1. “The First Day”
By Edward P. Jones

2. Quick Write! Choose one prompt to respond to in your journal.
PRE-READING
Quick Write! Choose one prompt to respond to in your journal.
1. What do you remember about your first day of school? What feelings or images come to mind when you picture it?
2. What is your earliest memory of your mother or father? What feelings come to mind when you recall this memory? How does the memory compare with the way you relate to your mother or father now?

3. FIRST READING Directions:
1. LISTEN to the text as you follow along in your book.
2. Place a post-it in your book where you have a question. Write your question on your post-it.

4. NEXT: CATEGORIZE YOUR QUESTIONS!
1. Independently, go back to your post-it questions. Code your questions as follows:
F= Factual
B=Background
E=Evaluative
S=Speculative
I=Interpretive
USE YOUR BOOK OR YOUR NOTES IF YOU NEED A REFRESHER ON THESE QUESTION TYPES!

5. RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU HAVE A __________________ QUESTION.
SHARE YOUR QUESTIONS!
RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU HAVE A __________________ QUESTION.
SHARE IT!

6. WRITE! 1. The question I asked that interests me the most is…
2. The question someone else asked that interests me the most is…

7. SECOND READING
While re-reading the text, use the different-colored sticky notes to identify the following:
YELLOW = A character seems confident
PINK = A character seems nervous
When finished, be prepared to share a brief description of that plot event and the page #

8. SHARED INQUIRY DISCUSSION: Write. Then discuss!
FOCUS QUESTION:
Why does the narrator say that the story takes place “long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother?” (p. 23)

9. “The First Day” Questions
1. Why does the narrator describe her appearance in such detail at the beginning of the story?
2. Why does the narrator say that the woman seems “happier, so much more satisfied with everything” after she finds out that the narrator’s mother can’t read the registration form? (p.27)
3. Why does the narrator describe her mother taking “document after document” out of her pocketbook? (p.27)
4. Why does the narrator say that she notices where her mother had “darned one of her socks the night before” as she walks away? (p.28) Why does the narrator repeat, “This is my mother?”
** EXTRA: Your unanswered questions… (What were the answers?, Were your questions answered?)