Discussion Questions for “Baseball Saved Us”

Before Reading:
1. Predict what this story is about using the setting and what we learned yesterday.
2. Think about all the things you learned about internment camps. How do you think children your age acted while staying there? What do you think their emotions and feelings were about their lives at that point in time?

During Reading:
1. (9) What from this paragraph tells you where and when this story takes place?
2. (25) Why are the kids calling him names? What is happening in the US around this time to cause him to be set apart by Caucasian kids?
3. (38) What made the camp unlike his home?
4. (55) Why is Teddy changing? Do you think he is really angry at his father, or angry at the situation he is in? Why?
5. (60) Why did the narrator’s dad think the camp needed baseball?
6. (73) How did the baseball field help not only the children in the camp but the adults too?
7. (100) How would you feel in this situation?
8. (105) Why did the guard watching make the narrator mad?
9. (124) What are two surprising things that happen when the narrator makes a home- run?
10. (130) Why was the narrator outcasted by others in school, even when the war was over?
11. (135) Do you think that having the nickname “Shorty” was a good thing to the narrator? Why?
12. (146) Why did it mean they hated him when they called him “Jap?”
13. (164) How did the pitcher reminding the narrator of the guard help him get a good hit?

After Reading:
1. What