Welcome to Vance's Class

Short stories - In Vance's classes Jan 3 & 4 2016

Here's a short story in three words

Short stories on Twitter, 140 characters

I saw my enemy from 9th grade, Ted Nedland, walking on the road. I lunged the car forward. "Look out!" yelled my wife. No time to explain.

It’s not easy being Fate. I'm overworked. So many things to decide for people. Sometimes I take a break and just let things happen randomly.

Appointment in Samarra

Here is a short story in 200 words

There was a merchant in Bagdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions and in a little while the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd and when I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me.  She looked at me and made a threatening gesture,  now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate.  I will go to Samarra and there Death will not find me.  The merchant lent him his horse, and the servant mounted it, and he dug his spurs in its flanks and as fast as the horse could gallop he went.  Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd and he came to me and said, Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?  That was not a threatening gesture, I said, it was only a start of surprise.  I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.

appointment_samarra.mp4

Appointment in Samarra by Somerset Maugham, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Somerset_Maugham

• You can find the text in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appointment_in_Samarra 
  as it appeared in an epigraph in the eponymous novel by John O'Hara
• Or in a more elaborate layout here: http://www.thestorytelling-resource-centre.com/Appointment_in_Samarra.html 
• And to help students understand the story, let them read also: http://www.storymondo.com/iraq/appointment-in-samarra/

Read the materials above, then watch this video, and then retell the story in your own words (there are no words in the video)

Create a Google Doc and share it with the teacher. Retell the story in your own words.

Finally, answer the comprehension questions on the back of this page

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19IOJFgXxP7Ep_gG-3khY_RtoUV2iu1SiV32rp3ZK2Es/edit?usp=sharing 

(When I did this with my students, I used to have the comprehension questions in Socrative)