Using ‘Jeopardy’ in Classroom Instruction by Jennifer Young

I would like to share with my fellow writing instructors a game I created for my first semester of teaching RWS 100. The game was inspired by the recent game show craze on television and is a mix of “Jeopardy,” the Win Ben Stein’s Money show on Comedy Central, and “Family Feud.” Its purpose is to test the students’ knowledge on pertinent information in the class.

In most television game shows, the object is usually for an individual to win and pocket the profits. However, in a classroom setting this would obviously grow tiresome, so the students must work together as a team. In addition, the element of speed, being the first to hit the buzzer, must be eliminated, since it is often too difficult to monitor whose hand was raised first, and the students usually become rowdy and disruptive in this setting. Each team is instead assigned a question, and if one team fails at providing the correct answer, the question is then passed to the next team. I do not require the answer to be in the form of question and I allow no more than one minute for the teams to give the correct answer.

For my MWF 50-minute class, I separate my students into two teams. The groups are quite large this way, but in such a short amount of time it is difficult to give three teams fair opportunity at answering questions. Also, I have found that my students work together well, combining knowledge to come up with an answer. If one student is the odd person out, he or she becomes my scorekeeper. No notes are allowed, though I do choose a scribe from each team to use a piece of paper and a pen/pencil to write down information.

I put different categories on the board, beginning with low points like 100, then move on to higher points when the easier questions have been answered. My categories, which were created from my course content and texts, include: My Syllabus, Miscellaneous Info You Should Know (such as resources at the Love library, Quandahl’s “How to do Things with Texts,” opening and concluding paragraph techniques, etc.), MLA Format, Vocabulary, Keys for Writers, Literacies, and the different essays I assigned them to read. I type out the questions for myself and check off the ones the teams answer.

If the teams are equally matched late in the game, I add in a Daily Double question, and at the end of the game I ask a Final Jeopardy question. I give my students candy as a prize, but coming up with a point system would be effective.

I have scheduled this game twice in the semester on a day when students have completed their final revisions for an essay and want something fun to do. The response has been positive and I plan to use the game again next semester. If anyone would like to have a copy of sample questions from my game, let me know. My e-mail address is jenyoung@aznet.net.

RWS 100 Pseudo-“Jeopardy” Game

Players
2 teams (students)
1 scorekeeper if odd man out
1 judge (teacher)
1 rep. from each team as scribe

Categories
My Syllabus
Miscellaneous Info You Should Know
MLA Format
Keys for Writers
Vocabulary
Margaret Atwood and “An End to Audience?”
Stuart Ewen and “Chosen People”
Cornel West and Wynton Marsalis’ “Jazz, Hope, and Democracy”
Alice Walker and “Everyday Use”

Points
100, 200, 500, 1000, Daily Double, Final Jeopardy

Directions
–Put categories and points on board (start with low points, then move on to high points)
–Cross out points when all questions in that level are answered
–No need to put answers in form of question
–Team chooses point level and category and answers question together–if wrong, other team can answer back and forth (no rush to be first)
–Daily Double if tie, late in game
–Final Jeopardy: answer one question from each category on paper
–No notes allowed, though scribes may use paper and pen to write info down

My Syllabus

100

1. Where is my office located? (Storm Hall 240)
2. What are my office hours? (11-11:50 MWF)
3. Name the two required texts for this course. (Keys for Writers and Literacies)
4. What two texts must be brought to class every day? (Literacies and dictionary)
5. What two required texts may be brought to class occasionally but are primarily for home use? (Keys for Writers and thesaurus)
6. What is my system of grading? (contract)
7. Late papers are accepted. True or false? (false)
8. How many essays are required in this course? (4)
9. Failure to turn in work on time will not lower my grade. True or false? (false)
10. Chronic absences and tardiness will put my final grade in jeopardy since class discussions, group work, and in-class assignments cannot be made up. True or false? (true)

