Teacher Guide for FAST-R Passage: “Here We Go Again,” from
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Bud, Not Buddy (Fiction)
At a Glance
Approximate
Grade Range:
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Genre: Fiction
Topic: Topic
Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Source: Bud, Not Buddy (1999)
Bud Caldwell is not your typical ten year old. He has had some
difficult life experiences and learned many lessons. After his mother
died when he was six, he has lived in an orphanage and foster homes.
Read the excerpt below when Bud is about to be sent to his third foster
home.
Here We Go Again
from Bud, Not Buddy by Christoper Paul Curtis
1 HERE WE GO AGAIN.  We were all standing in line
waiting for breakfast when one of the caseworkers came in and
tap-tap-taped down the line.  Uh-oh, this meant bad news,
either they’d found a foster home for somebody or somebody
was about to be paddled.  All the kids watched the woman as she
moved along the line, her high-heeled shoes sounding like little
firecrackers going off on the wooden floor.
2 Shoot! She stopped at me and said, “Are you Buddy
Caldwell?”
3
I said, “It’s Bud, not Buddy, ma’am.”
Difficulty Index: Considerate . . . . . . . . . . . . Challenging
Structure:
Purpose:
Richness:
Relationships:
Vocabulary:
Style:
Fountas & Pinnell Rating: T
Lexile Measure: 830L
Richness: Bud’s strong “voice” is created by the use of
a first-person narrative style: Readers are inside Bud’s
head, listening to his internal conversation.
In addition to the spoken dialect, the narration is
full of vivid idiomatic expressions, such as “I’ll be
doggoned…” and “the boys were jim-jammed together.”
Details about the Great Depression and jazz scene help
to build the 1930’s setting.
See especially: Questions 4, 6
Purpose: To introduce the reader to the character Bud
Caldwell
See especially: Questions 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10
4 She put her hand on my shoulder and took me out of
line.  Then she pulled Jerry, one of the littler boys, over.  “Aren’t
you Jerry Clark?”  He nodded.
5 “Boys, good news!  Now that the school year has ended, you
both have been accepted in new temporary-care homes starting this afternoon!”
6
Jerry asked me the same thing I was thinking. “Together?”
7 She said, “why, no.  Jerry, you’ll be in a family with three
little girls--”
8 Jerry looked like he’d just found out that they were going to
dip him in a pot of boiling milk.
9 “– and Bud–”  She looked at some papers she was
holding.  “Oh, yes, the Amoses, you’ll be with Mr. And Mrs.
Amos and their son, who’s twelve years old, that makes him just
two years older than you, doesn’t it, Bud?”
Style: The author uses rich and descriptive language to
make the boys’ feelings and experiences come to life.
He also writes in a non-linear fashion; readers must be
able to jump in and out of the present moment.
See especially: Questions 4, 6
10 “Yes, ma’am.”
11 She said, “I’m sure you’ll both be very happy.”
Continued on next page
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
12 Me and Jerry looked at each other.
13 The woman said “Now, now, boys, no need to look so
glum.  I know you don’t know what it means, but there is a
depression going on all over this country.  People can’t find jobs
and these are very, very difficult times for everybody.  We’ve
been lucky enough to find two wonderful families to open their
doors for you.  I think it’s best that we show our new foster
families that we’re very--”
Vocabulary: Luxurious, caseworkers, glum, depression,
commence, twine, decoder, writ, suspicion, ring,
squinching
14 She dragged out the word very, waiting for us to finish the
sentence.
15 Jerry said, “Cheerful, helpful and grateful.”  I moved my lips
and mumbled.
16 She smiled and said, “Unfortunately you won’t have time for
breakfast.  I’ll have a couple of pieces of fruit put in a bag.  In
the meantime go to the sleep room and strip your beds and
gather all of your things.”
17 Here we go again.  I felt that I as walking in my sleep as
I followed Jerry back to the room where all of the boys’ beds
were jim-jammed together.  This was the third foster home I
was going to and I’m used to packing up and leaving, but it still
surprises me that there are always a few seconds, right after they
tell you you’ve got to go, when my nose gets all runny and my
throat all choky and eyes get all sting-y.  But the tears coming
out doesn’t happen to me anymore.  I don’t know when it first
happened, but it seems like my eyes don’t cry no more.
18 Jerry sat on his bed and I could tell that he was losing the
fight not to cry.  Tears were popping out of his eyes and slipping
down his cheeks.
19 I sat down next to him and said, “I know being in a house
with three girls sounds terrible, Jerry, but it’s a lot better than
being with a boy who’s a couple of years older than you.  I’m
the one who’s going to have problems.  A older boy is going to
want to fight, but those little girls are going to treat you real
good.  They’re going to treat you like some kind of special pet or
something.”
20 Jerry said, “You really think so?”
21 I said, “I’d trade you in a minute.  The worst thing that is
going to happen to you is that they are going to make you play
house a lot.  They’ll probably make you be the baby and will hug
you and do this kind of junk to you.”  I tickled Jerry under his
chin and said, “Ga-ga, goo-goo, baby-waby.”
22 Jerry couldn’t help but smile.  I said, “You’re going to be
great.”
23 Jerry looked like he wasn’t so scared anymore so I went over
to my bed and started getting ready.
24 Even though it was me that was in a lot of trouble I couldn’t
help but feel sorry for Jerry.  Not only because he was going to
have to live around three girls, but also because being six is a real
tough age to be at.  Most folks think you start being a real adult
when you’re fifteen or sixteen years old, but that’s not true, it
really starts when you’re around six.
Structure: The scene progresses in generally
chronological order, but with anecdotes and flashbacks
that may confuse readers who are accustomed to more
linear narratives.
See especially: Questions 1, 7, 9
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
25 It’s at six that grown folks don’t think you’re a cute little kid
anymore, they talk to you and expect that you understand everything that they mean.  And you’d best understand too, if you
aren’t looking for some real trouble, ‘cause its around six that
grown folks stop giving you little swats and taps and jump clean
up to giving you slugs that’ll knock you right down and have
you seeing stars in the middle of the day.  The first foster home I
was in taught me that real quick.
26 Six is a bad time too ‘cause that’s when some real scary
things start to happen to your body, it’s around then that your
teeth start coming a-loose in your mouth.
27 You wake up one morning and it seems like your tongue is
the first one to notice that something strange is going on, ‘cause
as soon as you get up there it is pushing and rubbing up against
one of your front teeth and I’ll be doggoned if that tooth isn’t
the littlest bit wiggly.
28 At first you think it’s kind of funny, but the tooth keeps getting looser and looser and one day, in the middle of pushing the
tooth back and forth and squinching your eyes shut, you pull it
clean out. It’s the scariest thing you can think of  ‘cause you lose
control of your tongue at the same time and no matter how hard
you try to stop it, it won’t the new hole in rout mouth alone, it
keeps digging around in the spot where the tooth used to be.
29 You tell some adult about what’s happening but all they do
is say it’s normal.  You can’t be too sure, though, ‘cause it shakes
you up a whole lot more than grown folks think it does when
perfectly good parts of your body commence to loosening up
and falling off of you
30 Unless you’re as stupid as a lamppost you’ve got to wonder
what’s coming off next, your arm?  Your leg?  Your neck?  Every
morning when you wake up it seems a lot of your parts aren’t
stuck on as good as they used to be.
31 Six is real tough.  That’s how old I was when I came to live
here in the Home.  That’s how old I was when Momma died.
32 I folded the blanket and sheet and set them back on
the mattress.  Then I reached under the bed to get my
suitcase.  Most of the kids in the Home keep their things in a
paper or cloth sack, but not me.  I have my own suitcase.
33 I set it on the mattress and untied the twine that held it
together.  I did what I do every night before I go to sleep.  I
checked to make sure that everything was there.  The way
there’re more and more kids coming into the Home every day, I
had to be sure no one had run off with any of my things.
Relationships: Paragraphs 32-34 introduce the strong
relationship between Bud and his suitcase. It contains the
only reminders of his mother and their life together, and
of the man who he thinks is his father.
