"The Man in the Well" by Ira Sher is a short story that explores themes of human nature, morality, and the consequences of our actions. The story begins with a young boy discovering a man trapped in a well in the woods. The story serves as a metaphor for the complexities of ethical decision-making and the way individuals grapple with moral dilemmas. 
 
This product contains higher-level thinking activities which require students to identify strategies used by the author to convey his purpose. The questions have students make inferences in the selection, the vocabulary chart has students define words according to context clues, and the literary device identification charts can be used to have students either identify examples in the text or determine the device used from the example provided and discuss the author's purpose for each. A short constructed response question is also included. Answers are provided for all activities.