Looking for Alaska

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. The characters have different interests and specific talents, like Alaska tutoring math and the Colonel memorizing country capitals.

• Choose a character to focus on. How does this character’s specific interests and talents reveal character traits central to that character? (topic sentence)
• Include at least three quotations and reasoning to build your analysis.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how these talents and hobbies help the character connect to their friends.

2. A central theme in the novel is Guilt and Forgiveness.

• Decide on a character to analyze. How does that character face guilt and find forgiveness? (topic sentence)
• Incorporate at least three details and then analyze each to support your ideas.
• In your conclusion, provide a lesson readers can learn from this character’s journey.