See especially: Questions 8, 9
34 First I pulled my blanket out and saw that everything was
where it was supposed to be.  At the bottom of my suitcase were
my flyers.  I took the blue flyer out and looked at it again.
35 The paper was starting to wear out from me looking at it
so much but I liked to check if there was anything that I hadn’t
noticed before.  It was like something was telling me there was a
message for me on this flyer but I didn’t have the decoder ring to
read what was.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
36 Across the top of the flyer writ in big black letters were the
words LIMITED ENGAGEMENT, then in little letters it said,
“Direct from an S.R.O. engagement in New York City.”  Underneath that in big letters again it said, “Herman E. Calloway and
the Ducky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!!”
37 Those six exclamation points made it seem like this was the
most important news anyone could think of, seems like you’d
have to be really great to deserve all of those exclamation points
all stacked up in a row like that.
38 Next the paper said, “Masters of the New Jazz,” then in the
middle of the flyer was a blurry picture of the man I have a real
good suspicion about.  I’ve never met him, but I have a pretty
good feeling that this guy must be my father.
39 In the picture he’s standing next to this giant fiddle that’s
taller than him.  It looks like it’s real heavy ‘cause he’s leaning
up against it trying to hold it up.  He looks like he’s been doing
this for a long time and he must be tired ‘cause he has a droopy,
dreamy look on his face.  There are two men beside him, one
playing drums and the other one blowing a horn.
40 It wasn’t hard to see what the guy must be my father was
like just by looking at his picture.  You could tell her was a real
quiet, real friendly and smart man, he had one of those kinds of
faces.  Underneath the picture someone had writ with a black
fountain pen, “One Night Only in Flint, Michigan, at the
Luxurious Fifty Grand on Saturday June 16, 1932. 9 Until ?”
41 I remember Momma bringing this flyer with her when she
came from working one day, I remember because she got very
upset when she put it on the supper table and kept looking at it
and picking it up and putting it back and moving it around.  I
was only six then and couldn’t understand why this one got her
so upset, she kept four others that were a lot like it in her dressing table, but this one really got her jumpy.  The only difference
I could see between the blue one and the others was that the
others didn’t say anything about Flint on them.
42 I remember this blue one too ‘cause it wasn’t too long after
she brought it home that I knocked on Momma’s bedroom
door, then found her.
43 I put the flyer back in the suitcase with the four older ones
and put everything back in its place.
44 I went over to the big chest of drawers and took my other
set of clothes our and put them in the suitcase too.  I tied the
twine back around my bag, then went and sat on Jerry’s bed
with him.  Jerry must’ve been thinking just as hard as I was
‘cause neither one of said nothing, we just sat close enough so
that our shoulders were touching.
45 Here we go again.
Spotlight On: Christopher Paul Curtis
As a child, Christopher Paul Curtis had trouble finding
books he could relate to. While working in a factory
putting together cars, he began to write novels about his
African-American heritage. Curtis notes that his writing is
heavily influenced by his wife and his two grandfathers:
one a Negro Baseball League pitcher and the other a
1930s bandleader.
He says his favorite part about writing is that as a writer
you are very powerful, and you can make absolutely anything happen. His second novel, “Bud, Not Buddy,” was
the first book ever to receive both the Newbury Medal
and the Coretta Scott King Author Award.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Teacher Guide for FAST-R Passage: Here We Go Again (Fiction)
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
The annotated answer key below highlights common reasons students might choose each answer, and the sidebar gives more
insight into the questions, to help you understand patterns of student responses. Always make time to follow up with students in
conferences to ensure that the patterns you diagnose are consistent with students’ reading and thinking strategies.
1. Why did the author start and end the passage with “Here we go again.”?
A. to let the reader know that Bud was in line for breakfast (OOP1)
¶ 1 He was standing in line but this is not reason why the author started
the passage with the quotes words.
