Mockingbird

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-8

Reading Check

1. What triggers Caitlin’s “Tantrum Rage Meltdown” in Mrs. Brook’s office (19)?

2. What is the topic Caitlin selects for her research project?

3. When Mrs. Brook asks Caitlin to name her friends, how does Caitlin respond?

Short-Answer

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. When Caitlin says the gray outside is in her, what does she mean?

2. What does Caitlin mean when she tells Mrs. Brook that Devon is not completely gone?

3. Why does Caitlin refuse to work in a group for the research project unit?

4. Why does Caitlin’s father cry so much?

Paired Resource

“Asperger’s Syndrome”

• General, introductory information on young people with Asperger’s from Nationwide Children's Hospital
• Connects to the theme of The Power of Empathy
• In her reaction to the funeral reception and her reaction to the invitation to work on a team, how does Caitlin reveal aspects of her developmental disorder?

Chapters 9-15

Reading Check

1. Why does Caitlin dread recess?

2. What new word does Caitlin learn while watching television coverage of the school shooting with her father?

3. What two movies does Caitlin remember watching with her brother?

Short-Answer

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is it important that Caitlin offers a gummy worm to Michael?

2. What is it about making friends that Caitlin finds so difficult?

Paired Resource

“Mockingbird Film at 50: Lessons on Tolerance, Justice, Fatherhood Hold True”

• A CNN look at why the film is important for schoolchildren to see and understand
• Connects to themes of The Power of Empathy and The Loss of Innocence
• When Caitlin tells Devon she thinks the title of the film is “stupid,” how does her brother help her understand the importance of the film and its title?

Chapters 16-21

Reading Check

1. What does Caitlin find out from Mrs. Brook about her new friend Michael?

2. What is odd about the picture of Devon that Caitlin draws for the door of Devon’s room?

3. What new word does Mrs. Brook share with Caitlin after Caitlin’s problems with Rachel?

Short-Answer

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Caitlin’s request for her birthday reveal about her?

2. Why does Caitlin get mad at Michael?

3. Why does Caitlin hurt Rachel’s feelings?

Paired Resource

“School Shootings Are Causing Anxiety and Panic in U.S. Children”

• A 2022 Time magazine look on the psychological impact of students who survive a mass shooting
• Connects to the themes of The Need for Closure, The Dynamics of Grief, and The Loss of Innocence
• Caitlin and Michael are both kids whose family members are killed in a school shooting. How does that shape the friendship between them? Why does Josh seem like a threat to that, from Caitlin’s perspective?

Chapters 22-31

Reading Check

1. Who is Mr. Walters?

2. How does Caitlin believe she and her father will find closure?

3. Why does Caitlin try to cut wood from an oak tree using a quarter?

Short-Answer

1. Why is Caitlin confused about drawing Mr. Walters’s eyes?

2. Why does Caitlin tell her father she does not want to go to private school?

3. Why does Caitlin’s father walk away from her at Lowe’s?

Paired Resource

“Grief: Coping with the Loss of Your Loved One”

• An overview of The Dynamics of Grief that also connects to The Need for Closure
• Caitlin and her father need closure. Why does Caitlin believe in that moment of insight that completing Devon’s Eagle Scout project will provide that?

Chapters 32-39

Reading Check

1. What does Caitlin contribute to the group project on the state of Virginia?

2. What do Caitlin and her father donate to the school?

3. What gift does the art teacher give to Caitlin after the memorial service?

Short-Answer

1. What does Caitlin learn after watching Michael’s play?

2. Why is Caitlin moved to smile when she thinks of all Devon will never be able to do?

3. Why is it important that Caitlin begins to use color in her drawings?

Recommended Next Reads

Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

• 2013 middle grade novel about a “highly gifted” girl whose parents die in a car accident
• Connects to themes of The Need for Closure and The Dynamics of Grief
• Counting by 7s on SuperSummary

The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller

• 2018 middle grade novel about a girl trying to help her mother cope with depression
• Connects to the theme of The Power of Empathy