Unit 11 Open-Ended
Questions
ASSESSMENT
There are 5 questions: 1 for each
story/poem and an opinion question
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“President Cleveland, Where Are You?”
“Raymond’s Run”
“The White Umbrella”
“The Courage That My Mother Had”
All stories can be found at
http://agorapanthers.weebly.com
• Each question is worth 20 points
• 5 points
– Complete sentences
• 5 points
– Correct grammar and spelling
• 10 points
– Correct answer
“President Cleveland, Where Are You?”
Jerry and his friends collect cowboy cards. When Armand, Jerry’s
older brother, asks him to give some money towards buying their dad a
birthday present, Jerry withholds some money so he can buy more cowboy
cards. However, when he shows up at the store, he finds out the store is no
longer selling cowboy cards with the bubble gum. Now there is a new
promotion: president cards. He and his friends soon begin collecting the
presidents cards in order to be the first to complete the set and win the
autographed baseball glove they all are wanting. At home, however, Armand
is in love and realizes he cannot ask their dad for money to help pay for him
to take his girlfriend to the prom. Jerry finds Armand on the porch and both
of them share why they are upset. Armand helps Jerry by telling him where
he can find the last card he needs to complete the president set for the
glove! Armand also helps Jerry fix his bike tire so he can go and get the card
in another neighborhood. At the end we find that Jerry is sitting on his porch
railing and his best friend comes over upset that one of their rivals has won
the baseball glove! Jerry does not have the glove! Someone else does. We
also know that Armand has left for the prom with his girlfriend! Jerry tells
his best friend that he had to sell the card to their rival, it was an
emergency. His friend understands in the end, but Jerry isn’t 100% sure he
did the right thing. He sold the glove to their rival for $5 and gave the money
to Armand so he could go to the prom.
“President Cleveland, Where Are You?”
• 1. If you were Jerry in the story
“President Cleveland Where Are
You,” would you have made the
same sacrifice for Armand? Why
or why not?
• THINK ABOUT: what did Jerry do
at the end of the story? He got
the President Cleveland card, but
did not get the baseball glove.
Instead, he did something else.
Would you have done the same?
“Raymond’s Run”
All Squeaky cares about is being the fastest thing on
two feet. She believes she will win any race. She trains
constantly for running races and has made this her main
focus.
In the middle of the story, Squeaky has a run-in with
her fiercest competitor – the new girl, Gretchen. Gretchen
believes she can beat Squeaky.
The day of the May Day race arrives. Squeaky lines up
to race. As she is running the race, she realizes that Gretchen
is keeping up with her and might actually beat her! She also
sees that Raymond is running right along with her on the
other side of the fence!
Though Squeaky does win the race, it isn’t nearly as
important to her as it was at the beginning of the story. She
sees Raymond in a different light. She thinks she can coach
him and even thinks that Gretchen might be able to help her!
“Raymond’s Run”
• 2. In the story “Raymond’s Run,” how does
Squeaky’s attitude change after she wins the
race? How will she help her brother
Raymond?
• THINK ABOUT: What was Squeaky’s attitude at
the beginning of the story? What was it at the
end? What does she decide to do for
Raymond? What is now more important to
her?
“The White Umbrella”
The narrator in this story is a Chinese-American. She is the oldest of two girls. Her mother
and father were born and raised in China and moved to America where the girls were born. They go to
a public school and attend piano lessons after school. Their mother has taken a job and has not told
the girls about it. This has made the narrator very upset. She is embarrassed that her mother is
working and not at home taking care of the house and children as “normal, American” mothers do.
On the way to piano practice, the girls get caught in the rain. They end up getting to
practice early. The narrator envies the girl who is there practicing. Eugenie Roberts is the perfect
American girl. The narrator sees a white umbrella leaning up against the wall near the piano and
assumes it belongs to Eugenie. When Eugenie leaves without it, the narrator daydreams about taking
the umbrella home with her that night so she can return it to Eugenie at school the next day. She
knows her mother thinks that umbrellas are impractical and will never get one of her own.
While the narrator is sitting outside waiting for her mother to pick them up, it begins to
rain again. The narrator refused to go inside the teacher’s apartment and admit her mother was late
because she was working. The teacher, Miss Crossman, GIVES the umbrella to the narrator. She is so
excited she tells Miss Crossman that she wishes Miss Crossman were her mother. Right after she says
this, the narrator’s mother shows up.
On the way home the narrator tries to hide the umbrella under her skirt. This makes her
sister curious. They distract their mother who ends up getting into an accident. After the accident,
their mother puts her head back on the seat cushion and the narrator thinks she has died! She
screams at her mother who tells her to calm down. They all get out of the car. The narrator takes the
white umbrella and puts it down a sewage drain. She realizes having the white umbrella isn’t really
that important and will not really change her life. Her mother has told her the truth about working.
She matures and recognizes having her mother and her life is okay
“The White Umbrella”
• 3. In the story “The White Umbrella,” what
does the white umbrella symbolize?
• THINK ABOUT: Who does the narrator think
the umbrella belongs to? What does she think
of this person? At the end she throws the
umbrella down the sewage drain because she
realizes it isn’t really going to change her life.
But what did it symbolize to her in the first
place?
“The Courage That My Mother Had”
The courage that my mother had
Went with her, and is with her still:
Rock from New England quarried;
Now granite on a granite hill.
The golden brooch my mother wore
She left behind for me to wear;
I have no thing I treasure more:
Yet, it is something I could spare.
Oh, if instead she’d left to me
The thing she took into the grave!—
That courage like a rock, which she
Has no more need of, and I have.
- Edna St. Vincent Millay
“The Courage That My Mother Had”
• 4. In the poem “The
Courage That My Mother
Had,” why does the
narrator compare her
mother’s courage to a rock?
• THINK ABOUT: How does a
rock resemble courage?
What are the characteristics
of a rock? How are they
similar to the
characteristics of courage?
OPINION QUESTION
• 5. In this unit (Literature
11), the characters had to
discover what’s important in
their lives. In 2-3 sentences,
describe what YOU think is
most important in life.
• Remember, you are graded
on whether or not you write
in complete sentences.
Spelling and grammar also
count! This is your opinion!