Image of a forest
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Fiction,

Alone in the Woods

An unexpected adventure shows Jamie that a boring summer can be anything but.

By Nick Courage
From the May/June 2023 Issue

Learning Objective: Students will examine how the main character’s motivation changes when he loses cell phone reception in the woods: He goes from wanting to show his friends that he’s having a good time to actually enjoying himself.

Complexity Factors
  • Levels of Meaning
    In this realistic fiction story, a boy named Jamie decides to create and record a summer-camp-type experience in the local woods to impress his friends. Over the course of the story, Jamie realizes that enjoying experiences as they happen is more satisfying than trying to manufacture the perfect ready-for-video moment. The story’s overall message is to be present so you can notice and appreciate the world around you.
  • Structure
    The story is chronological and told from a first-person point of view, primarily using the present tense.
  • Language
    The language is mostly conversational and includes dialogue and self-reflection. It contains some descriptive and figurative language, as well as vocabulary related to being in the forest, such as ravine, stag, and underbrush.
  • Knowledge Demands
    No prior knowledge is required. Readers will need to make some inferences to fully understand the story. Coding camp is mentioned.
Lexile: 700L-800L
Guided Reading Level: T
DRA Level: 40-50
Featured Skill: Character,
Other Key Skills: character’s motivation, vocabulary, plot, imagery, predicting, author’s craft, key idea, theme, narrative writing
Standards
  • Common Core
    Anchor Standards: R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, W.3, SL.1, SL.2, L.5, L.6 Grade 4: RL.4.1, RL.4.2, RL.4.3, RL.4.4, W.4.3, SL.4.1, SL.4.2, L.4.5, L.4.6 Grade 5: RL.5.1, RL.5.2, RL.5.3, RL.5.4, W.5.3, SL.5.1, SL.5.2, L.5.5, L.5.6 Grade 6: RL.6.1, RL.6.2, RL.6.3, RL.6.4, W.6.3, SL.6.1, SL.6.2, L.6.5, L.6.6
  • TEKS
    Grade 4: 4.1a, c, d; 4.3a, b, d; 4.6; 4.7b, c, d, f, g; 4.8; 4.9a, f; 4.10c, d; 4.11; 4.12a Grade 5: 5.1a, c, d; 5.3a, b, d; 5.6; 5.7b, c, d, f, g; 5.8; 5.9a, f; 5.10c, d; 5.11; 5.12a Grade 6: 6.1a, c, d; 6.2a, b; 6.5; 6.6b, c, d, f, g, h; 6.7; 6.8a, f; 6.9c, d; 6.10; 6.11a

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UP CLOSE: Character’s Motivation

As you read, think about Jamie’s motivation, or reason, for going into the woods. Is this reason still important to him at the end of the story?

This was supposed to be the Best Summer Ever.

I’d been looking forward to bike rides and waterslides and getting slushies from the corner store with my two best friends. We were going to play video games all night long, until the sun came up! We’d talked about it constantly, me and Silas and MJ—at recess and between classes. It was supposed to be awesome: the kind of summer that makes you forget that alarm clocks and homework assignments ever existed.

That was the plan, anyway . . . until Silas and MJ decided to go to coding camp instead. It cost, like, $2,000. I didn’t even ask if I could go. I knew it was more than we could afford.

So now I’m all alone, while my best friends are off having the time of their lives together.

The last day of school was only a couple of weeks ago, and I’m already so bored I wish I was back in math class. It’s cloudy and gray outside to match my mood . . . but even with the ceiling fan blowing, I’m sweating through my shirt as I flip through my phone for the thousandth time. 

“Ja-mie!” my mom sings. “Are you sure you don’t want to get out of the house?”

She’s jangling her keys by the front door, on her way to the grocery store. 

I shake my head no. Every passing minute feels like an hour, but I’m not desperate enough to run errands with my mom. 

As she drives away, I flop onto the couch with a sigh. Then my phone dings. It’s Silas and MJ. They’re working on programming a plastic robot to dance. They share a video of it shaking and kicking until it falls off their desk. I can hear Silas humming the Chicken Dance song, while MJ’s wild laughter echoes through the living room.

Ugh. What I want more than anything is my own super-fun video to send right back to them—to prove that I’m having a good time too.

Even though I’m not.

I look out the window at the big, shaggy oak tree at the end of my street, where the blacktop thins and crumbles into the woods. And that gives me an idea.

If I can’t go to coding camp, maybe I can make my own camp.

I get up and head to my bedroom. I empty my backpack onto the floor and fill it with snacks and supplies. From the kitchen, I take a bag of popcorn and two cinnamon raisin bagels. From the garage, I borrow some gardening gloves and a coil of bright-yellow rope. 

