DEPARTAMENTO DE LINGÜÍSTICA

INTERMEDIO I – 2020
Extensive Reading Test
The Good Immigrant’s selected stories
Reading and Study Guide
1. Before reading

a. Extensive reading objectives

 To respond to the stories critically and imaginatively; to select and evaluate relevant textual detail to illustrate
and support interpretations.
 To relate the book to your social, cultural and historical contexts; explain how it has been influential and
significant to self and other readers in different contexts and at different times.
 To understand and describe how language, structure and form contribute to writers’ presentation of ideas,
themes and settings.

b. About the book

“This book emerged out of a comment on a Guardian article. I know, I know, it’s easy to say, don’t read the comments.
But I do. Because I want to know my enemy. The commenter took umbrage at an interview a journalist had done with
five authors (including me) about their writing process. The journalist (Asian) had interviewed five or six people of
colour. The commenter wondered why there wasn’t a more prominent author interviewed for this piece. He supposed
(for it is almost always a ‘he’) that perhaps we were all friends of the journalist, given we too were all mostly Asian. This
constant anxiety we feel as people of colour to justify our space, to show that we have earned our place at the table,
continues to hound us. For while I and the 20 other writers included in this book don’t want to just write about race, nor
do we only write about race, it felt imperative, in the light of that comment (and the many others like it), the backwards
attitude to immigration and refugees, the systemic racism that runs through this country to this day, that we create this
document: a document of what it means to be a person of colour now. Because we’re done justifying our place at the
table.

For people of colour, race is in everything we do. Because the universal experience is white. Another commenter (yes,
yes, I know) on a short story I once wrote, was pleasantly surprised to see Indians going through the universal
experience. Much as I was surprised that I was excluded from the universal experience, it hammered home the
knowledge that the universal experience is white. This book collects 21 universal experiences: feelings of anger,
displacement, defensiveness, curiosity, absurdity – we look at death, class, microaggression, popular culture, access,
free movement, stake in society, lingual fracas, masculinity, and more.

Luckily, there are magazines and spaces emerging to give people of colour the space to write about their universal
experiences, and not just write specifically on race. Check out sites like Media Diversified, gal-dem, Skin Deep, Burnt
Roti, Rife Magazine.

I chose these writers for simple reasons: I know them, I rate them, I want to read more from them. I’m happy to
admit that nepotism and networks played a part in my selection. And I’m happy to create a brand new old boys’ network
that circumvents the institutionalised ones we have to deal with on a daily basis. Because there is a secret cabal of
people of colour, and contrary to the stereotypes we like to refute, we do all know each other. But that’s because when
we’re the only ones in the room, we gravitate towards each other, and stick next to each other, because we intimately
know the balance of race and universal experience particular to people of colour.

Before you enjoy these beautiful, powerful, unapologetic essays, a quick note on the title of the book: Musa
Okwonga, the poet, journalist and essayist whose powerful ‘The Ungrateful Country’ closes the book, once said to me
that the biggest burden facing people of colour in this country is that society deems us bad immigrants – job-stealers,
benefit-scroungers, girlfriend-thieves, refugees – until we cross over in their consciousness, through popular culture,
winning races, baking good cakes, being conscientious doctors, to become good immigrants.

And we are so tired of that burden.”

Nikesh Shukla, editor

c. About the author

Varaidzo is an undergraduate student and essayist working in film and the arts. She is currently an editor at gal-
dem.com.

Vera Chok is an actress, writer, and performance maker. She’s also founder and director of theatre company saltpeter
and The Brautigan Book Club. Her writing has been published by Rising, Brautigan Free Press, Toast, Yauatcha Life and
Ether and performed at the inaugural BareLit Festival. In 2015, Vera acted for the National Theatre and The Kenneth
Branagh Company as well as creating the performance piece These 12 Things Are True.

Reni Eddo-Lodge is a journalist and writer. Her first book, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, was
released in 2017.

Salena Godden is one of Britain’s foremost spoken word artists. She is a regular performer at international and national
literary festivals in a career that is now entering its third decade. Her short stories and poetry have been anthologised by
Penguin, Canongate, Serpent’s Tail, Influx Press, Polygon Books and many more. She has written for BBC Radio
programmes including The Verb, Saturday Live, Loose Ends and From Fact to Fiction and has authored and presented
several arts documentaries for BBC Radio and Channel 4. Burning Eye Books published her debut collection Fishing In
The Aftermath in 2014 to mark twenty years of poetry and performance. Her literary childhood memoir Springfield Road
was successfully crowdfunded and published with Unbound.

d. Useful vocabulary

What do these words mean? Look them up in a dictionary and try to use them in a sentence. Keep their meaning in your
head because they will appear in the stories you are about to read.

