Standards Correlations

R.1, R.3, R.4, R.7, W.3, SL.1, L.4, L.6

Learning Objective

Students will use text evidence to draw and support a conclusion.

Key Skills

text evidence, text features, vocabulary, sequence of events, author’s craft, cause and effect, inference, critical thinking, narrative writing

Complexity Factors

Purpose: The text describes a series of shark attacks that took place in 1916 on the Jersey Shore.

 

Structure: The text is mainly narrative but includes some informational passages.

 

Language: The article contains some domain-specific vocabulary, which is defined in the vocabulary box.

 

Knowledge Demands: No prior knowledge is required.

Levels

Lexile: 600L-700L 

Guided Reading Level: S 

DRA Level: 40

Lesson Plan: Summer of Blood

Essential Questions

  • How does scientific understanding change over time?
  • Why is it important to study events from the past?

Literature Connection

  • Historical fiction: I Survived: The Shark Attacks of 1916 by Lauren Tarshis 
  • Novel: The Bull Shark by Joseph Monninger 

1. Preparing to Read 

Preview Text Features (10 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article in their magazines or at Action Online. Preview the text features by asking the following questions:

  • Read the article’s title and subtitle and look at the opening image. What do the image and the title tell you about the article? Sample answer: The title “Summer of Blood” is dramatic and scary, which makes it seem that the story will contain gory, shocking details. The opening image shows a huge shark with sharp teeth and a wide-open mouth, and two people seemingly trying to escape. From these details we can guess that the story will be about a dangerous experience with a shark. 
  • Study the map. List the locations of the shark attacks that took place along the Jersey Shore in 1916 in the order in which they happened. According to the map, the first attack took place in Beach Haven on July 1, the next one in Spring Lake on July 6, and the third in Matawan on July 12.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

  • Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (frantically, witnesses, appetite, freak, deliberately, recovered) aloud and discuss their definitions.
  • Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

  • Set a purpose for reading by telling students that the article “Summer of Blood” tells the story of a series of shark attacks that took place in New Jersey in 1916.
  • Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions.
  • Tell students that as they finish each section, they should think about how the text features on the page (e.g., photos, captions, and section headings) relate to what they’ve just read.
  • Point out the activity at the end of the article, and tell students they’ll complete it after reading. Encourage them to keep the Think About It! question at the bottom in mind as they read.

 2. Reading and Unpacking the Text

Read the article. (Higher- and lower-Lexile versions are available on the Story page at Action Online. Click Presentation View to access an audio read-aloud.) Then discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

  • In the introduction, how does the author describe Matawan Creek? How does the tone of the introduction contrast with the illustration on the title page? (author’s craft) The author makes Matawan Creek sound like the perfect getaway. Its cool water is a happy escape, and the place feels like heaven compared with the hot summer in the city. The boys enjoy swimming and cooling off in the creek. However, the illustration shows a very different picture: a close-up of a shark’s huge open mouth with sharp teeth, and two boys running away.
  • The article says that after Charles Vansant’s death, many people doubted that the attack had come from a shark. What caused people to change their minds? (cause and effect) After Charles Bruder was also attacked, it was clear that the attack had come from a shark. People understood that a man-eating shark was in the area. 
  • What role did Captain Thomas Cottrell play in Joseph’s story? What might have happened if he hadn’t taken action? (inference) Cottrell spotted the shark in Matawan Creek and spread the word. Although others doubted him and didn’t join his rescue mission, he got into his boat and rushed up the creek. Without the captain and the two men in his boat, Joseph Dunn might not have survived.

Critical-Thinking Questions (10 minutes)

  • The article describes how our understanding of sharks has changed since the early 1900s. Based on this information, what can we guess about our knowledge of sharks and other sea creatures today? (critical thinking) Before 1916, people felt sure that no shark would ever bite a human. That was wrong. After the attacks, people felt sure that sharks were monsters. That was wrong too. Based on this information, we can guess that our knowledge of sharks and other sea creatures might still be incomplete. It’s likely that we have more to learn.
  • The article says that Joseph Dunn rarely spoke about the summer of 1916. Why might this be? (inference) Answers will vary. Students will likely say that Joseph’s experience with the shark was too scary and upsetting for him to want to relive it by talking about it.

3. Skill Building and Writing

  • Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill Workout: Text Evidence activity. As a class, discuss students’ answers and the Think About It! question.
  • Have students work independently to complete our Sequence of Events Skill Builder, available in higher- and lower-level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
  • Writing prompt: Imagine that you’re the “New Jersey man-eater,” swimming along the coast in 1916. What do you see as you swim? How do you feel? Why are you attacking humans? Write a paragraph describing the summer of 1916 from the shark’s point of view. Include details from the article.

Learn-Anywhere Activity

An enrichment activity to extend the learning journey at home or in the classroom

Project the task below on your whiteboard or share it with students in your LMS.

Learn More About Sharks

After reading the article, watch our video “Beyond the Story: Summer of Blood.” In the video, author Lauren Tarshis shares a number of facts she learned about sharks while preparing to write the article. After viewing the video, gather with a few classmates and discuss these questions:

  • How do you feel when you think about sharks? Why?
  • How does our understanding of nature change over time?
  • Do sharks do more harm to humans, or do humans do more harm to sharks?
  • If great white sharks died out, how would other animals be affected? How would humans be affected?

Language-Acquisition Springboard

Discuss rhetorical questions to boost students’ comprehension and fluency.

After reading the article, direct students’ attention to the section heading “Why Worry?” Let them know that the phrase is a rhetorical question: a question that isn’t meant to be answered. 

Explain that rhetorical questions are more like statements: They are used to make a point. In the section “Why Worry?,” the author notes that the boys must have known about the earlier shark attacks. Then she asks, “But why would [they] worry?” She isn’t really asking the reader why the boys would worry. She’s pointing out that the boys had, or thought they had, nothing to worry about because the creek was far from the ocean.

Another example from the article: In the opening section, after the author describes the boys jumping into the cool water of the creek, she asks, “What could be better than this?” She isn’t asking the reader to name things that could be better. She means that to the boys, it seemed that nothing could be better.

Rhetorical questions are common in English but can be hard for multilingual learners to identify. Tell students that when a question is unexpected or hard to answer, it might be a rhetorical question. For more practice interpreting rhetorical questions, offer these common examples:

  • A friend asks you if food will be served at the school dance, and you answer, “How should I know?” What you mean is ______. (I don’t know)
  • Your camping trip is canceled because of rain. Your mom shrugs and says, “What can you do?” She means ______. (there’s nothing you can do)
  • You ask your cousin if he wants to go to the big concert next weekend. He answers, “Who wouldn’t?” He means that ______. (anyone would)
Looking for more ELL support? Download our full lesson plan and scroll to p. 5 to find questions that will help your ELLs respond to the text at the level that’s right for them.

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