I step outside for the first time in days.

“Taking a walk,” I text my mom. “Be back later.”

The wind picks up as I jog to the end of my street, past the oak tree and into the woods. It’s instantly cooler beneath the trees. They seem to stretch on forever, and their thick branches make it feel like I’m in another world. 

The trail is layered with so many fallen pine needles that it’s spongy underfoot, like walking on a carpet. It’s the perfect cushion for my first attempt at something cool.

I prop my phone on a knotted root and toss one end of my yellow rope over a low-hanging branch. Taking a deep breath, I hit record, then pull on my mom’s old gardening gloves. 

“Summer camp is in session!” I yell.

Looping both ends of the rope around my hands, I pull down as hard as I can—testing my weight—and then jump! I swing out across the overgrown path, whooping loudly. Amazing!

I text Silas and MJ my first video, then start digging into my rations while I wait for them to answer. The bagels turn out to be stale . . . but the popcorn is yummy. I’m gobbling a handful when I realize my text didn’t go through. 

Uh-oh. The reception is too weak in the woods.

In the distance, the ground slopes sharply, and a bright ribbon of water at the bottom of a ravine catches my eye. I’ve seen enough movies to know that I shouldn’t leave the trail. Nothing good ever comes from leaving a clearly marked trail. But a secret creek in the woods is too good to pass up. Bet they don’t have one of those at coding camp. 

I’m halfway down the ravine when my backpack snags on a bush. I tug ever so gently—trying to free myself—and then pull a little harder when that doesn’t work. 

“C’mon,” I whisper, my heart pounding in my chest as my backpack starts to rip open. 

Suddenly, I’m tumbling down toward the creek with about 100 kernels of popcorn spilling out behind me. It’s only when my sneakers ooze into the soft mud of the forest floor that I’m able to slow down enough to take stock of where I’ve landed. 

I’m not the only one here.  

Standing as still as a statue where the creek pools and deepens is a breathtaking white-tailed deer with wide antlers. 

And he isn’t alone.

Hiding in the shadows behind the stag are two nervous does. They stare at me without blinking, and I stare back, trying my best to be still. I want to take a video, but I don’t want to scare them away and ruin the moment. My arms prickle with goose bumps.

Seconds stretch into minutes, until—without warning—the tiny herd leaps into the cover of the woods, spooked by a sudden crack of thunder. 

By the time I feel the rain, it’s too late. 

It’s slashing down through the leaves, so hard that it actually hurts. I slide and stumble in the mud three times as I sprint deeper into the woods, looking for shelter . . . but it isn’t until the hard rain turns to hail that I finally realize what I should be doing instead: hiking back up to the trail and racing home as fast as I can.

Except by now, I’m not even sure where the trail is.

My first instinct is to check my rain-splattered phone to see where I am on the map—but of course there’s no reception. 

“You can’t be serious,” I mumble, flattening against a massive pine.

The shadows of waving branches dance beneath flashes of lightning. Hail bounces off tree trunks and splashes into the shallow creek. The creek is already starting to look swollen and angry from the storm.

I should’ve stayed home, I think. I should’ve gone grocery shopping.

Instead, I’m lost in the woods and beginning to panic.

That’s when I hear it: something crashing through the underbrush. 

I freeze, trying not to let my imagination get the best of me, but the sounds are only getting louder and louder the longer I wait. Something is running and grunting and heading right toward me. 

All I can think of is a big, hungry bear and the food that’s still in my bag. I’m basically inviting it to dinner.

“Is anyone out there?” I yell. 

I toss a stale bagel into the woods to distract it, but before I have a chance to run, something hits me so hard that it knocks me down into the soft, gooey mud.

There’s a big muddy paw on my chest.

“Baxter, no!” a girl shouts. 

She looks like she’s about my age, in a windbreaker and hiking boots. She’s carrying the leash and collar her dog has clearly slipped out of. Even though I must look like a swamp monster, all covered in dirt and leaves, she seems so happy to see me. 

Baxter is too busy slobbering on my face to pay her much attention.

“I’m Ella,” she says, tugging Baxter back onto his leash. “We were on a walk when he got spooked by the storm and took off running. Do you know where we are?”

I’m about to shake my head no when I spot it: a rough line of popcorn on the far side of the creek, less than 20 feet away. It’s bright white against the forest floor, like a glowing path of deliciousness leading us back to civilization. 

“I think I marked a path,” I say, pointing.

“Smart,” Ella says.

“Just lucky.” I shrug. 

