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Solomon NorthupA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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. Twelve Years a Slave opens with an excerpt from William Cowper’s 1785 blank verse “The Task.”
2. Throughout Twelve Years a Slave, Northup challenges a common myth among anti-abolitionists in the 1850s that enslaved people were passive and content in their roles, and that life was actually harder for free Black citizens in the North.