Part A

Question

Which inference can be made about the author's experience at the Lincoln School in Barrio Boy?

Responses

The Lincoln School is an unfriendly place where educators want to force the students to renounce their heritage and adopt the American way of life.
The Lincoln School is an unfriendly place where educators want to force the students to renounce their heritage and adopt the American way of life.

The teachers and classmates are barriers to learning English and blending into American life.
The teachers and classmates are barriers to learning English and blending into American life.

The author's classmates are disrespectful of his Mexican heritage, which causes him to feel different from them and his instructors.
The author's classmates are disrespectful of his Mexican heritage, which causes him to feel different from them and his instructors.

The Lincoln School educators are respectful of his heritage while helping him learn how to fit in to his new life in the United States.
The Lincoln School educators are respectful of his heritage while helping him learn how to fit in to his new life in the United States.
Question 2
Part B - Points depend on a correct response in Part A.

Select the excerpt that best supports the answer in Part A.

Responses

"At Lincoln, making us into Americans did not mean scrubbing away what made us originally foreign. The teachers called us as our parents did, or as close as they could pronounce our names in Spanish or Japanese. No one was ever scolded or punished for speaking in his native tongue on the playground."
"At Lincoln, making us into Americans did not mean scrubbing away what made us originally foreign. The teachers called us as our parents did, or as close as they could pronounce our names in Spanish or Japanese. No one was ever scolded or punished for speaking in his native tongue on the playground."

"During the next few weeks Miss Ryan overcame my fears of tall, energetic teachers as she bent over my desk to help me with a word in the pre-primer. Step by step, she loosened me and my classmates from the safe anchorage of the desks for recitations at the blackboard and consultations at her desk."
"During the next few weeks Miss Ryan overcame my fears of tall, energetic teachers as she bent over my desk to help me with a word in the pre-primer. Step by step, she loosened me and my classmates from the safe anchorage of the desks for recitations at the blackboard and consultations at her desk."

"Like Ito and several other first graders who did not know English, I received private lessons from Miss Ryan in the closet, a narrow hall off the classroom with a door at each end. Next to one of these doors Miss Ryan placed a large chair for herself and a small one for me."
"Like Ito and several other first graders who did not know English, I received private lessons from Miss Ryan in the closet, a narrow hall off the classroom with a door at each end. Next to one of these doors Miss Ryan placed a large chair for herself and a small one for me."

"What Miss Hopley said to us we did not know but we saw in her eyes a warm welcome and when she took off her glasses and straightened up she smiled wholeheartedly, like Mrs. Dodson. We were, of course, saying nothing, only catching the friendliness of her voice and the sparkle in her eyes while she said words we did not understand."

Answer 1

Part A

Based on the inferences provided, the best inference about the author's experience at the Lincoln School in "Barrio Boy" is:

The Lincoln School educators are respectful of his heritage while helping him learn how to fit in to his new life in the United States.

Part B

The excerpt that best supports the answer in Part A is:

"At Lincoln, making us into Americans did not mean scrubbing away what made us originally foreign. The teachers called us as our parents did, or as close as they could pronounce our names in Spanish or Japanese. No one was ever scolded or punished for speaking in his native tongue on the playground."

This excerpt illustrates that the educators at Lincoln School respected the students' cultural heritage while facilitating their adaptation to American life, aligning with the inference chosen in Part A.