Page 39 - SpringBoard_Writing_Workshop_Grade7_Flipbook

Writing Workshop 4 (continued)
My Notes
2. What are some elements that are common to good short stories? Students’ responses might include an exciting plot, characters that the
reader cares about, a clearly described setting, or a surprising ending.
During Reading
3. As you read “A Hundred Bucks of Happy,” look for elements of a good story and mark the text when you find them.
Students’ responses might include the narrator’s tone, strong ending that emphasizes the main ideas, and descriptive details.
A Hundred Bucks of Happy
by Susan Beth Pfeffer
I found it on the corner of Maple and Grove streets. That isn’t the way I usually walk home from school, but that day I had gotten lost in thought and forgotten to
turn at Oak, which saves me a half block. Which only goes to prove that daydreaming can be cost-effective. Anyway, there it was, not exactly glistening in the sunlight, because dollar bills don’t glisten. I knew it was a bill of some sort, because it had that well-used green look to it, but I assumed that it was a five, or maybe if my luck were extraordinary, a ten. Whatever it was, I was going to be happy to have it, so I bent down fast, to make sure I got it before anybody else walking down Grove or Maple could find it. It’s a well-walked intersection.
I bent down, scooped the money up, and started walking away fast, with that heart-beating sensation of having done something exciting and wrong, even though as far as I know, there’s no crime in finding money on the street. I’ve read about people who do that for a hobby, jog with their heads down, collecting the nickels and dimes they find as they run. Whatever this was, it wasn’t a dime, and I didn’t feel like taking any chances. So I bent, swooped, and increased my pace until by the time I reached Elm I was half running. Not that anybody cared. The rest of the world kept on walking toward whatever their lives were propelling them to. The money was as much mine as if it had been left to me by some munificent great aunt.
I was three doors away from my house before I took the bill out of my jacket pocket, to check its denomination. As I did, I noticed there was a hole in my pocket and the money had slipped into the lining. It took a bit of searching before I found it, but eventually my fingers made contact, and I found what I was looking for.
It was a hundred-dollar bill. I had never seen one before, so I wouldn’t have recognized it, but it was clearly labeled. Ben Franklin stared at me—and I swear he winked—as I turned his bill over and over, not believing it could be real, not believing my luck.
2 SpringBoard® Writing Workshop with Grammar Activities Grade 7
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