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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In what year did Leo Tolstoy begin his peasant school?
(a) 1869.
(b) 1862.
(c) 1857.
(d) 1859.

2. From where, according to Ashton-Warner, did most New Zealand children develop a "mass mind"?
(a) Australia.
(b) America.
(c) Britain.
(d) White New Zealanders.

3. How long did Ashton-Warner give the students each day to write their stories?
(a) An hour.
(b) 20 minutes.
(c) A half-hour.
(d) 15 minutes.

4. Which of the following did NOT affect classroom tone, according to Ashton-Warner?
(a) The personality of the children.
(b) The personality of the teacher.
(c) The tone of the surrounding community.
(d) The method used.

5. How did Ashton-Warner approach spelling after the students wrote new words on the blackboard?
(a) She had the students spell the words from other students.
(b) She asked all of the students to spell all of the words.
(c) She allowed students to pick a word to spell if they wanted to.
(d) She had each student write the spellings down for a test.

Short Answer Questions

1. What size were the cards Ashton-Warner used for the key vocabulary words?

2. What did Brian mean by the term he used to describe the bus in his story?

3. What did Ashton-Warner call the most "comely word" in the language?

4. How did Ashton-Warner "grade" the stories?

5. How did Ashton-Warner describe the energy released during the spelling period in "The Mechanics of Teaching Organic Spelling"?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Russian peasant students react to Leo Tolstoy's experimental school?

2. How can a teacher tell when a book is valuable to her students, according to Ashton-Warner?

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

4. Why did Ashton-Warner find the European and American early readers two-dimensional?

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

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

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

8. What was Ashton-Warner's reaction to the sometimes violent imagery used in the children's stories?

9. Why did Ashton-Warner believe that standardized reading texts were damaging to children?

10. What did Ashton-Warner mean when she wrote that "we don't waste enough in school?"

(see the answer keys)

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