We Shall Not Be Moved: Monitoring Comprehension

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. Twenty-four halls were rented all over the Lower East Side. Each shop was to have its own meeting room, with separate rooms for Yiddish, Italian, and English groups wherever possible. Which historical detail can best help clarify a reader's understanding of the information in the excerpt?

Immigrant factory workers who spoke the same language were separated from each other at work.

Read and reread the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. Everywhere in the garment district, by the front gates of little shops and big ones, picketers marched and sang. "O Dubinushka," they sang, and "Tortured and Enslaved," and other Russian folk and revolutionary airs. Icy rains poured down on them, some were in danger of frostbite — a winter of record-breaking cold had already begun — but there they were and there they stayed. What are "O Dubinushka" and "Tortured and Enslaved"?

Russian folk and revolutionary songs

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. Everywhere in the garment district, by the front gates of little shops and big ones, picketers marched and sang. "O Dubinushka," they sang, and "Tortured and Enslaved," and other Russian folk and revolutionary airs. Icy rains poured down on them, some were in danger of frostbite — a winter of record-breaking cold had already begun — but there they were and there they stayed. The union men were amazed. "There never was anything like it," one ILGWU official declared. "An equal number of men never would hold together under what these girls are enduring." How would a careful rereading of this excerpt help a reader understand who made up the ILGWU?

The reader could make a connection between the quote by one ILGWU official and the author's reference to "union men" just before it.

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. The League, like Local 25, had expected a turnout of four or five thousand. They were bowled over by this army, utterly unprepared for it. They had organized strikes in the garment trade, small ones, usually confined to a single shop, but never before had they undertaken something on so vast a scale. They might fail, might be laughed at by the whole of New York as well as John Dyche and the ILGWU men, and all the same they knew this was the challenge they'd been hoping for — their chance to show the world they were more than highbrow butters-in, just as the shirtwaist makers were more than irresponsible little girls. How would a careful rereading of this excerpt help a reader understand the "League" mentioned in the first sentence?

The reader could make the connection between the "League" and the third sentence, which explains that they "organized strikes in the garment trade."

Read and reread the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. A strike fund would have to be raised, an information bureau set up where strikers could register for relief, or for help with legal and personal problems. Publicity was another vital need — photos and eyewitness accounts of workers on the picket lines being harassed by gorillas and police. The picket lines themselves would have to be organized. Why was publicity a vital need for the strikers?

They needed the nation to hear and see their story.

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. Esther Lobetkin, a recent immigrant, became chairman of her Yiddish-speaking group, marching with the strikers by day, then rushing to Clinton Hall to report and attend meetings until the small hours of the morning. A sandwich at midnight and an hour of sleep were all she seemed to need. Although she was arrested time and again, she never failed to yell from the back of the patrol wagon, "Do not lose courage! We'll win yet!" Which best states the author's purpose for naming and describing Esther Lobetkin in the text?

to bring a person from history to life

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. Delegates would be elected from each of the shops, to bring the workers' demands to a central strike committee. Speakers would have to be found to report the progress of the strike back to the workers, those speakers fluent in Yiddish, English, or Italian. A strike fund would have to be raised, an information bureau set up where strikers could register for relief, or for help with legal and personal problems. Publicity was another vital need — photos and eyewitness accounts of workers on the picket lines being harassed by gorillas and police. The picket lines themselves would have to be organized. Which best states the author's purpose for including information about the needs of the strike organizers?

to give the reader an idea of the complicated work required for the garment worker's strike

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. Traffic, both horses and autos, had been stopped cold, and some two hundred police reserves and plainclothesmen had been called out to maintain order. It seemed the army might at any moment erupt into the rest of Manhattan, invading Wall Street and the Bowery. By ten o'-clock 15,000 workers had left their machines. By nightfall, 25,000. Within the next few days the number rose to nearly 30,000, and it included some cutters, pressers, and finishers. Which best states one of the author's purposes for including this information in the text?

to give the reader important facts about a historical event

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. As one worker remembered it, "Well, so we stayed whispering, and no one knowing what the other would do, not making up our minds, for two hours. Then I started to get up. And at just the same minute all — we all got up together, in one second. No one after the other; no one before. And when I saw it — that time — oh, it excites me so yet, I can hardly talk about it. So we all stood up, and all walked out together. And already out on the sidewalk in front the policemen stood with the clubs. One of them said, 'If you don't behave, you'll get this on your head.' And he shook his club at me.["] Which best states the author's purpose for including this quote in the text?

to help the reader feel the excitement and unity of the striking workers

Read the excerpt from We Shall Not Be Moved. Pauline Newman recalled the feelings of the workers: "I can see the young people, mostly women, walking down and not caring what might happen. The spirit, I think the spirit of a conqueror, led them on. They didn't know what was in store for them, didn't really think of the hunger, cold, loneliness, and what could happen to them. They didn't care on that particular day; that was their day." Which best states the author's purpose for including this quote in the text?

to help the reader understand the courage and determination of the workers