200
1. What type and size font is required for all papers? (12, Times New Roman)
2. All papers for this class should be double-spaced, as should the heading, and the Works Cited page. True or false? (true)
3. What size margins (in inches) are required for all papers? (one inch)

500
1. How many drafts must be turned in with final copies of essays? (all drafts)
2. Where is the Drop-In Tutor office located? (Storm Hall 240)

1000
1. What is plagiarism and what are its consequences? (using another person’s work or ideas without giving proper credit, could receive an F for course and be expelled)
2. Define rhetoric. (art or study of using language effectively and persuasively; style of speaking or writing; language that is pretentious or insincere)

Daily Double

Define literacies. (ability to read and write, how we learn to read and write)

Miscellaneous Info You Should Know

100

1. Miss Young’s course calendar is subject to change. True or false? (true)
2. Miss Young will provide a stapler for me to staple my papers with. True or false? (false)
3. Handwritten papers are accepted. True or false. (false)
4. What is the name of the SDSU library? (Malcolm A. Love)

200
1. Where is the reference desk of the library located? (1st floor, not basement, to L of computers)

2. Where are the periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers) located in the library? (1st floor, not basement, throughout hallway and past elevators)

3. Name two suggestions from Ellen Quandahl’s “How to do Things with Texts.” (study and highlight cohesion, notice language that shows who audience for piece is and situation in which piece was written, map movement of essay, describe opening move of piece of writing, translate paragraph into own words, mark writers’ references to sources, notice difference between reporting and interpreting info, ask questions, extend author’s argument by further illustrating it, select one paragraph and extend it by providing own examples, circle subject or topic of each independent clause in paragraph, circle verb of each independent clause in paragraph, follow or map significant repetitions or particular thread in piece of writing, consider how piece of writing might provide vocabulary for analyzing some other text or info or experience)

4. Name two out of the six questions required of each essay. (what is question at issue, to what problem does piece respond, what question is text answer to, what questions does it silence, what am I being asked to believe, consider, investigate, or do, which sentences provide partial answers, which provide reasons, what, for you, is most important sentence, what is most interesting/arresting/noteworthy word in sentence, why, why is this sentence significant to you)

500
1. Name one introductory paragraph technique. (provide background info, explain significance topic has for writer or reader, provide related anecdote, ask question that will be answered, state problem that will be solved, use quote, provide meaningful fact, give example, define important term or concept, contradiction (begin by disagreeing with commonly held belief or idea)

2. Name on concluding paragraph technique. (restate or summarize thesis in new way, introduce new idea that is related to thesis–echo anecdote or quotation used in intro, discuss personal experience that led to topic–, give thesis or main points larger application–change time or place, future expectations, arouse reader’s interest/call to action, give info for future investigation–, mention any conclusion or discovery that can be drawn from your theme, try to solve or suggest solutions to problem raised, pose questions for reader to ponder, avoid apologizing or hedging/maintain conviction)

3. Name one “Invitation to Read and Write.” (reading actively, what does this have to do with my life, taking a second look at the reading, getting started on an essay, what is the assignment really asking, integrating quotations with interpretation, what do the teacher’s comments mean, asking your own questions, organizing or making relations clear, responding to a peer’s draft)

4. What is the name of the SDSU library’s basic search program? (the PAC)

Daily Double

Name the 3 reference librarians that Miss Young recommends. (Markel, Mark, and Phil)

How many copies of your paper should you bring for peer critique?

MLA Format

100

1. When doing a basic book citation, after starting with the author’s last name, then first name, then a period, then the title of the book, then a period, what piece of information should come next? (place where book was published)

2. When citing page numbers of a source within a paper, you should put the name of the author in parentheses, followed by the letter p, then a period, then the page number. True or false? (false, author‘s name and page number with no comma or p.)

