View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How were the chairs arranged for the reading and exchange period?

2. What composer was Ashton-Warner playing when her students began doing expressive dancing?

3. How long did the reading period last?

4. What short word did Ashton-Warner say (in "Maori Transitional Readers") was used by Maori at the end or beginning of most spoken sentences?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Ashton-Warner throw out words that students did not recognize the second time?

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

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

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

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

6. How did the Maori early readers provide a bridge to eventual reading of European material?

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

8. In "Workbook," what did Ashton-Warner mean when she said that one cannot plot life?

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

10. What was the connection Ashton-Warner drew between the infant room and war and peace?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

As Ashton-Warner listened to a Maori adult teach her students a traditional song, she realized that she could not have done that because she was not Maori herself. She knew she could not bring forth the same passion that the Maori teacher did. How did being white affect Ashton-Warner's abilities as a teacher to a mostly-Maori classroom? Did it limit her in any way? Was she required to make changes to her technique because of the racial difference? Were there other situations (besides the traditional song) in which Ashton-Warner would have been at a significant disadvantage as a white person? Is it necessary to have teachers reflect the ethnic or racial makeup of their classrooms?

Essay Topic 2

Ashton-Warner wrote about the "Golden Section" in education and how she incorporated nature into the classroom. What are the benefits of teaching about nature in the classroom? How does nature provide insights into other areas of the curriculum? Ashton-Warner's classroom was somewhat unique in that the nature was right outside and sometimes even entered the classroom. How do teachers living in more urban environments bring nature into the classroom? Is it possible for all teachers to take their students out into actual natural settings or can there be benefits to bringing natural lessons into the physical classroom? How does the natural world speak to children and how can that be harnessed?

Essay Topic 3

Ashton-Warner rejected the use of corporal punishment, while pointing out that many prominent philosophers embraced it. Write an essay exploring this issue. Is corporal punishment ever effective? What short-term and long-term impacts does it have on children? Does it make a difference if it is administered at home or in a school setting? What other disciplinary techniques can be used, both at home and at school? Include in your essay whether most schools today allow corporal punishment and how attitudes have changed since Ashton-Warner first wrote "Teacher."

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,101 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample