The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Bell-work: (Frontloading) Do you daydream? When are you most likely to daydream? What type of things do you daydream about? Are there any negatives to daydreaming? What about positives? Explain!

Classwork: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Page 296: Guide For Reading (Prentice Hall)

1. What years was James Thurber alive? What inventions do you think were not around when he died?

2. When was the story we are about to read first published?

3. What area of the country is Thurber from?

4. Where did Thurber begin his writing career?

5. Name two colleges that Thurber received honorary degrees from.

Page 297: Literary Focus

6. What is Point of View?

7. Explain what “limited point of view” is.

Page 299: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

8. Describe the first scenario that Walter Mitty is daydreaming about.

9. Who brings Walter’s mind back to reality, who is this person and what are they concerned about?

10. Explain how this page in the story reminds you to “expect the unexpected.”

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11. Do you believe Mrs. Mitty thinks her husband is helpless? Provide examples.

12. Describe the second scenario that Walter Mitty is daydreaming.

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13. Who “snaps” Walter Mitty back to reality during his second daydream sequence?

14. What types of things might an “insolent” person do?

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15. Describe the third scenario that Walter Mitty is daydreaming.

16. What is Mrs. MItty doing while Walter goes to the store?

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What scenario does Walter Mitty imagine himself at the end of the story?

Exit Slip: Do you feel sorry for Walter Mitty? Why or why not?

Common Assessment: Open Book Quiz

1. How is Malter Mitty jarred out of his first daydream?

2. Describe each of the five characters Mitty daydreams himself to be?

3. What triggers Mitty’s second, third, and fourth daydreams, and how is he pulled out of each one?

Homework: Define the following term in the glossary in the back of your book. Use each in an original sentence: rakishly, hurtling, distraught, haggard, insolent, insinuatingly, cur, cannonading, derisive, inscrutable

Common Core Standards

RL.3 Analyze how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme (Literary Analysis: Character)

W.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

L.1 Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing and speaking.