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. In Unwind, Shusterman presents robust character development, especially in the characters Lev and Connor.

• How does the author develop characters in this novel? Choose to write your essay about one of the following: Lev, Connor, Risa, or Roland. (topic sentence)
• In the body of your essay, discuss which events have the most impact on characters and how the author shows that impact over the course of the novel. Include textual evidence to support your claims.
• Close your essay with reflections on how those characters connect to one of the novel’s themes or sub-themes.

2. Unwind raises many moral questions about the right to life, who gets to choose who lives or dies, and when life begins or ends, without making any claims to a singular right answer.