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. Throughout the novel, characters lie, steal, and even use violence to get their way.

• What is an important difference between the way Richard, Skink, and Malley break rules and the way Tommy breaks rules? (topic sentence)
• Offer an example of rule-breaking for each character and explain how each example supports your claim about how the “good” characters’ rule-breaking is different from Tommy’s.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this difference supports the novel’s themes of Refusal to Conform and Deception as a Useful Tool.

2. After his father’s death, Richard downloads his father’s favorite music; later, he listens to this music with Skink.

• What is the symbolic significance of the music that Richard shares with Skink? (topic sentence)
• Offer details from the plot and the characterization of both Richard and Skink that demonstrate that your claim about the music’s significance is correct.