74 pages • 2 hours read
Gary SotoA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.
Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions
Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the book over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.
1. Soto often talks about his violent nature as a child; specifically, he was always getting into fights. Consider how these physical fights connect to his circumstances.
2. In the following quote from Story 16 (“Black Hair”), Soto links poverty, physically demanding work, and what it means to be Mexican:
“As I kid I chopped cotton and picked grapes, so I knew work. I knew the fatigue and the boredom and the feeling that there was a good possibility you might have to do such work for years, if not a lifetime.
By Gary Soto
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