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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. How many words had Tame learned, according to the chart in "Post Holiday Notes"?

2. How many children were on Ashton-Warner's school basketball team?

3. Which student suffered a nervous breakdown?

4. Which wall in the new classroom was completely glassed?

5. At what age did students enter Std., Form II in New Zealand?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the reaction of strangers to Ashton-Warner's multi-colored Maori belt?

2. What role did discipline play in Ashton-Warner's classroom?

3. How did Ashton-Warner describe the moments in her life when she knew the meaning of what was happening to her?

4. Why did Ashton-Warner criticize herself for the way she handled Matawhero's defiance after he hit Gordon?

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

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

7. What set the local Maori pa (village) where Ashton-Warner taught apart from other pas?

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

9. Describe the new teacher encountered by Ashton-Warner as she explores the renovated school.

10. Why did Ashton-Warner focus on teaching her Maori students nouns at first?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Ashton-Warner wrote in detail about the importance of "first words" for beginning readers and how the traditional reading books used among young children did not use those words. Write an essay exploring how the use of a child's first words can enhance the learning process. Do children from different cultures develop different first words? Does learning to read from another culture's books necessarily lead to stunted development? If individual children are given their own unique texts, at what point can a teacher introduce standardized books to the entire classroom?

Essay Topic 2

At one point in the book, Ashton-Warner admitted that at least one of her white students would have performed better had he been given access to the "white" readers she hated so much. Did her efforts on behalf of her Maori students come at a cost for her white students? Is it possible to help one previously disadvantaged group while also ensuring that the "advantaged" group does not fall behind? Should teachers base their teaching on reaching specific groups or should all the students, regardless of background, be expected to conform to the standard used in that classroom? Is it possible--or desirable--to differentiate instruction in a diverse classroom?

Essay Topic 3

The Maori children in Ashton-Warner's classroom encountered racism from the majority white population in New Zealand. How did these attitudes affect the students at home and in the community? How did it affect them in the classroom? Did having a white teacher have an impact on them, even if she was open and accepting of them? How do societal assumptions and expectations impact a child's ability to perform in school? Do children internalize the prejudices they encounter or are they able to escape them in the classroom? How do teachers deal with the impact these prejudices may have on their students? Is it possible to fully counter them in school?

(see the answer keys)

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