73 pages • 2 hours read
Gordon KormanSchooled
Gordon KormanFiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
CHAPTERS 1-9
Reading Check
1. How old is Capricorn?
2. Who is Mrs. Donnelly?
3. What does Zach change the school sign to say?
4. When Zach puts a dead bird in Capricorn’s locker, what does Capricorn do?
5. Who takes Sophie driving?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Rain get injured, and what are the ramifications?
2. How are Capricorn and Mrs. Donnelly connected?
3. Why doesn’t Hugh help Capricorn?
4. What shifts between Sophie and Capricorn?
Paired Resource
- In this resource from Facing History & Ourselves, Eve Shalen reflects on experiences with peer pressure in middle school.
- Theme connections include Idealism Versus Realism and Isolationism and Interventionism.
- How do Eve’s experiences connect to those of the characters?
“How Parents, Teachers, and Kids Can Take Action to Prevent Bullying”
- This article from the American Psychological Association defines bullying and presents suggestions people can take to help stop it.
- Theme connections include Parenting Styles and Isolationism and Interventionism.
- How are some students bullying Capricorn, and how do some people take steps to stop it?
CHAPTERS 10-18
Reading Check
1. What show do Capricorn and Sophie watch?
2. Who joins Capricorn for Tai Chi?
3. What does Sophie’s father give her for her birthday?
4. When Capricorn teaches Hugh about tie-dying, who else gets involved?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What leads to Zach’s exasperation about Capricorn?
2. How do his peers react after Capricorn saves Mr. Rodrigo?
3. How does Capricorn feel at the bank, and what does that reveal about him?
4. How does Capricorn use the checks Mr. Kasigi gave him for the school dance, and what pattern exists in his spending?
Paired Resource
- Nemours Kids Health provides some topics to consider and guidelines to follow for safe online practices.
- Theme connections include Parenting Styles and Isolationism and Interventionism.
- How has living at Garner Farm affected Capricorn’s relationship with the media?
CHAPTERS 19-27
Reading Check
1. Who plots against Capricorn just as he begins to care more about what others think of him?
2. When does Sophie realize Capricorn, not her father, gave her the necklace?
3. When Sophie and Capricorn get to the school dance, what do they find?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Capricorn get hurt twice in the same day?
2. Why does Mrs. Donnelly blame Mr. Kasigi for Capricorn’s misuse of the checks?
3. Why do students believe Capricorn is dead?
Paired Resource
“The 4 Types of Parenting Styles and How Kids Are Affected”
- Very Well Family discusses different parenting styles and how each affects children. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing without teacher guidance; potentially sensitive content)
- Theme connections include Parenting Styles.
- Students might categorize the Parenting Styles of adults in the novel and discuss ramifications to characters and plot events.
CHAPTERS 28-31
Reading Check
1. What does Capricorn do that leads to Zach feeling “hopelessly outclassed”?
2. Why is Capricorn arrested for a third time?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why do Zach and Hugh plan a vigil for Capricorn?
2. How does Rain stay true to herself while acknowledging what Capricorn needs?
Recommended Next Reads
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
- When Stargirl begins attending Leo’s school, her originality upends the conformity he is accustomed to, and he and the community will never be the same.
- Shared themes include Idealism Versus Realism and Isolationism and Interventionism.
- Shared topics include nonconformity, friendship, school, new environments, growing up, bullying, identity, and courage.
- Stargirl on SuperSummary
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
- When he turns 11, Harry Potter learns he is a wizard and is swept into a world of challenges, friendship, magic, and danger.
- Shared themes include Idealism Versus Realism, Parenting Styles, and Isolationism and Interventionism.
- Shared topics include friendship, family, growing up, school, new environments, bullying, learning, and courage.
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-9
Reading Check
1. 13 (Chapter 1)
2. Capricorn’s social worker (Chapter 2)
3. “WELCOME TO C AVERAGE MIDDLE SCHOOL” (Chapter 3)
4. Buries the bird (Chapter 6)
5. Capricorn (Chapter 9)
Short Answer
1. Rain falls from a tree at Garland Farms, breaking her hip; surgery is successful, but she needs to spend weeks in rehabilitation healing. This leads to Capricorn staying with his social worker and her daughter and attending public school for the first time. This new environment puts him in the path of bullies. It also opens his eyes to new things like socializing with peers, television, and how schools operate. In the process, he also teaches the people around him compassion, kindness, and respect. (Chapters 1-9)
2. As she was growing up, Mrs. Donnelly spent some time on Garland Farm, the former commune where Capricorn lives with Rain. She also knows Rain, who was her teacher there; Mrs. Donnelly was afraid of Rain at the time, thinking of her as a witch. (Chapter 2)
3. Hugh is benefitting from Zach and others picking on Capricorn instead of on him. He doesn’t want to help Capricorn because he might become more of a target again. (Chapter 5)
4. When Capricorn takes Sophie driving, she appreciates his calm help. Since they are not supposed to drive without an adult, they also get away with something together. This bonds them, so when she insults him later, he realizes she does not really mean it. (Chapters 1-9)
CHAPTERS 10-18
Reading Check
1. Trigonometry and Tears (Chapter 12)
2. Naomi (Chapter 12)
3. A bracelet he (Sophie’s father) takes back to get engraved (Chapter 13)
4. The art teacher and about 80 students (Chapter 15)
Short Answer
1. Zach wants to be on top in the eighth grade class, and he believes he needs to put down Capricorn to achieve this. He tries to bother Capricorn by making him president, organizing press conferences, stealing his shoes, and more. When Capricorn refuses to get upset, it exasperates Zach. (Chapters 10-18)
2. Capricorn’s peers view him as a hero for driving the bus and helping Mr. Rodrigo. They flock to him, want to hear the story, and treat him with respect. (Chapters 11-18)
3. Capricorn wants to leave the bank. He feels uncomfortable around the institution focused solely on money, which Rain has taught him to avoid. His reaction reveals he does not value money and has internalized Rain’s lessons. (Chapter 16)
4. He buys Sophie a bracelet he leads her to believe is from her father and donates to various causes. Capricorn uses money to help others. (Chapters 16-18)
CHAPTERS 19-27
Reading Check
1. Hugh and Zach (Chapters 19-21)
2. During her driving test (Chapter 26)
3. A vigil for Capricorn with everyone dressed as him (Chapter 27)
Short Answer
1. Zach and Hugh send him onto the field during the pep rally, and the football team tackles him without knowing that it is Capricorn; under the helmet, he is not recognizable. Then, Darryl tries to punch Zach for orchestrating the dangerous prank, but Capricorn, trying to stop a fight between them, steps in between them and is punched. (Chapter 21)
2. Mrs. Donnelly explains Capricorn knew nothing about money, and calls Mr. Kasigi out for giving Capricorn checks without explaining how banking works. She remembers growing up on the farm so can understand Capricorn’s perspective. (Chapter 23)
3. When Rain picks him up from school, she is in an ambulance. The students only see Capricorn leave in an ambulance and not return. (Chapters 22-27)
CHAPTERS 28-31
Reading Check
1. Say goodbye to each student, over a thousand people, by name. (Chapter 30)
2. Driving without a license (Chapter 31)
Short Answer
1. Zach and Hugh do not believe that Capricorn is dead, but they think if they plan the vigil they will be praised by their peers and gain social capital. (Chapter 28)
2. True to her focus on caring for Capricorn, Rain sells the farm, , makes sure they have a home to live in, and gets him enrolled in the school. She makes sure most of the farmland becomes affordable housing, helping others, which is also true to her heart. (Chapter 31)
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