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 throughout your response that serve as examples and support.

1. One of the major conflicts in the novel is the difference between those who are religious and those who are secular.

• What is the conflict between religious and secular groups in Sparks’s novel? (topic sentence)
• Describe the attitudes of Landon and his friends toward religious people, and then describe Jamie and her father’s attitudes toward secular people, ending with how the community finds a balance of religious and secular ideas in the novel.
• In your concluding sentences, explain why you think Nicholas Sparks used religious and secular viewpoints to represent community differences in the novel.

2. A significant turning point in the novel is when Jamie asks Landon to become part of the play The Christmas Angel.