Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their 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 A Young People’s History of the United States, Zinn presents historical figures and movements in ways that run counter to the traditional narrative, which usually presents them as heroic.

• Which historical figure or movement, as recast by Zinn, did you find most surprising? (topic sentence)
• What about Zinn’s characterization of this historical figure or movement surprised you? Give specific examples.
• Discuss how your previously held belief about the historical figure or movement may have been influenced by the dominant narrative of American Heroism, which, as uncovered by Zinn, is a Subjective and Problematic Concept.

2. The American colonies of the late 1700s differed fundamentally in many ways from the United States today—and yet, in many ways, society has not evolved.