Assess students’ ability to cite textual evidence from a short story excerpt to explain a character’s motivations and to predict their next actions. Students should identify specific words, phrases, or events that reveal the character’s goals, emotions, or obstacles; link these details to inferred traits and motives; and make a plausible prediction of what the character will do next, supporting the prediction with at least two pieces of evidence and clear reasoning. Suitable for grades 6–8; may be scaffolded with prompts about desires, constraints, and past behavior.