Teacher Guide for FAST-R Passage: Fences
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
At a Glance
Approximate
Grade Range:
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Genre: Drama
Topic: Rose reflects on her relationship with Troy Maxson, while
Cory struggles to establish an independent identity.
Author: August Wilson
Source: Fences (1986)
Special Note: used on G10 MCAS 1999
The following selection is an excerpt from the play Fences by
August Wilson. As you read this excerpt, think about how the
playwright develops characters as well as theme. When you have
finished reading, answer the questions that follow.
FENCES
by August Wilson
Drama
Difficulty Index: Considerate . . . . . . . . . . . . Challenging
Structure:
Purpose:
Richness:
Relationships:
Vocabulary:
Style:
Lexile Measure: 540L
Relationships: The entire passage is about the complex
interrelationships among the characters.
At various points, Troy Maxson is referred to as “Troy,”
“Papa,” and metaphorically, e.g., “a shadow”
See especially: Questions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10
CORY: Mama . . . I got something to tell you. I don’t know how
to tell you this . . . but I’ve got to tell you . . . I’m not going to
Papa’s funeral.
ROSE: Boy, hush your mouth. That’s your daddy you talking
about. I don’t want hear that kind of talk this morning. I done
raised you to come to this? You standing there all healthy and
grown talking about you ain’t going to your daddy’s funeral?
Style: Mother and son speak in different dialects.
See especially: Question 9
CORY: Mama . . . listen . . .
ROSE: I don’t want to hear it, Cory. You just get that thought
out of your head.
CORY: I can’t drag Papa with me everywhere I go. I’ve got to
say no to him. One time in my life I’ve got to say no.
ROSE: Don’t nobody have to listen to nothing like that. I know
you and your daddy ain’t seen eye to eye, but I ain’t got to listen
to that kind of talk this morning. Whatever was between you
and your daddy . . . the time has come to put it aside. Just take
it and set it over there on the shelf and forget about it. Disre‑
specting your daddy ain’t going to make you a man, Cory. You
got to find a way to come to that on your own. Not going to
your daddy’s funeral ain’t going to make you a man.
CORY: The whole time I was growing up . . . living in his house
. . . Papa was like a shadow that followed you everywhere. It
weighed on you and sunk into your flesh. It would wrap around
you and lay there until you couldn’t tell which one was you
anymore. That shadow digging in your flesh. Trying to crawl in.
Trying to live through you. Everywhere I looked, Troy Maxson
was staring back at me . . . hiding under the bed . . . in the
closet. I’m just saying I’ve got to find a way to get rid of that
shadow, Mama.
Richness, Relationships: The concepts of love, identity,
and interpersonal influence are rich and presented in
metaphorical and sometimes conflicting ways.
See especially: Questions 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10
Vocabulary: Many words, especially in this section, are
context dependent and metaphorical.
Continued on next page
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by August Wilson is from Fences. Copyright © 1986 August Wilson. Some questions were drawn or
adapted from the G10 MCAS Spring 1999 test. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
ROSE: You just like him. You got him in you good.
CORY: Don’t tell me that, Mama.
ROSE: You Troy Maxson all over again.
CORY: I don’t want to be Troy Maxson. I want to be me.
ROSE: You can’t be nobody but who you are, Cory. That shad‑
ow wasn’t nothing but you growing into yourself. You either got
to grow into it or cut it down to fit you. But that’s all you got
to make life with. That’s all you got to measure yourself against
that world out there. Your daddy wanted you to be everything
he wasn’t . . . and at the same time he tried to make you into ev‑
erything he was. I don’t know if he was right or wrong . . . but I
do know he meant to do more good than he meant to do harm.
He wasn’t always right. Sometimes when he touched he bruised.
And sometimes when he took me in his arms he cut.
When I first met your daddy [. . .] I was thirty years old and
had done seen my share of men. But when he walked up to me
and said, “I can dance a waltz that’ll make you dizzy,” I thought,
Rose Lee, here is a man that you can open yourself up to and
be filled to bursting. Here is a man that can fill all them empty
spaces you been tipping around the edges of. One of them
empty spaces was being somebody’s mother.
Structure: At this point, the dialogue between Cory
and Rose shifts to a monologue as Rose reflects on the
choices she made in her relationship with Troy. The long
monologue may be challenging for students because it
appears to change topic.
