A Cub Pilot
What is one central idea of "A Cub Pilot"?
If you believe in and trust yourself, no one should be able to shake your confidence.
What is one central idea of Nurse and Spy in the Union Army?
Being a spy is quite dangerous and takes courage.
In the world of Harry Potter, what is the name of the school that Harry and his friends attend?
What is Hogwarts?
Where are the boy (Ernesto) and his family originally from?
Mazatlan Mexico
What lesson does Mr. Bixby try to teach the narrator in “A Cub Pilot”?
To keep a cool head in tense situations. “You shouldn’t have allowed me or anybody else to shake your confidence in that knowledge. Try to remember that. And another thing: when you get into a dangerous place, don’t turn coward."
In addition to espionage, what other role did Sarah Edmonds undertake while serving in the Union Army?
What is a nurse?
What type of literary device is used when a non-human object is given human qualities, like talking or feeling emotions?
What is personification?
Who is Ernesto's teacher?
Miss Ryan
Read this passage from "A Cub Pilot":
I seized the bell-rope; dropped it, ashamed; seized it again; dropped it once more; clutched it tremblingly once again, and pulled it so feebly that I could hardly hear the stroke myself.
What effect does the use of the word feebly in the text convey about the speaker?
It shows that the speaker is extremely nervous.
What was one of the key strategies Sarah Edmonds used to gather intelligence for the Union Army?
Disguising herself as a man.
In which book series would you find the character Katniss Everdeen?
What is “The Hunger Games”?
What is the central idea of Barrio Boy?
A) It's easy to start school in a new country.
B) It's hard to find grocery stores without a car
C) Immigrants face challenges
D) Schools used to be made of wood
C) Immigrants face challenges
In “A Cub Pilot,” why does the narrator believe that it is so important for a steamboat pilot to have a good memory?
The river is constantly changing so it is hard to navigate.
Sarah Edmonds, under her alias Franklin Thompson, performed numerous acts of bravery during the Civil War. What significant battle did she participate in while serving as a soldier?
Battle of Williamsburg
What literary term describes a figure of speech where two contradictory terms appear together, like “deafening silence”?
What is an oxymoron?
“Making us into Americans did not mean scrubbing away what made us originally foreign. . . . It was easy for me to feel that becoming a proud American, as she said we should, did not mean feeling ashamed of being a Mexican.” Explain what this means.
Miss Ryan does not ask her immigrant students to erase all traces of their original nationality. This implies that she believes what they bring from their countries of origin adds to what makes them American, rather than detracts from it.
How does the narrator of “A Cub Pilot” initially feel about his own abilities?
He is very confident in his overall ability to pilot a steamboat.
Sarah Edmonds’ work as a spy required her to adopt various disguises. Which disguise did she use to blend in and gather intelligence in Confederate territory?
What is a laundress?
What term describes the use of an exaggeration to emphasize a point, such as “I’ve told you a million times”?
What is hyperbole?
About Miss Ryan the author says, “Frequently she burst into happy announcements to the whole class.” What do these outbursts say about Miss Ryan? How might they have affected the students in her class?
The quotation suggests that Miss Ryan enjoys her job and celebrates her students' progress. She believes that learning is exciting. As a result, her students probably work hard to be successful, knowing that it pleases their teacher.