Name: ________________________________________________ / Period: _____ / Student Number: _____ / Answer-Proof-Explain
OBJECTIVE. SWBAT Identify the expectations regarding how to answer short, open-ended question using APE
Directions. As we move forward on our chapter summaries, students will follow the answer structure below when answering response questions.
Answer, Proof, Explain (or "APE") is a way to connect our reading with a question we are asked.
ANSWER
This is fairly straightforward, meaning just answer the question in a complete sentence.
PROOF
Proof varies from using quotes from the text, citing a major plot point, or using an outside resource to
help support your answer.
EXPLAIN
Explain your proof. How does it support your answer? Draw from your own connections and opinions
to support your answer.
Exemplar 1. Why does the narrator say is the difference between men and women when it comes to dreams?
ANSWER
PROOF
EXPLAIN
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Nora Neale Hurston asserts how men’s dream either come true or are
never fulfilled, like ships that “come in with the tide” or “sail forever on the horizon, never out of
sight, never landing.”
However, Hurston claims that for women “the dream is the truth.”
Hurston likely argues that men have the opportunities for their dreams to become reality whereas
women’s dreams stay only as dreams.
Exemplar 2. Why does Pheoby say, “An envious heart makes a treacherous ear,”?
ANSWER
PROOF
EXPLAIN
In Their Eyes Were Watching God by Nora Neale Hurston, Pheoby tells Janie that “an envious heart makes
a treacherous ear” because she thinks the neighborhood gossips will believe any rumor about Janie
because of their jealousy.
These women talk poorly about Janie and hopes that Janie “might fall to their level someday.”
These women are envious of Janie’s beauty, independence, and strength, so they try to regain their
power and worth through rumors.