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. This story begins and ends on Têt holidays, one year apart.

• How has Hà changed over the course of this year? (topic sentence)
• Choose and discuss at least one piece of evidence from the beginning poems and one piece of evidence from the ending poems to highlight the change seen in Hà.
• In your concluding sentences, draw a larger conclusion about what the author is trying to say about the theme of Growth and Change Marked by Endings and Beginnings.

2. The author chose to structure her story as a novel in verse.

• How is this story enhanced by the novel-in-verse structure? (topic sentence)
• Using at least three pieces of evidence from the text, explain what is gained by the poetic nature of the text.