Description
“Currents” by Hannah Bottomy Voskuil is a powerful short story of just under 300 words that is told backward, making it an especially compelling text for literary analysis. The story centers on a drowning incident at a beach, but its inverted structure challenges students to rethink cause and effect, perspective, and meaning, creating rich opportunities for discussion and close reading.
This lesson helps students analyze how nonlinear text structure impacts interpretation and emotional response. As students move through the story, they examine how point of view, theme, and characterization are revealed in reverse, deepening their understanding of narrative craft and author’s purpose.
The resource includes a before-reading word splash activity to activate thinking and introduce key ideas, followed by reading comprehension and literary analysis questions divided into Part 1 and Part 2. In total, students answer 20 questions that focus on point of view, theme, mood, tone, author’s purpose, text structure, characterization, race, and the coming-of-age genre.
After reading, students complete a writing task in which they create their own backward narrative, applying what they’ve learned about structure and storytelling in a creative way. This activity reinforces understanding while giving students voice and choice.
This resource includes a teacher guide and answer keys, student activities in both editable Word documents and ready-to-print PDFs, and flexible formatting that allows teachers to modify the lesson as needed. Perfect for middle school and high school ELA, this engaging short story lesson helps students think critically about structure, perspective, and meaning.