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. Mr. Lyttle’s perspective changes as the events of the novel unfold.

• What events transpire to make Mr. Lyttle change his mind about the meaning of the dropping letter tiles? (topic sentence)
• Identify 3 passages in the novel describing Mr. Lyttle’s behavior and underlying perspective during the letter banning.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, describe how Mr. Lyttle’s changed perspective reflects the theme of Change Versus Tradition.

2. An epistolary novel is a novel told in a written letter (correspondence) format.

• What does the novel gain by being told in an epistolary format? (topic sentence)
• Identify three passages in which the epistolary form of the book is critical.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, describe how the novel’s format impacted your reading experience.