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 story, both mothers (Doris and Janice) are often away from the house.

• Despite this similarity, how do they differ as parents? (topic sentence)
• Offer at least three points of evidence from a variety of places in the story that explain how they differ as parents and role models for their children.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, summarize what the author might be trying to say about different family structures and the theme of The Complexities of Defining “Family.”

2. In the final chapter, Ali comments, “It felt like in those two or three days I had changed, or at least part of me had changed, somehow.” (Chapter 16)

• How has Ali’s character changed over the course of the novel? (topic sentence)
• Use at least one piece of evidence from the beginning chapters and one piece of evidence from the ending chapters to highlight the change seen in Ali.