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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. What did Professor Baillie say killed education?

2. Which student had a father who worked at the carnival?

3. How many new stoves did the school have?

4. What was the name of the man doing the floors in the new classroom?

5. What did the drawings depict in the Infant Reading Scheme that Ashton-Warner showed to Tremaine?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Ashton-Warner's white student, Dennis, have a nervous breakdown?

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

3. What did Ashton-Warner think about as she gazed at the empty site where her old classroom had once stood?

4. Why did Ashton-Warner say that when giving first words to her students, she avoided showing them any illustrations of those words?

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

6. What are the two worst enemies of teaching?

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

8. Describe the new teacher encountered by Ashton-Warner as she explores the renovated school.

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

10. How did Ashton-Warner view the importance of handwriting?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ashton-Warner criticized the use of workbooks in schools, although she said she understood why some teachers relied on them. Do workbooks provide any benefits to the students? Are they absolutely necessary for determining how well a child is learning? Would it be possible to devise other ways of measuring a child's development? Are workbooks used because the curriculum is standardized for all children? Would they be helpful if curricula were tailored to individual students?

Essay Topic 2

Ashton-Warner pointed out that although the Maori love words, they frequently speak to one another in one-word sentences that convey detailed meaning. Do you think this tendency is natural to human beings or was it developed over time by the Maori as they lived on a previously-isolated island nation? Do humans develop different language patterns based on their culture? Would it be possible for a non-Maori to develop the skill of interpreting the many nuances of a one-word Maori sentence? How can different speech patterns lead to misunderstandings?

Essay Topic 3

The Maori girls in Ashton-Warner's classroom experienced success on the basketball court. Write an essay discussing the role of sports in academics. How does participation in team sports help students in the classroom? How does it help in other areas of life? How can schools ensure that the benefits of participation in sports are extended to all students, regardless of athletic ability?

(see the answer keys)

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