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. Lynn Nottage chose Reading, Pennsylvania, as the setting for her play because the town experienced deep poverty after the closure of industries impacted the town’s work force. The characters in the play are presented realistically, based on Nottage’s interviews with real people. With both flaws and virtues, each character is a product of their environment. Choose one character to analyze. 

• How would you describe the character you chose as a product of their environment within the world of the play? (topic sentence)
• In the body of the essay, choose at least three examples of evidence in the play to support your statement about the character. How does this evidence demonstrate that the character is a product of their environment?
• Draw a conclusion about how you think the character could potentially break free of their environment.