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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 instrument did the seven-year-old twins play after the event for Kahu?

2. On what evening did Mr. Tremaine visit the school?

3. What did Ashton-Warner do as she turned and left the classroom?

4. What did her former students do when Ashton-Warner arrived to visit their new classroom?

5. What did a "little one" say somebody had broken in Ashton-Warner's reminiscences?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Maoris and whites differ in terms of communal gatherings?

2. Why was Ashton-Warner upset about the way she handled Mark Cutter when his mother insisted that her son was advancing too quickly in class?

3. Why was it important to offer only present tense verbs to new readers?

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

5. In "Post Holiday Notes," what word did Ashton-Warner use to represent the key instinct of fear to her students?

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

7. What did the students' compositions reveal about their family lives?

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

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

10. What are the two worst enemies of teaching?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The mother of one of Ashton-Warner's students, Mark Cutter, protested that her son was going too fast in the classroom and she wanted him to slow down. This was an unusual complaint among the parents of her students. Was Cutter's mother simply opposed to Ashton-Warner's teaching methods? Or did she sincerely believe that her son was being advanced too quickly? Is it possible for a student to advance too quickly? What does a teacher do if children in his classroom are advancing at different paces? How does a teacher adjust his teaching to ensure that all students are progressing at their own rate without either slowing down or speeding up the overall pace for the entire class?

Essay Topic 2

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 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)

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