B. to show that Bud was telling Jerry to go along with him (OOP2)
 C. to let the reader know that Bud had experienced something similar
before
D. to show that Bud was all packed up and ready to go (OOB)
MI5: Determine meaning by
incorporating an understanding of literary concepts
2. What was the “good news” that the caseworker gave Bud and Jerry?
 A. She had found temporary homes for each of them.
B. The school year was over. (OOP1)
C. All the kids were setting firecrackers. (OOP2)
D. They were going to have ice cream for breakfast. (OOB)
FE1: Identify evidence
explicitly stated in the text
3. According to paragraph 9, how old is Bud?
A. six (OOP2)
 B. ten
C. twelve (OOP2)
D. fourteen (OOB)
FE2: Recognize the explicit
meaning from varied wording
in the text
4. Which detail in paragraph 13 supports the caseworker’s statement that “the
depression” was causing “very, very difficult times for everybody?”
A. Bud and Jerry looked glum. (OOP1)
 B. People couldn’t find jobs.
C. They were lucky to find two families. (OOP1)
D. Doors were opening. (OOP1)
MI1: Determine implicit
meaning from words in context
5. How many other foster homes had Bud been to?
A. 0 (OOP2)
 B. 2
C. 3 (OOP2)
D. 4 (OOB)
FE2: Recognize the explicit
meaning from varied wording
in the text
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Grades 4-5 • Fiction • “Here We Go Again”
6. Which of the following details appeals to the reader’s sense of hearing?
 A. “her high-heeled shoes sounding like little firecrackers going off on
the wooden floor”
B. “Tears were popping out of his eyes and slipping down his cheeks.”
(OOP1)
C. “slugs that’ll knock you right down and have you seeing stars in the middle
of the day” (OOP1)
D. “it won’t leave the new hole in your mouth alone, it keeps digging around
in the spot where the tooth used to be” (OOP1)
MI5: Determine meaning
by using an understanding of
literary concepts
7. In paragraphs 24-31, Bud lists a few reasons why he thinks six is a tough age
to be. Which of those reasons has had the most significant effect on Bud’s
life?
A. Six was the age when he lost his first tooth. (OOP1)
B. Six was the age when he went to his first foster home. (OOP1)
C. Six was the age when grown folks didn’t think he was cute anymore.
(OOP1)
 D. Six was the age when his mother died.
MI3: Determine implicit
meaning by understanding the
organization of information in
the text
8. Why does Bud check his suitcase every night before going to sleep?
A. He enjoys untying the twine that holds it together. (OOP2)
 B. He has to make sure no one has taken any of his things.
C. He wants to be ready to leave the Home at any moment. (OOB)
D. He is as stupid as a lamppost. (OOP2)
FE2: Recognize the explicit
meaning from varied wording
in the text
9. What detail leads Bud to infer that the man on the blue flyer might be his
father?
A. The man’s name is Herman E. Calloway and is followed by six exclamation
points. (OOP1)
B. Bud keeps the flyers with the special things in his suitcase. (OOP1)
C. The man’s face looks a lot like Bud. (OOB)
 D. Bud’s mother was upset and jumpy about the flyer saying the man
was in Flint, Michigan.
MI3: Determine implicit
meaning by understanding the
organization of information in
the text
10. Which of the following sets of words best describes how Bud and Jerry are
feeling at the end of the passage?
A. hungry, starving, famished (OOP1)
 B. nervous, worried, anxious
C. angry, furious, enraged (OOB)
D. happy, cheerful, content (OOP2)
MI2: Determine a singular
meaning from the sum total of
a particular paragraph
FAST-R: Formative Assessments in Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
FAST-R
+
Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Name
“Here We Go Again” from
Bud, Not Buddy • Fiction
Date
Teacher/Class
Bud Caldwell is not your typical ten year old. He has had some difficult life experiences and learned
many lessons. After his mother died when he was six, he has lived in an orphanage and foster homes. Read the
excerpt below when Bud is about to be sent to his third foster home.
Here We Go Again
from Bud, Not Buddy by Christoper Paul Curtis
1
2
3
4
HERE WE GO AGAIN. We were all standing
in line waiting for breakfast when one of the
caseworkers came in and tap-tap-tapped down
the line.  Uh-oh, this meant bad news, either
they’d found a foster home for somebody or
somebody was about to be paddled.  All the kids
watched the woman as she moved along the
line, her high-heeled shoes sounding like little
firecrackers going off on the wooden floor.
