"Unusual Normality" Test A
Authored by Jane Huerta
English
9th Grade
CCSS covered
Used 357+ times
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This quiz comprehensively assesses 9th-grade students' reading comprehension and literary analysis skills through their study of Ishmael Beah's personal essay "Unusual Normality." The content focuses on both literal comprehension and deeper analytical thinking, requiring students to identify literary devices like oxymorons and irony, analyze the author's purpose and intended audience, and understand the essay's themes of survival, adaptation, and the contrast between wartime experiences and American teenage life. Students must demonstrate vocabulary knowledge through context clues and definition matching, while also showing their ability to infer character motivations and understand the significance of specific details about Beah's journey from child soldier in Sierra Leone to American high school student. The quiz effectively measures students' capacity to connect textual evidence to broader themes about trauma, resilience, and cultural adjustment. Created by Jane Huerta, an English teacher in the US who teaches grade 9. This assessment serves multiple instructional purposes, functioning effectively as a summative assessment following a complete reading of the text, a review tool before class discussions about memoir and personal narrative, or as homework to reinforce key concepts about literary analysis and close reading. The quiz supports differentiated instruction by including both lower-order thinking questions about plot details and higher-order questions requiring analysis and interpretation, allowing teachers to assess student understanding across Bloom's taxonomy levels. Teachers can use individual question performance to identify areas where students need additional support, particularly in literary device identification or thematic analysis. This quiz aligns with Common Core standards CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4, and CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.6, as it requires students to cite textual evidence, determine themes, analyze word choice and literary devices, and assess point of view and purpose in literary nonfiction.
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25 questions
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1.
MULTIPLE SELECT QUESTION
15 mins • 1 pt
There was such a joyful sadness in her beautiful face. What is the oxymoron?
beautiful face
such a
There was
joyful sadness
Tags
CCSS.L.9-10.5A
2.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
15 mins • 1 pt
At the conclusion of the essay____
The author tells his friends about his past.
The author finally gets into a good school.
The author explains what he wanted to tell his friends.
The author's friends invite him to play ball again.
Tags
CCSS.RL.9-10.5
3.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
15 mins • 1 pt
What group helped Ishmael escape Sierra Leone?
NPR
The Walking Dead
Doctor's Without Borders
UNICEF
Tags
CCSS.L.11-12.4C
CCSS.L.6.4C
CCSS.L.7.4C
CCSS.L.8.4C
CCSS.L.9-10.4C
4.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
15 mins • 1 pt
Beah's great omen, "You're about to have new clothes," came from...
a man on a subway
a fortune cookie
his new mother
a stewardess on a plane
Tags
CCSS.RL.9-10.5
5.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
15 mins • 1 pt
The title Unusual Normality is a(n)…
metaphor
allusion
oxymoron
paradox
Tags
CCSS.L.9-10.5A
6.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
15 mins • 1 pt
Which of these best describes the purpose of the selection?
To explain how the past made the author appreciate his new life.
To explain how the author became such a great paintball player.
To show how people who think they are tough are really weak.
To describe how it is impossible for the author to escape his past.
Tags
CCSS.L.3.3A
CCSS.L.4.3A
CCSS.L.5.3A
CCSS.L.6.3A
CCSS.L.6.3B
7.
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION
15 mins • 1 pt
Why did Ishmael Beah have trouble enrolling into school?
he didn't have a visa
he was too old
he was an orphan
he didn't have a report card
Tags
CCSS.L.11-12.4C
CCSS.L.6.4C
CCSS.L.7.4C
CCSS.L.8.4C
CCSS.L.9-10.4C
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