See especially: Questions 7, 8, 10
I married your daddy and settled down to cooking his
supper and keeping clean sheets on the bed. When your daddy
walked through the house, he was so big he filled it up. That was
my first mistake. Not to make him leave some room for me. For
my part in the matter. But at that time, I wanted that. I wanted
a house that I could sing in. And that’s what your daddy gave
me. I didn’t know to keep up his strength I had to give up little
pieces of mine. I did that. I took on his life as mine and mixed
up the pieces so you couldn’t hardly tell which was which any‑
more. It was my choice. It was my life and I didn’t have to live
it like that. But that’s what life offered me in the way of being a
woman and I took it. I grabbed hold of it with both hands.
By the time Raynell came into the house, me and your
daddy had done lost touch with one another. I didn’t want to
make my blessing off nobody’s misfortune . . . but I took on to
Raynell like she was all them babies I had wanted and never had.
(The phone rings)
Like I’d been blessed to relive a part of my life. And if the
Lord see fit to keep up my strength . . . I’m gonna do her just
like your daddy did you. I’m gonna give her the best of what’s in
me.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by August Wilson is from Fences. Copyright © 1986 August Wilson. Some questions were drawn or
adapted from the G10 MCAS Spring 1999 test. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Teacher Guide for FAST-R Passage: Fences
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Drama
The annotated answer key below highlights common reasons why 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 Thinking Assessed 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. What most likely happened just before the scene excerpted above?
A. Raynell was born to Rose and Troy­—(OOP2: she was born before Cory’s
father died)
B. Rose went to her huband’s funeral­­—(OOP2: this probably happens right
after the excerpt)
 C. Cory’s father died­­-(this passage is about attending his funeral)
D. Cory went to the hospital and received bad news—(OOB: there is no evi‑
dence that Cory goes to the hospital)
MI3: Determine implicit
meaning by understanding
the organization of
information in the text
2. Cory doesn’t want to attend his father’s funeral because he
 A. feels overwhelmed by his father’ presence.
B. has no feelings about his father.—(OOB)
C. lacks the physical strength to sit through the service.—(OOP2)
D. is overwhelmed with grief for his father’s death.‑—(OOB)
MI1: Determine implicit
meaning from words in
context
3. Rose believes that if Cory doesn’t attend his father’s funeral,
A. it is because he is too independent.—(OOP1)
B. it will make him a man.—(OOP2)
C. he will be disregarding his father’s wishes.—(OOB)
 D. it is a sign of disrespect.
FE2: Recognize the explicit
meaning from varied
wording and multiple
locations in the text
4. Who is Troy Maxson?
A. Rose’s brother—(OOB: No brother is ever mentioned, and Rose describes
Troy with a degree of intimacy that wouldn’t apply to her brother)
B. A family friend—(OOB: Rose describes Troy with a degree of intimacy that
wouldn’t apply to a family friend)
 C. Cory’s father—(Students must link “Troy Maxson” with “your daddy”—the
relationship is implied but never stated explicitly)
D. Rose’s father—(OOP2: Troy is Cory’s father; Rose says “I married your
daddy...”)
MI1: Determine implicit
meaning from words in
context
5. Based on evidence in the passage, which of the following is true about Rose?
A. She is Raynell’s grandmother.—(OOB)
 B. She was 30 when she met Cory’s father.
C. She wanted to be a professional singer.—(OOP1)
D. She is a very small person.—(OOP2)
FE1: Identify evidence
explicitly stated in the text
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by August Wilson is from Fences. Copyright © 1986 August Wilson. Some questions were drawn or
adapted from the G10 MCAS Spring 1999 test. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Grade 10 • Drama • “Fences”
6. When Cory says, “I can’t drag Papa with me everywhere I go,” he means that
 A. he doesn’t want his father to influence who he is.
B. it is embarrassing to always have his father following him around.—(OOB)
C. he doesn’t want to go to the funeral.—(OOP2)
D. it is difficult to take his father places.—(OOB)
MI1: Determine implicit
meaning from phrases in
context
7. Which statement best expresses the purpose of Rose’s final speech?
A. To explain how she took care of Cory’s father, even when they lost touch
with one another—(OOP2)
