The Last Cuentista

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Real-Life Cuentistas"

In this activity, students will develop skills as a cuentista by creating and sharing their own personal oral history.

In the opening chapters of The Last Cuentista, imagine you are alongside Petra on the spaceship leaving Earth. Knowing that you can never return, what information would you want to retain to pass on to future generations?

In this activity, you will identify knowledge or memories that you feel contribute to your identity and explain your choice to one your fellow classmates in the form of an oral history interview. In pairs, work through the following steps:

• First, what is “oral history”? Investigate what oral history is and how to interview a subject about one.  
• Reflect upon a particular skill, piece of knowledge, or memory that contributes to your overall identity. Spend a few moments individually journaling about this choice, detailing the ways it helps to  make you the person you are today. Major life events (for instance, graduating from middle school) or just a small moment that you cherish (a quiet day spent in the park with a relative) are examples of appropriate memories for this activity; examples of knowledge and skills might include how to read, how to play piano, or how to reach a goal.
• Interview your partner. Interview each other about your chosen memories or skills.

After completing your interviews, come together as a class. How was the experience of journaling about the memory in writing different from speaking the details of your chosen memory or skill out loud to your partner? Reflect upon your memories in relationship to the book’s themes, particularly The Heart’s Memories. Would you consider the memory or skill you shared to be resistant to reprogramming, as with Javier and certain other characters in the book?

Teaching Suggestion: Though students may not be graded on this brief activity, you may want to share the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Oral History Project Assessment Rubric as a way of helping them understand what makes a good oral history. It may also be beneficial to encourage students to connect their stories to larger cultural traditions, just as Petra did when she embraced the role of cuentista.

• The Smithsonian’s “How to Do Oral History” may offer additional context on the subject.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Cogs are perhaps the most powerful tool used by the Collective in an attempt to shape the “perfect” society.

• What are Cogs and how important is their role? (topic sentence)
• How are Cogs used as a constructive force? How are they used as a destructive one? Choose at least 3 examples from the text to support your discussion and connect your examples to your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentences, briefly explain the idea Cogs symbolize and how that idea connects to the theme Individual Versus Group Consciousness.

2. The word cuentista is Spanish for “storyteller.”  

• What is the meaning of the novel’s title, and in what way might the title be considered an inaccurate description? (topic sentence)
• How is the idea involved in the title suggested by plot events? How is it proven incorrect? Provide rationale for your topic sentence idea by analyzing and discussing at least 3 instances in the novel as part of your discussion.
• In your concluding sentences, summarize the connection between the theme The Heart’s Memories and the title. 

3. The cuentos themselves are a kind of character in the novel.

• Taking into consideration both Petra’s and Lita’s relationship to storytelling, how would you define cuentos? (Provide a more detailed description than simply “stories.”) (topic sentence)
• How do the cuentos change over the course of the novel? Why is this change significant in terms of the plot’s overall conflict? Include discussion of at least 3 examples, ideas, or cuentos from the novel that support your topic sentence.
• In your concluding sentences, explore how the cuentos help to support the theme of Past Versus Future.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. How does Voxy serve as a representation of the Collective, while simultaneously symbolizing an anti-Collective force? In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, compare and contrast Voxy to other members of the Collective. Include in your discussion the ways that Voxy represents a resistance to Group Consciousness.

2. Consider the moments in the text when both Nyla and Petra’s father explain their philosophy on the subject of Past Versus Future. In a 3- or 5-paragraph essay, analyze and discuss their views of the past and future. How do they represent opposite sides of the tension between Individual and Group Consciousness? Ultimately, as suggested by the events and messages in the novel, whose position is stronger (logically and/or morally)? Include instances and ideas from a variety of places in the story to support your rationale.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer Questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which idea is most strongly related to the theme of The Heart’s Memories in the novel?

A) The planet Sagan

B) The character of Nyla

C) Petra’s vision impairment

D) Personal mementos

2. What conflict best embodies the theme of Individual Versus Group Consciousness?

A) Petra versus the Monitors

B) Petra versus the Collective

C) Petra versus the First Arrivers

D) Petra versus the Zetas

3. What statement best paraphrases the reason for Petra’s father disapproval of the burgeoning Collective movement?

A) Equality is good, but the Collective does not realize how equality differs from conformity.

