The School Days of an Indian Girl, by Zitkala-Sa
Instructions / Options
My copies of this story are a class set. Please don’t write on them or otherwise alter or mutilate them.
Option One: Read the story. Write a short (500-800 words) response to it. You may focus on the
content of the story, the way in which it’s written, or anything else you find interesting or appealing.
Your response may be hand-written, typed, or simply emailed. It is not a formal paper by any means, but
you should use paragraphs, reasonably good spelling and grammar, etc. Make sure your name and some
sort of title referencing this story are clearly indicated.
Option Two: Read the story. Do the Literary Elements page found on the Agenda along with the story
itself. You may write it out, print it off and fill it in, ask me for a hard copy in class, or simply email your
responses.
Option Three: Read the story. Do the Reaction/Response page found on the Agenda along with the
story itself. You may write it out, print it off and fill it in, ask me for a hard copy in class, or simply email
your responses.
Due _____________________. Let me know if you have questions or problems well before then.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
www.bluecerealeducation.com
The School Days of an Indian Girl, by Zitkala-Sa
Literary Elements Page
Step One: Read this story through one time from start to finish without doing anything with it.
Step Two: Read the story again, and fill in the following elements. If you don’t know what these terms mean,
find out before trying to respond. Look them up, ask your English teacher, or choose one of the other options.
1. An effective Simile or Metaphor (circle one) is “______________________________________________”
found in the section “___________________________________________” and used to explain or describe
___________________________________________________________________________________.
2. An effective Simile or Metaphor (circle one) is “______________________________________________”
found in the section “___________________________________________” and used to explain or describe
___________________________________________________________________________________.
3. An effective Simile or Metaphor (circle one) is “______________________________________________”
found in the section “___________________________________________” and used to explain or describe
___________________________________________________________________________________.
4. An effective use of Onomatopoeia is “______________________________________” found in the section
“___________________________” and used to explain or describe _______________________________.
5. An effective use of Onomatopoeia is “______________________________________” found in the section
“___________________________” and used to explain or describe _______________________________.
6. An effective use of Onomatopoeia is “______________________________________” found in the section
“___________________________” and used to explain or describe _______________________________.
Other interesting or difficult vocabulary or colorful uses of language, what the vocabulary words or interesting
phrases mean, and why you think these words were chosen instead of others:
7. __________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
8. __________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
9. __________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
10. _________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
Two examples of substantial cultural clashes (one side thinks they’re doing right / the other side is horrified or
offended). Include what happened, why, and what the beliefs were on each side. Fill those lines!
11. _________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
12. _________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
www.bluecerealeducation.com
The School Days of an Indian Girl, by Zitkala-Sa
Reaction/Response Page
Keep in mind one of your goals is to come across as engaged, interested, and putting forth great effort as you complete
this. It is intended as a tool to help you process the material, not simply one more piece of paper to fill out half-heartedly,
turn in, and try to forget. Mean it if you can, fake it well if you cannot.
Obviously after reading through this piece a few times, you just HAD to learn more about Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird).
What are three fascinating biographical bits you discovered through your own research which are not mentioned
in this piece?
1. __________________________________________________________________________________
2. __________________________________________________________________________________
3. __________________________________________________________________________________
What are two history-ish things you learned from reading this piece several times closely? [History Stuff]
4. __________________________________________________________________________________
5. __________________________________________________________________________________
If you could meet with Red Bird and ask her relevant, intelligent-sounding questions about her life or anything
related to her story, what three things would you ask?
6. __________________________________________________________________________________
7. __________________________________________________________________________________
8. __________________________________________________________________________________
If you were the type of reader who got all excited about a particularly poignant passage, or an especially effective
turn of the phrase, or other examples of impactful or interesting writing, what are three phrases you’d point to in
this piece that you found particularly effective or interesting in terms of the use of language?
9. Passage: “___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________”
10. Because? __________________________________________________________________________
11. Passage: “__________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
12. Because? __________________________________________________________________________
13. Passage: “__________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________”
14. Because? __________________________________________________________________________
15-17. Assume for a moment that the intentions of the U.S. and of the people running the boarding school were
basically good. I’m not saying for sure that they were, but assume theoretically they could have been. Write a 5sentence paragraph from the POV of someone working at the Boarding School explaining why they had the rules
they had, enforced them as they did, and what they wanted for these children. (Use the back side of this page.)
18-20. Assume you could send a message back in time to the folks running the Boarding School and that you’d like
to persuade them to take a different approach. Write a 5-sentence message you believe could effectively persuade
them. (Use the back side of this page.)
www.bluecerealeducation.com