 B. To explain the choices and sacrifices she made in building a life with
Cory’s father
C. To show Cory that his father gave her a comfortable home—(OOP1)
D. To explain who Raynell is—(OOB)
MI3: Determine implicit
meaning by understanding
the organization of
information in the text
8. Rose describes Troy Maxson as
A. a figure hiding under the bed.—(OOP1: Cory expresses)
B. omnipresent.—(OOP1)
 C. someone who could fill up the whole house.
D. someone who disrespected his family.—(OOP2)
FE2: Recognize the explicit
meaning from varied
wording in the text
9. The author gave Rose and Cory different ways of speaking because
 A. he wanted to make the conversation more realistic.
B. he wanted to create the mood of a funeral.—(OOP1)
C. he didn’t write very well.—(OOB)
D. he wanted to emphasize Cory’s age.—(OOP2)
MI5: Determine meaning by incorporating an
understanding of literary
concepts
10. When Rose says, “Sometimes when he touched he bruised. And sometimes
when he took me in his arms he cut,” she means that Cory’s father
A. didn’t know his own strength and would physically hurt her by mistake.—
(OOP1)
B. didn’t really love her.—(OOP2)
C. was very strong and carried a knife.—(OOB)
 D. couldn’t love without hurting the people he loved.
MI1: Determine implicit
meaning from phrases in
context
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by August Wilson is from Fences. Copyright © 1986 August Wilson. Some questions were drawn or
adapted from the G10 MCAS Spring 1999 test. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
FAST-R
+
Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Name
“Fences” • Drama
Date
Teacher/Class
The following selection is an excerpt from the play “Fences” by August Wilson. As you read this excerpt, think about
how the playwright develops characters as well as theme. When you have finished reading, answer the questions that
follow.
FENCES
by August Wilson
CORY: Mama . . . I got something to tell you. I don’t know how to tell you this . . .
but I’ve got to tell you . . . I’m not going to Papa’s funeral.
ROSE: Boy, hush your mouth. That’s your daddy you talking about. I don’t want hear
that kind of talk this morning. I done raised you to come to this? You standing there all healthy and grown talking about you ain’t going to your daddy’s
funeral?
CORY: Mama . . . listen . . .
ROSE: I don’t want to hear it, Cory. You just get that thought
out of your head.
CORY: I can’t drag Papa with me everywhere I go. I’ve got to
say no to him. One time in my life I’ve got to say no.
ROSE: Don’t nobody have to listen to nothing like that. I
know you and your daddy ain’t seen eye to eye, but
I ain’t got to listen to that kind of talk this morning.
Whatever was between you and your daddy . . . the
time has come to put it aside. Just take it and set it
over there on the shelf and forget about it. Disrespecting your daddy ain’t going to make you a man, Cory.
You got to find a way to come to that on your own.
Not going to your daddy’s funeral ain’t going to make
you a man.
CORY: The whole time I was growing up . . . living in his
house . . . Papa was like a shadow that followed you
everywhere. It weighed on you and sunk into your
flesh. It would wrap around you and lay there until
you couldn’t tell which one was you anymore. That
shadow digging in your flesh. Trying to crawl in. Trying to live through you. Everywhere I looked, Troy
Maxson was staring back at me . . . hiding under the
bed . . . in the closet. I’m just saying I’ve got to find a
way to get rid of that shadow, Mama.
Spotlight On: August Wilson
August Wilson (1945-2005) was born
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, under the
name Frederick August Kittel. When
he was five, his parents divorced,
leaving his mother to raise him and his
six siblings in a poor, predominantly
black neighborhood. In 1959, she
remarried and the family moved to
a white working-class area where
they faced racial discrimination. After
unsuccessful stints at three separate
high schools, Kittel largely educated
himself at the Carnegie Library by
reading black authors like Ralph Ellison
and Langston Hughes. His father died
in 1965, after which he changed his
name to Wilson to honor his mother,
and began writing seriously.
“Fences” is one of ten plays Wilson
wrote to depict the African-American
experience in Pittsburgh during the
20th century, each play representing
one decade. Fences encapsulates the
1950s. The play won the Pulitzer Prize
for Drama and the Tony Award for Best
Play.
ROSE: You just like him. You got him in you good.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by August Wilson is from Fences. Copyright © 1986 August Wilson. Some questions were drawn or
adapted from the G10 MCAS Spring 1999 test. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
CORY: Don’t tell me that, Mama.
ROSE: You Troy Maxson all over again.
CORY: I don’t want to be Troy Maxson. I want to be me.
ROSE: You can’t be nobody but who you are, Cory. That shadow wasn’t nothing but
you growing into yourself. You either got to grow into it or cut it down to
fit you. But that’s all you got to make life with. That’s all you got to measure
yourself against that world out there. Your daddy wanted you to be everything
he wasn’t . . . and at the same time he tried to make you into everything he
was. I don’t know if he was right or wrong . . . but I do know he meant to
do more good than he meant to do harm. He wasn’t always right. Sometimes
when he touched he bruised. And sometimes when he took me in his arms he
cut.