Word Meaning Sentence

race

identity

Afro

weave

ethnicity
 East Asian

diaspora

BAME

blackface

Respectability
politics
shade

e. General reading tips

 Always scan (= run your eyes through the piece of writing) the text for specific pieces of information (names,
dates, etc.) and skim (= read fast) it to identify author’s purpose/intent and main ideas.
 Dedicate yourself to engaging in a combination of both guided and relaxed reading practice for at least 2 to 3
hours a week. Guided practice will involve structure and focused attention, like learning new vocabulary words
and testing yourself on them, while relaxed practice will involve merely letting yourself read and enjoy reading
without pressure for at least one to two hours a week.
 Improve your vocabulary by, for instance, making flashcards. Use the new words in other contexts, incorporate
them into your lexicon. At the same time, reflect on the role vocabulary bears in the book and how the author
conveys ideas and images through it.
 Test your comprehension by summarizing every story you read in your own words or every portion of text that
you found a bit more difficult to follow. The latter is particularly useful for improving your reading
comprehension.
 When struggling with an excerpt, reading those problematic passages aloud can often help dodge the
comprehension block and help you to form a visual of what the text is trying to convey.
 Re-read previous sections of the book to refresh your memory so that you can better understand and interpret
later sections of the book.
 Discuss the book with a partner, classmate, or study group you have formed. Trying to teach or discuss what a
passage says or means with your peers can be extremely beneficial. If you have a classmate who hasn't read the
book or some chapters yet, explain it to them in your own words and discuss where you feel your
comprehension is lacking. Getting feedback from your peers is another way to understand what you have read.
2. While reading

a. Main ideas: summarize and write down the main ideas presented in each story.

Story name Main idea

A Guide to Being
Black

Yellow

Forming Blackness
through a Screen

Shade

b. Important supporting information from each story.

Story name Important supporting information

A Guide to Being
Black

Yellow

Forming Blackness
through a Screen

Shade
 c. Important concepts / themes

A theme is a concept or idea that an author explores in a literary work. The goal while you read the book is to identify
such themes in order to elaborate on them.

You will be presented with 2 main themes in the book. For each theme, collect 5-6 details from each story (such as
specific plot points, symbols, or quotes) that the author uses to explore that theme. You will be working on the table
featured below.

Next, use the evidence you have collected to write a theme description that explains the role of the theme in the
stories. Your theme description should be 1-2 paragraphs. Here are some questions to consider as you write each theme
description:

1. How do the ideas or actions of the main characters reflect different aspects of the theme?
2. Does the theme develop or change over the course of the novel? If so, how?
3. If your evidence includes symbols, explain how the author uses those symbols to explore the theme.
4. If your evidence includes specific quotes from the text, explain how those quotes provide examples of how the
theme applies to the story.

Having the previous structure and procedures in mind, be prepared to identify 2 more themes of your own, which
capture what you think of as an important element in this book. Then, come up with evidence from the text (specific
examples, scenes, or direct quotes) to support these themes, or big ideas, in the novel. Describe them using the analysis
and description chart.

Theme 1: Xenophobia

Theme description

Evidence
1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.
Theme 2: Identity

Theme description

Evidence
1. 2. 3.

4. 5. 6.

d. Quote Analysis Practice

Choose three of the following quotes and for each, identify 1) the speaker/audience; 2) the context (scene, occasion);
and 3) the significance (connections to major themes; implications in terms of character development). Significance is
the most crucial aspect because it is where you show the depth of your analysis, as you have to think about both the
specific or appropriate language use and your appraisal of the quote. Avoid summary or paraphrase and engage in
meaningful, personal evaluation.

Example

“People will show their hand, ‘Where do you come from?’ And if you reply, ‘I just jumped on the tube at Tottenham
Court Road,’ they’ll tut and shake their head. ‘No,’ they say, ‘where do you come from, as in…’ Pause ‘… come from,
come from?’”

1. Speaker/ audience: people/writer (Salena Godden)

2. Context: The speaker is explaining what happens to her when she travels, because she is British and mixed-race
but she doesn’t look like what people “expect” a British person to look like; they seem to assume she was born
somewhere else and became a British national.
3. Which answer for significance is better? Why?
People don’t know there are non-white people who are This quote shows the ignorance many people evidence
British. when they interact with non-white people who are
British. It seems they expect Britain to be a homogenous
 country where everyone is white, and if a British person
is not white, they must come from another place, they
must have been born somewhere else and then moved
to Great Britain and that’s why they are British today.

This is an illustration of racist behavior that non-white

people experience in places like Great Britain.

(This answer is the most appropriate for your current

academic level in terms of language use, knowledge and
presentation of ideas).

Practice task:
Take one quote from the novel and write a 60-to-80-word paragraph analyzing its significance. Be sure to
demonstrate your ability to weave portions of the quote in with your own language so that your sentences
contain both evidence (direct quote or paraphrase) and commentary (your analysis of what the quote implies or
suggests).

3. After reading

a. General impression
i. What adjectives would you use to describe the stories?
ii. How did you come away feeling, after reading it?
iii. Were there passages or sentences that struck you as particularly profound or moving? Indicate page and
paragraph. Write down some notes if necessary.
iv. How did these stories impact your thoughts about racism, xenophobia, immigration, abuse or any of the
themes you were able to identify in it?
v. Are these stories something you will continue thinking about?
vi. Would you recommend this book? Why? Why not?

b. Test preparation
i. Types of questions that could be included in the test
 Multiple choice
 Quote identification
 Short answer section with specific questions about events in the stories
 Theme discussion and analysis

ii. What is expected from students? Evidence of reading and understanding of the novel.

Writing section:
a. Well-crafted sentences and clear topic sentence relating to main theme to be discussed in each
paragraph.
b. Evidence from the text, woven into student’s sentences so that quotes/paraphrase and analysis coexist
in the answer.
c. Use of linking expressions and phrases to build arguments; clear relationships between paragraphs.
d. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling checked and corrected. Sentence variety according to the level.