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. Three Gables, the setting for most of the novel’s action, is described as a “crooked” house.

• What does the setting of Three Gables symbolize about the Leonides family? (topic sentence)
• Explain the meaning of the nursery rhyme that the book’s title alludes to.
• Give at least three examples from different places in the text that support your interpretation of the setting’s symbolism.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how the setting’s symbolism supports one or more of the novel’s thematic concerns: Inherited Morality and The Bad Seed, Toxic Familial Relationships, and The Importance of Reputation.

2. Josephine frequently makes comments about how a good detective story should develop.