El Deafo

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. What causes Cece’s deafness?

2. What treatment does Cece get for her deafness?

3. What is significant about Cece’s new school?

Multiple Choice

1. What causes Cece to realize that she can’t hear?

A) She can’t hear the television.

B) She can’t hear her own singing.

C) She can’t hear her mother’s call.

D) She can’t hear the nurses talking to her.

2. What does Cece like to wear every day?

A) a polka-dotted bathing suit

B) a frilly dress

C) her father’s old shirts

D) her mother’s floppy sun hat

3. Which one of these is not one of Cece’s rules about lip reading?

A) Shouting is not good.

B) Speak very slowly.

C) When it gets dark, give up.

D) See the person’s face at all times.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does the graphic novel visually represent Cece’s deafness before she gets her hearing aid?

2. What is the purpose of the “goop” that the audiologist puts in Cece’s ears?

3. Why is it difficult for Cece to communicate even with hearing aids?

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. Why doesn’t Cece return to her school in first grade?

2. What is Cece’s “superpower”?

3. How does the graphic novel represent Cece’s decision-making about friendships?

Multiple Choice

1. What is one reason Cece has trouble fitting in with hearing children?

A) They like to go swimming.

B) They want to listen to the radio.

C) They deliberately hide their mouths when talking around her.

D) They want to play games that she can’t play.

2. How does the graphic novel represent Cece’s loneliness at school?

A) Cece is drawn as an invisible outline.

B) Cece is drawn as tiny.

C) Cece is drawn looking at others from outside a snow globe.

D) Cece is drawn inside a bubble.

3. Why does Cece have a problem with Ginny (the second friend she makes at her new school)?

A) Ginny tricks Cece all the time.

B) Ginny doesn’t accommodate Cece’s needs.

C) Ginny makes too big of a deal of Cece’s deafness.

D) Ginny ignores Cece when other friends are around.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What problem does Cece have with Laura’s friendship?

2. What does Cece realize about her Phonic Ear in school?

3. What does Cece use her superpower for in her fantasies with Laura and Ginny?

Chapters 7-9

Reading Check

1. Why does Cece have trouble understanding what’s on television compared to real-life conversation?

2. Who helps Cece understand the television without drawing too much attention to it?

3. What type of class do Cece and her mother go to?

Multiple Choice

1. Where does Cece get the superhero name “El Deafo”?

A) from kids at school

B) from a comic strip

C) from a poster at the audiologist office

D) from an after-school special on TV

2. Why does Cece want to leave the sleepover she attends with Ginny and her friends?

A) They make fun of her.

B) They turn the lights out.

C) Her hearing aid batteries run out.

D) Her mother wants her to come home.

3. What convinces Cece that sign language might be worthwhile?

A) seeing that she can use it to keep secrets from people

B) her mother signing “I love you, Cece”

C) seeing two people use it to argue

D) her brother signing along to the television

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Cece say she likes watching TV?

2. How does Cece get out of receiving a makeover?

3. Why does Cece have a problem with sign language?

Chapters 10-12

Reading Check

1. What does Cece assume about her neighbor Martha?

2. What does Cece think about Mike, the new kid on the street?

3. How do Martha and Cece start hanging out with Mike?

Multiple Choice

1. How does Cece realize that Martha knows she is deaf?

A) Martha repeats herself frequently.

B) Martha notices when Cece turns off her hearing aid.

C) Martha tries to use sign language with Cece.

D) Martha tries mouthing words to Cece.

2. How does Martha fit into Cece’s superhero fantasy?

A) She is an arch-nemesis.

B) She is a reporter trying to learn her secret identity.

C) She is a sidekick.

D) She is a damsel in distress.

3. Why do Cece and Martha stop spending time together?

A) Martha blames herself for hurting Cece’s eye.

B) Martha gets bored of dealing with Cece’s deafness.

C) Cece accidentally gets Martha in trouble.

D) Cece blames Martha for hurting her eye.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Cece want to hide her deafness from Martha?

2. What makes Martha different from the other friends so far in the graphic novel?

3. Why does Cece need to imagine herself as El Deafo when she thinks of speaking to Mike?

Chapters 13-15

Reading Check

1. Why does Cece get accused of cheating?

2. What class causes Cece’s problem with her report card?

3. What does the gym teacher do that causes Cece problems?

Multiple Choice

1. Why is Cece nervous about seeing Mike at school?

A) She doesn’t know how to talk to boys.

B) She is anxious about him seeing her Phonic Ear.

C) She thinks he will distract her in class.

D) She thinks he will make fun of her around others.

2. How do Cece’s glasses help her understand people better?

A) She can see their faces more clearly to read nonverbal cues.

B) She can see the way other people dress and copy current fashion trends.

C) She can see their faces more clearly for lip reading.

D) She can see the way other people struggle with what they are and aren’t capable of.

3. Why doesn’t Cece use her Phonic Ear during these chapters?

A) It has to be sent away for repairs.

B) It is not allowed in the classroom anymore.

C) She is embarrassed of it.

D) She must learn to live without it as she grows up.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Martha avoid Cece when Cece gets new glasses?

2. How does Cece repair her friendship with Martha in her fantasy?

3. Why does Cece want to be the best at the arm hang in gym class?

Chapters 16-18

Reading Check

1. What makes Cece cry at the bus stop?

2. What are Cece and Mike selected to do in front of the whole school?

3. How does Mike discover Cece’s “superpower?”

Multiple Choice

1. What does Mike do for Cece after her bus stop incident?

A) He buys her a soda.

B) He makes her a card.

C) He punches Jason.

D) He makes Jason apologize.

2. Why does Mike get in trouble at school?

A) He gets into a fight.

B) He misbehaves during math time.

C) He makes fun of Cece with other boys.

D) He cheats on a test.

3. Why does Cece find school difficult and boring during these chapters?

A) She wants to be talking to Mike.

B) She doesn’t have her Phonic Ear.

C) She is prone to daydreaming about her adventures as El Deafo.

D) She gets moved to a different class.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What conflicting emotions does Cece feel about Mike being nice to her after the bus stop incident?

2. How have Cece’s feelings about her Phonic Ear changed?

3. What does Mike say about Cece’s ability to hear the teacher anywhere?

Chapters 19-21

Reading Check

1. What is Cece and Mike’s “date”?

2. How does Cece help her classmates?

3. What do the “warm fuzzies” represent?

Multiple Choice

1. How does Cece know what is said during Mike’s conversation with Martha?

A) She reads their lips.

B) He is wearing the microphone attached to the Phonic Ear.

C) She hides behind a fence.

D) He tells her about it afterward.

2. What does Cece tell Martha about at the end of the graphic novel?

A) her superhero alter ego

B) how she’s been helping her class

C) her crush on Mike

D) how to make warm fuzzies

3. Why is it significant that Cece gets a “worm fuzzy” alongside her warm fuzzies?

A) It’s from Martha.

B) It’s from Mike.

C) It’s from Jason.

D) It’s from Ginny.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do the kids think the Phonic Ear is cool at the end of the graphic novel?

2. What does Martha confess to Mike?

3. Why is Cece able to embrace her identity as El Deafo in the closing chapters of the graphic novel?