TANGERINE
CUBING STRATEGY
To be used with the chapter Thursday, November 30
(page 251 in the Harcourt 2006 edition)
Purpose
Developed by Cowan and Cowan (1980), the cubing strategy was first designed to help writers
overcome writer’s block. However, this strategy can also be used to facilitate close reading. The
strategy encourages students to analyze a topic in depth, from a number of perspectives, by
answering questions on six sides of a cube, which parallel Bloom’s taxonomy of comprehension
levels (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation).
The cube can be imaginary or constructed from a variety of
materials. Large blank dice are available from teachers’ supply
stores, or you can cover a square tissue box, or you can use a handout
to let the students create individual die for themselves. Be sure to put
weights in the dice, such as dried beans, so they will roll properly.
(The handout can be enlarged or reduced in size to fit your needs.)
Rationale
This passage is a significant turning point in the novel and foreshadows the primary climax. The
cubing strategy will help students derive meaning from the passage necessary to understand this
foreshadowing as well as the main themes of the book as a whole.
Directions
Step One: Introduce the Strategy (10 min.)
Explain to students the importance of questioning techniques in understanding situations.
Discuss how asking questions is an important skill outside of class to resolve conflict, get
information, and to be successful in any career. Then discuss how asking questions is just as
important in understanding a text.
Then, Introduce Bloom’s taxonomy of comprehension levels with a chart of the different levels
of thinking. Explain how different levels of thinking will reveal different levels of meaning in a
text. Give some examples of this.
Step Two: Model the Strategy (5 min.)
Show students the cube with six levels of thinking on it. Demonstrate how to form questions on
each level of comprehension. See the handout below for some ideas.
Step Three: Large Group Practice (15 min.)
Read the first passage together. Throw the cube around the room, and ask the student who
catches it to answer a question for the level of comprehension the cube lands on.
Sheranian, BYU, 2008
Step Four: Small Group Practice (10 min.)
Next, give students the handout with passages from Tangerine. Divide students into
groups and assign each group to answer the questions for a different passage.
Monitor groups as they work. Tell them to answer the questions in full sentences on
a separate piece of paper.
Step Five: Class Discussion (15 min.)
Compile all the student’s responses in a group discussion. Have all the students copy down the
answers of the other students. Ask the other students if they have any other ideas. Make
connections. Talk about how each question targets a different level of comprehension.
Step Six: Assessment (10 min.)
Ask students to write their own questions for Passage 5. They should identify which level of
Bloom’s taxonomy it goes with.
Worksheet Answer Key
PASSAGE 1
1. Synthesis: Why does Paul put on the suit that he wore to Mike Costello’s funeral?
He wants to commemorate Luis’s death with a funeral of his own. He can’t go to Luis’
official funeral, but he can still have his own personal memorial service. Usually special
occasions require special clothing. Paul wants to signify the importance of this event.
2. Analysis: What must he be feeling if he says, “I must have looked like an idiot.”
Paul feels a little bit uncomfortable because he’s never done something like this before.
He knows what he did was strange.
PASSAGE 2
1. Knowledge: What does Paul do?
Paul looks at the grey wall and then gets down and pulls up
the grass and looks at the dirt underneath.
2. Analysis: Paul says he “had to do something.” What does
Paul have to do?
He has to do something to remember Luis. He has to do
something with what he knows about Luis’ death. He also
knows he has to do something about his brother Erik and
about his family.
PASSAGE 3
1. Knowledge: Now that Paul sees the dirt, what does he realize?
Sheranian, BYU, 2008
He realizes that this dirt is made up of the Tangerine trees that were cut down, burned, and
covered up.
2. Analysis: What does the dirt represent?
The dirt could represent the hidden truth. This was really a Tangerine field, but it had been
disguised by a housing development. The same is true for Paul’s life; there is hidden truth
masked by silence and lies.
PASSAGE 4
1. Synthesis: How is Paul’s experience here like a funeral?
Just like at a funeral, Paul cries. He also digs a hole like you would at a burial service. But
even more importantly, he doesn’t just commemorate Luis’ death; he remembers Luis’ life, a
life that had been dedicated to his Tangerine grove. Paul’s funeral is more real to him than
the real funeral would have been.
2. Evaluation: Can Paul see that others can’t?
Yes, he can see the truth about his brother Erik. He can see the truth about the Tangerines.
He can see the truth that he has power to bring justice.
PASSAGE 5
Students will develop their own questions for this passage.
Sheranian, BYU, 2008
Name: _____________________________________ Date: __________ Period:____
TANGERINE
CUBING STRATEGY
To be used with the chapter Thursday, November 30
(page 251 in the Harcourt 2006 edition)
DIRECTIONS: Read the following paragraphs. Then answer the
questions for your assigned passage on a separate sheet of paper. Take
note of which level of thinking you are using.
PASSAGE 1
Mom left the house at ten o’clock this morning. She was gone for most of the day. I was
here alone.
At exactly twelve noon, I pulled out my blue suit from the closet, the suit that I had worn
to Mike Costello’s funeral. I put it on, without a shirt, shoes, or socks, and walked out through
the patio doors, into the backyard. I must have looked like an idiot.
1. Synthesis: Why does Paul put on the suit that he wore to Mike Costello’s funeral?
2. Analysis: What must he be feeling if he says, “I must have looked like an idiot.”
PASSAGE 2
I walked straight out until I was facing the gray wall. I had no clear idea what I was going
to do. I just knew that I had to do something. For a while I stood there staring at the ground, like
an idiot. Then I bent forward and wedged both hands into the space between the wall and the
sod. I pulled the sod up and toward me, so that the whole piece of it rolled back onto my feet
with its roots sticking up. Beneath, it was a rectangle of white sugar sand two feet long and three
feet wide.
1. Knowledge: What does Paul do?
2. Analysis: Paul says he “had to do something.” What does Paul have to do?
PASSAGE 3
I got down on my knees, like an idiot, on that upside-down piece of sod, and started to
scrape away the sugar sand. I scooped up big handfuls of it, piling them on either side of the
rectangle, until I reached the dirt below. I stared at that dirt in fascination, thinking how odd it
was that I had never seen it before. This was the dirt we lived on. The dirt of the tangerine grove
that we burned, and buried, and plowed under, and coated with sand, and landscaped over. Here
it was.
1. Knowledge: Now that Paul sees the dirt, what does he realize?
2. Analysis: What does the dirt represent?
Sheranian, BYU, 2008
PASSAGE 4
The sweat started to drip off my forehead, fogging up my glasses.
I yanked them off and threw them over to the side. I didn’t even know
where they landed. Then I bent over that hole in the dirt until my face was
an inch above it. I thought about Luis Cruz, a man I barely knew. I
thought about Luis Cruz being lowered into this ground, never to come
back up. I felt the tears start to well up deep inside of me. Once they
started to come, there was no stopping them. I wept, and sobbed, and
poured tears into that hole in the ground. Like an idiot? No, I don’t think
so.
1. Synthesis: How is Paul’s experience here like a funeral?
2. Evaluation: Can Paul see that others can’t?
PASSAGE 5
When I was finished I stood up, brushed the dirt from my knees and elbows, and located
my glasses. I pushed the sand back into place and rolled the sod back into position. Then I came
back in here and threw my suit into the garbage.
It’s remarkable. Strange and remarkable. I feel like Luis is a part of me now.
I feel like a different person.
Write your own questions below:
LEVEL OF THINKING: QUESTION
___________________: _________________________________________________________
___________________: _________________________________________________________
___________________: _________________________________________________________
Sheranian, BYU, 2008
Sheranian, BYU, 2008