3. A long quote should be set aside 1 tab in from the left and right margin. True or false? (false, 2 tabs in)

4. How many tabs in from the margin should a long quote be set aside? (2 tabs)

5. A quote that is more than how many lines should be set aside from the left margin? (more than 3 lines)

6. When interrupting a quote, what should be typed in between the first part and the next part of the quote? (ellipses or dot, dot, dot)

200

1. When an author’s name has already been referred to in a sentence, it is still necessary to put his or her name in a parenthetical citation following the sentence. True or false? (false)

2. When paraphrasing an author’s words, it is not necessary to cite his or her name in parentheses. True or false? (false, any idea that is not your own must be cited or it is plagiarism)

3. True or false: Every line but the first line of entries in the Works Cited page is 1 tab in. (true)

500

1. What does MLA stand for? (Modern Language Association)

2. When the same page number is being cited throughout a paragraph, where should the page number appear in that paragraph? (after the last sentence in the paragraph that is from that page number)

3. When citing a three-digit page number in the Works Cited page, what happens to the numbers after the hyphen if they are in that same three-digit number (for example, citing pages 300 to 323)? (drop first digit after hyphen)

Daily Double

Cite the following essay in an anthology, using quotes, underlining, proper punctuation, proper order, any tabs:

Jazz, Hope, and Democracy by Cornel West and Wynton Marsalis on pp. 726-744 of the 2nd edition of Literacies, edited by Terence Brunk and other editors, published in 2000 in New York.

(West, Cornel, and Wynton Marsalis. “Jazz, Hope, and Democracy.” Literacies 2nd ed. Ed.

Terence Brunk et al. New York: 2000, 726-44.

Keys for Writers

100

1. What is a thesis? (the author’s main idea, point he/she is proving in an essay)

2. Name two brainstorming techniques for essay writing (outlining, listing, clustering, freewriting).

3. Spell-check is all the proofreading necessary for a paper. True or false? (false)

4. A thesis should not state a fact but prove something. True or false? (true)

5. Explain the difference between loose and lose.

6. Explain the difference between there and their.

7. What are 3 things that students often mistake for a thesis. Hint: overhead info (title, announcement, statement of fact)

200

1. Name three titles that get quotations put around them in an essay. (short stories, short poems, articles, chapters, essays, songs, TV shows)

2. Name three titles that get underlined in an essay. (movies, books, CD titles, magazines, journals, newspapers, long poems, plays, musicals, ships)

3. When quoting, it is not necessary to quote the author’s exact words or put words in italics just because the author did. True or false? (false)

4. Periods and commas following quotations go inside quotation marks in American writing. True or false. (true)

5. Exclamation points and question marks go inside quotation marks if what is quoted is either an exclamation or a question; if not, they go outside the quotation marks. True or false? For example, Sandra asked, “Where is the Aztec Center?” Did the invitation say, “R.S.V.P.”? The instructor barked, “Clean your rifle, soldier! Don’t ever say, “I think I’ll just stay in bed today”! (true)

6. When paraphrasing, it is not necessary to cite page numbers or the author’s name. (false)

500

1. Name three things that should be avoided when writing an academic essay, besides errors (slang, jargon, cliches, generalizations, hasty conclusions with inadequate support, non sequitur, causal fallacy, ad hominem attack, circular reasoning, false dichotomy or false dilemma).

2. What is a comma splice and how can it usually be corrected? (putting a comma between 2 independent clauses, use semi-colon or period or join sentences by adding conjunction)

3. Name the problem with the following sentence and tell how to correct it:

When one is going to shop at the mall, she should always bring two credits cards so he can pay sales associates and you should always make a stop at Mrs. Fields so they can get a sugar fix. (pronoun usage, be consistent)

5. What is a sentence fragment and how can it usually be corrected? (incomplete sentence, join to previous or following sentence with conjunction)

6. What is wrong with the following sentence? “Everyone likes music.” (avoid absolutes)

7. What is wrong with the following sentence? “We should all just get along and exercise our democratic rights so that the world would be a better place.” (avoid preaching and ‘we‘)

8. What is wrong with the following sentence? “Like they say, money talks and bullshit walks, and dreams really do come true.” (avoid cliches, tired expressions)

9. What is wrong with the following sentence? “When you are trying to talk to people, they should listen to you because that’s what democracy is all about.” (avoid ‘you,’ preaching, and contractions).