Shoot! She stopped at me and said, “Are you
Buddy Caldwell?”
I said, “It’s Bud, not Buddy, ma’am.”
She put her hand on my shoulder and took me
out of line.  Then she pulled Jerry, one of the
littler boys, over.  “Aren’t you Jerry Clark?”  He
nodded.
5
“Boys, good news!  Now that the school year
has ended, you both have been accepted in new
temporary-care homes starting this afternoon!”
6
Jerry asked the same thing I was thinking.
“Together?”
7
She said, “Why, no.  Jerry, you’ll be in a family with three little girls –”
8
Jerry looked like he’d just found out that they
were going to dip him in a pot of boiling milk.
9
“– and Bud –”  She looked at some papers she
was holding.  “Oh, yes, the Amoses, you’ll be
with Mr. and Mrs. Amos and their son, who’s
twelve years old, that makes him just two years
older than you, doesn’t it, Bud?”
10 “Yes, ma’am.”
11 She said, “I’m sure you’ll both
be very happy.”
12 Me and Jerry looked at each other.
13 The woman said “Now, now, boys, no need
to look so glum.  I know you don’t know what
it means, but there is a depression going on
all over this country.  People can’t find jobs
and these are very, very difficult times for
everybody.  We’ve been lucky enough to find
two wonderful families to open their doors for
you.  I think it’s best that we show our new foster families that we’re very–”
14 She dragged out the word very, waiting for us
to finish the sentence.
15 Jerry said, “Cheerful, helpful and grateful.”  I
moved my lips and mumbled.
16 She smiled and said, “Unfortunately you
won’t have time for breakfast.  I’ll have a
couple of pieces of fruit put in a bag.  In the
meantime go to the sleep room and strip your
beds and gather all of your things.”
Keep reading on the next page.
Spotlight On: Christopher Paul Curtis
As a child, Christopher Paul Curtis had trouble finding
books he could relate to. While working in a factory
putting together cars, he began to write novels about his
African-American heritage. Curtis notes that his writing is
heavily influenced by his wife and his two grandfathers:
one a Negro Baseball League pitcher and the other a
1930s bandleader.
He says his favorite part about writing is that as a writer
you are very powerful, and you can make absolutely
anything happen. His second novel, Bud, Not Buddy, was
the first book ever to receive both the Newbury Medal
and the Coretta Scott King Author Award.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
17 Here we go again.  I felt that I was walking in
my sleep as I followed Jerry back to the room
where all of the boys’ beds were jim-jammed
together.  This was the third foster home I was
going to and I’m used to packing up and leaving, but it still surprises me that there are always
a few seconds, right after they tell you you’ve
got to go, when my nose gets all runny and my
throat all choky and eyes get all sting-y.  But
the tears coming out doesn’t happen to me
anymore. I don’t know when it first happened,
but it seems like my eyes don’t cry no more.
18 Jerry sat on his bed and I could tell that he
was losing the fight not to cry.  Tears were
popping out of his eyes and slipping down his
cheeks.
19 I sat down next to him and said, “I know being in a house with three girls sounds terrible,
Jerry, but it’s a lot better than being with a boy
who’s a couple of years older than you.  I’m the
one who’s going to have problems.  A older boy
is going to want to fight, but those little girls are
going to treat you real good.  They’re going to
treat you like some kind of special pet or something.”
20 Jerry said, “You really think so?”
21 I said, “I’d trade you in a minute.  The worst
thing that is going to happen to you is that they
are going to make you play house a lot.  They’ll
probably make you be the baby and will hug
you and do this kind of junk to you.”  I tickled
Jerry under his chin and said, “Ga-ga, goo-goo,
baby-waby.”
22 Jerry couldn’t help but smile.  I said, “You’re
going to be great.”
23 Jerry looked like he wasn’t so scared anymore
so I went over to my bed and started getting
ready.
