This module is for Middle School Activity 3

Activity 3 – Passage 2

Before you continue practicing with a new passage from the story, think back again to the steps for generating a text-dependent question. Step One requires that students focus on core understandings. Additionally, remember to anchor your questions in the standard. Notice the portions of the standards that are highlighted that direct your attention to what is most important. Step Four requires students to tackle tough questions head on.

  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.1
    Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.6 Explain how an author develops the points of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.

In this next passage from the story, it is important to direct students to an understanding of the point of view of the main character and how this perspective collides with the character of the teacher in the story.  Middle school students have already been exposed to the concept of point of view. Recall that in 4th grade, the MCCRS required students to be able to distinguish between first- and third-person narrations (CCSS.ELA – Literacy. RL.4.6).

To revisit the teaching that may have occurred in elementary school, view the following interactive.


Now that you have revisited the concept of point of view through a MCCRS lens, think about how to construct a text-dependent question relevant to the passage and demonstrative of your understanding of the process for creating such questions. As you read the next passage, think about the point of view that the author has chosen.  Think about how this angle allows you to access the story elements and the feelings of the main character.

Passage 2:

Go to HCC Learning Webopens in new window and continue reading the story. 

Begin reading – Paragraph 5 that begins with this sentence: “Only today I wish I didn't have only eleven years rattling inside me like pennies in a tin Band-Aid box.”

End reading – Paragraph 12, ending with this sentence: “I squeeze them shut tight and bite down on my teeth real hard and try to remember today I am eleven, eleven.”

In a Word document or other text editor, based on the guidelines above, create a text-dependent question for the first passage you just read.

Check Your Understanding

Now review your knowledge about point of view.


Next, check your skill with selecting text-dependent questions.