Personal Essay: “Melting Pot” By Anna Quindlen
As you read: Think about how the speaker learns to overcome her differences.
(Read narrative once through first (carefully)—then a second read to respond to questions.)
(All work must be clearly written and in complete thoughts. When providing textual evidence plan how
you will work it into your response—don’t just list it).
Before reading:
1. Author information:
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
During reading:
1. What details in the first two paragraphs convey Quindlen’s attitude toward the people in her neighborhood?
(Use evidence from the text).
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
2. Does the author have a biased or unbiased perspective toward the people in her neighborhood? Why do you
think so?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
3. From what point of view is the story told? (Use text from the story to confirm).
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
4. How does this point of view allow Quindlen to express her attitude toward her subject?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
5. What pronouns do you notice to help us with determining point-of-view?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
6. How does the point of view allow Quindlen to show her affection for her neighbors?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
7. “Sometimes the baby slips out with the bath water” is an idiom. What does it mean?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
8. What attitude does Quindlen say most people have toward others who are new or different?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
9. Analyze: What does Quindlen’s choice of a neighborhood reveal about what she finds important?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
10. How is Quindlen both “one of them” and “one of us”? Is it possible to belong to both groups?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Writing: Write about a time when you had to overcome differences. Plan out your thoughts first, give it a
title. Focus on sentence structure, grammar, etc. Follow the Writer’s Notebook Rubric.