Teacher Guide for FAST-R Passage: Snow
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Autobiographical narrative
At a Glance
Approximate
Grade Range:
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Genre: Autobiographical narrative
Topic: Yolanda’s description of how she learned English in the
1960s gives readers a window into the immigrant experience during uncertain political times.
Author: Julia Alvarez
Source: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991)
Snow
from the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
by Julia Alvarez
1 Our first year in New York we rented a small apartment
with a Catholic school nearby, taught by the Sisters of Charity,
hefty women in long black gowns and bonnets that made them
look peculiar, like dolls in mourning. I liked them a lot, especially my grandmotherly fourth grade teacher, Sister Zoe. I had
a lovely name, she said, and she had me teach the whole class
how to pronounce it. Yo-lan-da. As the only immigrant in my
class, I was put in a special seat in the first row by the window,
apart from the other children so that Sister Zoe could tutor
me without disturbing them. Slowly, she enunciated1 the new
words I was to repeat: laundromat, corn flakes, subway, snow.
2 Soon I picked up enough English to understand holocaust2
was in the air. Sister Zoe explained to a wide-eyed classroom
what was happening in Cuba. Russian missiles were being
assembled, trained supposedly on New York City. President
Kennedy, looking worried too, was on the television at home,
explaining we might have to go to war against the Communists.
At school, we had air-raid drills: an ominous bell would go off
and we’d file into the hall, fall to the floor, cover our heads with
our coats, and imagine our hair falling out, the bones in our
arms going soft. At home, Mami and my sisters and I said a
rosary3 for world peace. I heard new vocabulary: nuclear bomb,
radioactive fallout, bomb shelter. Sister Zoe explained how it
would happen. She drew a picture of a mushroom on the blackboard and dotted a flurry of chalkmarks for the dusty fallout4
that would kill us all.
1
2
3
4
enunciate: to pronounce; articulate
holocaust: great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of
life, especially by fire
rosary: A set of beads used by Catholics to indicate a set of
prayers. Each bead represents a prayer.
fallout: the radioactive particles resulting from a nuclear
explosion
Difficulty Index: Considerate . . . . . . . . . . . . Challenging
Structure:
Purpose:
Richness:
Relationships:
Vocabulary:
Style:
Lexile Measure: 1060L
Richness: Although the structure of this brief narrative
passage is considerate (with events occuring sequentially
over the course of a few months), the content contains
sophisticated issues of the immigrant experience, anxiety
over nuclear war, and children and adults trying to cope
with fears of impending disaster. Many 8th-10th graders
may have had little prior instruction on the Cuban Missle
Crisis or this time period in general.
See especially: Questions 4, 7, 8, 9
Style: With a first-person child narrator, most of the
language is fairly straightforward, but Alvarez does
use similes and a great many descriptive details to
characterize Yolanda and her teacher, and to create the
ominous mood of the times.
See especially: Question 3
Vocabulary: There are several instances in this
paragraph where familiar words (“holocaust,” “trained,”
“file”) are used in less familiar ways. The footnotes
support readers for some of the less familiar words.
See especially: Questions 3, 6
Vocabulary & Richness: This passage is unusual in that
it features vocabulary as an explicit part of the story. At
first, the words Yolanda learns reflect her concerns as
someone new to the U.S., but in paragraph two she also
learns words that reflect the national preoccupation with
war. The shift in her vocabulary words mirrors a shift in
the tone of the text.
See especially: Questions 3, 4
Continued on next page
FASt-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading.The passage text by Julia Alvarez is from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991).
Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
3 The months grew cold, November, December. It was dark
when I got up in the morning, frosty when I followed my breath
to school. One morning as I sat at my desk daydreaming out
the window, I saw dots in the air like the ones Sister Zoe had
drawn—random5 at first, then lots and lots. I shrieked, “Bomb!
Bomb!” Sister Zoe jerked around, her full black skirt ballooning
as she hurried to my side. A few girls began to cry.
4 But then Sister Zoe’s shocked look faded. “Why, Yolanda
dear, that’s snow!” She laughed. “Snow.”
5 “Snow,” I repeated. I looked out the window warily.6 All
my life I had heard about the white crystals that fell out of
American skies in the winter. From my desk I watched the fine
powder dust the sidewalk and parked cars below. Each flake was
different, Sister Zoe had said, like a person, irreplaceable and
beautiful.
