Night of the Twisters

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do you think about when you think of a tornado? How do tornadoes impact the United States?

Teaching Suggestion: Since the book’s focus is on a specific set of tornadoes, having some background information on these storms will be important for students to more fully access the story. Students might bring a lot of background knowledge. Some might have experienced a tornado firsthand, making this topic and unit possibly traumatic. Other students might have only general ideas about tornadoes or even incorrect knowledge. Starting with a look at what they already know will help build a bridge to the research here and will also scaffold the later activity.

• “Severe Weather 101: Tornado Basics” from the National Severe Storms Laboratory provides background information about tornadoes, including how they form, where they occur, and the difference between a watch and warning. 
• “Where Tornadoes Happen” from the Center for Science Education includes visuals, including maps, to help support the information about tornadoes in this article.

Short Activity

In June 1980, seven tornadoes hit an area near Grand Island, Nebraska. The book focuses on this experience. Conduct research to learn more about the events the book is based on.

Teaching Suggestion: This could be a whole-class activity. The class could write questions together and then use the resources here to answer as many of their questions as they can. They could conduct additional research with other sources as needed. Students could also work in small groups to research and present findings. If you choose this option, dividing up the resources might be useful.

• This 2-minute video from ABC explains some of the conditions that made the Grand Island tornadoes different from other storms.
• This National Weather Service resource includes photographs, graphs, and written background about the tornadoes depicted in the novel.
• “Preparing for a Tornado” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention includes information about tornadoes and ways to prepare for them.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who need service-learning projects can develop this into a larger project. Students might develop posters, brochures, or an event to spread community awareness and help build preparedness around tornadoes.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

What makes a good friend? Who in your life can you rely on in an emergency?

Teaching Suggestion: The story centers on two friends as they help each other through a perilous night. Reflecting on their views of friendship and people in their lives they can count on can help students more fully access the theme of Friendship as Sustenance. Students might analyze the messages in the song video and unpack the article together or in small groups. The class could create a friendship poster or display they can revisit during the novel unit.

• This article from Health for Teens examines healthy and unhealthy friendships.
• With “Survival of the Friendliest: How Our Close Friendships Help Us Thrive,” NPR examines friendship, including how it works in middle school, with social media, and in other species. 
• “True Colors” by Artists Against Bullying speaks to friendship.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced students, expanding this assignment to a Socratic seminar such as the one described here would offer a chance to build on each other’s ideas even more. Students could be encouraged to use the Rogerian argument, incorporating qualifiers like “somewhat” or “mostly.” They could also include counterarguments to build analysis with more nuance.