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Copywork
About This Passage
Three reasons. First, the passage is a prayer that never names itself a prayer — Paulsen builds it as a parallel list with the word 'grateful' repeated four times in a rising rhythm, teaching the pupil that repetition in prose can carry the quiet weight of psalmody. Second, each 'grateful' item is a chain of cause: Brian is grateful for the coals because he remembered to collect wood, and grateful for the wood because he planned ahead two or three days, and grateful for the fish because he built a fish pond earlier in the novel. The whole gratitude list is secretly an inventory of Brian's OWN prior choices — the past-Brian who prepared has saved the present-Brian who is hurt. Third, the list ends with the simplest possible thanks — 'grateful, finally, as he dozed off, that he was alive' — and the small word 'finally' teaches the pupil that the most important thing often comes last, almost offhand. Copying this passage teaches the child that gratitude is not a feeling you wait for; it is a sentence you construct, one small 'grateful that' at a time, until sleep comes.
When he got to the shelter he crawled inside and was grateful that the coals were still glowing and that he had thought to get wood first thing in the mornings to be ready for the day, grateful that h...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell chapter sixteen in five or six sentences for a reader who has not read it. Include Brian's growing list of First Days (Arrow Day, Rabbit Day), his new confidence as a hunter, the sudden MOOSE attack that injures his ribs and fills him with the word 'insane,' the tornado that destroys his shelter in the middle of the night and takes almost everything he has made, his decision in the dark that he is 'tough in the head' and will REBUILD, and the startling discovery at dawn that the tornado has flipped the plane and raised its tail above the water.
Discussion Questions
- Brian's chapter opens with a list of First Days — First Arrow Day, First Rabbit Day — days so important they get proper names. What does this name-giving tell you about how Brian now measures his time? What in the text helps you see the change?
- When the moose attacks, Brian's mind keeps saying one word: 'Insane.' The narrator returns to this word three different times. Why does Paulsen repeat it? What is the author showing about what it feels like when something happens with no reason behind it?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Torn or worn into ragged pieces from hard use.
Item 2
Without any reason or sense; so unreasonable it seems crazy.
Item 3
Feeling thankful for something good, especially after hard times.
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Critical Thinking
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