When I first met your daddy [. . .] I was thirty years old and had done
seen my share of men. But when he walked up to me and said, “I can dance a
waltz that’ll make you dizzy,” I thought, Rose Lee, here is a man that you can
open yourself up to and be filled to bursting. Here is a man that can fill all
them empty spaces you been tipping around the edges of. One of them empty
spaces was being somebody’s mother.
I married your daddy and settled down to cooking his supper and keeping clean sheets on the bed. When your daddy walked through the house, he
was so big he filled it up. That was my first mistake. Not to make him leave
some room for me. For my part in the matter. But at that time, I wanted that.
I wanted a house that I could sing in. And that’s what your daddy gave me. I
didn’t know to keep up his strength I had to give up little pieces of mine. I did
that. I took on his life as mine and mixed up the pieces so you couldn’t hardly
tell which was which anymore. It was my choice. It was my life and I didn’t
have to live it like that. But that’s what life offered me in the way of being a
woman and I took it. I grabbed hold of it with both hands.
By the time Raynell came into the house, me and your daddy had done
lost touch with one another. I didn’t want to make my blessing off nobody’s
misfortune . . . but I took on to Raynell like she was all them babies I had
wanted and never had.
(The phone rings)
Like I’d been blessed to relive a part of my life. And if the Lord see fit to
keep up my strength . . . I’m gonna do her just like your daddy did you. I’m
gonna give her the best of what’s in me.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by August Wilson is from Fences. Copyright © 1986 August Wilson. Some questions were drawn or
adapted from the G10 MCAS Spring 1999 test. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
FAST-R
+
Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Name
“Fences” • Drama
Date
Teacher/Class
On your answer sheet, fill in the circle for the correct answer to questions 1-10.
1. What most likely happened just before the scene excerpted above?
A. Raynell was born to Rose and Troy
B. Rose went to her husband’s funeral
C. Cory’s father died
D. Cory went to the hospital and received bad news
2. Cory doesn’t want to attend his father’s funeral because he
A. feels overwhelmed by his father’s presence.
B. doesn’t care about his father at all.
C. lacks the physical strength to sit through the service.
D. is overwhelmed with grief for his father’s death.
3. Rose believes that if Cory doesn’t attend his father’s funeral,
A. it is because he is too independent.
B. it will make him a man.
C. he will be disregarding his father’s wishes.
D. it is a sign of disrespect.
4. Who is Troy Maxson?
A. Rose’s brother
B. A family friend
C. Cory’s father
D. Rose’s father
5. Based on evidence in the passage, which of the following is true about Rose?
A. She is Raynell’s grandmother.
B. She was 30 when she met Cory’s father.
C. She wanted to be a professional singer.
D. She is a very small person.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by August Wilson is from Fences. Copyright © 1986 August Wilson. Some questions were drawn or
adapted from the G10 MCAS Spring 1999 test. All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Name
School
Date
Teacher/Class
6. When Cory says, “I can’t drag Papa with me everywhere I go,” he means that
A. he doesn’t want his father to influence who he is.
B. it is embarassing to always have his father following him around.
C. he doesn’t want to go to the funeral.
D. it is difficult to take his father places.
7. Which statement best expresses the purpose of Rose’s final speech?
A. To explain how she took care of Cory’s father, even when they lost touch with one another
B. To explain the choices and sacrifices she made in building a life with Cory’s father
C. To show Cory that his father gave her a comfortable home
D. To explain who Raynell is
8. Rose describes Troy Maxson as
A. a figure hiding under the bed.
B. omnipresent.
C. someone who could fill up the whole house.
D. someone who disrespected his family.
9. The author gave Rose and Cory different ways of speaking because
A. he wanted to make the conversation more realistic.
B. he wanted to create the mood of a funeral.
C. he didn’t write very well.
D. he wanted to emphasize Cory’s age.
10. When Rose says, “Sometimes when he touched he bruised. And sometimes when he took me in
his arms he cut,” she means that Cory’s father
A. didn’t know his own strength and would physically hurt her by mistake.
B. didn’t really love her.
C. was very strong and carried a knife.
D. couldn’t love without hurting the people he loved.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by August Wilson is from Fences. Copyright © 1986 August Wilson. Some questions were drawn or
adapted from the G10 MCAS Spring 1999 test. 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
Class
Teacher Name
Passage Title
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
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: 1 2 3
4