Brown Girl Dreaming

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Parts 1 and 2

Reading Check

1. Who is Woodson named after?

2. What does Woodson’s father think of the South?

3. What is going on in South Carolina during Woodson’s childhood that people she knows are participating in?

4. What leads Woodson and her family to move to Greenville?

5. Where does Woodson’s mother go when she leaves the children with their grandparents?

Multiple Choice

1. In “it’ll be scary sometimes,” why does Woodson’s mother encourage her to think of her great grandfather William Woodson?

A) because he was a brave soldier

B) because he went to an all-white school

C) because he stood up for what was right

D) because he looked away when he experienced racism

2. What is the first thing Woodson learns to write?

A) the word home

B) her sister’s name

C) the letter J

D) Gunnar’s name

3. What does Miss Bell do in “miss bell and the marchers” since her employer forbids her from protesting?

A) She marches in disguise.

B) She uses her earnings to donate to local causes.

C) She feeds the marchers.

D) She helps marchers with legal trouble.

4. Why does Woodson’s mother say her school burned down in “sterling high school, greenville”?

A) because of resistance to school integration

B) because the students were marching

C) because Jesse Jackson attended

D) because of a protest at the school

5. What does Woodson’s grandfather ask her to do when he is sick in “one morning, late winter”?

A) sing to him

B) prepare his medicine

C) rub his feet

D) tell him a story

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Woodson’s mother mean when she tells her children to behave because the South is not Ohio?

2. What is the significance of Gunnar’s garden?

3. Why does Woodson’s mother demand the children speak properly?

4. What does Woodson’s mother mean when she calls South Carolina only “halfway home” in “halfway home #1”?

5. Why does Woodson’s grandmother discourage her from playing with Cora and her sisters?

Parts 3, 4, and 5

Reading Check

1. What causes Roman to become ill?

2. Why doesn’t Woodson celebrate holidays with the other children?

3. What happens to Woodson’s Uncle Robert?

4. Why does Woodson’s grandmother move in with them?

5. What does Woodson’s fifth grade teacher say Woodson is?

Multiple Choice

1. What’s one thing Woodson and her childhood friend Maria do together?

A) trade plates at mealtime

B) sing songs

C) play hopscotch

D) stay up all night watching movies

2. Why does the family move out of what they call “herzl street”?

A) Roman gets sick there.

B) Their Aunt Kay dies.

C) They cannot afford it.

D) Their landlord wants white tenants.

3. What does Woodson mean when she says, “We are not all finally and safely / home” in “family”?

A) She is worried about racial tension in her neighborhood.

B) The return to New York has her feeling like a stranger.

C) Roman’s illness persists.

D) She is worried about her grandfather’s deteriorating health.

4. What helps Woodson realize she’s a writer?

A) her teacher Mrs. Vivo telling her so

B) winning a poetry contest in Bushwick

C) her mother’s encouragement

D) how hurt she is when her sister throws away some of her writing

5. Why didn’t Woodson’s mother learn to cook from her mother?

A) She was too busy with school.

B) Her mother gave up on her after she burned everything.

C) She refused her mother’s offer, which she now regrets.

D) She thought it was unfair that the boys got to be outside playing.

6. Why does Woodson get in trouble with her uncle?

A) He catches her spray-painting her name on a wall.

B) He catches her stealing a notebook.

C) He catches her in a lie about her brother.

D) He catches her taking money from her mother’s purse.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Woodson’s mother want her to stop telling stories?

2. In “mrs. hughes’s house,” Woodson says she lives in two different worlds; what does this mean?

3. What does it mean for Jacqueline to be “the other woodson” in her school?

4. Why does Woodson’s grandmother still sit at the back of the bus?

5. What does Woodson think of Angela Davis?

6. Why is writing significant to Woodson?