24 Even though it was me that was in a lot
of trouble I couldn’t help but feel sorry for
Jerry.  Not only because he was going to have to
live around three girls, but also because being
six is a real tough age to be at.  Most folks think
you start being a real adult when you’re fifteen
or sixteen years old, but that’s not true, it really
starts when you’re around six.
25 It’s at six that grown folks don’t think you’re
a cute little kid anymore, they talk to you and
expect that you understand everything that they
mean.  And you’d best understand too, if you
aren’t looking for some real trouble, ‘cause it’s
around six that grown folks stop giving you
little swats and taps and jump clean up to giving
you slugs that’ll knock you right down and have
you seeing stars in the middle of the day.  The
first foster home I was in taught me that real
quick.
26 Six is a bad time too ‘cause that’s when some
real scary things start to happen to your body,
it’s around then that your teeth start coming aloose in your mouth.
27 You wake up one morning and it seems like
your tongue is the first one to notice that something strange is going on, ‘cause as soon as you
get up there it is pushing and rubbing up against
one of your front teeth and I’ll be doggoned if
that tooth isn’t the littlest bit wiggly.
28 At first you think it’s kind of funny, but the
tooth keeps getting looser and looser and one
day, in the middle of pushing the tooth back and
forth and squinching your eyes shut, you pull it
clean out. It’s the scariest thing you can think
of  ‘cause you lose control of your tongue at
the same time and no matter how hard you try
to stop it, it won’t leave the new hole in your
mouth alone, it keeps digging around in the spot
where the tooth used to be.
29 You tell some adult about what’s happening
but all they do is say it’s normal.  You can’t
be too sure, though, ‘cause it shakes you up a
whole lot more than grown folks think it does
when perfectly good parts of your body commence to loosening up and falling off of you
30 Unless you’re as stupid as a lamppost you’ve
got to wonder what’s coming off next, your
arm?  Your leg?  Your neck?  Every morning
when you wake up it seems a lot of your parts
aren’t stuck on as good as they used to be.
31 Six is real tough.  That’s how old I was when I
came to live here in the Home.  That’s how old I
was when Momma died.
Keep reading on the next page.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
32 I folded the blanket and sheet and set them
back on the mattress.  Then I reached under the
bed to get my suitcase.  Most of the kids in the
Home keep their things in a paper or cloth sack,
but not me.  I have my own suitcase.
33 I set it on the mattress and untied the twine
that held it together.  I did what I do every night
before I go to sleep.  I checked to make sure that
everything was there.  The way there’re more
and more kids coming into the Home every day,
I had to be sure no one had run off with any of
my things.
34 First I pulled my blanket out and saw that
everything was where it was supposed to be.  At
the bottom of my suitcase were my flyers.  I
took the blue flyer out and looked at it again.
35 The paper was starting to wear out from
me looking at it so much but I liked to check
if there was anything that I hadn’t noticed
before.  It was like something was telling me
there was a message for me on this flyer but I
didn’t have the decoder ring to read what it was.
36 Across the top of the flyer writ in big black
letters were the words LIMITED ENGAGEMENT, then in little letters it said, “Direct from
an S.R.O. engagement in New York City.”  Underneath that in big letters again it said, “HERMAN E. CALLOWAY and the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!!!!!!”
37 Those six exclamation points made it seem
like this was the most important news anyone
could think of, seems like you’d have to be
really great to deserve all of those exclamation
points all stacked up in a row like that.
38 Next the paper said, “Masters of the New
Jazz,” then in the middle of the flyer was a
blurry picture of the man I have a real good
suspicion about.  I’ve never met him, but I have
a pretty good feeling that this guy must be my
father.
40 It wasn’t hard to see what the guy who must
be my father was like just by looking at his
picture.  You could tell he was a real quiet, real
friendly and smart man, he had one of those
kinds of faces.  Underneath the picture someone
had writ with a black fountain pen, “One Night
Only in Flint, Michigan, at the Luxurious Fifty
Grand on Saturday June 16, 1932. 9 Until ?”
41 I remember Momma bringing this flyer with
her when she came from working one day, I
remember because she got very upset when she
put it on the supper table and kept looking at it
and picking it up and putting it back and moving
it around.  I was only six then and couldn’t understand why this one got her so upset, she kept
four others that were a lot like it in her dressing
table, but this one really got her jumpy.  The
only difference I could see between the blue
one and the others was that the others didn’t say
anything about Flint on them.
