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 in your response.

1. Schmidt structures the novel around the school year and includes long passages where Holling observes and describes the weather.

• How does Schmidt use weather, nature, and landscape in this novel? What impact does this have on the novel overall? (topic sentence)
• The body of your essay should analyze the descriptions of nature in terms of language (literary devices), structure, and setting.
• In your conclusion, discuss how effective Schmidt’s uses of nature and landscape have on the novel.

2. Like Shakespeare, great pieces of literature help us understand the human condition.        

• What work of literature has helped you to understand the human condition and/or reflect on what’s true in your own life. (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, provide a quick summary of the work and its themes.