Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Stories 1-5

Reading Check

1. What does Soto’s mother do for a living the summer he and his siblings set small fires in the living room?

2. How does Soto’s father die?

3. How do Soto’s eyes become infected one summer when he is a child?

4. Why do Soto’s pinto beans never grow in the planter he made for the art contest?

5. What does Soto tell adults he wants to be when he grows up?

6. Where does Soto go while his mother believes he is attending church on Sundays?

Multiple Choice

1. Which word best describes the scene in Story 2 (“Father”), in which Soto’s family moves into a new home the weekend before his father died?

A) serene

B) hopeful

C) irritable

D) gloomy

2. What effect does watching TV have on how Soto sees himself and his family?

A) He decides to become a hobo rather than work hard for little money and very little free time.

B) He compares himself and his family to the white families he sees on TV and feels inadequate.