The Great Escape Introducing the Selection Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas Writing Skills Focus: Preparing for Timed

The Great Escape

Introducing the Selection

Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas

Writing Skills Focus: Preparing for Timed Writing

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The Great EscapeIntroducing the Selection

Is the will to escape one of instinct or intellect?


An enemy attack cripples your plane.

Below you, the enemy is waiting.

You drift to the ground, dangling beneath your parachute.


Will you even try?

Wrongfully imprisoned, underfed, threatened with death, and far from home, how will you plan your escape?

The Nazi prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft III was far from any neutral territory and was built on ground that was mostly shifting sand.


Still, some captives were determined to make it out alive.

Will they?

[End of Section]

When you research a subject, you read many different sources. Source 1

Source 2

Source 3

Source 4

Then, you need to synthesize the information, or put all the pieces together, to see the big picture.

The Great Escape Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources:

Analyzing Main Ideas

First, you must analyze the main idea, or central message, of each text.

Take notes about each writer’s most important point, opinion, or message.





To find the main idea, ask the following questions as you read:

• What is the writer trying to say?

• Why is the author making that point?

The Great Escapefrom Boys Lifeby Thomas Fleming

The seven hundred fliers in the prisoner of war camp called Stalag Luft III came from many countries—the United States, England, Canada, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Australia, South Africa. They had two things in common.From "The Great Escape" by Thomas Fleming from Boys' Life, March 1997. Copyright © 1997 by Thomas Fleming. Reproduced by permission of the author.

Use these tips for finding the main idea:1. Read the article’s title to see if it provides a clue.

What clues does this title provide?

The main idea may be about why this large escape was impressive.

The article is about an escape.The escape was large or amazing.



Pretending Defeat Then disaster struck. The Germans dis-

The Escape Factory The tunnels were only the beginning. “I

The Escape Genius The Germans seemed to have thought of

2. Scan the headings of the article.

What will the article’s important points be about?

Another point will be about items that the prisoners created.

One point will be about a prisoner who leads the escape.

A third point will be about deceiving the Germans.

Use these tips for finding the main idea:



From "The Great Escape" by Thomas Fleming from Boys' Life, March 1997. Copyright © 1997 by Thomas Fleming. Reproduced by permission of the author.

3. Read the article’s introduction.

Does it conclude with a main idea?





4. Look for the repetition of key phrases or ideas within in the article.




5. Re-read the article’s conclusion. Has the author restated the main idea?



Listen to this passage from “The Great Escape.”

What is the main idea of the passage?

Main Idea: Features of the prison camp—including towers, guards, and punishments—made escape difficult, if not impossible.



From "The Great Escape" by Thomas Fleming from Boys' Life, March 1997. Copyright © 1997 by Thomas Fleming. Reproduced by permission of the author.

Title of Article The Great Escape

Into Action: Use a chart to record information that may help you identity the article’s main idea.

Main Idea Chart

Text Feature My Comments

Headings

Repetition of Key Ideas

Conclusion

[End of Section]



Preparing for Timed Writing

The Great Escape Writing Skills Focus

[End of Section]

As you read “The Great Escape,” record notes about the ideas presented. Then, paraphrase, or restate the main idea in your own words. What is the writer trying to tell us about people’s desire for escape?

Vocabulary

The Great Escape Vocabulary

prowled v.: hunted; stalked.

pursued v.: followed; or chased.


Guards prowled the camp, always on the lookout for escaping prisoners.

The sentence below may help you understand how the word prowled is used in “The Great Escape.”

What types of activities might a wolf that prowled the forest perform? Describe that wolf’s actions as it hunted.

Although thousands of policemen and troops prowled the country . . .


some prisoners escaped: They avoided the hunters who stalked them.


With its eyes glued on a young gazelle, a cheetah prowled through the tall grass.

What’s likely to happen to the gazelle?


Once the prisoners had escaped, they found themselves being pursued by thousands of people.

The sentence below may help you understand how the word pursued is used in “The Great Escape.”

Why might the German government have been so desperate to have a few escaped prisoners pursued?

Guards knew the escape routes that prisoners were likely to take, so it would be difficult to avoid being chased.


Once the prisoners emerged from the tunnel, they would certainly be pursued. They might be free of the camp, but they would still need to escape—from Germany itself.


Sometimes the sidewalks were so crowded that Paul felt as if he were being pursued by crowds of shoppers and park visitors.

Is Paul comfortable in crowded situations? How do you know?

The End

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The Great Escape Introducing the Selection Informational Text Focus: Synthesizing Sources: Analyzing Main Ideas Writing Skills Focus: Preparing for Timed