“Smart Cookie” Tag
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1. What does the description of Esperanza’s mother reveal about her character?
Use your orange character traits sheet to describe her.
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2. What is the inferred conflict in the second paragraph?
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3. What type of figurative language is “a smart cookie”?
a. metaphor
b. personification
c. simile
d. idiom
4. Based on the end of the passage, does Esperanza’s mother really think she was a
“smart cookie”? Explain.
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Turn to page 557, “Raymond’s Run” to complete the rest of the TAG. You do not
need to read the whole story. Here is a summary. Squeaky Parker in the story
“Raymond’s Run” is the fastest runner in her Harlem neighborhood. Her brother
Raymond has a mental disability. Squeaky’s running skills are challenged by a new
girl, Gretchen Lewis.
Practice 1
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More on back
In the first column on page 553, Squeaky uses an analogy to compare her state of
mind before the race to a dream of flying. Read this analogy. Then, write an
analogy of your own. You might compare playing football to playing a game of chess,
or you might compare being sent to your room to being sent to jail. Open your
analogy with words like these: “Playing football is like…” or “Being sent to my room
is like…” Try to describe at least two ways in which your analogy works.
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