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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 was the name of the man doing the floors in the new classroom?

2. What fictional character did Ashton-Warner reference in her section on education on marriage?

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

4. What did Mere and June rub on their faces?

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

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

5. What happened when Ashton-Warner attempted to secure school uniforms for her students from a nearby shop?

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

7. How did the behavior of the children differ in the new classrooms compared to when Ashton-Warner taught at the school?

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

9. What are the two worst enemies of teaching?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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 2

Sylvia-Ashton Warner wrote about her attempts to bring some order to the classroom when the students got out of hand. She eventually realized that the first few bars of Beethoven's Fifth on the piano did the trick. Write an essay exploring how music can be used in the classroom to bring calm during difficult times. What is it about music that speaks to all humans, regardless of ethnic or racial background? How does it provide a form of "quiet control" that is more effective than yelling or making other loud noises to get attention? Why were the Maori children entranced by Western classical music?

Essay Topic 3

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?

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