10. What is wrong with the following sentence? Since the beginning of time, man has developed and so has society. (avoid generalizations, use concrete language)

11. What is wrong with the following sentence? “The conversation ‘Jazz, Hope, and Democracy’ is concerned with jazz, hope, and democracy.” (avoid stating the obvious, repetition, wordiness)

12. What is wrong with the following sentence? “The middle class can’t compete with the upper class because they don‘t have enough money.” (avoid contractions)

13. What is wrong with the following sentence and how could you fix it? Ewen equates democracy with consumption, he also says the middle class is experiencing an identity crisis. (comma splice, add conjunction, use period or semi-colon)

14. What is wrong with the following sentence and how could you fix it? West and Marsalis negotiate their differences. Because they have a mutual respect for each other (fragment, join to previous sentence)

15. What is wrong with the following sentence? West and Marsalis say one must have a mutual respect for another person. Just like my father. (fragment, incomplete idea, join sentence and complete idea)

16. Name two ways you can integrate a quote. (use colon, say ‘As Ewen states,’ etc.)

17. What is wrong with the following sentence? We went to the movies and bought popcorn, eat Raisinettes, and are drinking soda. (parallelism, keep verbs parallel)

Daily Double

Name 5 linking words or phrases used for comparison (similarly, similar, just as, likewise, continuing with this idea, like, complements, adds to, etc.)

Name 5 words or phrases used for contrast (in contrast, however, but, yet, dissimilar, unlike, complicates, different, on the other hand, etc.)

Vocabulary Words

1. Atwood: Define 2 out of 5: oblique (indirect or evasive), evocation (summons, calling, elicitation), Philistine (member of ancient people in Palestine, one who is indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values, Boorish or uncultured), quiescent (still or dormant, inactive), solopsism.

2. Ewen: Define 3 out of 6: accoutrements (outfit and equipment for military duty), laudatory (expressing or conferring praise), parvenu(s) (person who has suddenly risen to higher social and economic class and has not yet gained acceptance by others in that class), sumptuous (of size or splendor suggesting great expense, lavish), renumeration, vicissitudes (sudden or unexpected change or shift).

3. West and Marsalis: Define 5 out of 10: dissonance (disagreement, inconsistency between beliefs one holds or between one’s actions and one’s beliefs; combo of harsh sounds that creates tension; agreement in sounds), consonance (harmony or agreement among components, in sounds; correspondence or recurrence of sounds esp. in words, spec. recurrence or repetition of consonants esp. at end of stressed syllables w/o similar correspondence of vowels), Creole (person of European descent born especially in West Indies or Spanish America, mixed French or Spanish and black descent), vitriol (criticism, bitterness), codify (to arrange or categorize), impetus (impulse, driving force), amalgamation (combination, blend, unison), dichotomies (division into two usually contradictory parts or opinions), aesthetic (of or concerning appreciation of beauty, good taste, appearance), perennial (everlasting)

4. Walker: Define 5 out of 10: organdy (type of fabric; stiff, sheer material); tottering (unsteady or unstable); earnest (serious or somber in behavior); furtive (stealthily or sneaky in movement and action; sly; elusive); ream (to squeeze or force out, to say or shout); doctrines (texts, statements of beliefs, usually thought of as ancient; teachings); dasher (part of a device that churns butter); clabber (curdled sour milk); homely (plain or unattractive); collards (green, leafy vegetables; stalked, smooth kale)

5. Walker: Define 5 out of 10: chitlins (small intestines of pigs, especially when cooked as eaten as food); alcove (arched opening to a room); porthole (opening with a cover or closure, especially in the side of a ship or aircraft); furtive (doing something clandestinely); lye (strong alkaline liquor, rich in potassium carbonate, leached from wood ashes and used especially in making soap and for washing); recompose (to restore to composure); whittle (to cut or carve off small shavings from wood with a knife); rifling (to steal and carry away); sidle (to cause to move or turn sideways); churn (container in which milk and cream is stirred in)

Margaret Atwood and “An End to Audience?”

