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. Throughout the play, the concept of family is an important and sensitive topic for each of the couples.

• How does the play comment on the idea of the American Nuclear Family? (topic sentence)
• Provide 1-2 examples to substantiate your point.
• How does this play react to the importance of The Nuclear Family in the early 1960s?

2. In addition to the structure and expectation of family, the subject of children is a personal topic for each of the characters.

• What is the significance of children to each of the characters in the play? (topic sentence)
• Provide 1-2 examples for each character of the importance of having children.
• How does the significance of childrearing link to Albee’s larger theme of The Tensions Between Generations?

3.