An American Childhood

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Seven-year old Annie Dillard enjoys playing football with the boys in her neighborhood because it requires her to play with concentration and courage. One day, Dillard and the boys are throwing snowballs at passing cars and a man driving one of the targeted cars stops and jumps out to confront the children. They all run in different directions, but the man chases after Dillard and her friend Mikey. The man grabs them and the children. Dillard is exhilarated because she has met someone who really challenges her to do her best in the chase. (McDougal Littell The Language of Literature, 2002)

This lesson was created as part of the Anthology Alignment Project, during which teachers created CCSS-aligned lessons for existing literary and information texts in anthologies. All page numbers and unit/week designations found in this lesson relate to the edition of the anthology named above. If you are using a trade book or different edition of this title, the page/unit/week references in this lesson will not match. Consult the content referenced in the body of the lesson to determine appropriate page numbers for your text.

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