100

1. What is Atwood’s thesis or central message? (Literature and authorship, as we know it, are in serious danger of becoming extinct)

2. Who is Margaret Atwood and where is she from? (storyteller, writer, novelist, poet, critic from Canada)

3. “An End to Audience?” was originally an essay from a magazine article Atwood wrote. True or false? (false, speech and in book)

4. How does Atwood’s speech begin? (why she’s there, what type of story she should tell)

5. How does her speech end? (call to action from audience, readers, us)

6. What type of class did Atwood observe and comment on? (creative writing, summer writing)

7. What did Atwood compare the class’s tone to? (Quaker prayer meeting)

200

1. Fill in the blank: “Blank and blank are Siamese twins. Kill one and you run the risk of killing the other. Try to separate them, and you may simply have two dead half-people.” (writer and audience)

2. Fill in the blank: “In any totalitarian takeover, whether from the left or the right, blank, blank, and blank are the first to be suppressed.” (writers, singers, journalists)

3. Fill in the blank: “A country or community which does not take blank blank blank will lose it.” (serious literature seriously)

4. Fill in the blank: “I will leave such questions with blank, since blank are, after all, the audience.”

(you, you)

5. Fill in the blank: “It could well be argued that the advent of the printed word coincided with the advent of blank as we know it; that the book is the only form that allows the reader not only to participate but to review, to re-view what’s being presented.” (democracy)

6. Fill in the blank: “They will stop writing for readers blank blank and write only for readers blank blank, cosy members of an in-group composed largely of other writers and split into factions or ‘schools’ depending on who your friends are and whether you spell I with a capital I or a small one.”

500

1. What was the prompt for Essay #1? (Early in her article, M.A. says, “my central…extinct” (13). In making this claim, what problems is Atwood responding to, how does she justify her claims, how does the concept of audience factor into her reasoning, and what implications does she suggest her ideas have for democracy?)

2. Name two allusions to authors or works in “An End to Audience?” (Joyce, Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”)

3. Name 3 problems Atwood sees with writing (writing not viewed as honorable profession but as selfish self-expression, philosophy of creative writing classes, suppression, split literary world, threat of blockbusters and big business, not taking serious lit. seriously)

Daily Double

Name two forms of suppression Atwood mentions. (yanking books out of schools and libraries—religious objections to sexual activity, semi-political—court cases)

Stuart Ewen and “Chosen People”

100

1. Who is Stuart Ewen? (writer on economics, American cultural historian)

2. How does Ewen frame his essay, how does it begin and end? (with quote and familiar image of junk mail and commercial)

3. According to Ewen, what is the American Dream? (we all have chance to be someone, to stand out, to be rich and famous)

4. What is pictured in Ewen’s 19th century middle class identity kit? (pressed cut glass bric-a-brac)

200

1. Name the opening quote. (“It’s not what you own, it’s what people think you own.”)

2. Name 2 search engines that Jeanne and Christina recommend for finding articles on economics. (JSTOR, EBSCO)

3. Fill in the blank: “This highly individuated notion of personal distinction–marked by the compulsory blank of images–stands at the heart of the “blank blank.” (consumption, “American Dream”)

4. Fill in the blank: “To a certain extent, this continuous offer of personal distinction may indicate an epic blank of blank that lurks within the inner lives of many Americans. Nonetheless, the promise is also an essential part of the way of life that is anxiously pursued by people who are now, or wish to become, part of the great American ‘middle class.’” (crisis, identity)

