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Which student response best answers the text-dependent question: How does the author use words and phrases to reveal the overall message of the story? Explain using details from the text.

A. The author repeatedly says "Happy Birthday" at the end of the text to show that the main character is having a birthday party. The family will have the cake when the dad gets home. They will celebrate Rachel's birthday party.

B. The author counts down the numbers from eleven backwards to show that Rachel is thinking about her birthday. Then, the family will have cake and celebrate her birthday.

C. The character wishes she was one hundred and two because she wants to fast forward her life to the very end. She doesn't really like her life very much. She wants it to go by fast until it is over.

D. At the end of the story, Rachel believes that her family's efforts to recognize her birthday through cake, presents and singing are "too late." She goes on to say she wants to be "far away like a runaway balloon" and uses the word "tiny" three times to show how insignificant she feels. The author uses words and phrases to reveal the overall message that growing up can be sad and confusing.

Answer: Incorrect. While this student uses evidence from the text, the response does not focus on the most meaningful text that supports the overall message of the story. This is a literal, surface understanding of the text. Try again. Incorrect. This student shows a literal interpretation of words and phrases. The count-down is not as significant as the simile about how Rachel feels like a runaway balloon and how this figurative language represents her overall sadness and negativity about her birthday. Try again. Incorrect. This response does not choose the most important text, the simile related to the runaway balloon, to show the overall message of the story related to the main character's feelings about herself. While the main character does wish she was much older, the response goes into speculative territory in the final sentence. Try again. Correct. This response stays anchored in the question by focusing on how the author uses words and phrases (CCSS.RL.6.4) to reveal the overall message of the character. The text citations (CCSS.RL.6.1) are explicit and the analysis related to these citations answers the question.