as a result of the different setting.

Try It!

Read the following passage aloud and answer the questions about the elements of fiction. Tell how you know.

A Music Caper

“Who stole my new CD?” shouted Rudy from his room. He was getting ready for school. One by one, Rudy approached his family members. He knocked on his sister’s door. “Cara, give me back my CD,” he said. She opened the door. “I don’t have it Rudy,” she replied. Rudy looked around. His CD was not there.

Illustration of a CD

Then he went to his brother’s room. “Andrew, where is my new CD?” “I don’t have it, Rudy,” he replied.

“Mom, Dad, have you seen my new CD?” Rudy said as he searched the kitchen. He looked everywhere but still couldn’t find it. “I don’t have it, Rudy,” his mom said. “Rudy, you’ve asked each one of us, and you’ve searched every room. We don’t have it,” his dad said.

Rudy was not convinced. If his new CD was missing, someone must have taken it. He sat at the breakfast table sulking.

Later as Rudy sat on the bus to school, he reached into his backpack to get his science book. As he searched for the book, he felt a square shape. Rudy had found his new CD. It had been in his backpack all along!

That day after school, Rudy apologized to his family. Then they all sat down together to listen to his new CD.

  • 1. What is the setting?

  • 2. Who are the characters and what are they like?

  • 3. What is the conflict?

  • 4. How does the main character resolve the conflict?

  • 5. How would the plot be different if the characters were fish and the setting was the ocean?