5. Fill in the blank: “Out of these two conflicting ways of seeing and experiencing the new industrial reality, there emerged two distinct ways of apprehending the very question of blank and blank. (status and class)

6. Fill in the blank: “As they frenetically pursue this semiotic world of objects, they perform a role written for them, by Ira Steward, more than blank blank blank blank.” (one hundred years before)

500

1. What is Ewen’s thesis? (At the heart of the American Dream and middle class identity is image and personal distinction, achieved through consumption of material goods. According to the Dream, all people have a fair shot at status and recognition, which reinforces the idea of democracy. However, with this promise of wealth and importance often comes an identity crisis, characterized by emptiness, loneliness, anxiety, and insecurity.)

2. What is the prompt for essay #2? (How do your two articles add to or complicate Ewen’s argument: do they stress the importance of consumption and its role in democracy, do they contribute to ideas about the commodity self in America, do they suggest that industrial culture improves or degrades people’s sense of individuality or personhood, how do they amplify what you learned from Ewen?)

3. Name 3 selves Ewen mentions. (commodity, inner, outer)

4. Name 3 time periods Ewen refers to. (1830s, 1870s, 1950s, 1980s)

Daily Double

Name the 2 conflicting ways to see and experience the new industrial reality. (equating democracy with consumption, finding identity in acquiring mass-produced objects, or losing individuality and personhood when laboring in factories)

Cornel West and Wynton Marsalis and “Jazz, Hope, and Democracy”

100

1. Who are West and Marsalis? (West is an African-American educator, lecturer, and author at Harvard and Marsalis is an African-American jazz musician and classical composer)

2. Describe blues and jazz (blues is musical 12-bar form, jazz is free-form musical form)

3. Fill in the blank: “BLANK is freedom.” (jazz)

4. What is “soul-wrestling,” according to West? (having enough courage to wrestle with yourself in the midst of doubt, mystery, and uncertainty without any irritable reaching after reason or fact; remaking yourself, reinventing yourself, finding your voice)

5. Name the 2 great jazz musicians West and Marsalis mention (Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong).

6. Who are the 2 rappers killed that are mentioned by Marsalis? (Tupak Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.)

7. Fill in the blank: “Jazz is fundamentally about a mutual BLANK, a learning how to relate to others in such a way that you BLANK and learn about good manners” (respect, listen).

8. Fill in the blank: “Jazz music is our art form that was created to codify BLANK BLANK and give us a model for it.“ (democratic experience)

9. Fill in the blank: “Jazz music was invented to let us know how to BLANK to each other, how to BLANK.” (listen, negotiate)

10. Fill in the blank: “It’s a lack of compassion and understanding of the bandstand. And no interest in listening and actually interacting with other people. And just a BLANK for the process. It’s like what we have for America: a BLANK for the process of BLANK. (disrespect, disrespect, democracy)

11. Fill in the blank: “You can’t create a common language without assuming that everybody has something to give that is of worth and is of value. It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be BLANK. (equal)

12. How does the conversation begin and how does it end? (talking about blues, defining it, saying Martians will ask to hear blues)

13. Fill in the blank: “Even in the era of BLANK, the musician always was like a little different class.” (segregation)

500

1. Who does West cite as saying “Jazz is freedom”? (Duke Ellington)

2. What happens at the schools in America that Marsalis visits and does his experience there relate to what happens on the jazz bandstand? (no one listens to soloist, musicians play too loudly and don‘t listen to each other)

Daily Double

1. What was the prompt for Essay #3? (jazz teaches us how to listen, how to negotiate, is model for democratic experience, using evidence in Marsalis’ and West’s conversation as well as from your own history, propose an explanation of “democratic experience,” use and discuss terms not ordinarily associated with democracy, like dissonance and consonance, education and ignorance)

