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 below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Although Crabbe finds his formal education all but useless, he seems to appreciate Mary’s lessons, and he learns a lot from her.

• Why is Mary’s approach to education one that Crabbe learns well from? (topic sentence)
• Explain 2-3 separate characteristics of Mary as a teacher and provide examples from the story that illustrate these characteristics; explain why these characteristics match up with Crabbe’s needs as a learner.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how Mary’s approach to education is related to the themes of The Quest for Identity and Autonomy and the Value(s) of Education.

2. The pipes that Crabbe’s father owns contrast in several ways with the pipe that Mary gives Crabbe, and these differences convey important ideas about the meaning of Crabbe’s pipe.