B) Looks can be deceiving, and the Collective, on its surface, seems too good to be true.

C) Actions speak louder than words, and the Collective has yet to act.

D) Knowledge is power, and the Collective does not value education.

4. Which of the following statements best encapsulates how Petra’s stories relate to the theme of Past Versus Future?

A) Petra’s stories erase her past, so that she no longer has a future.

B) Petra’s stories from the past contain wisdom that can help guide the future.

C) Petra’s stories have a fortune-telling component, which allows her to gaze into the future.

D) Petra’s stories allow her to time travel between the past and the future.

5. Early in the novel, Petra’s parents watch a television show about a group of people who want to erase all the differences in humanity to create permanent peace. How is this an example of foreshadowing?

A) It foreshadows how television will become obsolete in the near future.

B) It foreshadows how society will soon experience a peaceful period.

C) It foreshadows the growing power and goals of the Collective.

D) It foreshadows how Petra’s parents will join the movement to end all human difference.

6. Which of the following roles best names the Monitors’ duties on the spaceship?

A) Servants

B) Gatekeepers

C) Builders

D) Doctors

7. What statement summarizes the irony in Petra’s realization that she cannot leave her fellow Zetas behind?

A) Even though the Zetas betray her, she cannot bear leaving them.

B) Petra feels some collective identity with the Zetas while rejecting the official Collective.

C) Petra has finally become like her mother, a fate she had tried to avoid.

D) Despite her initial misgivings about the Zetas, she has now embraced them as friends.

8. When Petra first sees Sagan, which of the following reasons best summarizes why she is stunned?

A) Because it’s so beautiful

B) Because it’s so bright

C) Because it’s so big

D) Because it’s so haunting

9. Which theme is developed through the rabbit in Petra’s dreams?

A) Past Versus Future

B) Individual Versus Group Consciousness

C) The Heart’s Memories

D) The rabbit is not related to any of the book’s themes.

10. What do Petra and Ben have in common?

A) They both have vision impairments.

B) They both love literature.

C) They both miss their parents.

D) They both have scars on their right arms.

11. What is the correct sequence of events, in chronological order?

A) Petra goes on an exploratory mission to Sagan’s surface; Petra’s stasis malfunctions; it is revealed that Epislon-5 is actually Javier.

B) Petra’s stasis malfunctions; Petra goes on an exploratory mission to Sagan’s surface; it is revealed that Epislon-5 is actually Javier.

C) It is revealed that Epislon-5 is actually Javier; Petra’s stasis malfunctions; Petra goes on an exploratory mission to Sagan’s surface.

D) Petra goes on an exploratory mission to Sagan’s surface; it is revealed that Epislon-5 is actually Javier; Petra’s stasis malfunctions.

12. Which of the following pieces of advice is Lita most likely to give to Petra concerning the nature of storytelling?

A) Stories told aloud should never be longer than 20 minutes long; human attention spans require it.

B) Always be sure to highlight female characters, since they have been historically oppressed.

C) Traditional stories can be adapted to suit new people, places, and situations; variations are an important part of the storytelling tradition. 

D) Craft your stories with future generations in mind, so be sure to leave out technology, which might become outdated.

13. Which of the following best describes how Chancellor Nyla feels about the individual and individuality, in general?

A) Individual life has no meaning to her; she is coldly devoted to the survival of the group.

B) Individuality is something best practiced in private.

C) Individuals only become of use to her when they’ve reached adulthood; children individuals are useless.

D) In the next phase of humanity, hundreds of years from now, there may be room for more individuality within society.

14. From what kind of rock is the necklace that Lita gives to Petra made?

A) Pumice

B) Basal

C) Dacite

D) Obsidian

15. Which of the following characters least embodies the values of the Collective?

A)  Voxy

B) Chancellor Nyla

C) The Prawn

D) Crick

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. How does referencing other texts (e.g., The Epic of Gilgamesh) strengthen the novel’s themes?

2. In what way does the Collective, at least on the surface, seem to have good intentions? Summarize why these good intentions go awry.