1. Literary devices—identifying and analyzing alliteration, simile, negative prefixes, italics for emphasis, pronouns, and expressive punctuation 2. Character conflict—Sam vs Brandon rivalry, evidence of tension and competition, internal motivation vs peer pressure 3. Emotional response—nervousness, exhaustion, embarrassment, resilience, peer comparison, reader empathy through vivid imagery 4. Vocabulary comprehension—phrase meaning (e.g. “leaving slowly,” “stood up”), identifying referents (e.g. “them”), negative emotions 5. Reader interpretation—inferring attitudes toward characters (e.g. Billy as a friend), judging actions and supportiveness using textual evidence 6. Story continuation—plot development beyond the original text, maintaining tone and character traits, logical next events, setting coherence