Exploring the Text

  1. Kris Vervaecke describes as “brutish” the softball she played as a young girl in Nebraska (para. 1). What satisfactions did she derive from the game? How did the game define her and her nemesis, Mary Hellerman?

    Question

    WvD/qlpt4lzzWb4zUwGWBQhKPjtDvqj8sRamu7J1DAyqPwYZ7lQ7Wr5WbEA=
    Chapter 9 - A Spectator’s Notebook - Exploring the Text: Kris Vervaecke describes as “brutish” the softball she played as a young girl in Nebraska (para. 1). What satisfactions did she derive from the game? How did the game define her and her nemesis, Mary Hellerman?
  2. Vervaecke describes her neighborhood as “inhabited almost solely by females” (para. 1). How does that fact connect to the game she and her friends play? How might it connect to the end of Vervaecke’s sports career, when she “became a girl” (para. 4)?

    Question

    WvD/qlpt4lzzWb4zUwGWBQhKPjtDvqj8sRamu7J1DAyqPwYZ7lQ7Wr5WbEA=
    Chapter 9 - A Spectator’s Notebook - Exploring the Text: Vervaecke describes her neighborhood as “inhabited almost solely by females” (para. 1). How does that fact connect to the game she and her friends play? How might it connect to the end of Vervaecke’s sports career, when she “became a girl” (para. 4)?
  3. How does paragraph 5 provide a transition to Vervaecke’s role as the mother of athletes?

    Question

    WvD/qlpt4lzzWb4zUwGWBQhKPjtDvqj8sRamu7J1DAyqPwYZ7lQ7Wr5WbEA=
    Chapter 9 - A Spectator’s Notebook - Exploring the Text: How does paragraph 5 provide a transition to Vervaecke’s role as the mother of athletes?
  4. How and why does Vervaecke characterize herself as an uninterested spectator (paras. 6–8)? What rhetorical strategies does she use? Are they effective? Explain your response.

    Question

    WvD/qlpt4lzzWb4zUwGWBQhKPjtDvqj8sRamu7J1DAyqPwYZ7lQ7Wr5WbEA=
    Chapter 9 - A Spectator’s Notebook - Exploring the Text: How and why does Vervaecke characterize herself as an uninterested spectator (paras. 6–8)? What rhetorical strategies does she use? Are they effective? Explain your response.
  5. At the beginning of the second section (para. 10), Vervaecke says that sports has given her children what she, as a single mother, could not: “letting them shed, for the game’s duration, grief, rage, loneliness, or boredom, and allowing them to take on skill and cunning, filling them with inspiration and determination, sometimes awe” (para. 10). How does each of the anecdotes that follow illustrate some part of that statement?

    Question

    WvD/qlpt4lzzWb4zUwGWBQhKPjtDvqj8sRamu7J1DAyqPwYZ7lQ7Wr5WbEA=
    Chapter 9 - A Spectator’s Notebook - Exploring the Text: At the beginning of the second section (para. 10), Vervaecke says that sports has given her children what she, as a single mother, could not: “letting them shed, for the game’s duration, grief, rage, loneliness, or boredom, and allowing them to take on skill and cunning, filling them with inspiration and determination, sometimes awe” (para. 10). How does each of the anecdotes that follow illustrate some part of that statement?
  6. Why does Vervaecke begin the third section (para. 25), which is about a game in which her daughter Emily barely plays, by noting that the athletes who attend the college where she teaches have never read a book?

    Question

    WvD/qlpt4lzzWb4zUwGWBQhKPjtDvqj8sRamu7J1DAyqPwYZ7lQ7Wr5WbEA=
    Chapter 9 - A Spectator’s Notebook - Exploring the Text: Why does Vervaecke begin the third section (para. 25), which is about a game in which her daughter Emily barely plays, by noting that the athletes who attend the college where she teaches have never read a book?
  7. What is the connection between Andrew’s enjoyment of the writing workshop and his highly developed biceps (paras. 35–65)?

    Question

    WvD/qlpt4lzzWb4zUwGWBQhKPjtDvqj8sRamu7J1DAyqPwYZ7lQ7Wr5WbEA=
    Chapter 9 - A Spectator’s Notebook - Exploring the Text: What is the connection between Andrew’s enjoyment of the writing workshop and his highly developed biceps (paras. 35–65)?
  8. In what ways does the last section of the essay connect playing sports, watching sports, and motherhood—the main threads of the piece? Why does the essay end with Emily’s exasperation at her mother’s memory of playing softball?

    Question

    WvD/qlpt4lzzWb4zUwGWBQhKPjtDvqj8sRamu7J1DAyqPwYZ7lQ7Wr5WbEA=
    Chapter 9 - A Spectator’s Notebook - Exploring the Text: In what ways does the last section of the essay connect playing sports, watching sports, and motherhood—the main threads of the piece? Why does the essay end with Emily’s exasperation at her mother’s memory of playing softball?