Reader Connections in We've Got a Job Answers

Read this excerpt from We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March.Wash remembers the police as "the ultimate terror . . . You saw the police, you ran. It was automatic." Why were the police so frightening? "It was a rare weekend passed," Wash said, "that one or two folk . . . didn't get killed by the police . . . This is what they'd do to you: They'd call you and make you stick your head in the window [of the police car] . . . and then they would roll the window up . . . And then they'd hit you on your head . . . They'd beat people to death." As a result, he said, parents could scare unruly children into minding them by threatening, "The police gonna get you."What is the tone of the excerpt?

Read this excerpt from We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March.One child in the neighborhood owned a bicycle. Wash and his sister had a wagon. For Christmas one year, they each received a pair of iron roller skates. When those wore out, Wash said, "we would take an old broom and turn it upside down, and that would be our horse. And we would get a coat hanger and make a cowboy gun."How does this excerpt help readers make a personal connection to the story?

Which of these student responses to We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March is an example of a text-to-self connection?

Read this excerpt from We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March.During his second term as commissioner, Connor wrote a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that revealed his views on race: he warned the liberal-leaning president that in cities where "the doctrine of white supremacy" fails, "Negroes become impudent, unruly, arrogant, law breaking, violent and insolent." Several years later, a grand jury described Connor as "explosive, vindictive … dictatorial … autocratic and [someone who] uses no persuasion, logic, or reason, if any he has.”If a student compares this excerpt to the power of dictators, which type of connection is made?

Read this excerpt from We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March.Although life was better in the projects than in the tenement house, Wash began to glimpse more of the other world and realize what he was missing. "You'd walk by the Alabama Theatre, and the door would open, and you'd feel that cool air." He also noticed white people eating at the counter at J. J. Newberry's Department Store. "More than anything," he said, "I wanted a banana split behind that counter . . . But you couldn't go back there." Instead Wash and other blacks had to eat in the basement standing up.How does this excerpt best help readers make a connection to world events?

Which of these student responses to We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March is an example of a text-to-text connection?

Read this excerpt from We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March.Almost everyone knew that, card-carrying members or not, the Klan literally got away with murder, with the tacit permission and sometimes encouragement of Connor. And there were lots of Klansmen in town to carry out these despicable crimes: most of the 11,000 members of the KKK in Alabama lived in the Birmingham area.How does this excerpt help readers make a connection to world events?

Read this excerpt from We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March."It was a rare weekend passed," Wash said, "that one or two folk... didn't get killed by the police . . . This is what they'd do to you: They'd call you and make you stick your head in the window [of the police car] . . . and then they would roll the window up . . . And then they'd hit you on your head . . . They'd beat people to death." As a result, he said, parents could scare unruly children into minding them by threatening, "The police gonna get you."If a student compares this excerpt to the cruelty of Nazi leaders, which type of connection is made?

Which of these student responses to We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March is an example of a text-to-self connection?

Read this excerpt from We’ve Got a Job: The 1963 Children’s March.As a little boy, Wash spotted flashes of other worlds – neighborhoods where middle-class blacks like Audrey lived, and even fancier ones "over the mountain" in Mountain Brook, where his mother worked as a maid for a wealthy white family. "There would be times when we would go riding with somebody we knew that had a car. We would ride through Titusville or over to Mountain Brook. So, we knew that there was something better than the house that we lived in."How does this excerpt help readers make a personal connection to the story?