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 sport did the Maoris allegedly play during the three-day party?

2. Which basketball-playing student claimed she would not return to school after being punished for bad behavior?

3. Which basketball player had a leg injury and could not play in the competition?

4. How many children were in Puki's family?

5. On what day did it become clear that the inspectors would not be coming?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was Ashton-Warner's reaction to the traditional Maori music performed by the children under the direction of Kahu?

2. To what did Ashton-Warner attribute the lack of cohesiveness in some of her later students' stories?

3. Why was Ashton-Warner surprised at the appearance of the new classrooms when she visited?

4. How did sentence length differ between whites and Maoris?

5. Why was Ashton-Warner so worried about the prospect of being visited by the inspector?

6. What was Ashton-Warner's attitude toward the white students who accused Maori students of theft?

7. In her discussion of pedagogy as marriage, what did Ashton-Warner mean when she said that "love interferes with fidelity"?

8. What role did discipline play in Ashton-Warner's classroom?

9. Why was Ashton-Warner disappointed with the pictures the new teacher had chosen to personalize the children's coat hooks?

10. Why did Ashton-Warner write at the end of "Holidays" that she was no longer lonely?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Although Ashton-Warner was willing to sometimes rein in her classroom, overall she accepted the fact that there would be noisy chaos among the children. How does a teacher harness this sort of energy when asking the students to perform specific tasks? How does he ensure that it does not become disruptive? Based on Ashton-Warner's experiences, is this noise ever destructive? Would it be possible to allow this level of noise in most modern-day classrooms or would the differences among the children preclude allowing it?

Essay Topic 2

Many of Ashton-Warner's children used violent imagery in their writings, some of it reflecting their daily family life, some of it made up. In most schools today, that sort of imagery would be a cause for concern. Is it wise to allow students to express themselves in their writing if it is violent? Should teachers and school officials question the content of a student's writing? Why did Ashton-Warner allow her students to write in this way? Were their any advantages to doing so? Could students with emotional problems or bad home environments benefit from having an outlet for their feelings at school? Or do schools have a responsibility to rein in children's violent feelings for the sake of the entire class?

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 1,142 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample