ENG 3C
Short Story Study
Teenage Wasteland by Anne Tyler
A) Pre-Reading Task
Assuming the role of the parent, identify three steps you would take if you were the parent of a
teenager who was doing poorly at school.
1.
2.
3.
B) Knowledge/Understanding
1.a) Identify three problems that Donny’s principal initially had with Donny’s behaviour
(p.324).
(3)
b) Identify two steps that Donny’s parents took to correct these initial problems (p.324) . (2)
c) What is the first suggestion that Principal Lanham makes to Donny’s parents (p.324)? (1)
2. Identify three new problems that had developed when the school called again in December
(p.325)? (3)
3. What is the first indication that Cal’s methods were not accomplishing what was intended
(p.328)? (1)
4.Why is Donny expelled from school (p.330)? (1)
5. What objection does Cal make about how Donny was expelled (p.331) (1)
C) THINKING/INQUIRY
1. Based on the details of the December update, what mistake might Donny’s parents have
made regarding the new information the Principal provided them with (see p.325) (2)
2. Explain why Cal isn’t too concerned about grades when they begin to slip while Donny is
under his care. (see p.328) (2)
3. Legally, would Cal have a case for his objection regarding the locker search? Explain. (2)
4. What detail in the story suggests that Donny is lying about the “put-up job” (p.331)? Explain
(2)
TO BE ANSWERED AS A CLASS
1.Explain the symbolism of Donny's mother's recurring dream vision described at the end of the
story - the vision involving a basketball flying through a hoop, landing "in a littered yard with
last year's leaves and striped with bars of sunlight as white as bones, bleached and parched and
cleanly picked". (p.332)
2.Explain the symbolism, of the song Baba O'Riley (identified as Teenage Wasteland in the
story) by The Who. (p.329)