Read Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird for Free Online

. Scout learns from Miss Maudie that sometimes Southern ladies need to be bold, especially in defense of their friends and family. . . . Scout also learns from Miss Maudie that true Southern ladies don’t gossip or prejudge others.
    Two answers in the working sample suggest that reading the novel can itself be an educative act. One teacher writes that reading the novel gives a student the opportunity to “analyze the themes of racial intolerance and prejudice in your own life.” Another teacher writes,
    Ultimately, To Kill A Mockingbird is the story of humanity learning to understand each other. As a reader, we see the world through the eyes of all children, who enter this world as the most pure of human beings. The realization of life’s hard lessons is taught through Scout and Jem Finch as they watch their father and community struggle with the Depression, racism, and the justice system of the Old South. We see the remnants of the old stereotypes toward blacks, women, and anyone who is considered to be an “outsider” (Boo Radley). It is a great book to teach young people about how NOT to be.
    The answers outside of the working sample similarly contain explicit and implicit references to learning, influence, maturation, the loss of innocence, and life lessons.
    Text and Context
    When talking to students about the novel’s setting and publication date, the teachers frequently touch on past and present organizations of race, class, and gender. The novel’s setting often receives detailed treatment in the teachers’ answers, whereas the treatment of the social situation in the early 1930s and in the late 1950s is often brief and undeveloped.
    No fewer than six answers in the working sample address the divisions, hierarchies, and economies within the novel’s population. These answers tend to follow the promptings of the text and cluster around three scenes: Walter Cunningham’s behavior on the first day of school, Walter Cunningham’s behavior at the Finches’ dinner table, and Jem Finch’s analysis of the four classes of people in town. The working sample answers that move past a literal and text-based discussion often contain undeveloped references to Alabama in the 1930s. Atticus’ kindness toward and respect for women is “typical of this era,” one teacher writes: “Atticus exemplifies the expected male treatment of women in the south in the 1930s.” Another answer contains a glancing reference to limits on behavior of a “black man . . . in the 1930s South.” A third answer contains a series of vague references to mannerisms and dress that are typical for a certain time (“this era”) and a certain place (“the area”), but neither the time nor place are specified. Part of the answer reads,
    [Atticus] wears glasses, normally wears a suit and tie, and speaks nearly flawless English, as is the custom for professionals of this era. When Atticus is at home, he “dresses down” or becomes more casual, as is the standard for men of this era. Jem . . . is your average pre-teen southern boy: his dress and manner reflect the geography and culture of the area. Typically, he dresses in pants or short pants, the average shirt, and depending on the weather, he and Scout may run barefoot.
    A theoretical sampling of the full set of postings shows that teachers are highly attuned to the fictional world created in the novel. One or more teachers even ask students to draw a map of the town of Maycomb based on details given throughout the novel. Theoretical sampling also shows that answers in the full set of postings in the Question & Answer section on Lee’s novel are only slightly more contextualized than those in the working sample. The full set of posts contains many glancing references to the Depression, the civil rights era, and Martin Luther King but few specific references to landmarks in the struggle for African American