1. Key Ideas and Details: How does Mathabane hint that his life is about to change on the day in
which this scene takes place? Name two events from the text and explain how you know they
signal something unusual is going to happen.
2. Key Ideas and Details: What details from Mathabane’s life explain why he is so determined not
to go to school?
3. Craft and Structure: Mathabane chooses to use mostly indirect dialogue in the beginning of the
story and mostly direct dialogue at the end. What effect do his choices have on the pacing of the
story? Why do you think he makes these choices?
4. Craft and Structure: Describe how the author uses active verbs to develop his characters in the
part of the scene after the narrator is told he will be going to school.
5. Look back through the text and find examples of direct and indirect dialogue. List and label them
in the chart that follows. Practice the two methods of writing dialogue by paraphrasing the
examples of direct dialogue and rewriting indirect dialogue as direct dialogue, being sure to
punctuate it correctly.