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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what season was the story of the Little Red Hen told?

2. In what season was the story of The Three Goats told?

3. What superhero was included in the list of student words in "Organic Reading"?

4. How many other books preceded the development of the Maori transitional readers?

5. How long were Ashton-Warner's seven-year-old students able to write?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Ashton-Warner describe children's minds as volcanoes and how did that affect her teaching?

2. Why was the class so noisy while the children studied their individual key words and what did that noise signify?

3. How did the children's writings differ from the standard readers offered in most schools?

4. What was the importance of the "inner illustration" in the children's self-written stories?

5. Why did Ashton-Warner say that the discussions of the children's stories were the "most significant" feature of the class?

6. Why was teaching the class so back-breaking, according to Ashton-Warner?

7. What was the role of handwriting in the Maori students' stories?

8. Why did Ashton-Warner describe the language of published first readers as "dead"?

9. What did Plato believe about dance?

10. What did Ashton-Warner mean by "tone" in the classroom?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ashton-Warner pointed out that although the Maori love words, they frequently speak to one another in one-word sentences that convey detailed meaning. Do you think this tendency is natural to human beings or was it developed over time by the Maori as they lived on a previously-isolated island nation? Do humans develop different language patterns based on their culture? Would it be possible for a non-Maori to develop the skill of interpreting the many nuances of a one-word Maori sentence? How can different speech patterns lead to misunderstandings?

Essay Topic 2

The Maori children in Ashton-Warner's classroom encountered racism from the majority white population in New Zealand. How did these attitudes affect the students at home and in the community? How did it affect them in the classroom? Did having a white teacher have an impact on them, even if she was open and accepting of them? How do societal assumptions and expectations impact a child's ability to perform in school? Do children internalize the prejudices they encounter or are they able to escape them in the classroom? How do teachers deal with the impact these prejudices may have on their students? Is it possible to fully counter them in school?

Essay Topic 3

Ashton-Warner criticized the use of workbooks in schools, although she said she understood why some teachers relied on them. Do workbooks provide any benefits to the students? Are they absolutely necessary for determining how well a child is learning? Would it be possible to devise other ways of measuring a child's development? Are workbooks used because the curriculum is standardized for all children? Would they be helpful if curricula were tailored to individual students?

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