Bellwork # 30: MCT2 Practice Read the following excerpt from A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer. Based upon the context of this excerpt, what can the reader infer about the character of Mother? {2.b} [DOK 3] (Proficient) Mother is thoughtless. Mother is indiscriminate. Mother is prudent. Mother is calculating. “The more bizarre things The Mother did to me, the more she seemed to know she could get away with any of her Games. When she held my arm over a gas stove, she told horrified teachers that I had played with a match and burned myself. And when Mother stabbed me in the chest, she told my frightened brothers that I had attacked her.”

Bellwork #31: MCT2 Practice Read the following excerpt from A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer. Based upon the excerpt, what inference can you make as to why the author entitled Chapter 1 The End? {2.b} [DOK 3] (Proficient) Dave realizes his once perfect Brady Bunch family is gone forever. Dave can no longer fight back; he has decided to end his life. Dave’s Superman dreams have come to an end. Dave wishes to separate his abusive past from his adulthood. “Now as I continue to shiver in the darkness of the garage, I know the end is near. I cry for not having the courage or the strength to fight back. I’m too tired. The eight years of constant torture have sucked my life force out of me. I clasp my hands together and pray that when The Mother kills me, she will have mercy to kill me quickly.”

Bellwork #32: MCT2 Practice Read the following excerpt from A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer. Based upon the context of this excerpt, what can you infer about Father’s final words? {2.d} [DOK 3] I(Proficient) Father is drunk, and he is mumbling incoherent sentences. Father is admitting fault and warning Dave against his own mistakes. Father is acknowledging his role in Dave’s abusive childhood. Father is giving Dave unsolicited advice about where he should live. “Before loading me onto a Greyhound bus, Father mumbled in a dejected voice, ‘Get out of here, David. Get as far away from here as you can. You’re almost at that age. Get out.’ As he looked at me with darkened circles under his eyes, Father’s final words were: ‘Do what you have to. Don’t end up…don’t end up like me.”

Bellwork #33: MCT2 Practice Read the following excerpt from A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer. Based upon this excerpt and your knowledge from the previous books within the trilogy, what justification may be made about Dave’s naïveté? {2.b} [DOK 3] (Proficient) Dave makes a verbal concession regarding his naivete to support his previous problematic escapades. Dave’s life as a foster child made him naïve because he was unable to experience the normal aspects of a loved child. Dave is forced to jump into the real world by holding several jobs as a teenager to prepare for his eighteenth year without the coverage provided as a ward of the state. Dave’s growth is stunted so much that he resembles a toddler in many ways. “As a foster child, I soon learned that I knew absolutely nothing about living in the real world. My former life as Mother’s prisoner had been dominated by elemental needs of survival. But after my rescue I felt like a toddler—learning and growing by leaps and bounds. The simplest things taught to preschool children became major obstacles for me.

Bellwork #34: MCT2 Practice Read the following excerpt from A Man Named Dave by Dave Pelzer. Based upon the context of this excerpt, what can the reader infer is the meaning of Alice’s advice? {2.b} [DOK 3] (Proficient) Alice is explaining mathematical principles to Dave. Alice is trying to explain to Dave that everything is “black or white”. Alice is trying to explain to Dave that he may never find the answers he seeks regarding his past with Mother. Alice is trying to explain that sometimes bad things happen to good people. “Mrs. Turnbough reached over to cup my hand. ‘David, you may never know. Sometimes, bad things happen. For some things there are no absolutes.”

Justification of Dave’s Eagerness to Please & Make Others Proud Recruiter “Thank you, sir,’ I said as I shook it. ‘I’ll make you proud. You’ll see.’ The sergeant let out a chuckle, released my hand, then snapped to attention and gave me a crisp salute. ‘See ya, Airman Pelz-a-Yeager!” Harold Turnbough “So, you’re joining the air force?’ Harold asked with a hint of humor. ‘Do you think you can manage to stay out of the brig?’ My smile matched Harold’s. ‘Yes, sir!’ I said. ‘I’ll make you proud, you watch. One day, you’ll see. I’ll make you proud!” Father “I was so ashamed that I didn’t tell my foster parents. I wrestled with the fact that I had, in a sense, failed my father. I knew being a firefighter meant the world to him, and he had seemed so proud when I phoned him days before I enlisted. I had wanted so badly to impress him, to surprise him that David Pelzer—the unwanted one, the child called ‘It’—would someday be entrusted with saving the lives of others, like my once-upon-a-time here…my dad.”