5
6
Purpose: Alvarez, like many narrative writers, seeks to
help readers understand the world from an unfamiliar
perspective.
The technique she uses, “making the familiar strange,”
helps readers take the point of view of an immigrant girl
who is learning English during the Cuban Missile Crisis of
October 1962.
See especially: Q10
random: having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective
warily: on guard, watchful, cautious
Spotlight On: Julia Alvarez
Julia Alvarez spent the early years of her life in the
Dominican Republic until an unsafe political climate forced
her family to flee to New York.
While she had heard many wonderful things about the
United States, she experienced much homesickness,
prejudice, and isolation soon after arriving to the new
country. Reading became her escape: she soon immersed
herself in books and later began to write.
She went on to become a famous writer and scholar who
continues to devote her stories to the challenges people
face when they are torn between countries and cultures.
Some of her most famous books include How the Garcia
Girls Lost Their Accents, When Tia Lola Came to Stay, Before
We Were Free, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Yo!
Ideas for Connected Writing Activities
• Write a poem, letter, or essay for Sister Zoe explaining
the impact she has had on Yolanda.
• Write a poem, letter, or essay for a teacher who has
had a positive impact on you.
• Write a fictionalized vignette of a significant moment in
your own life (have students identify techniques used
in “Snow” first, like the use of dialogue, details, irony,
humor, etc.).
Humanities Connection:
• Research the U.S. government’s handling of the Cuban
Missile Crisis.
• Discuss or write about how living in fear of impending
war affected Americans during that era; compare and
contrast with other eras of conflict.
FASt-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading.The passage text by Julia Alvarez is from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991).
Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Teacher Guide for FAST-R Passage: Snow
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Autobiographical narrative
The annotated answer key below highlights common reasons students might choose each answer, and the sidebar gives more
insight into the question types, to help you understand patterns of student responses. Always make time to follow up with students
in conferences or small groups to probe their thinking, teach in response to patterns, and help them apply effective reading and
thinking strategies to their everyday reading.
Note: You may find it helpful to refer to the “Types and Levels of Questions on FAST-R” sheet from your teacher resource
folder as you examine your students’ responses. The icon in the right-hand column, below, corresponds to that sheet’s more
detailed explanations of the kinds of thinking each type of question asks of readers.
1. In the opening sentence, to whom is the narrator referring when she says
“Our”?
A. herself and her classmates (OOP2, ¶1)
B. herself and her teacher (OOP2, ¶1)
 C. herself and her family
D. herself and the Sisters of Charity (OOP1, ¶1)
FE2: Recognize the explicit
meaning from varied
wording in the text
2. According to the passage, this scene takes place when Yolanda is in
A. kindergarten. (OOB)
B. first grade. (OOP2, “first year,” ¶1)
 C. fourth grade.
D. sixth grade. (OOB)
FE2: Recognize the explicit
meaning from varied
wording in the text
3. In paragraphs 1 and 2, words in italics indicate
 A. new vocabulary Yolanda was trying to learn in English.
B. words in a song Yolanda was singing. (OOB)
C. words in the rosary. (OOP2 ¶2)
D. words Yolanda’s mother couldn’t pronounce. (OOB)
MI5: Determine meaning
by using an understanding
of literary concepts
4. During an air-raid drill, Yolanda and her classmates imagined
A. that the school burned down. (OOB)
B. they got a snow day. (OOP2 ¶2)
 C. the bones in their arms became soft.
D. saying the rosary. (OOP1, ¶2)
FE1: Identify evidence
explicitly stated in the text
5. Which of the following happened last?
A. Sister Zoe explained that Russian missiles were aimed at New York City
(OOP1, ¶2)
B. President Kennedy explained that the U.S. might have to go to war with the
Communists (OOP1, ¶2)
 C. Yolanda and her family prayed for world peace (¶2)
D. there were air-raid drills at school (OOP1, ¶2)
MI3: Determine implicit
meaning by understanding
the organization of
information in the text
6. Words that are closest in meaning to “ominous” include:
 A. fearful, foreboding, threatening
B. loud, disruptive, piercing (OOP1, ¶2)
C. high-pitched, harmonious, melodic (OOP2, ¶2)
D. enormous, grandeur, distinction (OOB)
MI1: Determine implicit
meaning from words in
context
FASt-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading.The passage text by Julia Alvarez is from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991).
Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Grades 8-10 • Autobiographical narrative • “Snow”
7. What causes Yolanda to scream suddenly?
 A. seeing what she thought was radioactive fallout (¶3)
B. touching bits and pieces of a mushroom (OOP2, ¶2)
C. hearing a nuclear bomb (OOP2, ¶2)
D. seeing a flurry of chalkmarks (OOP2, ¶2)
MI1: Determine implicit
meaning from ideas in
context
8. Yolanda most likely came from a country
A. where the kids did not go to school. (OOP2)
B. where there had been a nuclear war. (OOP2, ¶2)
 C. where the climate was tropical.
D. where it sometimes snowed. (OOP2, ¶5)
MI4: Determine new
meaning and apply it
beyond the passage
9. At the end of the passage, Sister Zoe describes snow flakes for Yolanda. What
deeper message is she trying to convey by describing snow in this manner?
A. that Yolanda needed to get used to the idea of living in the U.S. (OOP2, ¶1)
 B. that Yolanda is also beautiful and irreplaceable (¶5)
C. that Yolanda is melodramatic (OOP1, ¶3)
D. that Yolanda is a very funny student (OOP1, ¶4)
MI1: Determine implicit
meaning from phrases &
ideas in context
10. What is the author’s purpose in writing this passage?
 A. to help the reader appreciate life from someone else’s perspective
B. to caution the reader about the dangers of nulear war (OOP1, ¶2)
C. to portray life in the Catholic schools of New York City (OOP2, ¶1)
D. to show the reader how hard it is to learn another language (OOP2, ¶1-2)
MI2: Determine a singular
meaning from the sum total
of the entire text
FASt-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading.The passage text by Julia Alvarez is from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991).
Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
FAST-R
+
Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Name
“Snow” • Autobiographical narrative
Date
Teacher/Class
This excerpt from Julia Alvarez’s autobiographical narrative invites readers into the world of
eleven-year-old Yolanda, whose family immigrated to the United States during the 1960s.
Snow
from the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
1 Our first year in New York we rented a small apartment with a Catholic school
nearby, taught by the Sisters of Charity, hefty women in long black gowns and
bonnets that made them look peculiar, like dolls in mourning. I liked them a lot,
especially my grandmotherly fourth grade teacher, Sister Zoe. I had a lovely name,
she said, and she had me teach the whole class how to pronounce it. Yo-lan-da. As
the only immigrant in my class, I was put in a special seat in the first row by the
window, apart from the other children so that Sister Zoe could tutor me without
disturbing them. Slowly, she enunciated1 the new words I was to repeat: laundromat,
corn flakes, subway, snow.
Spotlight On: Julia Alvarez
2 Soon I picked up enough English to un2
derstand holocaust was in the air. Sister Zoe
Julia Alvarez spent the early years of
her life in the Dominican Republic until
explained to a wide-eyed classroom what was
an unsafe political climate forced her
happening in Cuba. Russian missiles were
family to flee to New York.
being assembled, trained supposedly on New
While she had heard many wonderful
York City. President Kennedy, looking worried
things about the United States, she
too, was on the television at home, explaining
experienced much homesickness,
we might have to go to war against the Comprejudice, and isolation soon after
arriving in the new country. Reading
munists. At school, we had air-raid drills: an
became her escape: she soon
ominous bell would go off and we’d file into
immersed herself in books and later
the hall, fall to the floor, cover our heads with
began to write.
our coats, and imagine our hair falling out,
She went on to become a famous
the bones in our arms going soft. At home,
writer and scholar who continues to
Mami and my sisters and I said a rosary3 for
devote her stories to the challenges
people face when they are torn
world peace. I heard new vocabulary: nuclear
between countries and cultures.
bomb, radioactive fallout, bomb shelter. Sister
Some of her most famous books
Zoe explained how it would happen. She drew
include How the Garcia Girls Lost Their
a picture of a mushroom on the blackboard
Accents, When Tia Lola Came to Stay,
and dotted a flurry of chalkmarks for the dusty
Before We Were Free, In the Time of
fallout4 that would kill us all.
the Butterflies, and Yo!
Continued on next page
1
2
enunciate: to pronounce; articulate
holocaust: great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of
life, especially by fire
3
4
rosary: A set of beads used by Catholics to indicate a set
of prayers. Each bead represents a prayer.
fallout: the radioactive particles resulting from a nuclear
explosion
FASt-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading.The passage text by Julia Alvarez is from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991).
Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
3 The months grew cold, November, December. It was dark when I
got up in the morning, frosty when I followed my breath to school. One
morning as I sat at my desk daydreaming out the window, I saw dots in the
air like the ones Sister Zoe had drawn—random5 at first, then lots and lots.
I shrieked, “Bomb! Bomb!” Sister Zoe jerked around, her full black skirt
ballooning as she hurried to my side. A few girls began to cry.
4 But then Sister Zoe’s shocked look faded. “Why, Yolanda dear, that’s
snow!” She laughed. “Snow.”
5 “Snow,” I repeated. I looked out the window warily6. All my life I had
heard about the white crystals that fell out of American skies in the winter.
From my desk I watched the fine powder dust the sidewalk and parked cars
below. Each flake was different, Sister Zoe had said, like a person, irreplaceable and beautiful.
5
6
random: having no specific pattern, purpose, or objective
warily: on guard, watchful, cautious
FASt-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading.The passage text by Julia Alvarez is from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991).
Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
FAST-R
+
Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Name
“Snow” • Autobiographical narrative
Date
Teacher/Class
Directions: Answer the following multiple-choice questions by filling in the circle for the best
answer on your answer sheet.
1. In the opening sentence, to whom is the narrator referring when she says “Our”?
A. herself and her classmates
B. herself and her teacher
C. herself and her family
D. herself and the Sisters of Charity
2. According to the passage, this scene takes place when Yolanda is in
A. kindergarten.
B. first grade.
C. fourth grade.
D. sixth grade.
3. In paragraphs 1 and 2, words in italics indicate
A. new vocabulary Yolanda was trying to learn in English.
B. words in a song Yolanda was singing.
C. words in the rosary.
D. words Yolanda’s mother couldn’t pronounce.
4. During an air-raid drill, Yolanda and her classmates imagined
A. that the school burned down.
B. they got a snow day.
C. the bones in their arms became soft.
D. saying the rosary.
5. Which of the following happened last?
A. Sister Zoe explained that Russian missiles were aimed at New York City
B. President Kennedy explained that the U.S. might have to go to war
with the Communists
C. Yolanda and her family prayed for world peace
D. there were air-raid drills at school
Continue on
the next page
FASt-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading.The passage text by Julia Alvarez is from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991).
Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Name
School
Date
Teacher/Class
6. Words that are closest in meaning to “ominous” include:
A. fearful, foreboding, threatening
B. loud, disruptive, piercing
C. high-pitched, harmonious, melodic
D. enormous, grandeur, distinction
7. What causes Yolanda to scream suddenly?
A. seeing what she thought was radioactive fallout
B. touching bits and pieces of a mushroom
C. hearing a nuclear bomb
D. seeing a flurry of chalkmarks
8. Yolanda most likely came from a country
A. where the kids did not go to school.
B. where there had been a nuclear war.
C. where the climate was tropical.
D. where it sometimes snowed.
9. At the end of the passage, Sister Zoe describes snowflakes for Yolanda. What deeper message
is she trying to convey by describing snow in this manner?
A. that Yolanda needed to get used to the idea of living in America
B. that Yolanda is also beautiful and irreplaceable
C. that Yolanda is melodramatic
D. that Yolanda is a very funny student
10. What is the author’s main purpose in writing this passage?
A. to help the reader appreciate life from someone else’s perspective
B. to caution the reader about the dangers of nuclear war
C. to portray life in the Catholic schools of New York City
D. to show the reader how hard it is to learn another language
FASt-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading.The passage text by Julia Alvarez is from How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents (1991).
Copyright © 1991 by Julia Alvarez. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Teachers: Please duplicate and use this answer sheet only for students for whom you did not receive a pre-printed answer sheet!
FAST-R Answer Sheet
Name
School
Date
Grade
Passage Title
Teacher Name
Completely fill the circle
for the correct answer.
1.
A
B
C
D
2.
A
B
C
D
3.
A
B
C
D
4.
A
B
C
D
5.
A
B
C
D
6. A
B
C
D
7.
A
B
C
D
8.
A
B
C
D
9.
A
B
C
D
10.
A
B
C
D
Class
Write your answer to the open response prompt in the lined space below
if your teacher directs you to do so.
OFFICE USE ONLY
RESEARCH:
Y
N
OPEN RESPONSE:
2
3
1
4