Find the Evidence
What evidence shows that John does not want to leave his home?
John tells his grandfather, 'I want to stay with you.' He also refuses to leave when his grandfather tells him school is starting (432).
What does Grandfather mean when he tells John that he has an 'unbreakable code'?
He means the Navajo language, which helped create a secret military code during World War II (432-433).
Why does John most likely lean against his grandfather while listening to him speak Navajo?
John feels comforted and connected to his grandfather and language. The story describes the language as warm and familiar (432).
What happened after Grandfather heard the military announcement on the radio?
He decided to join the Marines and later traveled to boot camp with 28 other Navajo recruits (434).
What is one way John and Grandfather have different experiences with the Navajo language?
John worries he might forget Navajo at his new school, while Grandfather was actively punished for speaking Navajo as a child (433).
Find one detail that shows Grandfather's boarding school did not respect Navajo culture.
Students were forbidden from speaking Navajo and were punished if they did (433).
What does the word 'bulletin' most likely mean when Grandfather hears it on the radio?
An important announcement or news report. The bulletin announces that Navajo speakers are needed for special military duty (434).
What can you infer about Grandfather's determination from his boarding school experience?
He was resilient and committed to his identity because he refused to forget Navajo even though he was punished for speaking it (433).
Why was Grandfather nervous when he first joined the Marines?
He did not know where he was going, what his mission would be, or how others would treat him (435).
Why was it important that the Code Talkers memorized their messages instead of keeping written records?
Memorization made it harder for enemy forces to discover the code and decode secret messages (436).
What evidence shows that Marine training was physically demanding?
Grandfather describes marching, hiking with heavy packs, and going without food during survival exercises (435).
What does "fluent" mean in the military announcement asking for people fluent in English and Navajo?
Able to speak and understand a language easily and well (434).
Why might the military have required Navajo recruits to speak English as well as Navajo?
They likely needed to understand English military messages and communicate them through the Navajo-based code (434, 436-437).
What problem were American military forces experiencing in the Pacific?
Japanese forces could intercept and decode American messages, making it difficult to securely communicate between ships, planes, and ground forces (436).
How does the author create suspense before revealing Grandfather's military mission?
Grandfather describes a secret assignment, locked classrooms, and officers refusing to reveal the mission, making the reader curious (435-436).
Find two details that explain why the Navajo language was useful for creating a secret code.
Only a few outsiders knew Navajo, and the language had not been written down in the form described by Grandfather (436).
What does "intercept" mean when Grandfather discusses Japanese forces reading American messages?
To capture or receive messages intended for someone else. Japanese forces had been getting American military communications (436).
What can you infer about how the Code Talkers worked together?
They depended on cooperation and practice. Grandfather says they tested each other on the code at night (437).
How did the Code Talkers solve the challenge of creating an alphabet-based code?
They chose Navajo words to represent English letters, such as using the Navajo word for ant to represent A (437).
Compare how the government treated the Navajo language at boarding school and during World War II.
At boarding school, Navajo was discouraged and punished. During the war, the military recognized its value and used it for secret communication (433, 436).
Find evidence that the Navajo Marines took extreme precautions to protect their code.
They memorized more than 200 military terms, never wrote down the code, and practiced until they knew it extremely well (436-437).
Why does Grandfather laugh at the end of page 436? Explain the irony of the situation.
He recognizes the contradiction, the government once forced him not to speak Navajo, but now it needs that same language to help save the country (433, 436).
What can you infer about the importance of speed during the Code Talkers' missions?
Speed was essential because messages had to be sent quickly before the enemy could respond, locate them, or interfere (437).
How did Grandfather's experience at boarding school unexpectedly help him succeed in Marine training?
His previous marching experience helped with military drills, while childhood experiences carrying water and living off the land helped with physical and survival challenges (433, 435).
What is a central message of this story? Support it using two different events.
One central message is that language and cultural identity can be sources of strength. Grandfather preserves Navajo despite punishment at boarding school, and later uses it to help his country during World War II (433, 436).