Final Jeopardy:

1. Who wrote “Sonny’s Blues”? (James Baldwin)

2. What is the name of the narrator and what is the name of his brother? (unnamed, Sonny)

3. How do the narrator and Sonny come together and learn to negotiate their differences? (through jazz, Sonny plays)

4. Compare and contrast Atwood, Ewen, and West and Marsalis’ ideas about democracy.

(Atwood: democracy is about choices, diversity, expression, participation, should not be like Quaker prayer meeting creative writing student environment, can’t function without literate public with moral sense and well-developed critical faculties, etc.; Ewen: democracy equated with consumption, American Dream shapes it, etc.; West and Marsalis: democracy is about listening, negotiating, mutual respect, having open mind, takes time, jazz is model/metaphor for it, etc.)

Alice Walker and “Everyday Use”

1. Who is Alice Walker? (African-American poet, novelist, and essayist; wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning The Color Purple)

2. Who is the narrator and what are her daughters’ names? (Mama, Dee, Maggie)

3. What is the name of the elder daughter’s boyfriend whom she brings home? (Barber, Hakim-a-Barber, Asalamalakim)

4. What does the elder daughter change her name to? (Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo)

5. What happened to the first house the family lived in? (it burned down)

6. What is the recurring dream the narrator has–who is in the dream and what are the narrator’s appearance and personality like in it? (she and Dee are on a TV talk show with Johnny Carson; daughter pins orchid on her with tears in her eyes; she is the way her daughter would want her: hundred pounds lighter, skin like uncooked barley pancake, glistening hair, quick and witty tongue)

7. How does the narrator characterize her younger daughter? (thin, like lame animal, homely, burned, dark skinned)

8. How does the narrator characterize her elder daughter? (nice hair, full figure, light skinned)

9. The narrator says, “Dee wanted nice things.” What are those things? (yellow organdy dress to wear to h.s. graduation; black pumps to match green suit she made)

10. Describe the narrator’s physical appearance and her talents. (large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands, kills and cleans animals, works outside all day, cooks)

11. Describe the elder daughter’s appearance when the narrator sees her step out of the car. (wears loud, loose dress with yellow and orange colors down to ground in hot weather, gold earrings hanging down to shoulders, bracelets, black as night hair that stands straight up like wool on sheep and is in two long pigtails that rope around like small lizards disappearing behind her ears)

12. What does the elder daughter do when she sees her mother and sister? (takes pictures)

13. Who does the narrator say the elder daughter named for? (Aunt Dicie/Big Dee, Grandma Dee, Great-Grandma Dee, relatives back to Civil War)

14. What does the elder daughter’s boyfriend say about the food the narrator cooks? (doesn’t eat collards and pork is unclean)

15. Name the five material objects the elder daughter wants from her mother‘s house? (benches daddy made for table, Grandma Dee’s butter dish whittled by Uncle Buddy, dasher whittled by Stash/Henry/Aunt Dee’s first husband, two quilts pieced by Grandma Dee, Big Dee, Mama, Maggie made out of bits of family’s fabrics)

16. Why does the elder daughter want those particular quilts? (they are hand-stitched, not made by machine, priceless, for hanging)

17. Why does the elder daughter object to her sister having the quilts? (says Maggie will be backward enough to put them to everyday use)

18. Who does the mother give the quilts to? (Maggie)

19. What does the elder daughter say her mother and sister do not understand? (their heritage, making something of themselves in this new day and age)

20. When the elder daughter and her boyfriend leave, what do the mother and sister do? (dip checkerberry snuff, sit there just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed)

Daily Double: What is the prompt for Essay #4? (Stuart Ewen suggests that people “construct” or “assemble” their identities through consumer goods. Think about how this idea and others in Ewen are useful in discussing Walker’s “Everyday Use.” How do material objects help people form identities in the text by Walker?