Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Many of the characters in Beartown experience growth and development over the course of the novel, often through processing trauma and taking a moral stance in the face of peer pressure.

• Pick one of the characters in the novel. How do they grow, change, or mature? (topic sentence)
• Identify three different moments in the book that show a character’s change or progression. Be sure to explain how the character’s actions in that moment show a change from who they were in the beginning of the novel.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, evaluate how these character developments reflect the themes of the novel.

2. Foreshadowing is a technique in which an author hints at what is to come in the story such as future events, connections, or outcomes.