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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. What happened to the Flats in the 1980's?

2. Why did Mrs. Zajac hold Clarence in her room after school on Friday?

3. What quality did Mrs. Zajac think Pam displayed that was most important for a new teacher?

4. When she canceled science for a day, what did Mrs. Zajac substitute in its stead?

5. What game did Mrs. Zajac invent in order to get her students' attention in math one day?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was math class like for Mrs. Zajac? Why did they provide a particular challenge for her? How did she meet the challenge?

2. What are some of the frustrations teachers teaching today face?

3. In the first chapter, what does the reader learn about Mrs. Zajac? How old is she? How long has she been a teacher? Does she have a family?

4. What was the name of Mrs. Zajac's school and where was it located? What did we know about the school? What was the make-up of the student body in her classroom?

5. What is the concept of "dual captivity"?

6. How did Clarence's behavior change in the first three days of school? What was Mrs. Zajac's reaction? What were Clarence's consequences for his behavior? What does Mrs. Zajac finally decide to do?

7. What subject did Mrs. Zajac's students have on Wednesday afternoons? How was the behavior in the classroom different from other times as the students prepared their Halloween project?

8. What are "cume" folders? Why do teachers have them? What goes into them? How does Mrs. Zajac use the cumes and why?

9. What were some of the tips Mrs. Zajac gives Pam Hunt before her three days teaching in the classroom alone?

10. What were the demographics of Kelly School? Were they in line with the demographics of the community? What else do we know about the families attending Kelly School?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Compare and contrast Mrs. Zajac and her student teacher Miss Hunt. Are there traits they share in common? What are some of the ways the two women contrast each other.

Essay Topic 2

What specific challenges did teaching math in her classroom present to Mrs. Zajac? What teaching skills did she employ in order to meet the challenge?

Essay Topic 3

Mrs. Zajac took her fifth grade class on a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village and had two different agendas for the field trip. What were those two agendas, and how did she work to accomplish both? Why was this trip important to Mrs. Zajac?

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