The Threshold of Tomorrow: An Eighth-Grade Farewell
NARRATOR: The hallways of Oakwood Middle School are usually a cacophony of slamming metal lockers and heavy footsteps, but today, the sound is different. It is a frantic, melodic buzz—the sound of three hundred students realizing they have exactly forty-five minutes left of their middle school careers. The air is thick with the scent of floor wax and the faint, lingering aroma of cafeteria pizza, but mostly, it is thick with the weight of "goodbye."
MARCUS: (Frantically digging through his locker) I know it is in here. I cannot leave it behind. It is my eighth-grade history binder! If I lose those notes on the Industrial Revolution, I will be behind before I even step foot into high school next year.
SARA: (Leaning against the lockers, spinning a pen) Marcus, let it go. We are forty minutes away from freedom. Nobody is going to ask you about the steam engine in July. Look around! This is the last time we will all be standing in this specific hallway at the same time. Doesn't that feel... monumental?
- Cacophony:
- A harsh, unpleasant mixture of loud sounds occurring at the same time.
- Monumental:
- Highly significant, massive, or of outstanding historical or personal importance.
- Temporal:
- Relating to time or the passage of time.
- Threshold:
- The sill of a doorway; structurally or metaphorically, the point of entering a new phase or space.
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Preview questions from this passageShowHide
- 1Why is Marcus so determined to find his history binder?
- 2What makes Sara view the final minutes in the hallway as 'monumental'?
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About this reader's theater passage for 8th Grade
“The Threshold of Tomorrow: An Eighth-Grade Farewell” is a reader's theater reading passage about School Transitions, written for 8th Grade. It takes about 7 minutes to read (1,059 words) and comes with an interactive quiz and a printable worksheet with comprehension questions and an answer key.