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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. At the premiere reading of the poem, who is referred to as "Bing-Bong"?

2. What does Cindy do when the dog is hit by the car?

3. What happens in Chapter 7 when Shawn and his father are right in front of the camera?

4. In the stanza of the poem that opens Chapter 8, what is the main question being asked?

5. What does Mom say to Cindy when she gets back in the van?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Lindy say to her friend Connie about her feelings toward Sydney's abandonment of the family?

2. According to Shawn, who is the Shawn in the poem written by his father?

3. When talking to her mother, how does Cindy explain her experience with the dog's death?

4. How does Sydney McDaniel support his argument that schools waste money educating the ineducable?

5. How does Shawn describe his father?

6. What "techniques of making contact" does Shawn mention have not been tried on him?

7. What is Shawn able to do when his spirit leaves his body during a seizure?

8. Describe what the special education class at Shoreline High School is like according to Shawn, and how the students behave.

9. How does Shawn describe the tests administered by the school psychologist?

10. Why does Shawn think that his father is smart?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Paul and his father have both evidenced the desire to protect Shawn. Write a brief essay comparing and contrasting Paul and Sydney with regard to their sense of responsibility to protect Shawn. How are they the same and how do they differ? What concrete actions do they take to protect him? What actions can you predict they might take in the future? Will these actions in fact protect Shawn? Why or why not? Provide examples from the novel to support your assertion.

Essay Topic 2

At the end of the novel, Sydney McDaniel comes into the room, sits down, and takes a quilted pillow from Shawn's oversized crib. Sydney cries as he speaks to Shawn and then confesses that he does not know what to do. Shawn is suddenly able to focus on his father and he thinks he finally connects with his father. Then Shawn has a seizure and floats away, realizing that he is flying free either way. So the novel ends without answering the question of whether Sydney kills Shawn. Is logical that Shawn has a seizure when he does in this chapter? Why or why not? What is the function of the seizure in this chapter? Did the author chose a cowardly or lazy way to end this novel? If not, why is it appropriate that the novel ends without answering the questions of whether Sydney kills Shawn?

Essay Topic 3

When Shawn's father shows up at his class with a cameraman to tape footage for a PBS special on "Appropriate Allocation Decisions in an Era of Diminishing Funding," what are the similarities and differences between Shawn's father's beliefs and actions with those of Shawn's teacher and teacher's aides and how does Shawn feel about these people?

Part 1) What is the approach of Shawn's teacher and aids to the students in the class? What does Shawn think about these characters and why? How do these characters react to Shawn's father and his documentary? Why?

Part 2) While Sydney McDaniel is videotaping his special for PBS, what does he say about educating people who "cannot learn?" What does Shawn think about the points that his father makes? What in particular that his father says catches Shawn's interest in a big way?

Part 3) What are there similarities or differences between Shawn's father and the classroom teacher and aides regarding the way they think about and treat the children? What are they and why do they exist?

(see the answer keys)

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