We start to follow the trail together, but the hill is so slippery that we can’t seem to climb two feet without sliding back down again. Ella’s dog barks for us to hurry up, and Ella smiles as she offers me the handle of his leash.

“Let’s have Baxter pull us,” she says.

We hold on tight while Baxter lunges up the slope, gobbling popcorn as he goes. It’s exactly the kind of video I wanted to send to Silas and MJ when I headed into the woods—a muddy, funny, wild ride! But now I’m too busy laughing to take out my phone. 

Tumbling out of the woods onto a rainy street, we start to cheer. 

“Do you want to go explore again tomorrow?” Ella asks.

I nod, smiling for the first time all week.

Maybe this could be the Best Summer Ever after all.

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Write to Win

Imagine you’re Jamie. Write a letter to Silas and MJ, explaining why you went into the woods and how your adventure there changed you. Send your work to “Woods Contest” by June 1, 2023. Five winners will each receive a copy of Snow Struck by Nick Courage. Visit the Storyworks Contests page for more information.

This story was originally published in the May/June 2023 issue.

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Audio ()
Activities (10)
Core Skills Workout
  • The Core Skills Workout is a series of skill-based activities that will help your students "bulk up" in the comprehension skills they need most to become strong, analytical readers. The Core Skills Workout comes with every issue and will support your reading program no matter what your scope and sequence.
Skills Activities
Quizzes (1)
Answer Key (1)
Slideshows (1)
Audio ()
Activities (10) Download All Activities
Core Skills Workout
  • The Core Skills Workout is a series of skill-based activities that will help your students "bulk up" in the comprehension skills they need most to become strong, analytical readers. The Core Skills Workout comes with every issue and will support your reading program no matter what your scope and sequence.
Skills Activities
Quizzes (1)
Answer Key (1)
Step-by-Step Lesson Plan
Download the Lesson Plan

Table of Contents

1. Preparing to Read

2. Reading and Discussing

Close Reading, Critical Thinking

3. Skill Building and Writing

4. Differentiate and Customize

Striving Readers, Advanced Readers, Multilingual Learners

5. Can’t-Miss Teaching Extras

1. Preparing to Read

Build Engagement, Preview Vocabulary, Set a Purpose for Reading

 

  • Build engagement and activate prior knowledge by asking students to share what their favorite summer activities are. What would they recommend to a friend who’s bored over the summer?
  • Show our Vocabulary Slideshow to introduce and help students visualize challenging words. Follow up before or after reading with our Vocabulary Skill Builder. Vocabulary words include rations, ravine, stag, underbrush, and civilization. 
  • Have a volunteer read aloud the Up Close box on page 10 for the class. 

2. Reading and Discussing

First Read: Get to Know the Text (20 minutes)

  • Ask students to  read the story independently or in small groups. They can also listen to our Immersive Read-Aloud, in which author Nick Courage reads his story with music and sound effects to supercharge engagement! 

Second Read: Unpack the Text (30 minutes)

  • Put students in small groups. Ask them to discuss the close-reading questions in the margins of the story. Answers to the questions are below. Go over the critical-thinking questions together as a class.

Close-Reading Questions

 

