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. What was one bird NOT mentioned as being seen outside the school?

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

3. How were the children's stories "produced"?

4. To what children's classic did Ashton-Warner refer when writing about books not read in her classroom?

5. From where, according to Ashton-Warner, did most New Zealand children develop a "mass mind"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. How did the students perform when they did expressive dancing versus when they learned specific moves?

3. What did Plato believe about dance?

4. How did early exposure to white cultural norms adversely affect the Maori?

5. How did modern life in New Zealand make it difficult for people to use their inner resources?

6. Why were "key words" so essential to learning to read?

7. In what way does nature provide lessons that books or indoor plantings cannot?

8. By what process was spelling taught in Ashton-Warner's classroom?

9. What did Ashton-Warner mean when she referred to a workbook as a "middleman"?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Based on categorizing the "first words" collected from her students, Ashton-Warner decided that there were two main instincts represented in these words--fear and sex. Is that a fair and accurate assessment? Are these two "emotions" universal (in terms of being expressed as "first words" among children)? Is fear something that all children feel and need to express? What is their likely understanding of the role of sex in their lives and the life of their community? Would children of different cultures also focus on words related to fear and sex and would those words differ from the Maori ones? What do these first words say about human nature?

Essay Topic 2

Ashton-Warner's students spend much time dancing in the classroom, whether as a form of exercise or in free-dance exploration. Write an essay exploring the use of dance in the classroom. What are the benefits of giving students access to this art form? Are the benefits solely physical? Does dance help center children and does it have an effect on concentration? How can free-dance periods help children express themselves and how can that impact other areas of the curriculum?

Essay Topic 3

Ashton-Warner wrote at length about the importance of tone in the classroom. Write an essay exploring how tone is set in the classroom and how several people have a role in setting that tone. Does the tone have to be the same from classroom to classroom or school to school? Or should there be variations based on the unique needs of the teachers and students? How does a teacher determine what tone works best for her students and how does she achieve that tone, especially if it differs from what she would normally like to see?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,034 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample