Brainstorm with your students what they want to find out when they read the story, based on their preview and on what they already know about physics and mishaps in their everyday life. Remind the students that setting a purpose for reading gives them a reason for reading and helps them focus on important events and people as they read.
Example: I’m going to read to find out how the main character makes it through the day.
This twenty-four hour period centers around Murphy’s Law. So for those who are not familiar with this I have supplied the definition. I’m using the definition found in the World Book Dictionary, 1989 edition.
“Murphy’s Law (mer’fez) any one of various humorous rules of thumb. Your reference to Murphy’s Law touches on only part of that ancient Irish potentates laws...His set of laws of life refer with circularity to nothing, everything, and anything. They are: 1) nothing is as easy as it looks; 2) everything takes longer than you think it will; and 3) if anything can go wrong, it will.
You see, in the television series “24" everything that could possibly go wrong, shock you, have you on the edge of your seat with your mouth gaping, happened and much more. Your attempts to guess what’s going to logically happen next usually fail.