Anything But Typical

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. Jason uses his story about Bennu to reveal things about himself, to PhoenixBird and to the world at large.

• What does Jason’s story about Bennu reveal about Jason? (topic sentence)
• What do you learn about Jason through his fiction writing that you would not otherwise? Discuss 3 aspects of Jason’s personality that are only revealed through his fiction writing.
• In your conclusion, describe the similarities between Bennu and Jason and explain how Jason’s story makes a point about what it means to be Neurotypical versus Atypical.

2. A reliable narrator is generally thought to be an “honest” one.

• Is Jason a reliable and “honest” narrator? (topic sentence)
• Find examples in the text of Jason being honest, and examples of Jason covering up or portraying only one side of the story.