The Wednesday Wars

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

September

Reading Check

1. Why did Doug Swieteck get suspended?

2. Where do Holling’s classmates go on Wednesday afternoons?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What contributes to Holling’s perceptions of teachers and bullies? Why does he view them this way?

2. Besides hating Holling, why might Mrs. Baker be so tense and uptight?

Paired Resource

“Treasure Island - Chapter 1 of 34”

• Actor Stephen Stanton reads Treasure Island aloud; Chapter 1 is 12 minutes long.
• As you listen to this excerpt from Treasure Island, how would you describe Holling’s literary tastes?

October

Reading Check

1. How did Holling spend Wednesday afternoons in September and October?

2. What happened to Mrs. Bigio’s cream puffs?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why did Holling’s classmates demand cream puffs from him?

2. Did the adults ever figure out what happened to the cream puffs? How do you know?

3. Who is Lt. Tybalt Baker to Mrs. Betty Baker? How do you know?

Paired Resource

“Summer of Love”

• This 8-minute video from PBS’s American Experience describes the 1967 Summer of Love, when thousands of young people converged on San Francisco. It gives background about the “Flower Children.” (Content warning: vaguely mentions drug use; none shown.)
• Connects directly to Coming of Age Amid National Events and Social Influences (Coming of Age).
• Given what this video has depicted about flower children, why would Holling’s father be so vehemently against Holling’s sister becoming one? And why does it make sense that she has decided to become one anyway?

“Act 3, Scene 1”

• This 2-minute video of a scene from the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of The Merchant of Venice features a Shylock monologue in which Shylock explains why he feels vengeful.
• Given this short excerpt and Holling’s explanation, would you want to read or watch the remainder of this play? Why or why not?

November

Reading Check

1. How does Holling practice his curses?

2. How does Holling pay for the cream puffs he brings to class?

3. Who ends up eating the cream puffs?

4. What happened to Mrs. Bigio’s husband?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Where do the missing rats, Caliban and Sycorax, get their names?

2. How does The Merchant of Venice help Holling make sense of the events that occur in this chapter?

3. Why is there a hateful message scrawled across the Catholic Relief Agency where Mai Thi lives?

Paired Resource

"Why Should You Read Shakespeare’s The Tempest?”

• A 4-minute synopsis of the plot and summary of The Tempest.
• Based on this video, can you see why this play appeals to Holling’s reading tastes? Would you be interested in reading it or watching more yourself?

“Act 1, Scene 2”

• This 5-minute scene clip features a monologue from Caliban in Brownsea Open Air Theatre’s production of The Tempest, which includes many of the curses that Holling adopts in the novel.
• Given the context of Caliban’s curses, what do you think about his use of language?

December

Reading Check

1. How does Holling get to Baker Sports Emporium after the play?

2. Who comes to see Holling play Ariel in The Tempest?

3. How does the Baker family make up for the Mickey Mantle incident?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why aren’t Mrs. Baker and Mrs. Bigio joyous during the holidays?

2. Why does Danny Hupfer return his signed ball to Mickey Mantle?

3. Why do Holling’s parents skip the play?

January

Reading Check

1. Who pastes photos of Holling playing Ariel all around the school?

2. How does Holling get his revenge?

3. How does Holling end up in the hospital?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Mrs. Baker stop speaking to Holling?

2. Why is Mrs. Bigio unkind to Mai Thi?

February

Reading Check

1. Which play helps Holling make sense of his relationship with Meryl Lee?

2. How does Mrs. Bigio help Holling avoid looking like “a cheapskate”?

3. What does Mrs. Baker find out about her husband at the end of the month?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why did Holling reconcile with Meryl Lee?

2. Why did Mr. Kowalski withdraw his bid to design the new Junior High School? What does this imply about his character?

Paired Resource

“‘The Mask of Night Is on My Face’”

“Act 2, Scene 2”

• Both monologues are from the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet.
• The first is provided by The Guardian and the second by the BBC.
• Both British media outlets hired actors to perform famous scenes from Shakespeare’s plays in celebration of the 400th anniversary of his death.
• After watching these two scenes, do you agree with Mrs. Baker’s description of the words in this play as “tragic and beautiful and lovely”? 

March

Reading Check

1. Why did Mrs. Baker threaten to take the book of plays from Holling?

2. What secret did Holling learn about Mrs. Baker?

3. What did the janitor, Mr. Vendleri, find in the bulging ceiling tiles?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Holling begin running?

2. Why is Holling’s father taken aback by Holling’s sister’s choice to campaign for Robert “Bobby” Kennedy?

3. Why did Mrs. Bigio apologize to Mai Thi?

Paired Resource

“50 Years Ago: Walter Cronkite Calls for the U.S. to Get Out of Vietnam”

“How Walter Cronkite Changed the Way We Perceived the Vietnam War”

• The first video (from CBS Evening News) is primarily raw footage from a famous broadcast where Cronkite expressed his opinion on air. The video from The Washington Post puts that moment into historical context.
• Teachers might note that the video from The Washington Post frames it as a war that “communism won” when student pre-work would have provided a more nuanced account. Consider asking students why the story still gets shaped that way today.
• How might Holling’s exposure to Walter Cronkite have impacted his thinking about both Coming of Age Amid National Events and Unrest in the 1960s? Observe how his behavior and his thoughts change over the course of the novel.

April

Reading Check

1. What tragedy is announced in April?

2. Why does Holling’s father forbid his daughter from going to Columbia University?

3. Who wins the varsity cross-country race?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Holling call cross country a blood sport?

2. How do the Yankees respond to Mrs. Baker’s presence on opening day?

Paired Resource

“Indianapolis, 1968: Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and a Historic Call for Peace”

• Robert Kennedy announces Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, death and gives a moving speech in favor of unity and peace in this resource from Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.
• What themes in Kennedy’s speech resonate with the themes Holling has observed in William Shakespeare’s works? How might Kennedy’s ideas have inspired Holling’s sister to work for his campaign? What does her choice to fight with her father say about her character?

May

Reading Check

1. Where does Holling’s sister go?

2. Why does Holling hate reading Hamlet at first?

3. Where does Mrs. Baker take Holling after the two of them become fed up with Atomic Bomb drills?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Mrs. Baker’s classroom smell like rum?

2. How does Mrs. Baker feel about her husband coming home?

3. How does Holling feel about his sister being home again?

Paired Resource

“Bomb Drills”

• This 5-minute official Civil Defense film on what to do when an atomic bomb drops might have been shown in a classroom like Holling’s.
• Teacher-facing; potentially not appropriate for students

June

Reading Check

1. Who shows up halfway through the class trip and what do they bring?

2. Where and when does Holling have a vision?

3. How do Holling and his classmates spend the second day of their trip?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Has Holling matured? Why or why not?

2. Does Holling’s story have a happy ending? Why or why not? How would you describe the ending?

3. Why does Heather smile the last time we see her in the parking lot at Danny’s bar mitzvah?

Recommended Next Reads 

One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia

• One Crazy Summer follows three African American girls living in Oakland in the summer of 1968. 
• This novel is part of a series and, although they are not central, these two novels share themes.
• One Crazy Summer on SuperSummary

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

• In 1935, Moose and his family move to Alcatraz for his father’s job working as a prison guard.
• Al Capone Does My Shirts on SuperSummary