42 I remember this blue one too ‘cause it
wasn’t too long after she brought it home that
I knocked on Momma’s bedroom door, then
found her.
43 I put the flyer back in the suitcase with the
four older ones and put everything back in its
place.
44 I went over to the big chest of drawers and
took my other set of clothes out and put them
in the suitcase too.  I tied the twine back around
my bag, then went and sat on Jerry’s bed with
him.  Jerry must’ve been thinking just as hard as
I was ‘cause neither one of us said nothing, we
just sat close enough so that our shoulders were
touching.
45 Here we go again.
39 In the picture he’s standing next to this giant
fiddle that’s taller than him.  It looks like it’s
real heavy ‘cause he’s leaning up against it trying to hold it up.  He looks like he’s been doing
this for a long time and he must be tired ‘cause
he has a droopy, dreamy look on his face.  There
are two men beside him, one playing drums and
the other one blowing a horn.
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
FAST-R
+
Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading
Name
“Bud, Not Buddy” • Fiction
Date
Teacher/Class
Directions: Answer the following multiple-choice questions by filling in the circle for the best answer on
your answer sheet.
1. Why did the author start and end the passage with “Here we go again.”?
A. to let the reader know that Bud was in line for breakfast
B. to show that Bud was telling Jerry to go along with him
C. to let the reader know that Bud had experienced something similar before
D. to show that Bud was all packed up and ready to go
2. What was the “good news” that the caseworker gave Bud and Jerry?
A. She had found temporary homes for each of them.
B. The school year was over.
C. All the kids were setting firecrackers.
D. They were going to have ice cream for breakfast.
3. According to paragraph 9, how old is Bud?
A. six
B. ten
C. twelve
D. fourteen
4. Which detail in paragraph 13 supports the caseworker’s statement that “the depression” was causing
“very, very difficult times for everybody?”
A. Bud and Jerry looked glum.
B. People couldn’t find jobs.
C. They were lucky to find two families.
D. Doors were opening.
5. How many other foster homes had Bud been to?
A. 0
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
All other materials are Copyright 2007 by the Boston Plan for Excellence.
Name
School
Date
Teacher/Class
6. Which of the following details appeals to the reader’s sense of hearing?
A. “her high-heeled shoes sounding like little firecrackers going off on the wooden floor”
B.“Tears were popping out of his eyes and slipping down his cheeks.”
C. “slugs that’ll knock you right down and have you seeing stars in the middle of the day”
D. “it won’t leave the new hole in your mouth alone, it keeps digging around in the spot where the tooth
used to be”
7. In paragraphs 24-31, Bud lists a few reasons why he thinks six is a tough age to be. Which of those
reasons has had the most significant effect on Bud’s life?
A. Six was the age when he lost his first tooth.
B. Six was the age when he went to his first foster home.
C. Six was the age when grown folks didn’t think he was cute anymore.
D. Six was the age when his mother died.
8. Why does Bud check his suitcase every night before going to sleep?
A. He enjoys untying the twine that holds it together.
B. He has to make sure no one has taken any of his things.
C. He wants to be ready to leave the Home at any moment.
D. He is as stupid as a lamppost.
9. What detail leads Bud to infer that the man on the blue flyer might be his father?
A. The man’s name is Herman E. Calloway and is followed by six exclamation points.
B. Bud keeps the flyers with the special things in his suitcase.
C. The man’s face looks a lot like Bud.
D. Bud’s mother was upset and jumpy about the flyer saying the man was in Flint, Michigan.
10. Which of the following sets of words best describes how Bud and Jerry are feeling at the end of the
passage?
A. hungry, starving, famished
B. nervous, worried, anxious
C. angry, furious, enraged
D. happy, cheerful, content
FAST-R: Formative Assessments of Student Thinking in Reading. The passage text by Christopher Paul Curtis is from Bud, Not Buddy. Copyright © 1999 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
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: 1 2 3
4