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 below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. In some ways, Lucy is an unusual person, but in other ways she is just like everyone else.

• Which of Lucy’s struggles in middle school are typical of everyone, and which of her struggles are related to her unusual circumstances? (topic sentence)
• Give two pieces of evidence from different parts of the story that show that Lucy is facing struggles that most middle schoolers face.
• Give two pieces of evidence from different parts of the story that show that some of Lucy’s struggles are related to her individual circumstances.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this is related to the story’s thematic concerns with Coming-of-Age: Discovering and Accepting Oneself, The Struggles of Friendship, and More than Just Numbers.