Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense

1. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense What issuspense? Read the following passage The minutes ticked by. There was not a sound in the house. Then suddenly Nancy heard the front door open with a bang and Helen’s voice yell loudly and clearly: “Police! Help! Police!” What does it make you think? How does it make you feel?

2. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense Suspense the feeling of fear or uncertainty about future events that writers use to hold their readers’ interest I wonder what’s going to happen next!

3. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense How do movie makers create suspense?

4. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense Writers create suspense… …by using short sentences and repeating certain words. Sonya heard a noise. She backed away from the door. She turned. She ran. She fell. She looked up. She gasped. She screamed.

5. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense Writers create suspense… …by describing a setting that makes readers wonder if something is going to happen. No one had been inside the old abandoned house for thirty years. It was the biggest, oldest, darkest, most rundown house on the block. Every now and then, the sounds of wood and plaster crashing to the floor and doors being opened and closed by the howling winds could be heard. The place gave everyone in the neighborhood the creeps.

6. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense Writers create suspense… …by using foreshadowing – giving readers hints about something that might happen, but not really telling them for sure. Though he had never been in the house before, it seemed familiar to Tony. He didn’t know why, but it made him feel terrified.

7. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense Writers create suspense… …by withholding information from readers and revealing it slowly. Michelle had a secret, and though she wanted to share it, she couldn’t bring herself to tell anyone. She started to tell her mother, but at the last minute, she thought better of it. She could barely contain herself when she met her best friend at the mall, but she held on, keeping her secret safe. She wondered what her friends and family would say when they found out. This was one of the most exciting days of Michelle’s life, but she had to hold on awhile longer. She couldn’t tell her secret just yet.

8. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense • Suspense does not always lead to a negative event • (as in horror movies). • To remember what suspense is, think of “cliffhanger” scenes in movies and on television shows.

9. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense

10. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense Listen as At the Crossroads by Rachel Isadora is read. As you listen, make a“mind movie.” After the reading, be ready to tell where thesuspensebegins and what the author has done to create it.

11. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense What was suspenseful about At the Crossroads? Where did the suspense begin to build? How did the author create suspense?

12. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense • by using short sentences and repeating certain words? • by describing a setting that makes readers wonder if something is going to happen? • using foreshadowing – giving readers hints about something that might happen, but not really telling them for sure? • by withholding information from readers and revealing it slowly?

13. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense Suspense the feeling of fear or uncertainty about future events that writers use to hold their readers’ interest

14. Listening Comprehension Topic: Recognizing Suspense See if you can identify what the author of the book we are reading does to create Suspense.