Unit 11 Open-Ended Questions ASSESSMENT

There are 5 questions: 1 for each story/poem and an opinion question “President Cleveland, Where Are You?” “Raymond’s Run” “The White Umbrella” “The Courage That My Mother Had” All stories can be found at http://agorapanthers.weebly.com

Each question is worth 20 points 5 points Complete sentences Correct grammar and spelling 10 points Correct answer

“President Cleveland, Where Are You?” Jerry and his friends collect cowboy cards. When Armand, Jerry’s older brother, asks him to give some money towards buying their dad a birthday present, Jerry withholds some money so he can buy more cowboy cards. However, when he shows up at the store, he finds out the store is no longer selling cowboy cards with the bubble gum. Now there is a new promotion: president cards. He and his friends soon begin collecting the presidents cards in order to be the first to complete the set and win the autographed baseball glove they all are wanting. At home, however, Armand is in love and realizes he cannot ask their dad for money to help pay for him to take his girlfriend to the prom. Jerry finds Armand on the porch and both of them share why they are upset. Armand helps Jerry by telling him where he can find the last card he needs to complete the president set for the glove! Armand also helps Jerry fix his bike tire so he can go and get the card in another neighborhood. At the end we find that Jerry is sitting on his porch railing and his best friend comes over upset that one of their rivals has won the baseball glove! Jerry does not have the glove! Someone else does. We also know that Armand has left for the prom with his girlfriend! Jerry tells his best friend that he had to sell the card to their rival, it was an emergency. His friend understands in the end, but Jerry isn’t 100% sure he did the right thing. He sold the glove to their rival for $5 and gave the money to Armand so he could go to the prom.

“President Cleveland, Where Are You?” 1.  If you were Jerry in the story “President Cleveland Where Are You,” would you have made the same sacrifice for Armand? Why or why not? THINK ABOUT: what did Jerry do at the end of the story? He got the President Cleveland card, but did not get the baseball glove. Instead, he did something else. Would you have done the same?

“Raymond’s Run” All Squeaky cares about is being the fastest thing on two feet. She believes she will win any race. She trains constantly for running races and has made this her main focus. In the middle of the story, Squeaky has a run-in with her fiercest competitor – the new girl, Gretchen. Gretchen believes she can beat Squeaky. The day of the May Day race arrives. Squeaky lines up to race. As she is running the race, she realizes that Gretchen is keeping up with her and might actually beat her! She also sees that Raymond is running right along with her on the other side of the fence! Though Squeaky does win the race, it isn’t nearly as important to her as it was at the beginning of the story. She sees Raymond in a different light. She thinks she can coach him and even thinks that Gretchen might be able to help her!

“Raymond’s Run” 2.  In the story “Raymond’s Run,” how does Squeaky’s attitude change after she wins the race? How will she help her brother Raymond? THINK ABOUT: What was Squeaky’s attitude at the beginning of the story? What was it at the end? What does she decide to do for Raymond? What is now more important to her?

“The White Umbrella” The narrator in this story is a Chinese-American. She is the oldest of two girls. Her mother and father were born and raised in China and moved to America where the girls were born. They go to a public school and attend piano lessons after school. Their mother has taken a job and has not told the girls about it. This has made the narrator very upset. She is embarrassed that her mother is working and not at home taking care of the house and children as “normal, American” mothers do. On the way to piano practice, the girls get caught in the rain. They end up getting to practice early. The narrator envies the girl who is there practicing. Eugenie Roberts is the perfect American girl. The narrator sees a white umbrella leaning up against the wall near the piano and assumes it belongs to Eugenie. When Eugenie leaves without it, the narrator daydreams about taking the umbrella home with her that night so she can return it to Eugenie at school the next day. She knows her mother thinks that umbrellas are impractical and will never get one of her own. While the narrator is sitting outside waiting for her mother to pick them up, it begins to rain again. The narrator refused to go inside the teacher’s apartment and admit her mother was late because she was working. The teacher, Miss Crossman, GIVES the umbrella to the narrator. She is so excited she tells Miss Crossman that she wishes Miss Crossman were her mother. Right after she says this, the narrator’s mother shows up. On the way home the narrator tries to hide the umbrella under her skirt. This makes her sister curious. They distract their mother who ends up getting into an accident. After the accident, their mother puts her head back on the seat cushion and the narrator thinks she has died! She screams at her mother who tells her to calm down. They all get out of the car. The narrator takes the white umbrella and puts it down a sewage drain. She realizes having the white umbrella isn’t really that important and will not really change her life. Her mother has told her the truth about working. She matures and recognizes having her mother and her life is okay

“The White Umbrella” 3.  In the story “The White Umbrella,” what does the white umbrella symbolize? THINK ABOUT: Who does the narrator think the umbrella belongs to? What does she think of this person? At the end she throws the umbrella down the sewage drain because she realizes it isn’t really going to change her life. But what did it symbolize to her in the first place?

“The Courage That My Mother Had”   The courage that my mother had Went with her, and is with her still: Rock from New England quarried; Now granite on a granite hill. The golden brooch my mother wore She left behind for me to wear; I have no thing I treasure more: Yet, it is something I could spare. Oh, if instead she’d left to me The thing she took into the grave!— That courage like a rock, which she Has no more need of, and I have. - Edna St. Vincent Millay

“The Courage That My Mother Had” 4.  In the poem “The Courage That My Mother Had,” why does the narrator compare her mother’s courage to a rock? THINK ABOUT: How does a rock resemble courage? What are the characteristics of a rock? How are they similar to the characteristics of courage?

OPINION QUESTION 5.  In this unit (Literature 11), the characters had to discover what’s important in their lives. In 2-3 sentences, describe what YOU think is most important in life. Remember, you are graded on whether or not you write in complete sentences. Spelling and grammar also count! This is your opinion!