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. Women’s rights women’s experiences in war are recurring topics throughout the narrative.

• What is the author’s desired outcome in sharing her own and other refugees’ stories about the experience of being refugees? (topic sentence)
• Compare a few of the stories in the collection in their approach to describing women’s experiences of being refugees.
• In your closing sentences, evaluate whether the strategy of sharing personal narratives about female refugees is effective.

2. One of Yousafzai’s central themes is how displacement interrupts young people’s learning.

• How do the authors overcome many obstacles in pursuit of their education, and why is this important to them? (topic sentence)
• Select two testimonials that mentioned the theme of interrupted education and compare their experiences and outcomes.