Comprehension Check-Grade 9

A Quilt of A
Country Essay

Page 7 on Realize Reader

Objectives
Begin With the End In Mind
• Identify the key ideas in “A Quilt of a
Country

HA
Review
Kagan: Fan N’ Pick Time: 4 minute
2 starts

1) Each team receives a set of question cards.

2) Student #1 holds question cards in a fan and says, “Pick a card, any card!”
3) Student #2 picks a card, reads the question aloud, and allows five seconds
of think time.
4) Student #3 answers the question.
5) Student #4 responds to the answer: • For right/wrong answers, Student #4
checks and then either praises or tutors. • For questions that have no right
or wrong answer, Student #4 does not check for correctness, but praises
and then paraphrases the thinking that went into the answer.
6) Students rotate roles, one person clockwise for each new round.
 Essential Question
What does it mean to be American?
Research Time – Setting the Context Research time: 1 minute
Time: 2 minutes
Differentiation 1 starts
Kagan: Round Robin Random pick

Student 1&4:
When was the essay “A Quilt of A Country” published?

Student 2&3:
What happened in 9/11?

Students take turns talking with their teammates:

1. Teacher announces topic/ gives “think time”.
2. Teammate ____ begins with a clockwise rotation.
3. Each teammate gives his/her short _____ answer to the topic.
4. Sharing is over after each teammate has spoken.
 Answers

This essay was published in Newsweek magazine about two

weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. In
New York City, almost 3,000 people were killed when
hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center.
Each group member takes
turns filling in the blanks
Summary Kagan: Round table
Time: 2 minutes
with the correct words 2 starts
from the options provided Random pick
below.
In her essay “A Quilt of a Country,” Anna Quindlen compares ________to a
Hostility
Different _____________ _________made up many bits and pieces, just as America is made
Diversity up of many _______t groups of people. She says that we can all live together as
Violence
America one nation, united by the principle that we are all created ________. The reality she
War describes, however, is that there is a lot of _______ and ________between the
Patchwork quilt different groups. These different groups unite when America faces the threat of
Equal
World Trade Center _______. However, as soon as those threats go away, the divisions return. Even so,
most Americans think of America as great because of its great ___________. They
see that recent immigrant groups are like their own families, who worked hard to
make it in America. Those who died in the _________________ attacks of
September 11, 2001, reflected America’s diversity. Americans feel patriotic towards
the country that defines itself by the diversity of those who died.
 Round Table
1. Teacher announces the topic.
2. Teacher gives you “think time”.
3. Team members take turns in answering by writing.
4. They continue unit the teacher calls “time”.
5. Team celebrate. “ Team Sheer”
6. Groups compare and check their answers.
 Feedback
In her essay “A Quilt of a Country,” Anna Quindlen compares America to a patchwork quilt
made up many bits and pieces, just as America is made up of many different groups of people.
She says that we can all live together as one nation, united by the principle that we are all
created equal. The reality she describes, however, is that there is a lot of hostility and violence
between the different groups. These different groups unite when America faces the threat of
war. However, as soon as those threats go away, the divisions return. Even so, most Americans
think of America as great because of its great diversity. They see that recent immigrant groups
are like their own families, who worked hard to make it in America. Those who died in the
World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001, reflected America’s diversity. Americans
feel patriotic towards the country that defines itself by the diversity of those who died.
 IRS

Which word is an antonym for pluralistic?​

a. intermixed
b.Different
c. One (monism)
d.Separate
 IRS

Which word is an antonym for pluralistic?​

a. intermixed
b.Different
c. One (monism)
d.Separate
 Author | Anna Quindlen

1. Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) started working in the newspaper

business at the age of 18 as an assistant.
2. After graduating from Barnard College in 1974, she wrote
for the New York Post and then for the New York Times,
where her career in journalism began to flourish.
3. She was only the third woman to have a column in the
Times’s Opinion Pages, for which she won a Pulitzer Prize
in 1992.
4. Three years later, Quindlen decided to leave the newspaper
and pursue her passion for writing fiction.
5. She has written several best-selling novels, as well as
 Buzz in

Challenge yourself Think time 20 seconds

1. According to "A Quilt of a Country," how is the

United States similar to a quilt?
 Challenge yourself – Feedabcak

1. According to "A Quilt of a Country," how is the

United States similar to a quilt?

2. It is patched together from dissimilar parts.

 Kagan: 4 corners
Time: 2 minutes
Random pick
Questions
Scan the text to find the answers of the following questions:
1. 1. According to Quindlen, what familiar object serves as an ideal representation of
America? ( with the teacher)
2. 2. According to Quindlen, how have people’s attitudes about her being a product
of a mixed marriage changed over time? (Student 1)
3. 3. According to Quindlen, what has unified America’s diverse ethnic groups before
the end of the cold war? (Student 2)
4. 4. According to Quindlen, how have other countries often handled deep ethnic
divisions? (Student 3)
5. 5. According to the former head of the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
how are today’s neighborhood stores similar to and different from the old
 Answers

1. According to Quindlen, what familiar object

serves as an ideal representation of America?

A crazy quilt, since it is a single garment made

from a number of distinct fabrics joined together.
2. According to Quindlen, how have people’s
attitudes about her being a product of a mixed
marriage changed over time?

The ethnic division that was previously

unthinkable and full of strife is now barely
noticeable and quaint; it would no longer even
be considered a mixed marriage.
3. According to Quindlen, what has unified
America’s diverse ethnic groups before the end of
the cold war?
A common enemy and a division between America as a whole and an external
threat, such as the Axis Powers ( Germany, Italy, and Japan)* in World War II or
the Soviet Union in the cold war.

* These three countries recognized German domination over most of continental Europe; Italian domination
over the Mediterranean Sea; and Japanese domination over East Asia and the Pacific
4. According to Quindlen, how have other
countries often handled deep ethnic divisions?

Other countries have often divided or partitioned,

creating multiple countries without internal
divisions of such scale; the United States has
remained whole and coherent to the end.
 5. According to the former head of the Immigration
and Naturalization Service, how are today’s
neighborhood stores similar to and different from the
old neighborhood stores?
5. They are alike in still having the same basic social role and success. They differ in
that, rather than being run by Eastern European, Italian, or other immigrant populations
from the early 1900s, the new Ma-Pa stores* belong to a new wave of immigrants from
Korea, Latin America, Vietnam, Iraq, and more.

* A colloquial term for a small, independent, family-owned business. Unlike franchises and large corporations, which have
multiple operations in various locations, ma and pa shops usually have a single location that often occupies a physically small
space.
 Exit Ticket
● Based on what you have learnt so far, write a summary of the text to
confirm your understanding.
Tips for writing a summary:
● Write in the present tense.
● Make sure to include the title of the work.
● Be concise: a summary should not be equal in length to the original text.
● If you need to quote the words of the author, use quotation marks.
● Don’t put your own opinions, ideas, or interpretations into the summary.
The purpose of writing a summary is to accurately represent what the
author says, not to provide a critique.
 The United States of America is a unique nation in that its
national image is fluid and always changing. Like a crazy quilt,
it is made of many different people. This has not always been a
successful experience; history shows that great tragedy has come
out of the fusion of many peoples from many places, but much
good has come out of it as well. Distrust of “others” cannot be the
only glue that holds a nation together. It takes a national
consciousness that rises to challenges and is generally fair in its
outlook. When this happens, it is a wonderful thing to behold and
take pride in.

Essay Summary