These 64 questions are designed to assist students in getting the most out of a single reading of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. I find the book works best as a contrast to most of the darker themed novels we’ve read all year, as well as my placing an emphasis on Siddhartha’s trial and error, experiential learning process to my seniors, who are in the process of making difficult decisions themselves regarding colleges and their futures.
All questions place a special emphasis on higher order thinking, as well as College Board’s AP literature expectations in regards to making inferences, understanding irony, and in general a rather rigorous, college-level approach to literature. These materials can be used for Honors classes as well, for any teacher looking to give their students the kind of push that the new Common Core standards are aiming for.
I have been teaching for 16 years, including several years teaching English Honors IV, as well as creating my own very successful Advanced Placement Literature program from scratch nine years ago. I have a Masters in Creative Writing, and thought I would make some of my materials available for purchase.
If you end up using the materials, please leave feedback about your experience. My name is Adam Horowitz, and I'm a sixteen year educator. You can e-mail me with questions at firstname.lastname@example.org.
All questions were written using the Bantam Books version of Siddhartha. The three sets of analysis questions are grouped around the novels three parts. Chapter titles are also included with each set of questions. If you are using a different translation or publisher, some page number adjustments may be necessary (or just make students find the pages with the answers on their own).
These questions are also designed to be used in conjunction with a 45 question (plus 3 short essays) Siddhartha test, which assesses their understanding of the novel and its themes.
Finally, in the complete novel package, I’ve included all 64 questions covering the entire novel, the test, three short reading quizzes (used as bellringers), extensive background notes on the author, Hinduism, Buddhism, and various terms used throughout the story, and a 35 question background notes quiz. All of these are packaged at a discount as opposed to buying them individually.
If you’re tired of students simply SparkNoting through literature, consider giving my materials a try.
Siddhartha Analysis Question Package
by Adam Horowitz
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License