  • How is Silas and MJ’s decision the start of a problem for Jamie? (plot, p. 11) Silas and MJ’s decision to go to coding camp causes a problem for Jamie because he was counting on spending the summer having fun with them. Instead, he’s left with nothing to do for the summer.
  • What does the line “It’s cloudy and gray outside to match my mood . . .” tell you about how Jamie is feeling? (imagery, p. 11) This line suggests that Jamie is feeling down and upset. Often, a cloudy gray sky looks unpleasant and shows that rain is likely. In the same way, Jamie’s feelings are unpleasant and he believes he has nothing to look forward to for the whole summer.
  • How do you think the video makes Jamie feel? (character, p. 12) The video likely makes Jamie feel left out and jealous of the good time that Silas and MJ are having at camp.
  • Based on the last three paragraphs, what do you think Jamie plans to do? (predicting, p. 12) Answers will vary but should be similar to: Jamie looks at the woods from his window, so he’s probably going to do something there that is like making his own camp. Because he gathers a rope and gardening gloves, it seems that he might try climbing a tree with the rope.
  • Why does Jamie record his activity? (character’s motivation, p. 12) Jamie wants to create a recording of himself having a great time so he can send it to Silas and MJ to prove his summer is as much fun as theirs.
  • What reasons do you think Jamie has for leaving the trail? (character’s motivation, p. 13) Jamie sees a “secret creek in the woods,” so he is curious to explore it. In addition, he thinks he will be able to add his discovery of the creek to a video for Silas and MJ. He believes they’ll be impressed, and possibly jealous, when they see him at the creek.
  • What can you infer is most important to Jamie when he sees the deer? How is he starting to change? (character, p. 13) When Jamie sees the deer, it’s most important to him to take in the moment and watch the deer without disturbing them. This is a change for him because he chooses not to record the deer to send to his friends. Even though he would like to make the video, enjoying the special time with the deer comes first. 
  • How does the author help you picture the setting in this paragraph? (author’s craft, p. 13) The author uses figurative language, including personification and imagery, to help you picture the setting. He says the shadows of branches “dance beneath flashes of lightning,” which helps you imagine the branches moving quickly and gracefully. He describes the hail bouncing and splashing, which helps you picture the harsh weather. Finally, he uses personification again, calling the creek “swollen and angry.” Although being angry is a human emotion, this word choice  helps you imagine the creek flowing roughly.
  • What makes the moment when Jamie is thinking about a big, hungry bear suspenseful? (plot, p. 14) Jamie is lost in the woods, and he hears something “running and grunting and heading right toward me.” The sounds are getting louder. The moment is suspenseful because Jamie doesn’t know what is making the sound or what will happen next. He pictures the worst: being attacked by a bear!
  • If Jamie had cell phone reception, do you think getting out of the woods would be more fun or less? Explain. (key idea, p. 14) Answers will vary, but students might say it would be less fun. Following a trail of popcorn with a new friend and a dog seems more adventurous than simply looking at a cell phone screen.
  • Write your own question. (p. 14) Answers will vary, but students might ask about how Jamie has changed from the beginning of the story to the end.

Critical-Thinking Questions

 

  • How do Jamie’s reasons for being in the woods change over the course of the story? (character’s motivation) At the beginning of the story, Jamie goes into the woods to make a video of himself having fun, so he can send it to his friends Silas and MJ—even though he doesn’t think he’s having a fun summer. Once he’s in the woods, he starts appreciating what he discovers there, like the creek and the deer. By the end of the story, he is no longer thinking about making a video, but he wants to return to the woods the next day to explore more with his new friend, Ella.
  • What do you think Jamie has learned by the end of the story? (theme) Jamie has learned several lessons. One is that by being open to new experiences, you can find unexpected ways to enjoy life. He has learned that not being connected to your phone can free you to live in the moment and appreciate things you might not have noticed otherwise. Finally, he has realized that it’s possible to create your own fun.

3. Skill Building and Writing

Featured Skill: Character’s Motivation
  • Distribute or digitally assign the Character’s Motivation Skill Builder, which will help students understand elements of science fiction and how “The Message” fits into this genre.
  • Ask students to respond to the writing prompt at the end of the story. When they’re done, you can  submit their responses to our writing contest.
  • Bonus! Connect this story with the poem in this issue, “Open Your Eyes” by Georgia Heard. Our Poetry Kit will walk students through the poem and its connection to “Alone in the Woods.”

Differentiate and Customize
For Striving Readers

Help students understand how Jamie changes through the story by having them illustrate a scene from its beginning, before Jamie goes into the woods; middle, when he is in the woods but before he meets Ella; and end, when he is finding his way out of the woods. Ask them to write a caption for each illustration. Then have them share their work in a group and talk about how their pictures and captions show Jamie changing through the story.

For Advanced Readers

Ask students to imagine they’re joining Jamie and Ella the next day to explore the woods. Have them write a continuation of the story, with themselves in it. What more would they find in the woods? What adventures might they have there? 

For Multilingual Learners

Have students practice speaking and vocabulary skills by inviting each of them to describe one of the pictures in the margins. Ask them to say what they see in the picture and to describe it in as much detail as possible. Then have them explain how the picture is connected to the story. This activity can be done in pairs or in a small group that you lead.

Can't-Miss Teaching Extras
Meet the Author

Writer Nick Courage has written several action-packed middle-grade adventure novels. Check out his website which includes study guides, author videos, interviews, and more.

Connect with Nature

The U.S. Forest Service created the website Discover the Forest to encourage young people and their families to spend time outdoors and connect with nature. It contains activities and resources such as this Book of Stuff to Do Outside. You can enter your ZIP code to find parks and forests near you.

Learn Wilderness Tips

This webpage from Jefferson County Search Dog Association has a list of tips for how to stay safe when you are out in the woods.

Improve Your Outlook

In the story, Jamie is struggling with his bad mood before he decides to go outside and create his own adventure. This 4-minute video from Rocket Kids explains the difference between mood and mindset and gives tips on how to change your mood. (Note: video starts after a short ad.)

Text-to-Speech